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What’s more valuable for holding/producing/hunting deer? Crops vs crp?

Hawk32

Hawk32

PMA Member
Say smaller parcel. 80-150 acres. Small amount of existing crp 10-20 acres. Less than average crp grasses. Existing 30-50 acres crop. Turning all acres to crp, maybe half to crp, mixture, or leave as is already existing like above. Some crop fields in immediate area. Debate a buddy and I have been having. He says all crp would create much better holding potential vs crops. I say leave crops for food source.

Thoughts?
 
I would absolutely say more crp. A good native mix with plenty of forbes is like a huge food plot. A majority of a deers diety is native browse. On a smaller farm cover is paramount to hold and keep big mature deer. Food is important but cover is also and you need more cover than dedicated food source.

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If it's one or the other, it's CRP all day long IMO.

Deer eat a few hundred different plants , so putting all that in food that is also cover is very attractive to deer.
 
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Small parcel . I’d lean leaving crops !! But just having a nasty thick undisturbed area is really the key!
 
In a perfect world where income didn't matter Id say keep out 15-20 acres for food at a minimum and make the rest some type of cover that is lacking on your farm and surrounding farms. In fact I'm in the process of doing just this right now. Were planting 25 acres of trees, 13 acres of switch grass/ miscanthus and rest in food. The food will be in the heart of the farm and include 16 acres of grain a 2 ac orchard planted in clover and 7 acres of alfalfa.
The big question is what is surrounding you as far as habitat. If its an area full of ag then Id lean more towards cover and likewise if your surrounded by timber Id go extra heavy on food. Either way though Id keep out a good sized destination plot and make sure its in the right location.
 
I think a lot of it depends on the particular property. Is there good bedding already in the immediate area, or enough food already around the property? Sometimes food plots can be easier to hunt with a good entry/exit route. CRP can be tough to hunt without spooking deer. Toss up in my opinion based on each particular tract.
 
I’d leave at least 5 acres or more for food in addition to the 3 small plots that are there now. Bedding is minimal. Timber is very open. Not much resident deer especially in the winter. Did some timber cutting, plan on doing more. To east is wide open pasture, south is mix of timber and grass, west mix of crop and pasture, north is crop and ditches.
 
30+ years of experience with some of the same properties. No question it's 100% CROPS over CRP! Herds of deer will sleep the days away in a small ditch or field terrace. It doesn't take much timber / cover to hold them if they're by a good food source. If there the nearest corn/bean field is a mile down the road, that's where they'll migrate to.

Some dipshit talked local landowners into to taking their crop fields out of production and planting native prairie, CRP and birdseed type crap. Thick deer populations pretty well evaporated on those properties as a direct result. The overall #'s are still up in those general areas, they've just migrated to the patches of cover directly bordering active crop fields.
 
What is the limiting factor between you and your neighbors? If your neighbors already have all the cover, then you having more crops may be beneficial. If they have all the food, then you may benefit from cover. Most crp will allow cp12 food plots. But you need to ask for it specifically on your application. Some crp practices don't allow for cp12. But you can choose to leave out acres out of crp and put in your own food plots. You do not have to enroll everything. You decide where to put crp.
Each farm is different, each neighborhood is different. Lots of professional help here. Just keep asking questions.
 
Immediate surroundings areas are mixture of open pastures, ditches or crick bottoms, few small crop fields right across dirt road. Heavy cover is a bit further.

Main goal increase holding capacity. I’ve only had this piece for about a year and I feel it doesn’t hold the number of deer I’d like. Like I mentioned above I’d try and leave 5 plus acres for beans
 
buckill said:
5 acres won't last through feb march. Nice to have food remaining to pick up sheds.
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thats all relative to deer population. It sounds as tho he doesnt have the deer numbers he would like, so IMO 5 acres of grain would be plenty.


Now on to the question. I use to lease a 200 acre farm where 180+ was in CRP with one long timber draw and a small 8-10 acre timber patch. It had great deer numbers 50-70 feeding every night in the bean food plot I had. I would put as much into CRP as possible while still having your plots. If there is little to no cover surrounding you then your farm will become the new hot spot. Work on making your exiting timber as thick as possible and a good mix of Native grass CRP and you will have a good number of deer. It sounds to me your farm is lacking on good quality cover, so no amount of food will change that.

Disclaimer: Large CRP fields are in no means comparable to the same amount of timber. Timber will win every time. Even bad timber will beat CRP as far as numbers go, an day of the week. But CRP will 100% help your situation IMO
 
Sligh1 said:
Curious your thoughts there Chip? Did it leave u with too little food?
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It’s the Birmingham farm. We put a bunch in pollinator so did our partners and so did 2 of the immediate neighbors . Soil isn’t the best down there so it’s not like we ended up having 5 foot tall nice bedding.
And the deer now like head out to the big crop fields to the north and east where the outfitters lease. Instead of staying in the middle of the farm and spending more time on the farm. It definitely changed the dynamics since we bought it and I wish we could go back and have a do over. We left 20 acres for plots but it doesn’t do any good they mow it all off and have learned to jump the 3 tape fences after the first year. The partners also left a good 20 acres for food on them.
 
chipterp said:
It’s the Birmingham farm. We put a bunch in pollinator so did our partners and so did 2 of the immediate neighbors . Soil isn’t the best down there so it’s not like we ended up having 5 foot tall nice bedding.
And the deer now like head out to the big crop fields to the north and east where the outfitters lease. Instead of staying in the middle of the farm and spending more time on the farm. It definitely changed the dynamics since we bought it and I wish we could go back and have a do over. We left 20 acres for plots but it doesn’t do any good they mow it all off and have learned to jump the 3 tape fences after the first year. The partners also left a good 20 acres for food on them.
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Absolutely. Deer will respond this way 10 out of 10 times in this situation. Strapping on the feed bag with large quantities of easy food (corn / beans), is way more important to them than CRP. They can easily bed in the crops as well.
 
Depends...does the area lack cover or lack food?

That being said, I'll stick to quality cover as that is where mature bucks want to be pushing does all day long. Not out in a picked bean field.
 
hesseu said:
Depends...does the area lack cover or lack food?

That being said, I'll stick to quality cover as that is where mature bucks want to be pushing does all day long. Not out in a picked bean field.
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I'm assuming the OP isn't interested in harvesting their crops, as they're food plots, so it wouldn't be a 'picked' bean field or corn field. Bucks will run does day and night in unpicked fields, same as they do in CRP. Timber is awesome, but we're comparing crops to CRP, not timber.
 
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