CRP Is Often NOT Quality Cover for Deer and Other Wildlife

By GrowingDeer,

  Filed under: Hunting Blog, Whitetail Habitat Management

What is quality cover? We recently toured a property in western Kansas to created a habitat and hunting improvement plan. During the visit we noticed several CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) areas around the ag fields.

Habitat for deer and wildlife in western kansas

 

From a wildlife perspective, these long, narrow areas of CRP do not offer quality cover. We often refer to such areas as “predator food plots”. All a coyote or raccoon needs to do is run on the down wind side of this area and they can locate every fawn and turkey nest.

To provide critters with quality/security cover, areas should be at least several acres large (+10) and not long and narrow.