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CRP Management

deerdown

deerdown

Well-Known Member
Have a farm that's in CRP (some acres are CSG's and some in WSG's), and I had it mowed 2 years ago, but trees are making a strong comeback in some parts of the farm - mostly oak and cottonwoods 3-4' average a few 5-6' tall.

What's the best way to manage these? Mow, Spray, other? Some of each? It's 140a of crp, way too many to pull on the whole farm IMO. Some acres are getting thick, and then there's other parts of the farm where trees are very sporadic.

Thoughts?
 
To kill volunteer trees of that size I've had good luck using grazon next in the atv sprayer. I use the hand wand and soak the leaves good. It'll burn the grass a little but doesn't kill it.
 
Fire for starters. Best when trees start to run sap in spring. Spray in fall for cool season grass when natives go dormant
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Fire for starters. Best when trees start to run sap in spring. Spray in fall for cool season grass when natives go dormant
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If no broadleaves or forbs in the CRP mix I’d broadcast spray then burn a year later. Check with your local coop on what the best herbicide is to use. We had same issue with cottonwoods and we sprayed midsummer and smoked them.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Fire for starters. Best when trees start to run sap in spring. Spray in fall for cool season grass when natives go dormant
Click to expand...
I had one crp farm burned last year and on parts of that farm, there are a lot of trees that have still come up which really surprised me. On that farm it's mostly burr oak that have come back. Maybe there wasn't enough fuel on these parts of the farm to kill them? Don't know. Everything looked well burnt...
 
deerdown said:
I had one crp farm burned last year and on parts of that farm, there are a lot of trees that have still come up which really surprised me. On that farm it's mostly burr oak that have come back. Maybe there wasn't enough fuel on these parts of the farm to kill them? Don't know. Everything looked well burnt...
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Oaks are fire resistant. They like fire. Fire will wipe out alot of undesirable trees.
 
Gotcha, cedars were mostly smoked, but them oak....
That farm is small enough i can spray myself, now that i know the secret sauce...
 
Is there any way that the oaks can be saved. Will you need to convert the CRP to crop in the future?

I would think the FSA would be glad to see the oaks doing well—unless you don’t want them there ?
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Fire for starters. Best when trees start to run sap in spring. Spray in fall for cool season grass when natives go dormant
Click to expand...
Agree on the fire. I am obligated to burn about 1/3 of my CRP acres every other year or so. So I am allowed to control the volunteer trees by so doing. Then...after the fire, and because I am a nut, I run the brush hog over any concentration of trees just to make it clear to them that I don't want them out there. :) If you cannot burn, then I would go in and lop them off, provided that you don't have zillions of them.
 
On this 2nd farm I mentioned, there's gillions, but not zillions.:) I mowed these 2 years ago, then burned last year, and they're back. I planned to mow again, but hate to mow every other year if there's a way to kill them once and for all. It's a chore to try to keep trees out of the crp, and one reason we're trying to convert most crp back into production where feasible.
 
Doesn't kill as many of the species i am targeting. Remedy Ultra is a better choice for me i believe.
 
Fire in spring will likely result in the larger stems to resprout and be even worse. Fire in August and September will have better results in controlling woody plants. But you can be alot more precise with a triclopyr application and spot spray. You are wanting to use triclopyr 3A version. It is made for spraying on the green leaves.
 
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Will remedy work on small cedars? It's not on the label but was wondering if anyone has tried or knows of another chemical that works?
 
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