Cp21
- Thread starter moellermd
- Start date
UGUIDE
Active member
What's the matter. Big corn farmer can't grow pheasants?
Most popular old fashioned mix in SD CRP is alfalfa and wheatgrass. Both introduced but works well for an introduced bird.
No forbs, no bugs, no birds.......
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Since I'm from out of your area, I won't give you a mix, but I might help on a ideology. The problem with most mixes and their subsequent downfall is that they are too often dominated by the more sod-forming grass species and tend to get too rank too fast. Knowing that crp is more of a winter roosting/thermal/escape cover than it is as a nesting/brood-rearing cover if done wrong, you need to look toward fulfilling those niches with your mix as well as the thermal/escape cover niche. To do so, you should have a significant proportion of your grass species as clump grasses. Also, you need to focus on your forb component as that will be the driving force in making the planting a year-round habitat. You can't have them in the fall if you don't produce them in the spring! Just like running the hurdles, you have to clear the first one to get to the second and you have to clear them all to get to the tape. Knowing that many plantings get unproductive in 6-8 years post-planting, better planning before the drill goes in the ground will help you elongate that swing and make it simpler to set back. Do your homework with a biologist locally. Don't let the NRCS guys set you us with a livestock planting if that's not what you want.