CRP

[rwwong]

I hear alot of people talking about hunting CRP. Is everyone talking about the same thing? Are people asking land owners to hunt CRP on their land? Or are people using the acronym in place of Public hunting lands, WMA, WPA?

[carpshooterdeluxe]

i would think they are refering to privately held actual crp fields and buffer strips. public land is not enrolled in crp so it would be misuse of the term.

[CrappiesNCats]

alot of people interchange CRP with switchgrass/bluestem/indian grass

[jeffyo45]

CrappiesNCats has the answer. Alot of people interchange CRP with any grassy type cover. Although Carpshooterdeluxe is also right that public land does not have CRP technically. CRP stands for Conservation Reserve Program which is done to set aside marginal crop land in native type grasses.

[rwwong]

That's what I figured, I know what CRP is, and I was getting the feeling that alot of people here refer to it as prairie grass.

[BobT]

Even private land that is covered in grassy vegetation does not mean it is in the CRP program. I have a few acres on my place that I don't grow crops on but it isn't CRP land either. In other words, I don't get paid not to use the land.

Well, actually in a way I might. It would probably cost me more to work the land than what I could get out of it if I farmed it. So I save the expense and therefore, I make money I guess. It would be legal for me to cut the grass for hay if I chose but there isn't enough there to make it worth my while so I leave it for the wildlife and my pheasant hunting.

Bob

[Dotch]

Same here. I seeded a portion of our pasture to warm season native prairie grasses about 5 years ago. It's developed into a couple acres of a nearly pure stand of yellow Indiangrass and doesn't look much different than our CREP acres that border it. That area of the pasture provides cover for ground nesting birds in the spring & summer months and grazing for the sheep in the month of August when the cool season grasses in the rest of the pasture tend to go dormant. The sheep also keep the brush and trees out of it so it's a win-win situation.

Can't tell the difference between the CRP and private grassland from the road? Don't feel bad, it fooled our FSA office too. I got a letter from them a year ago chastising me because the mowing I'd done on my CREP acres wasn't sufficiently controlling the thistles. Trouble is, I never mowed any of my CREP acres, I spot-sprayed them. I did however mow some of my pasture and after checking with one of the Co. Directors, that's where they apparently looked. Spot-sprayed both this year, got good control, and heard nary a peep out of them.