South Dakota has reached a milestone with enrollment in the USDA’s Conservation Stewardship Program. NRCS State Conservationist Jeff Zimprich says South Dakota now leads the nation in CSP where producers apply conservation practices on working lands.

He says the key to reaching that milestone centers around good relationships between producers and NRCS officials as well as producers networking with their fellow producers.

Zimprich says their goal for next year is to add a million more CSP acres to the seven million achieved this year.

Zimprich says about one in ten South Dakota farmers and ranchers are enrolled in CSP with contracts covering more than 15 percent of the cropland and rangeland in the state.