Haying CRP

Powderhorn Jim

Powderhorn Jim

Active member
I was at a meeting last week that included folks from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) (the agency in charge of CRP contracts). When the subject of drought came up, one of the questions asked was whether the hay harvested under the current drought authorization could be sold. FSA answered that it could not, that it was intended only for use by the owner of the land. They further stated that they were not an enforcement agency and only pursued investigations of violation of CRP contracts if a complaint was presented to them.

I personally know of non-owners harvesting and selling CRP hay in Kansas. I am a rancher and know what it means to be out of feed for my cattle. At the same time, if CRP contracts are limited, how are participants being allowed to illegally harvest forage that has been paid for with taxpayer's dollars? Either it is allowed or it is not. I am also a wildlife biologist and believe that the CRP program is possibly the best wildlife habitat program ever invented, at least for the midwest.

Somehow, I see a problem here!
 
Powderhorn Jim said:
I was at a meeting last week that included folks from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) (the agency in charge of CRP contracts). When the subject of drought came up, one of the questions asked was whether the hay harvested under the current drought authorization could be sold. FSA answered that it could not, that it was intended only for use by the owner of the land. They further stated that they were not an enforcement agency and only pursued investigations of violation of CRP contracts if a complaint was presented to them.

I personally know of non-owners harvesting and selling CRP hay in Kansas. I am a rancher and know what it means to be out of feed for my cattle. At the same time, if CRP contracts are limited, how are participants being allowed to illegally harvest forage that has been paid for with taxpayer's dollars? Either it is allowed or it is not. I am also a wildlife biologist and believe that the CRP program is possibly the best wildlife habitat program ever invented, at least for the midwest.

Somehow, I see a problem here!
Click to expand...

WRONG!!!!!!!!! I think you got some bad info or someone telling you what you wanted to hear.

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/haywetlandsqanda.pdf

Read #6
 
couger71 said:
WRONG!!!!!!!!! I think you got some bad info or someone telling you what you wanted to hear.

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/haywetlandsqanda.pdf

Read #6
Click to expand...

It's great! They sell it at a rate 5x normal. AND pay it back to the tax payer at 10% of the money they already recieved! Even a farmer can make money like that. I'll save all the resultant ridicule, I know it's dry, it is normal in the weather cycle, we used to prepare for that with stocking rates that leaves some reserve, no more, use it up, Spare me, know the CRP was a "Soil Conservation " program. Even now, corn farmers are selling their crops cheap because food prices are on the rise,( not ), I'm sure the livestock producer will do the same with skyrocketing meat prices when this is over, to help us taxpayers out. Let's be sure and decry the food stamp program here, these unfortunates are a drag on society, they should be strong able bodied men, like say, a farmer who leans his back into the GPS monitor on an a/c equiped tractor, and gets no subsidy. I am a farmer just to clarify, I don't get any subsidy, I don't get rich, I have ground quailfied for WRP, and CRP, and CRP33. I use the mangement, because it's good for the ground, without pay. It would make my family happier to have the income. Me,I like the horses, cows, crops coming up, solitude alone with the old tractor I can see the ground under, and wildlife, spring flowers, even ragweed, for quail. funny thing is in my youth, I knew a lot of farmers would did it that way. Most are burried on that same ground. I don't know what we have now, farmers in my life, my grandfathers as well, were "better", now everybody is a souless banker! Heck, I'm that too! trying to save the country, farm, and survive. I wish we come up with a value system which is better. Low or no interest loans, in times like these, with value based on the hippocratic oath, " first, do no harm", or "leave the land the same as when you found it". in my callow youthful idea of a bargain, CRP is the bargain, if we pledged to the deal, we need to accept the consequences, good or bad.
 
Haying 1/2 of a landowner CRP doesn't bother me too much when times of need/drought hit. CRP needs to be cut, grazed, or burned down the road anyway. Plus it's an intensive for a landowner to keep land in enrolled in CRP.

Obviously drought is something that happens. Usually every 10 years or so we seem to get hit with a sever drought on one level or another. It's smart to keep a reserve of grass lands available for such troubling times.

Haying public owned wildlife/conservation lands is another story though. Landowners should have enough reserve of grass lands available on private lands to get by during a drought. Cutting public owned wildlife lands shouldn't be necessary in my opinion;)
 
when I went to sd in Sept. , I saw truck after truck hauling hay out of sd. Saw bale after bale of LAST year hay everywhere. some area may have needed the crp ground for hay, but not the whole state
 
I would like to have some idea if there is any pattern or method to haying CRP lands. From the goverment bulletin:"No more than 50 percent of a CRP field may be hayed, and haying must be completed by August 31, 2012. No more than 75 percent of a field may be grazed and the grazing must end by September 30, 2012."
I will be hunting mainly public CREP and Walk in lands and a few water fowl production areas. Under these extreme conditions I guess 1/2 is better than nothing. For those of you that have seen some state lands and or CRP fields, is there any design as how they are mowed? Is it stripped or strictly done in half, or is the thickest, choicest cover cut? I will be in the southeast area in November and will post some pictures of the areas I hunt. In the past I have tried to hunt some WPAs that you couldn't drive a Sherman tank through. Maybe the drought thinned them down some.
 
treedaddy said:
I will be hunting mainly public CREP and Walk in lands and a few water fowl production areas. Under these extreme conditions I guess 1/2 is better than nothing. For those of you that have seen some state lands and or CRP fields, is there any design as how they are mowed? Is it stripped or strictly done in half, or is the thickest, choicest cover cut?
Click to expand...

From years past and what I've witnessed when haying was performed in drought years, it seemed the higher and flat ground was hayed. This left the lower areas w/cattails and thicker habitat alone.

It wasn't done in strips but whole sections. Half the field was cut, the other half left alone.
 
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