CRP Ground Prep Question

nightowl490 · Apr 5, 2011

I turned over 23 acres of annual grass over cut beans to let it settle by Mid May. This is my plan, sign the contract this week, order the seed and plan on planting by Mid to Late May.

Here is the question, I have a PTO Broadcast Spreader that I can place above a 12' hydraulic field disc. Idea is to "lightly turn soil over freshly placed seed. WILL THIS WORK.....

Other option is borrowing a 12 foot drill and get it in the ground that way. The difference is about a 30' pass. I feel I can cover alot of ground with the broadcast spreader.

Any Ideas?......

TripleR · Apr 5, 2011

We have tried the broadcast method, but found a no till planter worked best for us even when we worked the ground up beforehand. Our ASCS has them for the special "seed" of some native grasses. We finally bought our own, but it will only handle actual seeds.

jbooth · Apr 5, 2011

I am in KS. and planted 76 acres to CRP 5 years ago. If you plant the same grasses to CRP in Illinois, I doubt a broadcast spreader would work well. The seed is so light it neither feeds nor spreads well in most broadcast spreaders.
I would suggest do as Tripler suggested and check with your ASCS office to see if a grass planter is available. Some agricultural drills also have grass seed attachments on them. Our KS CRP recommends Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, and other various seed.

2 points I would suggest.
1. Get a firm commitment from the ASCS office about renting their equipment as to when it will be available. Some users like to get the equipment and sit on it until conditions are perfect.

2. Don't panic if your stand looks poor. It took mine about 3 yrs to look decent. The CRP seed we use here is very expensive and I'm glad I didn't panic and redo the whole thing. $3400 for 75 acres is what I remember.

TripleR · Apr 5, 2011

jbooth said:
I am in KS. and planted 76 acres to CRP 5 years ago. If you plant the same grasses to CRP in Illinois, I doubt a broadcast spreader would work well. The seed is so light it neither feeds nor spreads well in most broadcast spreaders.
I would suggest do as Tripler suggested and check with your ASCS office to see if a grass planter is available. Some agricultural drills also have grass seed attachments on them. Our KS CRP recommends Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, and other various seed.

2 points I would suggest.
1. Get a firm commitment from the ASCS office about renting their equipment as to when it will be available. Some users like to get the equipment and sit on it until conditions are perfect.

2. Don't panic if your stand looks poor. It took mine about 3 yrs to look decent. The CRP seed we use here is very expensive and I'm glad I didn't panic and redo the whole thing. $3400 for 75 acres is what I remember.

We planted about the same acreage and your results pretty much match ours. We planted Switch Grass, Big Blue Stem, Little Blue Stem and Indian Grass. We came close to panicking. My father in law, my wife and I got excited every time we saw something sprout. My father in law seriously considered replanting, but we got good advice from our local office.

nightowl490 · Apr 6, 2011

Thanks for the input! I will go with the drill route and continue to be vigilant with the local office. The grasses you mentioned are exactly what they want here.

Question, are you burning it off every other year as they recommend or mowing or discing..... I've heard three different things on this.

TripleR · Apr 6, 2011

nightowl490 said:
Thanks for the input! I will go with the drill route and continue to be vigilant with the local office. The grasses you mentioned are exactly what they want here.

Question, are you burning it off every other year as they recommend or mowing or discing..... I've heard three different things on this.

It seems as though the rules or rather interpretation of what you can and can't do with CRP is always changing. Up until last year, we were burning or rather trying to burn 1/3 each year on a three year rotation to allow game places of refuge. Volunteer trees, blackberry briers and weeds got pretty bad and we were told we could bush hog/shred 1/3 in July/August.

We burned one of the fields this spring quite by accident when my grandson let a small burn pile get out of control, so we are set for this year, but when we went over to re-up on another property, we were told we could not bush hog/shred ANY of it with the exception of some paths and we were told we could only burn one third of it every three years.

We are going to try to get some sort of clarification. We also need some information on reseeding as one of our fields, the one with Switch Grass was overtaken with weeds and we are having trouble getting it to recover grass cover.

We prefer burning, but one of our neighbors prefer disking and burning seems to work better from the looks of his property.

We have also put about 50 acres into trees and that is a really labor intensive undertaking, but very rewarding overall.

All of this was made possible by my father in law who was a real conservationist and my sons and I helped and now carry it on.

Good luck.

jbooth · Apr 6, 2011

nightowl490 said:
Thanks for the input! I will go with the drill route and continue to be vigilant with the local office. The grasses you mentioned are exactly what they want here.

Question, are you burning it off every other year as they recommend or mowing or discing..... I've heard three different things on this.

I am burning every 2 years. I have pasture (identical grasses) adjacent may be why I am allowed to burn all every 2 years. Wildlife management has some input here and they like to see nesting areas left. They are pretty picky about spraying unwanted trees and any other intrusions. I generally mow a fire break on one side just prior to burning. Obviously mowing isn't a perfect firebreak but it helps a lot.

Our ASCS office gives notice when we have to burn. I just got my notice and am supposed to be complete by 4/15. Wish they would give a little more notice.