Bad CRP

OK guys I've been playing farmer the last couple weeks:thumbsup: As I've been hauling my grain to town I'm looking at peoples CRP and I must say I'm :mad:. Some is very poorly managed basicly crap grass. It is taxpayers money for wildlife. Not for farmer to take so so ground out of production and get a check from goverment. I'm not for sure how they get away with it, but it's wrong. guide lines are not being followed which means someones not doing their job:mad: I was wondering if it was this way elsewhere? Or is it just my county or state.
 
There are a few fields like that around where I live in northeast indiana.
 
There an old saying " expect what you inspect"
someones not doing their job
 
I think we would be better off if we hadn't gone mad with the mandates for certain grasses and weed spraying, etc. Be better if it was the old soil bank where we just let it grow up in broadleaf weeds, native grasses, and forbs with lots of bare ground underneath. Soil bank provided great bird cover for 20 years, CRP monoculture grasses which without serious management becomes rank and useless in 5 years. Current untended CRP may be useless to native birds, while providing a haven for a countless assortment of bird predators, and here at least cotton rats, which eat quail eggs and destroy nests. Once again we tinker with good intentions, spend time, energy, throw cash at the problem, result: nature 2-man 0, bottom of the 9th with 2 out and nobody on with Minnie Mendoza at bat. ( thought you guys might like the baseball analogy since it's playoff time).
 
OK guys I've been playing farmer the last couple weeks:thumbsup: As I've been hauling my grain to town I'm looking at peoples CRP and I must say I'm :mad:. Some is very poorly managed basicly crap grass. It is taxpayers money for wildlife. Not for farmer to take so so ground out of production and get a check from goverment. I'm not for sure how they get away with it, but it's wrong. guide lines are not being followed which means someones not doing their job:mad: I was wondering if it was this way elsewhere? Or is it just my county or state.

I just finished writing My senators and congressman about the CRP program in favor of it but also that it be better enforced as well. Hope this helps! Ialso had a comment about the ethanol debacle not helping anything including our engines.
 
Around me there is a lot of older cool season grass crp that has turned into brome. Mainly waterways that they mow all the time for "weed control".
 
Originally CRP was intended to take lands high in risk for erosion and put them into ground cover to stabilize them. Providing wildlife habitat was a secondary benefit. I agree with O&N. 160 acres of timothy grass might look nice, it provides some nesting and roosting cover, but large monocultures do not provide the best habitat.

I've been to Iowa where they have the man-made waterways with grasses growing as stabilizing cover on both banks. They provide some cover in those areas where the farms are slicked off from fence to fence, but have seen where they are mowed so close so as to not provide any cover for birds.

We need CRP and farmers who are willing to help wildlife through habitat management. None of it is perfect, but we're fortunate to have what's there.
 
Originally CRP was intended to take lands high in risk for erosion and put them into ground cover to stabilize them. Providing wildlife habitat was a secondary benefit. I agree with O&N. 160 acres of timothy grass might look nice, it provides some nesting and roosting cover, but large monocultures do not provide the best habitat.

I've been to Iowa where they have the man-made waterways with grasses growing as stabilizing cover on both banks. They provide some cover in those areas where the farms are slicked off from fence to fence, but have seen where they are mowed so close so as to not provide any cover for birds.

We need CRP and farmers who are willing to help wildlife through habitat management. None of it is perfect, but we're fortunate to have what's there.

I watched shows on TV Yesterday about the harvesting crews trying to beat the weather and the huge dollars gained and lost in the process, and while I knew and understood I could also see why the fields are so huge and no fence rows and no room for wildlife! It is also possible to realize another dust bowl can happen very quickly if mother nature decides we need to experience it! Sad, from the standpoint of the wildlife. It is all about the money...not meant to be a criticism, only an observation.
 
Just as everything else in life, you get the full spectrum of humanity managing CRP, or for that matter inspecting it. The original contracts didn't have the forb component included, mid-contract maintenance was also not required. The early establishment requirements included mowing and spraying, also not bird friendly. I've hunted patches with 12 foot tall cedars growing in them as if they were broadcast, no supervision or management there. You can pretty much tell at 55 miles per hour driving by whether you would turn a dog loose in it or not. If you know your craft, you'll know before you get 50 yards into the patch whether you are going to find birds in it or not. Young stands are going to be productive, stagnant old ones won't. I've seen it everywhere. Yes, introduced specie plantings shouldn't be allowed. They are generally big negatives. Why is it humans think that they can plant species that will outperform species that developed in an area through eons of adaptive response?
 
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