Pollinator Strips

[willy]

John, That is indeed lucrative however the pollinator program I enrolled in was exactly as JFK52 described. There must be different types of pollinator programs for different areas of the country. The 2.7 acres I enrolled into basically came out a wash after all expenses and time was calculated. Since it is such a small parcel I can eat that but had it been larger there is no way I could make it happen. In my area the pollinator program sites are all very small acreages and regular farmers will not put much land into the program because of lack of funds. The reason they are the small parcels is because the equipment has become so large it is a pain in the arse for the farmers to work/harvest them so they figure why not.
In my habitat improvements on the farm that are not gov funded I get as much if not more pollinating action going on and the gov aren't telling me when to jump and how high nad not even close to as expensive. The plants I have growing are blooming all growing season with bees and other pollinators flitting about every time I walk through them. The benefit of going through the gov programs is that it keeps ground entered as ag acres at the fsa and nrcs offices that enable it hold that value and tax level. In my neck of the woods if a parcel has less than 50% ag labled/registered land it is taxed at a much larger percentage than land that has 50% or more registered ag land.

Sure wish I had your lucrative contract. A 1800.00 net sure could buy me a lot of cuddelink cams and accessories.:)

 

[FarmerDan]

I only have a view from the top of my hill....
The government funded conservation programs are numerous and fluid. I'm not in the middle but I'm in the circle and I don't completely understand all of it. At the federal level, NRCS has programs. FSA has programs. Sometimes the two work together. Sometimes not. The state has programs. Here in Virginia the Department of Forestry and the Department of Conservation and Recreation have programs. Some work together. Then there are the local Soil & Water Conservation Districts. Federal.State.Local. All working together? Ever teach pigs to fly?

It's all very confusing. Anybody want to be a conservation program concierge?

The USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) had a pollinator practice available to those with cropland. It paid well. I asked our program coordinator and she said all the funds have been allocated and there are no more on the horizon. And then there's the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program - state specific. NRCS may include pollinator thru EQUIP and / or CSP but every situation is different. While your desires are considered and are given much weight, NRCS needs to be addressing what would be perceived as a resource, or conservation, concern that needs correcting. Sometimes you might get enough money to cover your out-of-pocket expenses. Most times probably not with the thought you should have some skin in the game or else it can be perceived as a welfare program. If it doesn't make sense to you, then you are probably sane and not destined to be a politician making stupid deals to bring power, fame and fortune to their respective party, no matter which one!

 

[john volkman]

i guess the moral of the story here is that if you are doing habitat improvements on your property as most of us on this site are, its well worth a visit to the NRCS office and also advised to have a site visit by an agent. I'm sure the programs vary by area or region. Many of the practices that many on this site are already doing(for free) can be applied. Some examples are- blue bird houses, wood duck houses, invasive species removal and control, tree plantings, a multitude of ag practices, orchard management, pollinator planting etc.There is actual pages upon pages of possibilities. My NRCS agent has been helpful. Dont buy in or write off any of it until you investigate yourself and see what is out there. I am managing a 40 acre parcel that i live on and it has been shocking what funds i will receive for doing things i already wanted to do. Like Willy said keeping my property labeled as AG is a huge tax benefit as well. Sometimes the process is long and there is some paperwork involved but for me it was well worth it.

 

[yoderjac]

The monarch pollinator agreement payment for my site was Approx $2300 per acre, after seed and installation cost i will net $1800 acre for a 5 year program. Paperwork and documentation were no worse than any other program i have been in. I either currently have, or have had acreage in CRP, CREP, CSP and EQUIP in a multitude of programs and the CSP programs have been both painless and very beneficial.

Not even close for us!

 

[yoderjac]

i guess the moral of the story here is that if you are doing habitat improvements on your property as most of us on this site are, its well worth a visit to the NRCS office and also advised to have a site visit by an agent. I'm sure the programs vary by area or region. Many of the practices that many on this site are already doing(for free) can be applied. Some examples are- blue bird houses, wood duck houses, invasive species removal and control, tree plantings, a multitude of ag practices, orchard management, pollinator planting etc.There is actual pages upon pages of possibilities. My NRCS agent has been helpful. Dont buy in or write off any of it until you investigate yourself and see what is out there. I am managing a 40 acre parcel that i live on and it has been shocking what funds i will receive for doing things i already wanted to do. Like Willy said keeping my property labeled as AG is a huge tax benefit as well. Sometimes the process is long and there is some paperwork involved but for me it was well worth it.

I completely agree. NRCS has been a great asset for us, but not every program makes sense depending on your situation.

 

[john volkman]

one more thing to note on the CSP pollinator programs, there is a difference between Monarch butterfly pollinator program and the standard Pollinator program, basically the monarch program requires Milkweed seed as part of the mix. The payment on the monarch is significantly higher.

 

[yoderjac]

one more thing to note on the CSP pollinator programs, there is a difference between Monarch butterfly pollinator program and the standard Pollinator program, basically the monarch program requires Milkweed seed as part of the mix. The payment on the monarch is significantly higher.

Perhaps that was the difference in our experience. The screwy thing about the program when we looked at it is that NRCS could not tell you a dollar amount for a specific practice. They basically put a list of practices that you decided to do into a model and it pop out a number. They were just getting the system off the ground and there was no real way to game it at the time to find the best combination of practices that fit your situation and returned the most money. I don't know if this was intentional or just confusion during spin-up.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[JFK52]

The NRCS offered me $140 an acre for vacant land and around $400 an acre for land that was already in production. I was an easy program to "Just say no"

 

[yoderjac]

The NRCS offered me $140 an acre for vacant land and around $400 an acre for land that was already in production. I was an easy program to "Just say no"

Our number came out to a few thousand dollars total for about 8 practices. Also, not every type of land is eligible for every practice. We doing a lot of the soil conservation practices with our food plot program (like no-till, cover crops, etc.) but since we are classified as forest land rather than agricultural , we didn't qualify for them.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[nwmn]

The monarch pollinator agreement payment for my site was Approx $2300 per acre, after seed and installation cost i will net $1800 acre for a 5 year program. Paperwork and documentation were no worse than any other program i have been in. I either currently have, or have had acreage in CRP, CREP, CSP and EQUIP in a multitude of programs and the CSP programs have been both painless and very beneficial.

John which state are your farms in? We just wrapped up our EQIP project in MN. That CSP monarch program is what I wanted to get enrolled in. Its a no brainer in my opinion.

 

[john volkman]

John which state are your farms in? We just wrapped up our EQIP project in MN. That CSP monarch program is what I wanted to get enrolled in. Its a no brainer in my opinion.

im in NE wi - Door county or "the thumb" of Wi.

 

[ruskbucks]

Big fan of buckwheat. We plant some every year. Deer love it & so do the honeybees, wasps, bumble bees, flies of all sorts. They all pollinate.

The year I planted buckwheat it was unbelievable the amount of bees in it.I would say thousands.They were mostly a smaller bee which I believe are mason bees. If they were mason bees I believe they are even better pollinators then honey bees. It was strange that you can plant buckwheat one year and have thousands of bees instantly. Where did they all come from. I wondered if I hadn't of planted buckwheat if those same bees would of found another area for the summer.

 

[Telemark]

The year I planted buckwheat it was unbelievable the amount of bees in it.I would say thousands.They were mostly a smaller bee which I believe are mason bees. If they were mason bees I believe they are even better pollinators then honey bees. It was strange that you can plant buckwheat one year and have thousands of bees instantly. Where did they all come from. I wondered if I hadn't of planted buckwheat if those same bees would of found another area for the summer.

Yes. They literally go back to the hive and do a dance to tell the other bees where the good flowers are.

 

[yoderjac]

The year I planted buckwheat it was unbelievable the amount of bees in it.I would say thousands.They were mostly a smaller bee which I believe are mason bees. If they were mason bees I believe they are even better pollinators then honey bees. It was strange that you can plant buckwheat one year and have thousands of bees instantly. Where did they all come from. I wondered if I hadn't of planted buckwheat if those same bees would of found another area for the summer.

I think many native pollinators in our area like mason bees have become more plentiful as honey bees have declined. I'm not sure if there is a causal relationship but there seems to be a correlation based on ad hoc observations.

 

[H20fwler]

We are putting in a native wildflower mix this spring to supplement the wildflowers already on the place. Also finally putting some bee hives on both farms this spring.

 

[Barndog56]

It seems to me after a couple years of planting buckwheat and sunflowers that the number of bumblebees at my place have greatly increased.

 

[SwampCat]

If you are interested in planting something for pollinators, check out yellow and white sweet clover and Hubam clover. Bees will use it like nothing else and it makes a preferred light sweet honey, unlike the dark buckwheat honey (which I have difficulty selling), is a great soil builder, and deer will eat it and fawn in it. Not for monarchs.it is considered invasive but I have never had a problem with it expanding

 

[TreeDaddy]

We are putting in a native wildflower mix this spring to supplement the wildflowers already on the place. Also finally putting some bee hives on both farms this spring.

Be warned

Beekeeping is as addictive as planting trees.......

bill

 

[bowhunternw]

one more thing to note on the CSP pollinator programs, there is a difference between Monarch butterfly pollinator program and the standard Pollinator program, basically the monarch program requires Milkweed seed as part of the mix. The payment on the monarch is significantly higher.

Maybe Wisconsin set it up a little different but here it seems that most of the csp activities are a one time payment. But then you get payments over the whole contract for the other resource concerns met. For instance pollinator seeding is around $300 and acre but that is only paid on the year that you actually seed it.

 

[john volkman]

i think my pollinator payment is in one year but its a 5 year program/agreement. i have other csp programs that are spread out or paid each year. My total contract payment period is 5 years. In my program i pay for the seed myself but the payment is a set amount per acre, approx 2300 per acre for the monarch program.