How to use CRP as Deer Habitat and a Deer Food Plot

*insert obligatory blog back story*

Now that is over with, let’s get started.

A lot of land owners in the Midwest enroll their land into CRP (conservation reserve program), and many of those land owners want their CRP to be good whitetail deer habitat. It’s not that hard to do. Here’s how.

It all starts with the seed mix. Whether you want deer habitat or a deer food plot, you have to pick the correct mix. They are different mixes though, and I’ll break down each one for you.

DEER HABITAT

The mix you want is a tallgrass mix. You’ll want lots of Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass. There are many different kinds of switchgrass. Though it doesn’t make a HUGE difference, our favorites are IA Ecotype, Kanlow, Cave-In-Rock, and Sunburst. We normally put two varieties in each mix.

You can’t only use tall grass though. It starts to get too thick. You’ll want some shorter grass in it as well. We recommend Rough Dropseed, Little Bluestem, Sideoats Grama, and Virginia Wildrye (not to be confused with Canada Wildrye that is harmful to dogs).

You also will want to add the correct forbs and flowers. Any diverse native forb mix will do. We have our mixes listed here for reference.

When your NRCS office gives you the seed mix, there is almost always variance allowed. Ask them about adding these species. Or call us, and we’ll get you an a deer habitat that will be approved by your NRCS office.

DEER FOOD PLOT

Don’t get sucked into doing acres and acres of food plots every year. While there is some validity in having some annual food plots, if you’re wanting to feed your deer year-round with the highest quality food, you’ll want a native CRP mix with lots of forbs. Think about it; deer had these native forbs for thousands of years. They are well attuned to these plants. Deer also like to eat something different in every bite, so diverse perennial food plots (in the form of a CRP planting) will go a long way for these animals.

The way to design these mixes is with shorter grasses such as Little Bluestem, Sideoats Grama, Virginia Wildrye, Rough Dropseed, Prairie Dropseed, and sedges. Then added to the grasses should be a very diverse forb mix. Check out our perennial food plot mix here. Within the food plot mix, we also recommend adding lots of legumes such as Purple Prairie Clover, White Prairie Clover, Partridge Pea, Illinois Bundleflower, Round Headed Bush Clover, Illinois Ticktrefoil, and White Wild Indigo. Adding late season Asters also helps.

There are limitless combination of mixes, but the goal is shortgrass and highly diverse forbs. With these you are sure to have a great mix that not only meets CRP standards, but will also attract, feed, and grow white tail deer.

I hope this helps. To see more of our mixes, check out this page.

Blessings,

The Hoksey Team