Looking for help planning CRP and food plot

[bgusty]

Working on a plan for next year on the family farm. The northern field with the pond is the only one that I can mess around with.

Little background - the field (with the small inlet on the N edge) is roughly 11 acres. Somewhat low land, floods in the spring every 2-4 years. E edge of the field goes up a small hill. It was enrolled in CRP probably 15 years ago, that expired a few years ago. It’s grown up with a lot of weeds - goldenrod, buckthorn, and small scrub maples in some spots. You can see in the part nearest the river on the W side, it’s grown up with a bunch of scrub trees. The E side you can see a small scrape area that has water as well - small duck pond left over when it floods.

Right now the plan is to do a controlled burn in the spring and maybe have a land clearing company come out and get rid of the scrub trees and mulch those and any stumps.

I would like to put most of it back into some kind of CRP or prairie program to cover property taxes, but I would also like to leave some out for food plots. Right now I’m leaning towards leaving the small N inlet as food plots, a 20 yard wide strip on the N border running E-W, and maybe that area that has grown up into trees on the W side, wrapping around to the pond on the S.

Any suggestions on what to plant and where would be great. Thanks!


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[S.T.Fanatic]

How big is the N inlet?

 

[bgusty]

How big is the N inlet?

I think just under an acre.


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[Bill]

Someone posted about a clover that would take some flooding. I don’t recall which type. Hopefully they notice this and chime in.

 

[buckdeer1]

It all depends on what the FSA says to enroll that ground and if they have a program that it qualifies for. The deadline has come and gone for some programs this year. Some of the programs require it to have been in farmland last 4 years. I would start with the FSA. I was going to suggest to just clear area for food plot and leave the scrub trees and weeds.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I think just under an acre.


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I think for year one I would plant it into RR early maturing soybeans in the spring. About the time the leaves start to drop I would plant a "cover" of winter cereal rye grain, winter peas, and medium red clover (MRC) on the entire plot. On 1/4 of it I would do a mix of Alice white clover and Oasis chicory is about a 50/50 mix.

The following Memorial Day weekend I would mow the Alice/Oasis mix. On the rye/medium red portion of the plot I would do a throw and mow (TNM) of buckwheat. Broadcast the buckwheat into the standing rye/clover mow it down and then spray with glyphosate. (GLY)

Late July early August spread a 50/50 mix of purple to turnips (PTT) and tillage radish (TR) on half of the standing buckwheat. Mow it down and spray GLY again.

Late August on the remaining standing buckwheat portion spread a bag of a winter cereal grain (I like awnless winter barley(if you can get it, I use Albert Leas Seed) because it matures fast the next spring and the deer will eat the heads preventing them from germinating on a volunteer basis when doing TNM brassica into them) spread half a bag of winter peas, half a bag of sunflowers, and the appropriate amount of MRC. Mow it all down and spray GLY over it.

Planting like this will give you a good head start on the weed issues that you WILL have when tillage is used. Leave the Alice/chicory mix for 3-4 years before rotating it to brassica. I mow twice a year. Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. Flipflop your brassica and Cereal mix every year using the TNM planting technique.

Before I made this reply I should have also asked what your equipment situation is but i didn't and don't feel like deleting what I typed just to retype it in a day or two.

Depending on what you are allowed to do on the bigger portion of the Northern field I would go with a three way rotation of brassica, soy beans, and corn (having all three in the plot at the same time) I would think a 2.5 acre plot would work for this but it will depend on your deer numbers.

May also be helpful to provide a zoomed out picture of say 2 miles to help us get the feel of what you are dealing with. This can also be helpful for asking for stand placement advice and what you should plant and where.

Good Luck

 

[bgusty]

I think for year one I would plant it into RR early maturing soybeans in the spring. About the time the leaves start to drop I would plant a "cover" of winter cereal rye grain, winter peas, and medium red clover (MRC) on the entire plot. On 1/4 of it I would do a mix of Alice white clover and Oasis chicory is about a 50/50 mix.

The following Memorial Day weekend I would mow the Alice/Oasis mix. On the rye/medium red portion of the plot I would do a throw and mow (TNM) of buckwheat. Broadcast the buckwheat into the standing rye/clover mow it down and then spray with glyphosate. (GLY)

Late July early August spread a 50/50 mix of purple to turnips (PTT) and tillage radish (TR) on half of the standing buckwheat. Mow it down and spray GLY again.

Late August on the remaining standing buckwheat portion spread a bag of a winter cereal grain (I like awnless winter barley(if you can get it, I use Albert Leas Seed) because it matures fast the next spring and the deer will eat the heads preventing them from germinating on a volunteer basis when doing TNM brassica into them) spread half a bag of winter peas, half a bag of sunflowers, and the appropriate amount of MRC. Mow it all down and spray GLY over it.

Planting like this will give you a good head start on the weed issues that you WILL have when tillage is used. Leave the Alice/chicory mix for 3-4 years before rotating it to brassica. I mow twice a year. Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. Flipflop your brassica and Cereal mix every year using the TNM planting technique.

Before I made this reply I should have also asked what your equipment situation is but i didn't and don't feel like deleting what I typed just to retype it in a day or two.

Depending on what you are allowed to do on the bigger portion of the Northern field I would go with a three way rotation of brassica, soy beans, and corn (having all three in the plot at the same time) I would think a 2.5 acre plot would work for this but it will depend on your deer numbers.

May also be helpful to provide a zoomed out picture of say 2 miles to help us get the feel of what you are dealing with. This can also be helpful for asking for stand placement advice and what you should plant and where.

Good Luck

Thanks for the detailed write up.

I actually used Albert Lea seed for plots this year. They aren’t too far from me. Small brassica spot and another clover/ WR strip, really only about 5-10 yards wide. It’s definitely too wet for corn down there. It was a tiled field in corn before, but when it was converted into CRP they took the tiling out.

As for equipment I’ve got a 60 hp tractor, a disk, brush hog, and basic shoulder seed spreader.

The one caveat I didn’t mention is the neighbor is certified organic and it’s my parents farm, and between the neighbor and following the Monsanto stuff, spraying is out for now. Which is why I lean towards sticking with WR/ clover, brassicas, and grains.


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[bwoods11]

You will likely have to have crop history to qualify for CRP. With the exception of riparian buffer program. I have quite a few acres in Riparian buffer, grass or trees. Not sure how your state would handle that though.

 

[j-bird]

Start with your local NRCS/FSA office. They will tell you what your different options are as far as the government helping with the costs or annual rental rates. Each state is different so what I can do here may be very different than what you can do. The big thing is that you understand that CRP is funded thru the Farm BIll and if for some reason that gets held up....you don't get paid. Also understand that you will have some maintenance type work to do as well in many of the programs so ensure you can hold up your end as well.

Here - you have to show cropping history for X amount of years of the area you want to enroll for any sort of annual rental rate. You also may be limited to certain distances and the like for buffers and such.
I would also suggest an overall plan...you need to understand how the deer use the property and why. Is food a limiting issue or cover. Do you want to plant annual food plots, perennial food plots or have plans for mast trees or even shrubs. And ALWAYS consider you hunting access. Plan first then act. Don't just toss something out there and THEN try to figure out how to hunt it....

I would leave as much cover as makes sense and use your best soils for plotting if you can. I would stick with access up the east side as much as possible.

Once you have an idea of the government help you can get we can help you look at different options as to how to layout that area....you will get lots of ideas and can pick what trips your trigger...

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I'm enrolling some of my MN land into CRP next spring and under that CRP program I can put 10% of the acreage into a food plot. I have to put in the food plot at my own expense, but they pay me the standard price per acre for that food plot.

As mentioned above, talk to the local FSA and tell them what you are looking for. To qualify for most CRP programs you need a crop history, so I wouldn't recommend just doing nothing with the field next year or you may lose that year of crop history that could hurt your CRP chances down the road.

Good luck, that looks like a nice property.

 

[bgusty]

Start with your local NRCS/FSA office. They will tell you what your different options are as far as the government helping with the costs or annual rental rates. Each state is different so what I can do here may be very different than what you can do. The big thing is that you understand that CRP is funded thru the Farm BIll and if for some reason that gets held up....you don't get paid. Also understand that you will have some maintenance type work to do as well in many of the programs so ensure you can hold up your end as well.

Here - you have to show cropping history for X amount of years of the area you want to enroll for any sort of annual rental rate. You also may be limited to certain distances and the like for buffers and such.
I would also suggest an overall plan...you need to understand how the deer use the property and why. Is food a limiting issue or cover. Do you want to plant annual food plots, perennial food plots or have plans for mast trees or even shrubs. And ALWAYS consider you hunting access. Plan first then act. Don't just toss something out there and THEN try to figure out how to hunt it....

I would leave as much cover as makes sense and use your best soils for plotting if you can. I would stick with access up the east side as much as possible.

Once you have an idea of the government help you can get we can help you look at different options as to how to layout that area....you will get lots of ideas and can pick what trips your trigger...

Thanks. The overall plan is what I’m working on.

I think the true CRP program is out, but I think there are some prairie programs it would be eligible for. Working with the local office to get an appointment.

I want some food, primarily early/ late season. Ag on 2 sides of the property, so mid season that takes priority. But there aren’t many food options come December.

The rest of it I want to make into cover, maybe with a tall screen on the E side for access.


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[buckdeer1]

I have made alot of money off CRP that has paid for other improvements but it is really getting to be a pain.I have started letting mine expire and I just canceled a re enrollment of a wetland because they wanted to do something that wasn't going to work and it would cost me more than what they were paying with no cost share.