CRP planting recommendations

C

cyclonenation10

Well-known member
Have the chance to enroll the final 10 acres of our farm in CP42.

Rewind a bit, located in Iowa and currently have about 170 acres that we’ve been working with the last 3-4 years. Of those acres, it currently consists roughly of

-45% restored wetlands/pasture in more of a grassy mix as it is primarily flood plain ground, luckily it did not flood during the spring this year

-30% “good crop ground” that’s in a mix of Forbes/bluestem/etc. does not flood and serves as our prime nesting habitat. I believe it was the “Hawkeye” mix, seems pretty thick and more grassy than ideal for nesting

-20% brushy/riparian timber. Mostly crap soft maples and such. Trying to put a dent in them

-5% this is the ~10 acres I’m inquiring about. Currently about 1/2 alfalfa 1/2 sorghum/sunflowers/corn for food plots. This is very good ground, does not flood, and is a little sandy.

For these last -10 acres, I’m thinking a pure pollinator type seed (basically all wildflowers and such). Overall, I think nesting will always be the limiting factor here as we are prone to flooding on about 1/2 the total farm, and every acre that is out of the flood plain should be dedicated to nesting/brood rearing, which to my understanding is going to be best accomplished with a seed like I described.

Am I thinking about this correctly? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
 
cyclonenation10 said:
Have the chance to enroll the final 10 acres of our farm in CP42.

Rewind a bit, located in Iowa and currently have about 170 acres that we’ve been working with the last 3-4 years. Of those acres, it currently consists roughly of

-45% restored wetlands/pasture in more of a grassy mix as it is primarily flood plain ground, luckily it did not flood during the spring this year

-30% “good crop ground” that’s in a mix of Forbes/bluestem/etc. does not flood and serves as our prime nesting habitat. I believe it was the “Hawkeye” mix, seems pretty thick and more grassy than ideal for nesting

-20% brushy/riparian timber. Mostly crap soft maples and such. Trying to put a dent in them

-5% this is the ~10 acres I’m inquiring about. Currently about 1/2 alfalfa 1/2 sorghum/sunflowers/corn for food plots. This is very good ground, does not flood, and is a little sandy.

For these last -10 acres, I’m thinking a pure pollinator type seed (basically all wildflowers and such). Overall, I think nesting will always be the limiting factor here as we are prone to flooding on about 1/2 the total farm, and every acre that is out of the flood plain should be dedicated to nesting/brood rearing, which to my understanding is going to be best accomplished with a seed like I described.

Am I thinking about this correctly? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
 
One last thing, we’ve got some shelter belt plantings that are a few years old, and plenty of horse weeds and thickets for winter cover, so I definitely don’t think winter cover/food is any sort of limiting factor. Surrounded mostly by crop fields as well, and we have a couple small food plots sprinkled in the mix.
 
I think it has to be a pollinator type of cover, right? If allowed, get a mix that has as much clump grasses as possible (prairie dropseed, blue grama), those might will leave nice cover (a canopy) to nest under the second year. Prairie dropseed is that orangeish/pinkish grass you see in some cpr stands. I have some of this to be used in a 3 rooster mount that the my taxtidermist has had for about 2 and a half years now! He says he is getting close now.
 
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