CRP Disappearing Rapidly

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westksbowhunter

Well-known member
I thought last fall that the CRP coming out and getting plowed and mowed for hay was alarming. But it is going at a faster rate the summer. 3 sections that I hunt 4 miles south of my house disappeared this weekend and another is being fenced off tonite a few miles the other direction. Been seeing a ton cut along 4 hwy in Ness county on my way to the lake. Going to have to work hard to find new places to hunt this fall. Seeing a few chicks but I don't know where the heck they are going to go. Hope that some land is being enrolled but there is a lot of acreage coming out.

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Expanding CRP acres for carbon sequestration

Given the current challenge to get more acres enrolled into the CRP program, one concern is the rather large number of CRP contract acres that will be expiring in the
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Our local NRCS said new CRP will be $236/acre. That’s still not enough at current crop prices.
 
That stink. High grain prices are hard on bird numbers. CRP has really helped push our pheasant numbers in the past 5 years. Now if we could get rain and eliminate the emergency haying/grazing. 2 of the 5 CRP fields I can get into will very likely be hayed/grazed again this fall. I think most of the CRP we have in my immediate area was put in 5 years ago, so it shoudl still have at least 5 years remaining in the contract.
 
The haying requirements are different this year. Last year I hayed about 25%, this year our county qualifies but none of my programs do. Don’t know what the difference is.
 
We are in the CP-38, the 2 that were hay/grazed last year that I hunt, were something different (no food plots)...maybe they will be spared! I know a gal at the county office, I might call her and get the details.
 
That sucks. The days of day tripping pheasants are about over for me. Every year its getting about 50 miles further
 
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As others have already mentioned, high crop prices and a drought in many areas are the primary contribution to this.

Habitat loss isn't anything new though. Its been slowly disappearing for a long time and its not going to get reversed because Big Ag always trumps hunting.
 
no surprise. i posted 3 articles last fall, that said 1 1/2 million acres were set to expire, contracts expiring.
and that was Kansas only! drought and emergency haying are huge factors as well, both bad news.
enjoy your stroll as much as you can. a bird or two taken will be a bonus.
 
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Among all this doom and gloom, a farmer I know enrolled virtually all his pivot corners just this year in a CREP program. They probably won't provide much hunting this year, but the next few after that they should be great. I'm not sure how many of the quarters adjoin other quarters with crp, either his or someone else's. Pivot corners are nice, but at roughly 7 acres each they are a little on the small side. 2 pivot corners together, or better yet 3 or 4, are really nice!
 
matto said:
Among all this doom and gloom, a farmer I know enrolled virtually all his pivot corners just this year in a CREP program. They probably won't provide much hunting this year, but the next few after that they should be great. I'm not sure how many of the quarters adjoin other quarters with crp, either his or someone else's. Pivot corners are nice, but at roughly 7 acres each they are a little on the small side. 2 pivot corners together, or better yet 3 or 4, are really nice!
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Colorado has a great program for corners.
 
Well, this spike in grain prices is hurting habitat in the near term with expiring contracts . Land rental rates will increase with the grain prices, the CRP contract payments are often based on "county average rental rates", so when grain prices tank again, rental rates will be higher for a short window and if there are any enrollment programs available at that point, that will be the time that enrolled acres should soar. Maybe just wishful thinking.
 
Has the new administration eliminated the “no more than 85% of local rental rates” clause in the payment calculations ? I don’t recall the exact percentage but that stopped a lot of enrollment.
 
I wanted to put some in CRP last year but rental went down, plus my real estate taxes has doubled in the last five years
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
That sucks. The days of day tripping pheasants are about over for me. Every year its getting about 50 miles further
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I still have a few places in the Lewistown area I can get on.Weve been hunting them for 45 years. One place, the original guy is still there!!
 
Place where we hunt has mostly corners. About perfect for 4 or 5 guys. And we did pretty well with just 3 of us last January.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
I wanted to put some in CRP last year but rental went down, plus my real estate taxes has doubled in the last five years
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Maynard - nice to see you here - Have you looked into any wetlands or Playa restoration programs? Dont know the lay of your land - but I believe big money is payed to restore playa's if you had one or have any on your property - much the same you can get some good money from selling a permanent wetlands easement. I tried on our land near Topeka (in the research phase) - but we are next to the air base so no go for wetlands easement -- have to be 5 miles away from an airport.
 
KsHusker, I don't have any wetlands. I do follow that and have attended some of the workshops, just to keep abreast of it, plus friends with some of those folks.
 
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