Converting 160ac pasture to wildlife mecca

[letemgrow]

We used some old field management practices on 20 acres by spraying the cold season grasses (brome) and releasing the seed bank. This has been the quickest and cheapest win to improve the habitat for wildlife. HIGHLY recommend it.


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This or a chainsaw is hard to beat for the $$$/time spent to get better habitat.

 

[smithhunter1975]

I am planning to plant a few hundred bonus trees such as persimmon, chestnut, and crabapples. Someone told me Dolgo Crabapples are the ticket for deer? I will tube these trees. My hope is exactly what Skip suggested that there will be so many trees that success from deer damage will be better than typical smaller plantings.I have talked to a few tree planting contractors and they say it has been a LONG time since they heard of a planting project this large.

I do plan to try killing off the cool seasons to see what comes back naturally. If it doesn’t work well i can alway kill the weeds off and start over.

I am getting excited for this project!

 

[deep woods goat hunter]

I would push back on that. It is amazing how little SOME USDA folks know about their own programs.

I'll 2nd this. I've found that just because they are not super familiar with a particular program also means they don't want to do the research to figure it out. This can vary greatly depending on personnel assigned in particular zones/etc. I am blessed with great resources in my area of NCMO.

 

[deep woods goat hunter]

Enjoyed taking in these notes, if I didnt have good CRP rate making payments on the farm I would be doing a tree project like this.

 

[smithhunter1975]

Yeah, the regular crp payments are so much higher. The tree program only pays about $88/ac rent! But hopefully turns into good habitat.

 

[deep woods goat hunter]

Yeah, the regular crp payments are so much higher. The tree program only pays about $88/ac rent! But hopefully turns into good habitat.

That’s not all that terrible, and i didnt even know it paid anything (im ignorant). Does the nrcs do cost share on the trees? I would be very interested in doing a couple acres of this some areas that are beginning to was worse come my next re-enrollment in 2032


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[Hardwood11]

Riparian buffer CRP will pay to plant trees near a creek or drainage. With no crop history, it pays less.

 

[smithhunter1975]

Riparian is what we are doing. Yes there is cost share on the input costs.