North Dakota's agriculture commissioner wants the most sensitive conservation wetland areas in the state open to grazing to help drought-stricken ranchers.

"We want it, like, right now," Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said Tuesday.

His request, in a letter to federal Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, comes about a week after the federal government opened Conservation Reserve Program land to grazing in 26 North Dakota counties. Ranchers who graze cattle on the CRP land will have their annual payments cut by 25 percent.

Johnson said opening the so-called CP23 acres would provide cattle with better forage than typical CRP land, which normally is left idle to protect against erosion. Farmers receive payments to plant cover such as grass on the land. CP23 acres are set aside for wetlands restoration.

"CP23 tends to be more lower-lying lands and close to waters, and as a result, it tends to have better forage on top of it," Johnson said. "It also is interspersed among other CRP acres, so if you want to graze it, you've got to fence it out."

Jay Hochhalter, a conservation specialist with the Farm Service Agency in Fargo, said about 20 percent of the 3 million acres of CRP in North Dakota are enrolled in the CP23 program.

"CP23 is specifically aimed at restoration of wetlands," Hochhalter said. "Grazing on it will have less of an impact on it than mowing or haying, but it certainly will have an impact on our program."

The federal government allowed haying and grazing on CP23 acres in 2006 in North Dakota.

Johnson is the chairman of the state's Agricultural Drought Task Force. It has about two dozen members, including representatives of the state Agriculture Department, the Game and Fish Department and the FSA.

Johnson said the task force made the recommendation earlier to allow grazing on CP23 acres but it was not included in Schafer's announcement last week.

"We're thankful we got something, but the CP23 acres were a significant omission," Johnson said.

In May, Schafer said the federal government would open millions of acres of CRP land nationwide to haying and grazing after birds have finished nesting on grasslands this summer. Johnson said ranchers need access to that now.

"A lot of folks are clamoring to get that opened earlier," he said.