Approved Wildlife plantings in CRP

[dbltree]

I was wondering what "plantings" are officially approved for wildlife foodplots in CRP...or if there is such a thing.

Over the years I've planted just about anything imaginable... but I adhere to the "don't ask don't tell" rules

Started searching for info on the subject and found a few links:

Managing CRP Grasslands for Bobwhite Quail

IDNR Reccomendations

NRCS recommends the following plantings for food plots: Wildlife Plan for CRP Iowa Job Sheet Wildlife # 1

CRP 33 EBI Overview

Grain Food Plots


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NRCS recommends

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As far as I can tell there are recommendations for foodplots but if there absolute no-no's...I haven't found them.

Most common is encouraging landowners to disk to encourage weeds such as ragweed, pigweed, foxtail and others...so it's hard to imagine any type of grain or planting that would get one in serious trouble.

If anybody has any hard facts (besides my NRCS office told me...

) please share them with us

 

[N9BOW]

Great Post, I would be curious to see what you get...

I have seen no requirement about what you cant plant as a food plot.

I have been working with our private Lands Biologist and have pinged him with lots of food plot questions as well as questions like, how big can I make my "Fire Breaks" of Ladino Clover IE: cool season grasses. He said within reason (lots of room for interpretation there) but the bottom line is fire breaks = food plots if planted with the right mix (imperial or other equivelant mix)

I was planning on taking about 6 acres of CRP out this fall so that next year they could be "just food plots". I needed more food plots than the 10% of our CRP ground could provide. I asked the NRCS person what I could plant as a cover crop on those 6 acres to still be compliant now that I have the brome killed off. I was told that I could put in alphalfa, clover, and/or other grasses (sounds like a food plot to me) on those 6 acres.

With alphalfa the mowing would have to wait untill after nesting season but thats ok (just so long as you do not remove the mowings from the property - just rake it to the fence row) Alpharack plus or any other equvelant mix would in my estimation meet the requirement the NRCS outlined and still be able to keep it in CRP. I am not sure I still want to do that because I want to have more freedom to manage that ground. But it sounds like a CP1 contract could provide tons of food without an "Official Plot". I just think most CRP has been set it and forget it. Those interested in keeping the CRP ground at its optimum would/could/should be encoureged to keep it as beneficial to wildlife as possible as long as the spirit of the program was maintained.

My thoughts:
Why could you not make a planting like that mentioned above and add some brassicas and some soybean to the mix, heck why not add a corn. This would provide a lot of food throughout the grasses, the corn would allow the beans to climb, provide great cover for pheasants and still be compliant with the spirit of the CRP program. You would not have a discernable footprint of an "Official Plot (monoculture)" but provide much more food diversity throughout the entire CRP agreage of Alphalfa, Clover, Chickory, Brassicas, Soybean and some corn throughout. These plant/choices are compatible together planted correctly.

Yearly maintenance allows you the opportunity to add the anuals back the next season to keep the food sources replentished each year.

CRP was designed to retire HEL and provide benefits to water quality, wildlife, etc. As long as you adhere to the spirit of the program and do not disturb the land (till, harvest, or create the conditions that cause runnoff or erosion), food plots could be just an integrated aspect of the plan and not just blocked out in a particular space (although this has its benefits too). This is just MHO and I derive these views from what I have gotten back in response to being a pain in the keister with the NRCS/Private Lands Biologist.

The Private Lands Biologist semed to indicate that a management plan just shows your intentions for the contract and if it is within the requirements of the CRP contract(????) that there should not be a problem.

For me I am presenting an Intercrop plan - as mentioned above for his review so that I can achieve the "food throughout" the 6 acres of CRP I was looking to take out. If he says that looks ok, I will not take it out of CRP and should gain 6 acres of "food not Plot" and still maintain the desired goals of the Contract.

We'll see how it goes. I will let you know what he says.

N9BOW

 

[FarmlandQDM]

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I was wondering what "plantings" are officially approved for wildlife foodplots in CRP...or if there is such a thing.

...

If anybody has any hard facts (besides my NRCS office told me...

) please share them with us

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I think you weeded out most of us with that last statement Paul

I have worked with several NRCS/FSA offices in IA, MO, and IL and from what I have seen, what you can plant for foodplots in CRP really comes down to what the local attitudes are about wildlife management in the county offices, and these attitudes can vary greatly from county to county.

Since CRP has become an FSA program, many offices have taken the NRCS employees out of the picture with respect to technical questions dealing with CRP. Some county offices have FSA staff that are more hard core agriculture and the general attitude is that all this wildlife "stuff" should not be funded by the federal government and we should be growing only corn and beans on every single square inch of earth that we can. In this type of office the NRCS is often left out of many CRP rule interpretations, even though they are still considered the technical resource, and usually the landowner does not have much flexibility with what he can plant. Other offices have FSA staff that is more tolerant of wildlife management addicts like us and are willing to work with the landowners and have good working relationships with NRCS staff. Most offices are somewhere in between these two scenerios.

I have seen an "official" list in a few offices that mostly includes any of the common row crop grains that grow in the midwest (corn, sorghum, wheat, rye, oats, soybeans) but I have never seen brassicas on this list and I have worked with some offices that would not allow brassicas and also required foodplots to be planted or drilled, not broadcasted. Usually the more strict foodplot requirements occur when a landowner has included foodplots for extra points during the bid process, so that landowner is then required to put in a foodplot on the contracted acres. I have never seen a list of what can't be planted, only a list of what can be planted which some offices interpret this as if it's not on the list it is not allowed to be planted as a foodplot in CRP contracted acres.

Even though CRP is a federal program, interpretation of the rules are really done at a local level ... unless you want to cause troubles for yourself. Sometimes I am glad we don't have any CRP on our farm so we can do what we want .... for the most part. I think you have already answered your question though, sometimes don't ask, don't tell is the best way to go. Keep your foodplots at less than 25% of each field and no more than 10% of your contracted acres and it is likely that the worst thing they will tell you is to not plant something again.

 

[FarmlandQDM]

N9BOW ... I understand your intent but I can assure you if you tell your FSA staff (the ones that will be responsible for your CRP contract) that you will be planting corn in a CP1 contract you will be opening yourself up to many more questions and likely future inspections. Cp1 is a grass planting intended to reduce erosion. They allow legumes (alfalfa/clover) to be planted with the grass but this is not a contract that will allow you to manage the stand in such a way that you could affectively produce corn, brassicas, or soybeans to feed wildlife.

You would probably have better luck meeting the goals of your management plan by leaving the acres you refer to out of CRP and planting an actual foodplot.

 

[TimberPig]

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You would probably have better luck meeting the goals of your management plan by leaving the acres you refer to out of CRP and planting an actual foodplot.

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That is exactly what I did, since the FSA said I could not put a plot in my CP25. I have since heard other offices allow it. That sucks in a way, but at least now I can do whatever I want with it. Incidentally, they asked me what I put in it this year and I said corn. So they signed me up for corn base payment or some other mumbo jumbo and paid me around $25 an acre for the plot. Go figure.

 

[dbltree]

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I think you have already answered your question though, sometimes don't ask, don't tell is the best way to go. Keep your foodplots at less than 25% of each field and no more than 10% of your contracted acres and it is likely that the worst thing they will tell you is to not plant something again

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It's worked for me for over a decade now

Very little or no physical inspection and as long as the ground is in some type of cover and not causing any erosion problems...I think one can not be too worried but species planted.

Turnips? What Turnips?

 

[FarmlandQDM]

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Incidentally, they asked me what I put in it this year and I said corn. So they signed me up for corn base payment or some other mumbo jumbo and paid me around $25 an acre for the plot. Go figure.

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Good example of county by county differences in the interpretation federal programs ... I tried to establish a corn base with our foodplots to recieve direct and counter cyclical (DCP) payments, which is what you are referring to as your corn base payment. My FSA office would not allow us to establish a base and recieve these payments unless we harvested our "foodplots" and had a reciept from the elevator that we sold the grain. Our FSA staff is not as excited about landowners that manage for wildlife. I think it's a crock of sh!t my federal tax dollars pay people to excercise their individual bias as to how government programs should be run but I also realize this is not a fight worth taking on.

 

[Skully]

I've been pretty lucky with my office so far, not real sticklers and they seem to be busy with bigger fish,leaving little worry about my 70 acres. I was planning a 3000 tree planting this spring and three, one acre food plots. I'm starting to wonder if I would be better off just making one bigger three acre plot of corn? I've already got wheat and clover around the pond and another dozed site so I wonder if the corn would be a better draw for my main plot? The nearest row crop is a half mile away from my place. I had first though about an acre of chicory, an acre of mixed clovers, and the third acre in oats and wheat. What would you guy do?

 

[ajadams]

I think corn would feed them later in the year,during hunting season. Could do half corn and half beans. It sounds like you have enough clover for the spring and summer months.

 

[dbltree]

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I'm starting to wonder if I would be better off just making one bigger three acre plot of corn? I've already got wheat and clover around the pond and another dozed site so I wonder if the corn would be a better draw for my main plot? What would you guys do?

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If you can plant 3 acres of corn without it being hammered to death before season...I would go that way and interseed brassicas and or rye into it...but your other ideas would be cheaper and might work very well also.

This thread has kind of come full circle to my original thoughts in the The Perfect Farm thread.

The CRP program is a great program that allows me to plant prairie grasses for long term nesting habitat, deer bedding, soil protection and just the sheer enjoyment of the tallgrasses.

That doesn't mean however that entire farms need to be planted to prairie. In most cases one could have a higher return by renting the better ground out for corn and keeping only the steepest areas in tallgrass.

At very least taking an extra acre or two out of CRP for foodplots of any type you desire...is not going to break the average landowner.

Some of you will have CRP contracts ending in 3-5 years or you may purchase land not eligible for CRP.

Start thinking outside the box... you can still have great return on your land, top deer attractant and some tall grass as well.

The continuous CRP program will be available I suspect for a very long time, allowing riparian buffers, waterways etc. to be planted to prairie grass.

In the meantime make sure you don't plant your plots in highly erodible areas and keep it in some type of cover...in other words don't leave it bare and subject to erosion...and I suspect that "Big Brother" will leave you alone...

 

[N9BOW]

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N9BOW ... I understand your intent but I can assure you if you tell your FSA staff (the ones that will be responsible for your CRP contract) that you will be planting corn in a CP1 contract you will be opening yourself up to many more questions and likely future inspections. Cp1 is a grass planting intended to reduce erosion. They allow legumes (alfalfa/clover) to be planted with the grass but this is not a contract that will allow you to manage the stand in such a way that you could affectively produce corn, brassicas, or soybeans to feed wildlife.

You would probably have better luck meeting the goals of your management plan by leaving the acres you refer to out of CRP and planting an actual foodplot.

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FarmlandQDM - I just spent about an hour with the NRCS and the FSA office to review what I would like to do. especially with 6 acres of a 16 acre block. I explained to them that I would take it out of CPR entirely if what I wanted to do could not be done. I explained to NRCS that my sole intention with the plan is wildlife centric and that I wanted to make the 6 acres Alfalfa/Clover/and a cool season grass such as Oats (because of the dual purpose of nesting cover for pheasants and food plot for deer). They told me that that was ok, so I posed the next question just to see what they said

I explained that I was told I could have 10% of the CRP in food plot. I asked does it have to be in a plot, if a person wanted to plant the food throughout the crp could they? I gave her an example using intercropping techniques. with corn/sorghum and beans/peas. I asked her if a person was to take a drill in the spring and plant corn/sorghum and beans/peas sparsely (10%) all throughout the Alfalfa and Clover and Oats in a haphazzard manner so that it provided a mixed canopy height and essentially place food throughout the CRP could this be done?

I mentioned that the intergrop of a bean and corn/sorghum will provide platform for the bean/peas to grow up, the mixed vegitation types would open the ground even more for chicks and mixed height and diverse vegetation makes it more difficult for predators to systematically move through the cover among other things.
There response was, I dont see a problem with that

As long as the dominant plantings are the alfalfa clover and oats that should be ok

they said to just be sure lets go ask the FSA office.

Now I am plenty happy with the fact at this point, that I can plant the Alfalfa/Clover/Oat and "Chickory" (I expressely asked about that) and explained that if I could I would be planting "Whitetail Institutes AlfaRack Plus" because that had everything they required but the oats so I would add those afterword seperately. Again they said dont see a problem with that

They walked me down to the FSA office and explained to the person what I was looking to do and the FSA person said we dont see a problem with that either just so long as we have it in the plan. The also went as far as to say, it looks like you would have more freedom if you were in a CP4d program to do some of the other things I was wanting to do with the thornless Blackberries and the Monoculture Switchgrass stand. I said sure. I offered to give them the entire plan and they said great. they are entering it into the books.

This being my first experience with a CRP contract, the NRCS and FSA office encouraged me to keep the ground in CRP and not take it out and seemingly went out of their way to help me out.

It sounds like this is not the norm but I am glad I shared with them my plans. I was not out anything because I was going to take it out but now I can manage the ground within reason and provide the best benefit for wildlife possible.

Just thought I would share
N9BOW

 

[FarmlandQDM]

It sounds like you might be one of the lucky ones that has an FSA staff that is willing to work with us recreational landowners. I hope your plan meets your expectations, you are striving for habitat diversity and that is the key to wildlife management. If you implement this plan and get the opportunity, post some photos of how it looks, I'd like to see how it turns out.

Thanks for the update on your NRCS/FSA meeting.