Not if the chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and America's pheasant hunters have anything to say about it.

As Jerry Perkins reported in the Des Moines Register from the "Pheasant Fest" meeting that Pheasants Forever put on this past weekend:

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., and U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., chairmen of the Senate and House agriculture committees, said critics who want to cut back the Conservation Reserve Program will have a fight on their hands.

Who knew pheasants were such tough customers? They sure seem to know their way around a farm bill fight...

Photo:USDA/NRCS

...and "Pheasant Fest" proved it. Perkins again:

Saturday's forum was the first joint appearance for Harkin and Peterson since Democrats won control of both houses of Congress and took over the chairmanships of congressional committees. They arguably will have the most to say about what goes into the 2007 farm bill, which will replace the law that expires in September.

It probably doesn't hurt that the (environmentalist/conservationist-invented) CRP is the third most important farm assistance program in Iowa, having pumped right near $2 billion into the state over the past 11 years. As for Chairman Peterson's district, the CRP has kicked in some $700 million over that period and is also the #3 source of farm bill funds.

Associated Press correspondent Nafeesa Syeed caught these observations:

Harkin said his idea is to give farmers money to convert land protected under the last farm bill’s Conservation Reserve Program to grow “energy crops that are by their very nature conserving crops.”

Tapping into that land must be approached with caution, said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, who also spoke at the forum.

“What I’d like to do is add acres on top of the CRP to do some experimentation with switchgrass and mixes of switchgrass and other crops ... to see how they work,” Peterson said.