Farming on state land

[Buckmaster3405]

Is anyone that hunts state land seeing corn or beans on them that are usually planted? Piece i hunt has nothing this year.i ran into the farmer next door he says he is on some board for nj farmers.he told me the state is paying farmers that have the leases not to plant crops.they believe it has to do with the govt driving up the cost of everything.he says they are being paid more than what tgeir crops would be worth.has anyone heard anything like this ?kind of hard to believe but i wouldnt put it past the govt to do something like this

[Haskell_Hunter]

The government always does things like this to artificially inflate the cost of things.  It's common for the government to pay some farmers not to farm.  They've been doing it for years.

[Bonefreak]

10 hours ago, Buckmaster3405 said:

Is anyone that hunts state land seeing corn or beans on them that are usually planted? Piece i hunt has nothing this year.i ran into the farmer next door he says he is on some board for nj farmers.he told me the state is paying farmers that have the leases not to plant crops.they believe it has to do with the govt driving up the cost of everything.he says they are being paid more than what tgeir crops would be worth.has anyone heard anything like this ?kind of hard to believe but i wouldnt put it past the govt to do something like this

Probably not, but I hope it’s the first part of phasing out farmers raping our fertile WMAs …as crowded as the WMAs are it’s time to manage these “farmer’s fields” for wildlife and hunting opportunities for license buyers and stop the Division and farmers from profiting from our WMAs. 

[gregtpal]

26 minutes ago, Bonefreak said:

Probably not, but I hope it’s the first part of phasing out farmers raping our fertile WMAs …as crowded as the WMAs are it’s time to manage these “farmer’s fields” for wildlife and hunting opportunities for license buyers and stop the Division and farmers from profiting from our WMAs. 

They'll just raise the license fees more to make up for the shortfall.  

[Bonefreak]

22 minutes ago, gregtpal said:

They'll just raise the license fees more to make up for the shortfall.  

I would almost not mind paying more for a license if the WMAs were properly managed for wildlife and not for profit… and not have thousands of acres of barren farm fields after their fall harvest leaving no cover during hawk migration, unlimited doe days, orange army, and stocked pheasant on-slaught.  License buyers been getting slighted by this field lease program for years, yet the WMAs keep getting more crowded. 
 

If $1.5 million could be “found” for this year’s bear control workers because season was closed…not sure why they have to profit from our farm fields??

[Raygubernat]

42 minutes ago, Bonefreak said:

Probably not, but I hope it’s the first part of phasing out farmers raping our fertile WMAs …as crowded as the WMAs are it’s time to manage these “farmer’s fields” for wildlife and hunting opportunities for license buyers and stop the Division and farmers from profiting from our WMAs. 

NJ Div of fish and game personnel "managing" WMA's??  You really have got to be kidding.   "Managing" means they would actually have to get out there and DO something.  Several years ago my son , who lived and hunted in NJ at the time, asked a division person at Assunpink why the place was so overgrown.  He was told that " The bush hog was broken."   When he inquired further that person stated that it was the ONLY bush hog that the department owned, in that district.  Pathetic...if true.

If the farmers don't  cultivate the land, the geniuses at the division will probably  pay someone to plant more Russian Olive and Multiflora Rose.   That, it seems, is what they do.

Managing areas for upland game is time consuming, expensive and requires a comprehensive, long term plan.  AND their return on investment is much, much less than for deer or turkey management.   That is why most fish and game departments(not just NJ) seem to want to post signs on the roads delineating the property boundaries and then ride around.  

 

RayG

[beaverman]

what the farmers pay to lease the wma fields isn't much. it is a great deal for them so the state isn't profiting from the lease fees

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[Eyesofthewoods]

The government is evil so yeah they always do things not in our best interest.  Some deeply evil people on the top.

[Merkel]

Don’t know the details but Black River has a corn field north of the SG range.