CRP vs Cattle vs. Farming for Wildlife Questions

[npaden]

I bought 50 acres next to my house a little over a year ago and the plan was to have a local farmer farm it at a 25% rent type arrangement for cotton. It has historically had a dryland cotton crop in the 25 years I've lived there. I haven't had much luck finding someone to farm it, although I haven't really tried that hard. The guy farming the next field doesn't seem like a very good farmer and I've talked with him 3 times and he says he will do it and then nothing happens so I have pretty much given up on him. I've asked around but really doubt anyone is going to want to farm 50 acres of dryland unless they are very close. This wold be the most profitable option if I could get it to work, and on a good year could end up paying $100+ an acre or a little more. On bad years it could pay zero.

They are just opening up a new CRP program that this would be eligible for. I have some other stuff in CRP and it works out pretty good and is very low maintenance and is a slam dunk for keeping the property classified as agriculture use for property taxes which actually saves more money than it earns me in CRP. Pretty much thinking it is a slam dunk to just go ahead and enroll it. They have been pretty flexible for me in the past and will even let me plant food plots on it and stuff like that. Kind of a win win. The current offer is $37 an acre.

Last option was just thrown out by one of my neighbors who is in the process of fencing 160 acres to the east of me that my new 50 acres adjoins and he wants to lease my 50 acres to run cattle on. I wouldn't think he would want to pay much more than the $37 an acre which is actually higher than the going rate around here for pasture rent and he would have to fence it on top of that. Plus I think for my recreational use and for hunting having cattle on it would be a big step down from CRP. I am thinking I could possibly work out a deal for him to run the cattle on it for my mid-contract maintenance instead of having to mow it, but really am thinking that running cattle on it is going to be a no go from a hunting perspective unless I work out some kind of a deal that I get to hunt his 160 acres as a part of it. Even then, his 160 is pretty much just flat open field that is going to have cattle on it so not really thinking it is going to be good to hunt on anyway. My 50 acres is at the head of a draw going into a bigger canyon and wildlife seem to move in and out of there pretty good.

The cotton would be the best but the CRP would be the easiest option for sure and I just don't think I'm going to find anyone wanting to farm 50 acres. This year I had to mow it to get the weeds knocked down and it took me 2 1/2 days to get it mowed. With CRP I would have to either pay to get it planted or plant it myself but it would be a one time deal and then I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Just wanting to check the HuntTalk pulse and make sure I'm not missing anything here before I tell my neighbor no thanks on working out a grazing lease.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[npaden]

Here's a picture of it. The outlined in red is my property. The new 50 acres is on the south with the light blue highlighted perimeter. The neighbor who is fencing his place for cattle and wants to lease my place is outlined in green. The 160 south of me was a cotton field until 3 years ago when a developer bought it and broke it into tracts. The purple outline is a bunch of new 10 acre tracts going in. They aren't on the aerial view yet, but there are 6 new houses along the west side with 10 acre tracts and they are putting in 10 houses along the south side on the west that are 1 acre tracts and then there are 4 more 10 acre tracts to the east of that.

Most of my property is just grass. Some of it is already in CRP. You can't really tell from the aerial view but the canyon is about 150' of elevation. I actually have a decent amount of both mule deer and white tail that move on and off my place on a regular basis coming in and out of the canyon. My biggest hole in the bucket is cover and there is a chance that I will be allowed to do some tree and shrub planting with the SAFE CRP program I would be enrolling in.

Really thinking that enrolling it in CRP is the slam dunk choice.

Thanks, for any input. Nathan

 

[MNElkNut]

I have had land enrolled in CRP for quite a few years. Whey we did it, there was cost share and incentives available for planting native grasses/trees/shrubs. It basically was no cost to us for grassland establishment.

CRP seems like a no brainer to me after reading your posts, especially if you value the hunting aspect of the land.