First post-starting from stubble

[KDdid]

Hello, all. I've been a lurker for a while, but am ready to jump in with both feet. I recently inherited @27 acres in NE Indiana connected to my house and outbuildings. It's a rectangular plot, rolling/partially HEL, with a tree lined fence running the length of the east side. There is also some wetland/stream bank along the north side, and some swamp with trees and standing water just off the property line to the east.
I'm exploring my options for this spring, looking into several continuous CRP programs (pollinator mix, or two types of SAFE acres, one trees, and one tall NWSG), but the availability of acres open for enrollment is still up in the air, and may be until spring..
The land is currently in corn stubble, but I'm debating putting it all in RR beans this year, both for the income, and to provide me time to digest all of the info on programs available, and try to get something in place for 2018, either CRP, or trying to sign up for Indiana's Classified Wildlands program, which provides tax breaks to landowners in exchange for a ten year commitment to keep land out of production. Plus, soybean stubble could leave me with a cleaner seedbed than what I've been seeing with the leftover cornstalk trash.
I'm sure someone here has faced a similar situation before, and I figure multiple opinions could be helpful.
I'm not counting on this land producing income, but it would be nice to have it pay for it's taxes and help fund improvement work in the long run.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Sounds awesome. I do like soybeans though we've never tried corn. Let's see some pics when you get a chance. Welcome and have a merry Christmas!

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

 

[KDdid]

Sounds awesome. I do like soybeans though we've never tried corn. Let's see some pics when you get a chance. Welcome and have a merry Christmas!

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

Thanks! I've got to figure the whole Photobucket thing out again- I have an account that I haven't used in years.

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Thanks! I've got to figure the whole Photobucket thing out again- I have an account that I haven't used in years.

I use the tapatalk app. It's easy as pie though I'm sure I'd do a horrible job trying to explain it.
I use my phone for most everything now. It's great for live from the stand or farm pics.

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

 

[KDdid]

Let's see if this works...



Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[KDdid]

Ok, well tapatalk made this waaayyy easier. Inside the red outlines is our family's farm, my chunk will be @ right of the purple line.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[buckdeer1]

Without seeing what surrounds your family farm it is hard to tell what travel routes might be there.If all the cover is on neighbors then you may want to supply the food.One option may be CP33 which allows a NWSG strip around the edge of crop ground.In your area just remember to allow a drive for equipment or just do on east side

 

[KDdid]

Cover is nonexistent on my property, and I want to get something started to provide bedding for deer which feed on all sides of me. There is a corridor of cover running to the southeast of our farm for about 2 miles that includes multiple woodlots and some wetland reclamation areas. To the north of my property is scattered woods and CRP. East and west is corn/soybean rotation.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Fish]

Welcome KDdid! And a Merry Christmas to you. Glad you decided to post. I am sure you can find good advice on this forum.
What are your longterm plans for this ground? Just let it grow into thick cover? Use your burned down crop fields for food plots and cover screens, which means a tree/shrub planting?

 

[KDdid]

Ultimately I'd like to see a majority of it in cover with a food plot away from the east border. The west side of the farm is still in the family, and I'm pretty much the only one hunting. It's hard to plan too far ahead, as I'm in my 50's, and have no children. I have a couple of nephews who might be interested in it when I'm dead and gone.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[j-bird]

Talking to your NRCS office about applicable CRP. Programs is a great place to start. I also agree that if you need time to go ahead and plant as always in the spring. I know the CRP programs I am enrolled is max out at 120 feet from the field edge. This means anything remaining is not cost shared. Keep a path for access down both sides as well. You will have to look beyond your property to see how the deer will best use yours as well and try to work with that understanding. Glad to see a fellow Hoosier here and good luck.

 

[KDdid]

Thanks, j-bird. Meeting with the NRCS biologist the week after New Years Day to walk the property, hope to get some better ideas about what programs would be applicable for the farm. I'm planning on enrolling all the creekbanks in CP21 filter strips, and it just makes sense to me to maximize the width to 120 feet, since only 20 feet of that have to be in cool season grasses, allowing me to plant the remainder in NWSG. Because of the way the ditches run through the farm, we end up with @ 3/4 of a mile of eligible stream bank. This ends up being a good little piece of cover. In my county the NRCS pays pretty well for CP21.

 

[Fish]

Ultimately I'd like to see a majority of it in cover with a food plot away from the east border. The west side of the farm is still in the family, and I'm pretty much the only one hunting. It's hard to plan too far ahead, as I'm in my 50's, and have no children. I have a couple of nephews who might be interested in it when I'm dead and gone.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

Plenty of time for you to plant some trees and watch them grow up. I pruned my pitchXlob pines this week and some of them are in excess of 30 ft after 14 growing seasons. And all i ever did was stick them in the ground and let nature take care of itself.

 

[KDdid]

Plenty of time for you to plant some trees and watch them grow up. I pruned my pitchXlob pines this week and some of them are in excess of 30 ft after 14 growing seasons. And all i ever did was stick them in the ground and let nature take care of itself.

I hope to see all this hard work come to fruition. Dad and I spent 2 days one spring planting trees in fencerows for fast growing firewood, only to see them die. Lucky me, I bought 400 green and white ash, never imagining that some beetle from china would find its way here. That was in 1993, and ironically I'm cutting that firewood a little before schedule!