The Morning Harvest: Farm and Food News, No. 020, Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Today in 30 seconds
USDA announced more than $325 million for 42 Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects, and New Jersey's share is $6,677,628.
A smoked sprats recall covers about 560 pounds sold in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania for possible botulism, all lots.
California strawberries were mostly $20.00 a flat at the Oxnard and Santa Maria shipping point, and retail ads averaged $3.22 a pound.
Carrots are the buy of the week: a 2 lb bag averaged $1.87 across 804 ads, down from $2.06 a week ago.
A peach tree 10 years or older can give 3 to 5 bushels, according to Penn State Extension.
New Jersey lawmakers have a $60 million freeze relief bill, A5587 and S4728, and it has had no hearing or vote.
What is RCPP, and what did USDA's $325 million conservation announcement pay for?
What happened. On Monday, October 26, 2026, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced more than $325 million for 42 projects under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, known as RCPP. The release is USDA press release No. 0146.26, datelined Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it quotes Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig and NRCS Chief Colton Buckley. NRCS is the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the USDA agency that runs the program. RCPP works by paying local partners, and the farmers and landowners they sign up, to carry out conservation work on farms, ranches and forests, while the partners add their own money. USDA says 75 percent of this year's funding goes directly to farmers or to the cost of putting conservation practices on the ground, and $30 million is set aside for Tribal-led projects.
Why conservation money matters right now. Farmers are buying inputs at high prices, and the conservation programs that help them cut those inputs are oversubscribed. DTN's retail fertilizer survey for the week of October 12 to 16 (published October 21) put anhydrous ammonia at $987 a ton, up 18 percent on the year, and urea at $674, up 13 percent. A cover crop is a crop planted to protect soil between cash crops, and USDA projects Iowa's cover crops will avoid about 3.3 million pounds of nitrogen loss, so the program and the price pressure point the same way. Demand is the other half of the chain. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, reported by Agri-Pulse on June 24, 2026 (secondhand), found that the EQIP program received 118,377 applications in fiscal 2025 and about 24 percent were funded, down from 43 percent in fiscal 2024. Cover crops are already common, with 18.0 million acres nationally in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, up 17 percent from 2017 (farmdoc daily, secondhand), but in New Jersey they fell from 63,607 acres in 2017 to 57,057 in 2022 (USDA NASS), so the state is moving the wrong way on a practice this money pays for.
Who actually gets the money. Lead partners, which are organizations such as state agencies, land trusts, tribes and water utilities, propose a project, and NRCS signs an agreement with each lead partner. Producers qualify through a project that covers their area. The named projects show the range. Iowa Working Lands, run by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, gets $10,000,000 and projects more than 300,000 acres of cover crops, about 3.3 million pounds of nitrogen, 336,000 pounds of phosphorus and 1 million tons of soil loss avoided (USDA projections). Southwest Georgia Longleaf Landscape, led by Tall Timbers Research, gets $10,000,000 to protect at least 6,000 acres of working forest across 16 counties with easements and more than $10 million in match. Texas Coastal Prairie, led by the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, gets $9,000,000. Nooksack Watershed Phase 2, from the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe, gets $8,290,000 to restore salmon habitat on 256 acres. Other examples are Pennsylvania's Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay at $9,500,000, Central Texas RCPP from The Conservation Fund at $8,913,000, Wyoming's Salt River project from Trout Unlimited at $9.5 million, and the smallest, Alaska's Yakutat project, at $2,162,747. The NRCS FY2026 list places the 42 projects in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, for 36 states plus Puerto Rico, with three projects each in Alaska and Washington and two in Texas. New Jersey's is the NJ Partnership for Landscape Conservation and Source Water Protection, led by the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, at exactly $6,677,628. It covers the Raritan and Manasquan water supply watersheds, and the authority says those systems serve approximately 1.2 million New Jersey residents. A utility pays to protect land upstream of a reservoir because that land decides what runs into drinking water. The list does not state a combined total, but the 42 amounts add to about $325.3 million, matching the release, and average about $7.7 million a project (our arithmetic).
What it pays per acre. Each RCPP project writes its own payment schedule, so there is no single RCPP rate. For scale, the Kansas FY2026 EQIP schedule pays $75.09 an acre for single-species cover crops and $78.30 for multi-species mixes. An older SARE survey put the cost of planting a cover crop at $15 to $78 an acre, median $37, so a payment of that size can cover the planting. For land protection, the federal share of an agricultural land easement is up to 50 percent of fair market value (NRCS). On the Georgia project, $10,000,000 across 6,000 acres is roughly $1,667 an acre if every dollar went to easements, which it will not (our arithmetic, rough).
Why the money exists now. The money comes from the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, which gives RCPP $425 million in FY2026 and $450 million a year from FY2027 through FY2031 (NRCS, June 23, 2026). The FY2026 notice opened June 23, closed August 24 and offered up to $310 million.
How the program works. NRCS signs an agreement with each lead partner. In the Classic version, NRCS writes the contracts and easements with producers and landowners itself. In an Alternative Funding Arrangement, NRCS gives the money to the partner, who does the work and is reimbursed. Producers can work through a partner or apply directly to NRCS if their land fits a project in their area. NRCS's goal is partner contributions at least equal to its own investment, a goal and not a strict minimum.
What USDA has not said, and the last round. The release gives no producer sign-up dates and no application instructions, and no date has been published for the next RCPP notice. The closest precedent is October 23, 2024: $1.5 billion for 92 projects (DTN), and November 2023, about $1 billion for 81 projects (NRCS). Today's $325 million is about 22 percent of the 2024 dollars (our arithmetic), so this round is much smaller.
Reaction. The one real criticism I found is aimed at the 2025 law and not at Monday's award. Jonathan Coppess, a University of Illinois agricultural policy professor, wrote in farmdoc daily on October 22 that the Inflation Reduction Act provided $18 billion for conservation through FY2031, and the 2025 law rescinded the remainder and moved most of it into later years. CBO projects a $7.9 billion reduction in conservation outlays for FY2025 through FY2030. He estimates about 17,000 valid EQIP contracts, 16,791 in his Table 1 at about $53,000 each, go unfunded in FY2026, and says Congress is "already backtracking and proposing to cut conservation further." On the award itself, Mike Naig said in the release that the funding expands Iowa's Working Lands Program, which began as a 2016 pilot in Taylor County, to more livestock producers, and Craig Moss, president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association, called it "a great example of what can happen when we work together" on October 27. I couldn't find statements on this award from the Iowa Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau, the National Association of Conservation Districts, Tall Timbers, the Lummi Nation or any member of Congress. For shoppers, no consumer price effect is sourced; the money pays for cover crops, grazing and easements that protect water and keep farmland in farming.
The deadline most people missed. NRCS New Jersey's FY2027 batching deadline for EQIP, CSP, ACEP, RCPP and the new Regenerative Pilot Program was September 18, 2026, and it has passed (NRCS New Jersey, August 18). NRCS takes applications year round, so an application filed now is not wasted, but it waits for the next batching period, and I did not find that date. The catch most people miss is the Conservation Reserve Program: its authorization expired September 30, 2026, and USDA cannot enroll or re-enroll acres until Congress acts, though existing contracts are unaffected (Coppess).
What to do
Find your local USDA service center on farmers.gov and ask whether one of the 42 projects covers your county. The project list is on the NRCS page.
Get a farm number from your FSA office and ask NRCS for a conservation plan.
File an application now so it is in line for the next batching period.
New Jersey landowners in the Raritan and Manasquan watersheds: ask NRCS New Jersey or the New Jersey Water Supply Authority about the source water project.
Everyone else: open the FY2026 list, find your state, and call the service center to ask whether that project reaches your land.
Sources: USDA press release, Oct 26, NRCS FY2026 RCPP project list, Oct 28, farmdoc daily, Oct 22, DTN, Oct 21, Agri-Pulse, Jun 24, NRCS New Jersey, Aug 18, Iowa Cattlemen's Association, Oct 27
Which foods are being recalled this week, and what should you check?
Lead: cold smoked sprats, possible botulism. D&M Smoked Fish Inc., doing business as Haifa Smoked Fish Inc., Queens, New York, recalled about 560 pounds of unbranded cold smoked sprats. Sold loose from bulk boxes at retail stores in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, all lots. FDA found the firm making the fish without required controls against Clostridium botulinum. No illnesses reported (FDA, October 27, 2026). No UPC, lot code or best-by date is listed. Symptoms: weakness, dizziness, double vision, trouble speaking or swallowing.
Do not eat it, even if it looks and smells fine; return it for a refund.
Seek immediate medical attention for symptoms.
Company: 718-523-8899, 9am to 5pm Eastern.
Second: H-E-B Backyard BBQ Chop Salad Kit. Taylor Farms (Dallas) recalled the 13.4 oz bag, UPC 041220300457, best if used by October 30, 2026, for undeclared soy and almonds. H-E-B stores in Texas only; no reactions reported; no lot code listed. Do not eat it; return it for a full refund. Taylor Farms: (855) 455-0098, Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm Pacific.
What to do. Match "all lots" items by product name and store, and sign up for FDA recall emails. The USDA FSIS recall page could not be opened this morning, so meat and poultry recalls were not checked directly.
Sources: FDA, Haifa Smoked Fish, Oct 27, FDA, Taylor Farms, Oct 27, FDA recall email sign-up, Oct 28, FDA report a problem, Oct 28
Why are strawberries more expensive right now?
The chain. California strawberries are priced at the shipping point first, then freight, the retailer and the shelf add up. USDA's National FOB Review on October 23, 2026 had flats of 8 one-pound containers, medium size, at mostly $20.00 a flat in Oxnard and Santa Maria (range $18 to $22) and mostly $18.00 in Salinas-Watsonville. Organic ran $26 to $28. Supply was light, demand good, the market about steady, and rain and wet fields curtailed harvest. FreshPlaza and HortiDaily (secondhand) had Santa Maria at $14 a flat on October 14 and $16 on October 21, so $14 to $20 in nine days is up about 43 percent (our arithmetic).
The math. $20 divided by 8 is $2.50 a pound at the shipping point. USDA's weekly retail report for October 23 put the 1 lb package at $3.22 across 5,280 ads, up from $3.01 last week and $3.10 last year. The gap is $0.72 a pound, about 22 percent of the shelf price (our arithmetic), and it covers freight and the packer, shipper and retailer margins, though USDA does not itemize it. A grower selling direct keeps part of that gap. Santa Maria moved 910,090 trays that week by CBC Berry's count, a single secondary source I could not check against USDA's own movement report.
What to do. Shipping price is rising faster than the shelf price, so buy for this week and watch the ads rather than stocking up.
Sources: USDA AMS National FOB Review, Oct 23, USDA AMS National Retail Report, Oct 23, FreshPlaza, Oct 15, HortiDaily, Oct 22, CBC Berry, week of Oct 19
What fruits and vegetables are in season in late October? Pecans, carrots and mandarins
Pecans. Georgia harvest has started. USDA's National Pecan Summary on October 22, 2026 put Georgia Pawnee large at $185 to $200 per 50 lb sack wholesale. Mexican imports since August 1 are down about 25 to 29 percent from a year earlier, which tightens supply. Texas expects 39 to 42 million pounds against 32 million last year (FreshPlaza, September 3, single trade source). A yard pecan tree needs at least 60 to 80 feet of space (UGA Extension B1348).
Carrots. A 2 lb bag averaged $1.87 across 804 ads on October 23, against $2.06 last week and $2.18 last year (USDA). At the Los Angeles terminal, a sack of 24 two-pound bags from Kern District was $26 to $28. Topped carrots keep 4 to 5 months at 32 F (University of Maryland Extension).
Mandarins. A 3 lb bag was $4.78 across 7,612 ads, against $4.71 last week and $4.58 last year. California harvest starts mid-November, about a week late, with a larger crop (FreshPlaza, October 16, single source), so early bags are largely imported. Satsumas tolerate about 14 F (UF IFAS), so this is a warm-region tree.
What to do. Carrots are the buy of the week. Pecans and mandarins are long-term tree projects for the South and warm regions.
Sources: USDA AMS National Pecan Summary, Oct 22, FreshPlaza, Sep 3, USDA AMS National Retail Report, Oct 23, USDA AMS Los Angeles Terminal, Oct 23, FreshPlaza, Oct 16, UGA Extension B1348, University of Maryland Extension, UF IFAS
Can you grow peaches at home, and how many peaches does one tree give?
The numbers. Penn State Extension (Table 5-1, updated June 2026) gives 3 to 5 bushels per tree for trees 10 years and older, a single source. Commercial spacing is 14 by 22 feet; UGA says 18 to 20 feet standard, 12 to 15 feet semi-dwarf. Soil pH 6.0 to 6.5 (UGA), well drained. Stark Bro's nursery lists 2 to 4 years to bear. Two to four trees at 10 years or older could give about 6 to 20 bushels (our arithmetic, from the 3 to 5 bushel range).
Chill and disease. Chill hours are hours between 32 and 45 F. UGA classes under 600 as low, 600 to 750 moderate, 750 to 900 high and over 900 very high, with Redhaven at about 900. Peach leaf curl needs one copper spray after leaf drop and before bud swell (Penn State, January 2024). For scale on the commercial side, USDA NASS counted 684,750 tons of U.S. peaches in 2025 at $1,370 a ton, worth $940.6 million.
What to do. In the North, soil test and order bare root trees now for spring; in South Carolina, Clemson says plant dormant trees early December to mid March, not in fall. Copper only after leaf drop.
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Sources: Penn State Extension Table 5-1, Jun 2026, UGA Circular 1063, Clemson HGIC, Peaches, Clemson HGIC 1366, Jan 12, Penn State, peach leaf curl, Jan 5, 2024, Stark Bro's Redhaven, USDA NASS Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts, May 2026
New Jersey's $60 million freeze relief bill: what A5587 and S4728 would do for farms
The bill. The Emergency Crop Loss Relief Act of 2026, A5587 in the Assembly and S4728 in the Senate, was introduced October 5, 2026. It would move $60 million from the General Fund to the Department of Agriculture, into a "2026 Freeze and Crop Loss Relief Dedicated Fund," for grants to farms hurt by the April 19 to 22 freeze. Farms with losses above 25 percent get priority. Assembly sponsors are Andrea Katz (D-8), Dawn Fantasia (R-24), Michael Inganamort (R-24), Marisa Sweeney (D-25) and Heather Simmons (D-3). The Senate sponsors are John Burzichelli (D-3) and Parker Space (R-24). A5587 sits in the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, and I found no hearing or vote.
Why it matters. The Philadelphia Inquirer (secondhand) projects New Jersey losses over $300 million. Terhune Orchards near Princeton, 250 acres in Mercer County, lost 99.7 percent of its apples (Daily Princetonian). Every state's growers face the same spring freeze risk and the same gap between crop insurance and actual loss.
What to do. New Jersey growers can track the Assembly Agriculture committee calendar at njleg.state.nj.us. Outside New Jersey, talk to your FSA office about the Tree Assistance Program and NAP.
Sources: NJ Legislature, A5587 text, Oct 5, NJ Legislative Digest, Oct 5, Rutgers Policy Lab, Oct 12, Inquirer via Yahoo, Oct 1, Daily Princetonian, Oct 2026
From the farm
[ANGELO: two or three sentences on what you are doing on the farm today and why]
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