High Country CRP

Photo by Holly Higgins

This block of CRP was mostly brome (what the horse is standing in) but had a nice strip of vetch running through it. The vetch provided a nice edge, and heavier and taller cover for the birds. To the north you can see grainfields which are dry-land farmed for wheat and barley, and to the west out of the picture are cattle allotments where native sagebrush and bunch grass cover the landscape. All forms of cover held birds; the CRP seemed to hold birds of a younger age class, while birds found on ground heavier to native sage seemed to be older larger birds. The CRP which we trained in was loaded with grasshoppers of all shapes and sizes - great for young birds. Even on mornings like this, when the cover was moist from a bit of rain the night before, the bugs were out. Here I'm off the horse and trying to get a bird in the air for Indian Head Whiski - "Jim".