Is there a best time you have found to approach farmers for permission to trap so that you're not interrupting their work, time with family, etc.?

After they sell their crop or livestock is the best time I think.

In areas that have dairy farms, rainy days are usually a good time to catch farmers. They use those days to make repairs in the shop and do catch up chores around the farm. This has worked for me.

If you live in the area and have the time go and help the farmer with something. If you don't know the individual go there when the crop season is at a pause. Between 1st and 2nd crop hay or before the harvest season. Things get very busy then. JMO

Bout 4a.m. little bit after they get up and before first chores is a good time
I also found approaching them when walking out of church to be an excellent time to get permission

For Coon, right after sweet corn season starts. Set some dog proofs around their sweet corn patch and show them how you can help them….

Same with coyote and fox during spring birth times.

Offer to help them bail hay for a day in trade otherwise.

When it's raining.
Always been my best bet to catch them near the homestead

Yep....now if it would only rain! lol

First thing in the morning before they start anything I call ahead ask them what times work best for them.
If its coyotes you are trapping right after calving is done when they still coyotes on there brain they most likely seen then most everyday for 2 months.

I touch base with lot of them at our county fair. Many are there with family and exhibits so it is a good time to chat with them. Not a good way to find new permissions. I find I get a lot of references or calls from land owners that know farmers I have permission with in the past and they get my contact information off the newsletter I send out late summer. More and more we have elderly owning land and renting to larger farmers and the owners many times are in assisted living or nursing homes and it is hard to get a hold of spokespersons for the land. Here in most cases the renters don't get all the rights to the land, just raising crops and or hauling manure.

Bryce

Believe it or not I don’t knock on doors anymore. I’ve got permission on some ground and I’ve never even met the farmer. Cell phone is the way to go for me. 30 seconds of their time, I don’t slow down their work for long, and the majority are open to letting nuisance animals be trapped. I’ve built up 150 miles or so of almost touching ground for the majority of it by simply tracking down the owners numbers.

Im with you on the calls. A lot of them still have landlines around here, but ive found cell numbers just googling them or their neighbors will give it to me. Its fast, i make sure its them, tell them my name where im from and im calling to ask permission to trap. More often than not i end up in a 10 minute conversation and they give me numbers to guys they know. When you can cold call a farmer and tell them Farmer Harold down the road gave me your number, youre probably good to go.

Summer Sundays after 1pm has been very productive.

When their cows are out,and they need help fixing their fence.

County Fairs are hard to beat !