Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Burning off CRP

Burning is wasteful, promotes erosion and is unnecessary on pasture land.

So there.

I have 640 acres of CRP in west central Ks. I burned 320 acres of it in late Feb 2021. Four of us did the burn. We each had a four wheeler or truck, shovels and water tanks. We had a 20’ disced fire break around it. We lit back fires to essentially extend the fire break. And we had a mild wind, 5-8 mph.
After the back fire had extended the fire break to 75-100 feet, we went to the up wind side and lit her off. The size and speed of the fire when the wind was pushing it was amazing. After lighting the upwind side the fire raced across the half mile wide property in about 10 minutes. Smoke rose into the sky, I’d guess 500’. We put out a few shouldering spots and we’re having a beer on the tail gate when two police cars roared up. They had multiple reports from 40-60 miles away that there as an out of control grass fire in progress. The police said, “looks like you guys know what you are doing.”
I was to burn off the other half of this 640 acres this spring but the drought had a burn ban in place, so it got mowed and baled.

Never have seen any land that could not be improved by burning, if properly prepared, if there's nothing much growing on pasture land there's nothing to improve by burning. Rio7

Maybe. But guns are inanimate objects.
Fire is alive. So to speak.










You have to understand, I'm not critical.
Actually impressed at things beyond my skill set.

And interested in how folks like Dale do this.

should have used tracers. Lots of sheds laying around

The Iowa DNR loves to burn grass, I think the time it to smoke me out planting beans every year.

DNR has been doing a lot of burns around here

Good work Dale, especially for having fire breaks cut ahead of time! That’s how it’s supposed to be done folks.

The damned government seems to burn a bunch of houses down every few years when they attempt the same with 35 mph winds.

We burn in a checker board pattern, about 400 too 500 acres per burn, with fire breaks, and fire fighting equitment on hand, we use a method called 80-80-20 temp 80 deg. or less humidity 80% wind 20 mph or less, good base line before we start burning, if your butt isn't puckered up when burning you are not doing it right. Rio7

Well it's a chemical reaction that causes a gun to fire, and fire is a chemical reaction. So we could break it down to that level. Apparently you missed the point I was trying to make completely about the uneducated being needlessly scared of something they don't understand. Sorry for that, I was trying to make a correlation to something I thought you'd understand.

spent the last few days burning, we usually do it a bit earlier & were running out of time before spring green up.

I got a text from the landowner in front of me asking if we could burn this week; he had already got with the other neighbor that owns about 14 sections next to us...they all wanted to light it up.

we usually try to burn at least 1/3 of the farm every year or a 2-3 year rotation. we'll usually start back-burns first & use roads , green plots, and creeks to contain burn direction, and plow fire brakes as needed.

some pics from the last couple of years:

Looks like a good burn, Good Job. Rio7

during a burn:



same place, a couple months later:

Amazing how a good burn works. Rio7

25-30 years ago burning was common. Now with the dry years ,more and more farmers/ranchers around here are baling CRP land when permissible. I bet more than a half of the wildfires around here are from BLM and Forest Service controlled burns that get away from them

“Only you can prevent forest fires”.
That’s probably the worst slogan ever …..

A different Dale jumping in here, one from Pa. Part of the 'fire is bad' mindset here in Pa. comes from the fact that in the past, if you lit a fire and it got away, you were liable. No exceptions for controlled burns, nobody could get any experience, etc. About the only ones doing any burning was the military over at Fort Indiantown Gap, they would burn some of the artillery ranges so they didn't start fires later when they were practicing with the big guns.

That liability law changed a few years back and burns are becoming more common. Pa. Game Commission has been doing some on Gamelands. NRCS has been planning some on CRP ground, I'm not sure if DCNR is doing any or not. I work for NRCS and just had some basic burn training earlier this year. Planning and conducting a burn are quite involved and it takes a lot of experience to get to the higher levels like burn boss or the folks who review burn plans. Our State Office just bought some sets of 'burn clothing' so our folks can actually attend fires and get some hand's on training.

Like any other land management tool, done properly it can help. Done wrong and it can be a cluster.

Dale K

The ground we burned is in a land management trust that had a local farmer in charge that did a poor job of managing it. My neighbor took over the job and since it borders mine I helped him. There are cedar trees every 25 feet on part of it that is going to be a pain to deal with

The last few years, fires in Northern California and Southern Oregon, have shown what happens with excessive fuel. note: If powerlines were underground the last few years fires would have been half! Controlled burns work, wildfires in excessive fuel areas are devastating. The Inlaws lost a house in Greenville Ca. last year. At the same time a fire north of town, burnt an area the size of Rhode Island. When fires are large enough to create their own weather, they get your attention.

You can't get through to the victims of the Smokey Bear and Walt Disney propaganda.