CRP CP42 pollinator mix question

[Ben.MN/WI]

I've been looking into potentially enrolling some land into the CRP CP42 pollinator mix in the future if CRP sign-ups are available. Does anyone have any experience with this pollinator seed mix with regard to deer feeding and bedding?

Food plots are not allowed in this mix, so I would need to keep a few acres out of the program to use for food. I've seen some local acres that I believe are in this program and while it looks pretty with all of the flowers it doesn't seem as tall as other CRP blends. I'm just curious if anyone has experience with this program.

 

[willy]

It will definately be shorter that grass dominated crp. There are browse species for sure in the mixes that are developed for the pollinator crp. One thing you will also notice is the price of the seed for the pollinator mix is way more expensive than the other crp mixes/programs. The cost of mine barely got me past even, even after cost share with the limit they will spend per acre and what seed costs.

If you need to be more in the black you might want to look at other crp options.

 

[BC Buck]

It will definately be shorter that grass dominated crp. There are browse species for sure in the mixes that are developed for the pollinator crp. One thing you will also notice is the price of the seed for the pollinator mix is way more expensive than the other crp mixes/programs. The cost of mine barely got me past even, even after cost share with the limit they will spend per acre and what seed costs.

If you need to be more in the black you might want to look at other crp options.

I planted some in 2010 but dont remember how much the seed cost per acre. It was a waste of time shopping around for best prices. All know what NRCS pays and charged the same. They would not let me buy out of state.

 

[cavey]

I just did some pollinator acreage this spring, my seed mix cost was $425-450 per acre (seed only), and it is the shorter natives/flowers/forbes than the switch, indian, and big blue grasses from my previous native grasses-CRP contract which had the tall good for bedding grasses. I used a Pheasants Forever's mix which my NRCS office preapproved of. Here is their MN seed/habitat page https://www.pfhabitatstore.com/store/items/MN/
My contract has a 50% cost share and the new incentive programs have a 90% cost share plus some added bonuses such as a higher rental rate compensation. I had to go with the pollinator program due to the limited general crp sign up acceptance rate this year. They claim they are at their acreage caps. The pollinator program was still open for acreage or maybe is the same as crep which is continuous sign up. Based on the varieties in the seed mix I will not have the same bedding cover I had with the taller grasses. The crime was I had established grasses and could not re-up the old contract as it was.... So just as a heads up - if you want the crp income you may not be able to get signed up under the general sign up unless your land is VERY - highly erodible land HEL and or you enter the programs through the pollinator program or something similar which is considered a higher priority and lands you more points.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Thanks for all the information. I'm looking at this program for my property in Rusk County WI, but I'm still waiting for the final information from the FSA office before I decide what to do. The rental rate per acre will be higher than I'm currently making in cropland rent, but still likely only in the $70/acre range so it would be hard to justify high out of pocket seed costs for this program unless there was a pretty high cost share. There is no general CRP sign up at this time, so I believe the CP42 option is the only choice at this point (even that is closed to new enrollees right now, but that may change shortly). I would prefer a taller mix that would also allow food plots, but I do think even this pollinator mix would improve my hunting versus the standard crop rotation currently on my land.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I am obviously in a different state than you so the rental rate and costs I would guess to be different. My mom put in a small CP42 plot 2 years ago. She came out in the black on the installation. Seed was cost shared, I dont remember the percentage, there was a signup bonus and I got the list of seed suppliers and shopped around for the best price. I believe she is getting $90/ acre. Which is far more profit per acre than that piece of ground ever made under standard row crop production.

 

[cavey]

All of my crp ground went in at between $127 and $150 an acre being smaller fields I could never get that in farm rental. Due to having heavy soils in those fields I pulled a higher rental rate based on the soil class types. Its a win win for me based on that alone.

I'm not saying its right but if you just happened to toss in some tall grass, native seeds into the mix; with a 10 year contract - three plus years to establish the grasses you'd be into the fourth year before you really saw the taller grasses... That would likely be your burn year the odds of a contract canceling field audit would likely be low especially if you had an established native field of whatever as long as it was native cover. This is a newer program with the pollinator / monarch initiative so Im not sure how aggressive they are going to be if the flowers do not have a good catch. Im not even sure what my fields will look like till next year with all this rain the planting was put off till June. Im going to supplement the original planting by adding seed year to year with seed I gather(it's one thing you can do for free- strip native seeds from existing stands and use them in your seed mixes) - I know the cp42 planting I have has a bit of tall grasses that came back even after the spraying so I believe I will have a healthy mix of some pocketed bedding cover and a majority of pollinator plants.

One other thing is contact the us fish and wildlife and see if they can help with seed. Dunn county is apart of the St. Croix wetlands management district and I was able to get some free seed added into the contract and was allowed under that grant to use their seeder. Your local chapter of pheasants forever might be of help since they do offer some pretty good seed mixes at competitive $ that pair up with the NRCS's requirements. If you do a bunch of the work yourself you can maximize reimbursement and minimize costs. The cost share is better now and your first year maybe a wash but after that you will definitely be in the black.

The biggest pain is 10 years from now when you try and re-up or extend the contract but that's another whole topic.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Thanks for the information. I see that some of the CP42 pollinator mixes have goldenrod in there, which could eventually help to create some additional cover in addition to the butterfly and bee flowers. I have a visual screen around my entire field perimeter that has a bunch of goldenrod, so I'm sure some extra native goldenrod seed would make its way into the field. Since my fields border wetlands in many areas, I'm also looking into the CP 21 buffer CRP program. It looks like that buffer program allows taller plants including switchgrass, which would help out quite a bit. It would be nice if I could have some tall CRP in addition to the shorter CP42 stuff.

Thanks for the tip about the NRCS, I'll see if they have any deals on seed. I'm not sure if there are any pheasants up in Rusk County, but I'll look into Pheasants Forever as well.