Since its inception, CRP has continued to evolve. Perceived as a soil savings program at first, the focus is increasingly on a basket of environmental criteria, including wildlife habitat. For Midwest producers, CRP is a paying opportunity to boost wildlife populations on their farm.

Anyone who offered land for the latest Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sign-up, and several preceding it, knows about the Environmental Benefits Index-the scoring system used to help decide which land is accepted into the program.

When she announced the results for the 26th sign-up, USDA Secretary Veneman said that goal for the sign-up was to provide the greatest benefits for the most fragile land. "The five environmental factors that are weighed are: soil erosion, water quality, enduring environmental benefits beyond the life of the CRP contract, air quality and wildlife enhancement, in addition to the proposed cost per acre," said Veneman.

Aside from environmental emphasis on the front end of the contract, signees to new contracts have obligations to manage CRP land to meet environmental goals.

Most notably, mowing will no longer be an option. Instead, as landowners draw up conservation plans, they will choose from burning, light disking, herbicide application or timed grazing/haying as ways to keep CRP land in a vegetative state that promotes the criteria mentioned by Veneman.

Landowners who have been involved in CRP since it began in 1985 have seen sign-up and management requirements shift over time. The latest shift, at least in Missouri, is a focus on wildlife habitat. Each of the new required management practices promotes wildlife by keeping CRP fields from becoming too thick in undergrowth. Having a field with some bare ground, say between clumps of warm-season grasses, annual prairie forbes and desirable broadleaf weeds, allows small game to roam in search of insects while still under cover from predators. Wildlife experts say that this, along with "edge habitat," is an important part of increasing quail population, which, to the lament of hunters and conservationists, has suffered in recent years.

Steve Clubine, a grassland biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation said that, for farmers who are interested in boosting wildlife numbers on their land, mowing is actually detrimental. While mowing is allowed on existing contracts, he said that burning, grazing, disking and spraying are all options that create better habitat.

"Really, mowing isn't a management option. It is something to make it look pretty. But it does nothing for wildlife cover. It's been allowed as a CRP practice for woody plant control. And certainly it is important to keep the woody plants from getting too big, and to control certain invasive species like musk thistle or teasel. But mowing doesn't do much for wildlife, with the rare exception of prairie chickens, which don't use grassy cover that is over 15 inches tall.

As far as any other habitat improvement, mowing doesn't fit the purpose. Rotary mowing just piles down duff, which to remove, you have to pull up as hay."

Each of these required management practices brings with it benefits and liabilities for the landowner. And with the exception of haying and grazing, all of them are eligible for the 50 percent cost-share for mid-contract management for wildlife, which is mandatory for new acres enrolled in the program.

Burning
In the sense that fire roamed the hills and plains of the Midwest long before people, it's a proven management tool. Controlled burning removes tangled and matted plant matter that chokes the pathways for small mammals and birds like quail, at least if it is timed properly.

"For wildlife, off-season burning in the fall and winter on a portion of a CRP contract's acres will stunt the grass and restore the forbes," said Clubine. "We want more forbes in there, which builds structure and provides bare ground that lasts for a while. That allows insects to move and critters to have access to those insects. Off-season burning favors broadleaves instead of just grass. Spring burning provides good stands of grass. [With spring burning] we improve the stand of grass, but the open areas fade away."

Clubine said that any CRP management should be targeted on a portion of the total acres, leaving the rest for cover.

Kenny Walters, Linn County, Mo., uses a variety of management tools on his CRP acres, some of which are thick in warm-season grasses.

Even in the 2003 drought, about 100 acres of big and little bluestem heartily clumped together on his farm.

"I got lucky when I planted this," he said of the warm-season grasses. "We got thick stands right away, but now it is almost too thick."

Walters is using fire as a management tool, typically with spring burns. But he also plants long food plots of soybeans, sunflower and milo to create edge habitat and seed for wildlife.

Walters, who keeps meticulously maintained fire lanes, said that while fire is a good option for management, it can be tricky. And in Linn County, near his farm, there is an entire section of land that is almost exclusively CRP. Let a fire get away here, and it could quickly blacken the neighborhood.

"If you're using fire, you better have help and have everything ready and under control before you light the first match," said Walters.

While there are commercial burn crews, they are relatively scarce. Their advantage, said MDC's Clubine, is that they carry their own liability insurance.

Clubine said that custom burning costs range from $8 to $15 per acre, the smaller the site and the more prep work needed, the higher the cost per acre. Burn sites that require the crew to travel long distances will tend to be on the high end of the range.

Spraying
For absentee landowners or CRP acres that border houses or communities, spraying may provide an easy solution for keeping CRP vegetation wildlife friendly.

For Walters, who bid 30 acres that adjoin his farmstead into the 26th sign-up, spraying will fit nicely into his management scheme.

"That field is close to the house and I'm not overly comfortable in burning it," he said. "And to me, spraying will be a benefit on some other acres, because on some of the fields I'm getting a lot of sericea lespedeza."

He blames the noxious invader on the original CRP seeding, a seed impurity ride-along.

Bill White, an MDC area biologist at St. Joseph, said that spraying is something that is easy to contract, so it will provide an option for landowners who don't want to burn and don't own their own spray equipment.

"The intent," he said, "is to suppress the dominant grass long enough for native forbes or annual weeds to come back in to help quail."

White said if there are good legumes like lespedeza or red clover in the original stand, it should help them, too, making great habitat for quail, rabbits and songbirds.

White added that spraying, like disking, should be done on the contour and with rates that the herbicide label indicates for grass suppression. The target timing is to spray cool-season grasses before they head out and warm-season grasses at 2 to 4 inches.

"Spraying is best on cool-season grasses but also works on natives. Roundup at 10 to 13 ounces is the rate for suppression. The goal is to stunt, not kill-keep the grass from heading out; it will green back up," said White.

Herbicides such as Roundup, Gramoxone, Post, Select and Fusillade, so long as they are labeled for grass suppression, should work.

Clubine, the grassland biologist, said that ideally a field sprayer would be set up with every third nozzle blocked, or with two blocked between every one that sprays-a pattern that creates openings in the vegetation but allows some structure to remain.

"Spraying can be a very effective and efficient tool for suppressing cool-season grasses and reducing warm-season grass competition with forbes and desirable weeds to make fields more friendly for wildlife," said Ron Utterback, vice president, MFA crop protection. Utterback said that users should note that label instructions and rates will vary by product. Users should fully familiarize themselves with labels and understand that misuse or poorly timed application could result in a complete kill of the existing vegetation cover.

As for cost, Utterback said that most MFA Agri Services locations offer custom application for herbicides and that charges would vary by the size and location of fields to be sprayed. Utterback stressed the need for a full discussion between the person applying herbicide to CRP land and the contract holder. Applicators and landowners need to have a clear understanding of what is desired and the expected results.

Disking
As with burning and spraying, the disk creates open spots in vegetation cover, allowing for wildlife movement within grass stands.

John Grice, a retired farmer at Browning, Mo., has mastered the art of disking on the contour to encourage ragweed, a favorite of quail.

"Quail like ragweed. It's a good canopy and gives them bare ground to run on," said Grice.

He first noticed that he could grow a good crop of ragweed, which, of course, exists in the seed bank, when he was working on fire lanes.

By crossing the lanes with a light disk in the fall, he knocked back competing plants. And with a very light disking in the spring, he brought the small-seeded ragweed into good soil contact.

Since then, he has used a disk on the contour to encourage ragweed strips in his brome-based CRP acres.

"I thought back about when I used to hunt a lot. We always scared up quail in ragweed patches," he said. "I've got 5 kids who like to hunt. I've been trying to manage for wildlife."

Grazing
Grazing is now permitted on CRP ground, providing that it fits within timing restrictions. The starting date (July 15 for 2003) is tied to the end of the primary bird nesting and brood rearing season. Prior to the 2002 Farm Bill, haying and grazing CRP land was generally prohibited except for weather-related emergencies such as droughts.

But in adjusting a conservation plan to include grazing, landowners must also agree to stipulations, including re-establishing cover destroyed or damaged as a result of haying or grazing and to removing all hay within 10 days of being notified that the managed haying and grazing season has ended.

However, the stipulation to take careful note of is that the annual rental payments will be reduced by 25 percent on acreage that is hayed or grazed.

Under the program, producers can cut hay or graze livestock on a given acre no more than once every 3 years after the vegetative cover is fully established.

Conservation Reserve Program 26th sign-up at a glance

For questions about required management practices or how to re-write existing CRP conservation plans to incorporate wildlife friendly practices, contact your local Farm Service Agency office.

The latest news from the Missouri Farm Service Agency is available online at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/mo/.

For detailed information on the full offerings of USDA conservation programs, visit: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/default.htm.