What the KDWP Blames It On

westksbowhunter said:
What I see here is that the active farmers and ranchers flock to the retired landowners and out of state landowners like flies on a rib roast as soon as the emergency grazing opens up. My landowner/neighbor is now nearing 80 and lives full time in Arizona. She has 6 sections of CRP. When emergency grazing opens, she gets dozens of phone calls from locals wanting to graze and bale. And now it is not just locals. Out of state swathers run like a prairie wildfire to the counties and states in drought as soon as emergency grazing opens up. Most of the hay bales in Kansas end up in Texas. There is so much hay available here that the price of bales has dropped considerably. Big bales of prairie hay is down to $50 a bale. The entire CRP program needs to be over hauled. If you are going to put ground in a conservation program, it needs to remain in the conservation program for the entirety of the contract. It's just another welfare program for the landowners.
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There is an outfit that just popped up a few years ago in Hereford tx that grind round bales for the feed yards to add as filler. I know this is not new technology but there are 10-15 feed lots around Hereford finishing 50-80000 head when full capacity, and turning over 2-3 times a year. There are stacks of round bales that look like the pyramids in Egypt, i would guess 100,000 bales inventory at all times. It’s crazy that emergency grazing ks crp ends up on that property for that purpose.
 
I'd love to know if kdwp and nrcs for that matter could even tell you who is or isn't in compliance in regards to haying or grazing of crp or wiha tracts at this time of year? And if it is in a "emergency drought area " and I use quotes jokingly, if they left the percentage they're supposed to or did they hay or graze it all off?
 
At this point I'd love to pay for a "save our sport stamp " if I thought it would actually hire marketing and compliance people to grow these programs and actually police them. I spend a hell of a lot of money, to me, traveling to find wild birds, I'd much rather spend it here.
 
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GetTothePoint said:
I'd love to know if kdwp and nrcs for that matter could even tell you who is or isn't in compliance in regards to haying or grazing of crp or wiha tracts at this time of year? And if it is in a "emergency drought area " and I use quotes jokingly, if they left the percentage they're supposed to or did they hay or graze it all off?
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I'm starting to see a lot of ground that is just grazed.
 
I believe the answer to the first question is No, KDWP and NRCS have no idea who is in compliance. Not enough people on the payroll to check and a low priority anyway. Basically, they don't care.

The second question relates to the first. If nobody is checking, you can bet it's bare as a baby's butt.
 
GetTothePoint said:
I'm too far east for pheasant unfortunately.
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Well that sucks. Can I ask where (just a general area) where you are located? Not in your mini-bio. I know many folks here are quite sensitive to giving this out also, haven't figured out what they are afraid of yet.
 
remy3424 said:
Well that sucks. Can I ask where (just a general area) where you are located? Not in your mini-bio. I know many folks here are quite sensitive to giving this out also, haven't figured out what they are afraid of yet.
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SE KS, about 20 mile from MO unfortunately for my bird addiction
 
My grandpa lived for his dogs and we had a lot of quail when I was a kid so he's at fault lol. But living in Manhattan during college and having good access to pheasant sealed the deal for this guy.
 
westksbowhunter said:
What I see here is that the active farmers and ranchers flock to the retired landowners and out of state landowners like flies on a rib roast as soon as the emergency grazing opens up. My landowner/neighbor is now nearing 80 and lives full time in Arizona. She has 6 sections of CRP. When emergency grazing opens, she gets dozens of phone calls from locals wanting to graze and bale. And now it is not just locals. Out of state swathers run like a prairie wildfire to the counties and states in drought as soon as emergency grazing opens up. Most of the hay bales in Kansas end up in Texas. There is so much hay available here that the price of bales has dropped considerably. Big bales of prairie hay is down to $50 a bale. The entire CRP program needs to be over hauled. If you are going to put ground in a conservation program, it needs to remain in the conservation program for the entirety of the contract. It's just another welfare program for the landowners.
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Does she have those properties under different names and getting full payments or what? Currently the max CRP payment to any one landowner is supposed to be $50k per year. If all the properties are in the program and under just her name she’d be getting about 30% of the county average for rent. That wouldn’t leave her hardly anything after property taxes for that amount of acres. Can’t really blame her for selling some hay if that is the case.
 
KBaird said:
Does she have those properties under different names and getting full payments or what? Currently the max CRP payment to any one landowner is supposed to be $50k per year. If all the properties are in the program and under just her name she’d be getting about 30% of the county average for rent. That wouldn’t leave her hardly anything after property taxes for that amount of acres. Can’t really blame her for selling some hay if that is the case.
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Several properties were grazed. Seems like a large majority of the CRP were fenced this year. I don't know what the length of time is for grazing, I suppose it depends on the drought monitor but I don't really see cattle on any of the properties now. But the damage is done, no winter habitat.
 
westksbowhunter said:
Several properties were grazed. Seems like a large majority of the CRP were fenced this year. I don't know what the length of time is for grazing, I suppose it depends on the drought monitor but I don't really see cattle on any of the properties now. But the damage is done, no winter habitat.
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I see. Was more curious as to how/why she would have 3800 acres (“six sections”) enrolled when there’s a $50,000 payment cap.


Anyway, I’m not aware of any grazing rules except it can’t be done before the nesting period ends. Lot of info coming out the last couple years about intense/short term grazing being great for broadleaf expansion and thus birds. Obviously grazing all the way to the dirt isn’t helpful though for that year’s wildlife.
 
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KBaird said:
I see. Was more curious as to how/why she would have 3800 acres (“six sections”) enrolled when there’s a $50,000 payment cap.


Anyway, I’m not aware of any grazing rules except it can’t be done before the nesting period ends. Lot of info coming out the last couple years about heavy/short period grazing being great for broadleaf expansion and thus birds. Obviously grazing all the way to the dirt isn’t helpful though for that year’s wildlife.
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I shouldn't have said 6 sections, its 6 properties. 6 quarter sections.
 
Anyone got any info on how the hunting is this season around the general area of Hill City. Last time I was there not good.
 
Dixieman said:
Anyone got any info on how the hunting is this season around the general area of Hill City. Last time I was there not
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Dixieman said:
around there and saw very few birds.
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Very few birds around there. 22 guns and some dogs hunted the second Saturday around Grainfield and got one.
 
Thank you sir. I appreciate it. I starting to wonder if it will ever come back to what it was a few years ago. Very sad.
 
Dixieman said:
Thank you sir. I appreciate it. I starting to wonder if it will ever come back to what it was a few years ago. Very sad.
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You are welcome, sir
 
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