CRP Burn

I love doing the CRP burn on my property. There's nothing but worked up fields around my property, so the actual burn is no concern. I wait till the wind is blowing at about 15 mph, then I light it up. It's amazing how fast it goes up. I will be doing the cattails around my pond this year.

mslater, is a prescribed burn a part of fulfilling the contract on acreage enrolled in CRP, and thus allowable under contractual language? We burned our pasture last year, but you would think the Akron office of the EPA believed we wanted to sacrifice 9 year old virgins. They claim it is an absolute no-no. Luckily, a very cooperative local fire chief wrote the burn as a training exercise for his grass fire crews. Had all the boys with the toys on site for the light up. We had very pronounced tilled fire breaks so fire couldn't jump. On a perfect east wind, she was done in no time. Is there a better way to replenish fields? We will burn again in a couple of years. Next time, I'm hoping the fire's out before the phone rings at the station. You know what they say about, "It's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission"!

Any permits you have to obtain to do this? Has anyone got a good lead on tall growing warm season grasses? Looking to buy some for bedding and road block outlying my food plots

big blue stem,the only problem is that a wet snow will fold it over.

Our PF chapter has access to 2 burn bosses that apply for the proper permits from EPA. They also make the appropriate phone calls before and after the burns to the local fire and sheriff offices. Burning too close to city corp limits has been an issue a couple times. In those instances we were only allowed to control weeds and brush by selective mowing or spraying but that had to be approved by FSA/NRCS.
As long as we burn within the dates EPA sets we are good to go.

haswell02 said:

Any permits you have to obtain to do this? Has anyone got a good lead on tall growing warm season grasses? Looking to buy some for bedding and road block outlying my food plots

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Check out Ohio Pheasants Forever. They offer all types of CRP blends for certain soils and conditions. I was always led to believe that a blend of grasses, versus planting a stand of any one monoculture is of a greater benefit to warm season grass nesting birds. Our warm season grasses at the club consists of switch grass, little and big blue stem, some orchard grass and Indian grass. Your local FSA or SWCD office should have a list of persons who no till grass, or have no till seeders for rent. Ohio PF also has a list of habitat gurus who should be able to help you out. Check to see if there is a local PF chapter doing habitat work in your county, or near to it.

The big bluestem and Indian grass get pretty tall, but they do tend to go down with wind and snow as was said. We always rent a Great Plains grain drill from our county SWCD that is designed specifically for warm season grass. It's a must for that type of seed. If you've never seen it, it looks like a bag of chaff, very fluffy and difficult to meter.