CRP
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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=42545
Printed Date: 30 Aug 2025 at 12:14am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: CRP
Posted By: wdforty5
Subject: CRP
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 7:41pm
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Not sure if this is the place for this or not, but has anyone planted crp? Im going with 14.3 acres in the spring and was hoping to here some lessons learned or things folks would do different during the initial field prep, and planting. Gonna use the ol wd45, ford mower, and ezee flow drop spreader for lime/fertilzer application. Gonna rent a no-till drill from a local usda office. Goin with big bluestem,little bluestem, switchgrass, and legume mix. Any input from folks that have previously enrolled? |
Replies:
Posted By: tomNE
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 10:55pm
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drill hydralics probably aren't going to be capable with the 45. also don't get nervous; it takes about 3yrs for the grass to establish. ------------- AC from the start of my families farming career till the end! |
Posted By: m16ty
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 10:59pm
| I will add that I've talked to people that have planted switchgrass and they say it was the worst mistake they ever made. The stems will ruin a tractor tire after it's cut and it's just generally hard to deal with. |
Posted By: ctbowles58
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2011 at 11:04pm
| i planted some switchgrass it took it so many years 3 or 4 befor it came up i had forgot that i planted it.i burn mine every feb. or march. that excites the roots and makes it get thicker . i like it TOM |
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 2:05am
you don't need to fertilize it! but you may have to (depending on soil type) seed it the 1st year and then again the second year for good stands. and also check with local fire dept..as they will probably go against the switch grass! it's a terrible fire hazard! and dangerous to fire fighters and equipment! flames ussually reach 16-25 ft high! and it really doesn't matter how many different types of grasses you sow/drill, if there is brome around, it'll take it all over! and remember...the govt. can/will change their minds alot during the life of the contract! i have had CRP for 23 years! only because the ground it's on, is not good farm ground! but it has been a thorn in my  every year! oh...yeah...when they say that the scrub trees are good habitat...don't believe them, they'll let you let them grow, then all of a sudden they'll say they aren't good habitat, and now you may have 100-1000 trees to cut down and dig the roots out! that's what happened to me, i had to buy a backhoe to dig out about 2000 trees, still working on that! dunno if you have musk thistle where you live, but the govt. found 3 plants in my CRP and fined me $100 per plant!
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Posted By: John (C-IL)
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 7:14am
BTDT
 Fire is your friend, the stands are so much better after it has been burned a couple of times. NRCS is a pain in the petunia, so read your contract closely. Since I put in the three patches of CRP the deer don't mess with my crops nearly as bad.
My 45 has 2 way hydraulics. If you don't have the hydraulics the drill won't work for you. You could put the seed in your drop spreader with the fertilizer and the results will be just as good.
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Posted By: Stan IL&TN
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 7:56am
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When dad put the farm in CRP he sowed fescue. ------------- 1957 WD45 dad's first AC 1968 one-seventy 1956 F40 Ferguson |
Posted By: CTuckerNWIL
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 8:12am
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I did 3.5 acres about 15 years ago. Wish I would have never signed back up. I didn't get a "plan" from the local soil and water conservation office till after I signed up for the second 10 years. There were about 7 different gubment agencies involved the first sign-up and every guy had a different Idea of how to do things. It was all turned over to a guy from the DNR and he set up delivery of the drill and came out and "supervised" the planting. I had a decent stand the first 5 years, but mulberry trees are a real pain. I have to mow them off every year, even after burning the grass. I had some wild flower seed in with the mix you are planting except I didn't have the large bluestem, only the small. I have large bluestem now as there are patches spreading along the roadway here. I also had a waterway with Reeds Canary grass in it, and that will completely take over the prairie grass just like brome will. I just want my 3 acres back so I can play in the dirt once in awhile. ------------- http://www.ae-ta.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF |
Posted By: wdforty5
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 8:13am
Wow! Im hopin you just got a "picky" local office staff, and they are all not that way.
Ive talked with neighbors and theyve said the office have been pretty good to work with for a government agency. There are no scrub trees in my contract, but Ill read it letter for letter with my local guy again to make sure im covered. All good info to know though!
I was wondereing about my hydraulics...How tough is it to convert to 4 way?
I see somebody done it...on a nice lookin tractor to boot.
Anyone else had trouble with switchgrass and tires? Again thanks for all the info fellas!
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SHAMELESS wrote:Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 8:36am
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Switchgrass is reputed to die out if cut short during the summer. It comes up later than the spring burning anyway. When mowed for hay its supposed to be left 6" tall. I didn't notice the stubble of the variety I planted being tough on tires. There just wasn't much in the patch for having paid $10 a pound for pure live seed. Switchgrass seed needs to be soaked and frozen before it will come up. Called stratifying. I tried planting switchgrass once without stratifying, and about the same time tried a germination sample, 100 seed or so between damp paper towels in a zip lock bag. Maybe 10 sprouted with normal seed starting. I tossed the germ sample in the freezer for a month or two (I didn't remember then how long) and when I took it out and warmed it up on a sunny window sill, the rest sprouted. Its like that in the field. Unfortunately, many extension bulletins don't know that and just say it takes several years to come up. I think it was NC extension that said it needed to be frozen and they are right. It also needs to be in the ground early in the spring. Cracking the outer coat helps it soak in water better too. It needs to be barely covered, but late spring and summer that's often dry so it takes years to get soaked enough to sprout. Spilling seed with a fertilizer spreader makes the seed into good bird feed and disking it to cover probably puts it too deep. Though the hard seed that passes through the bird's crop only scratched but not crushed and then passed through the bird coming out pelletized grows well, like the seed from mulberry and that's how prairie grass seeds of all types get planted in nature. Programs like CRP and the original CSP seem to be rife with changing targets and occasional lack of funding but when they forget to pay, they don't forget to make you keep to your side of the contract even though it costs you more than they pay to meet their changed rules. Gerald J. |
Posted By: wdforty5
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 1:11pm
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Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 4:00pm
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They have cut the pay in the original CSP program some years, the one was based on watersheds. I couldn't meet their application requirements for annual soil tests or for provable being on the farm for the life of the contract. Gerald J. |
Posted By: m16ty
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 8:57pm
The info I got was from people that planted it for ethanol production. Around here they had a experimental switchgrass program where they contracted with local farmers to raise switchgrass for ethanol production. I talked to several people that wished they had never raised it. They reported the stubble being very hard on tires and generally very hard to deal with getting it in the bale and out of the field. I don't know if you'd still have the stubble problem if you bushhog it down. It may have been some sort of hybrid variety they were growing also. |
Posted By: ctbowles58
Date Posted: 23 Dec 2011 at 10:43pm
| The less you can have to do with the GOV. the better.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Posted By: D-allis Iowa
Date Posted: 24 Dec 2011 at 12:29am
| The big mistake we had with crp in our area was to plant legumes (alfalfa) with the grass. Pocket gophers love it and then trees start to grow on the mounds. Our ground was so rough when it came out it was terrible. They don't add alfalfa around here. |
Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 24 Dec 2011 at 3:24am
| 58 is sooooo right! |
Posted By: jiminnd
Date Posted: 25 Dec 2011 at 9:02am
| I have planted CRP 4 times in the last 25 years and the USDA always said what you had to plant and most the time the maintenance plan but here there is no burning, clipping for weed control,I had good luck with no-til grass seeding and not any real issues, just resigned mine for 15 years and don't have to do any thing too it but weed contol and in my case 1/2 of it is now flooded and they still took it so I am at least getting paid for it. I think every county in the country has different rules. |
Posted By: John (C-IL)
Date Posted: 25 Dec 2011 at 9:51am
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Posted By: scott
Date Posted: 25 Dec 2011 at 10:12am
| I'm with shameless and '58. Why would ya want to put yourself in the eye of gvmt scrutiny? Every gvmt program I have been involved in has required you to do, and paid less and less every year. I qualified for cost share and planted 2000 pines one year after being reassured the trees wouldn't affect my payment. Trees grew to the point where theyre too big to plow over and suddenly my qualifying acreage got reduced. I was told my land had trees not crop land. I chainsawed most of em down. I also get a letter every year describing the reduction in revenue due to less "crop" ground. The trees are gone, the ground is all tilled up but the satelite photo from years ago disagrees. So back in, speak to the cute girly behind the counter, change the picture, same ole same ole. Appears to me, and others who "qualify", that the farm office is trying to trim its costs at our expense. I have no reason to believe the cooperation in other parts of the country would be any different. Perhaps they are trying to eliminate a percentage of farms, and payments, by being a PIA. For the couple hundred bucks I'm offered I get to be monitored, have to take a half day off of work to sign the papers, and get less every year. What a deal? |
Posted By: mtanut
Date Posted: 25 Dec 2011 at 10:25am
Agreed ------------- I have a 185 Allis, 6060 Allis, Model K gleaner, SMTA ferg 35, ferg 20 (paps first tractor, Allis B (wife's)John Deere 240 skid loader and a bunch of the usual farm stuff. |