195 Acres Southern OK

Cool video of the burn

Productive weekend. We were able to get our cabin skirted. I sprayed about 5 acres of plots for my first throw and mow trial. I had some help and got 15 cages built and planted 15 Chickasaw plums for screening around a new plot sight.


I got the plums saplings from Nativ Nursery. That was most first experience with them as well as ordering from an online nursery.

This was also my first time planting trees on the new place. I spread them out about 8ft apart.


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My new plot sites are staring to yellow quite a bit after spraying last week. I hit a few areas again this weekend. I used the Green Cover smart mix page and sent to my local seed dealer. It will be ready to plant next weekend. We may even have some rain in the forecast






The plan is to throw and mow using my new bag seeder and using the ranger with pull behind swisher. I have had this old cultipacker for almost a decade and never had a good reason to use in my old leases. I finally got around to modifying it to use behind the ranger.


I have an easement that was mulched in the early winter. Some areas have quite a bit of mulch in place and others not so much. Does this look liked it could be planted? I may try to put something there this fall.



I transplanted a few small cedars to provide screening for our cabin down the road. I have these everywhere, so I can move quite a few to use for cover/screening. This I'll be working for some time. Its kinda fun. Get rid of them where I don't want them and add them where needed.



The cedar removal seems to be going well. It’s a mess, but things are really starting to open up. Here are some comparison pics




I love seeing all the sunlight coming through. It was always completely shaded out before hand. There is months and months of work still to do. But I like how it’s going so far

I’ve been basal bark spraying locust trees each trip, remedy and diesel. That’s another never ending project, but I’m starting to see some brown on the trees

You have been busy on that place! Great work. What are you doing to remove the cedars? Are they getting logged? Or drop in place then plan to burn later?

I could basal spray locust every time I go outside... and probably never run out of the damn things!

You place looks good, you're doing a great job!

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catscratch said:

I could basal spray locust every time I go outside... and probably never run out of the damn things!

You place looks good, you're doing a great job!

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You and me both!
Seems like every time I start spraying I find more pockets of them


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Heart shot said:

You have been busy on that place! Great work. What are you doing to remove the cedars? Are they getting logged? Or drop in place then plan to burn later?

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They are taking the logs and leaving the branches. I couldn’t find anyone to buy them unless I cut and delivered them. I’m not paying these guys to clear them and they aren’t paying me for the logs. They piling up various small brush piles throughout the ranch


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I got my first attempt and Throw and Mow completed yesterday evening. About 7 acres total consisting of buckwheat, I&C cowpeas, sorghum, millet and some sunflowers. It’s been pretty dry around here, but that all changed last night. We had a pretty hellacious storm blow through. I’m not sure I’m the rainfall total yet. But it rained HARD for a few hours. I was glad I had the thatch. I imagine I would have had seed and soil runoff if not for the thatch.
Here’s a few pics






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I got my soil test results back this week. I’d love to hear feedback regarding what I can do to improve some of the deficiencies.






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First , I want to know if you lifted that cultipacker up on to that table by yourself? I'm thinking 300#? Afraid those days are gone for me.

As for the soil tests. I'm assuming you have pretty sandy soil?? Just a guess from the tests. Your ph is great obviously. Your CEC and OM not much to brag about . So to improve everything from nutrient and moisture retention you need to improve your OM which should improve the CEC. CEC is difficult to make great improvements in.
My suggestion is start a typical Lickcreek type rotation for the nest 3- 5 years before you begin a true perennial plot . The rotation will give multitude of decomposing plants/per rotation which will slowly improve your OM and its resulting soil improvements. If you have access to chicken litter you may apply to help jump that OM. Just think soil building plants, a combination of plants, and a rotation each fall of a variety of plants. Good luck.

dogghr said:

First , I want to know if you lifted that cultipacker up on to that table by yourself? I'm thinking 300#? Afraid those days are gone for me.

As for the soil tests. I'm assuming you have pretty sandy soil?? Just a guess from the tests. Your ph is great obviously. Your CEC and OM not much to brag about . So to improve everything from nutrient and moisture retention you need to improve your OM which should improve the CEC. CEC is difficult to make great improvements in.
My suggestion is start a typical Lickcreek type rotation for the nest 3- 5 years before you begin a true perennial plot . The rotation will give multitude of decomposing plants/per rotation which will slowly improve your OM and its resulting soil improvements. If you have access to chicken litter you may apply to help jump that OM. Just think soil building plants, a combination of plants, and a rotation each fall of a variety of plants. Good luck.

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Those days are behind me as well. I’ve finally learned to work smarter. Skid steer with pallet forks did the trick. We completed the project at a buddy’s place.
I was pleasantly surprised by the pH and yes my soil does have some sand. My plots that I just planted were a cover crop blend that I had a local dealer mix up based on what I got from the Green Cover Seed calculator. Cowpeas, millet, sorghum, sunflowers, buckwheat, brassicas, and rape.

I will definitely continue with at least the buckwheat in the future. For the fall, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was planting yet, but winter wheat will probably be in the mix.


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dogghr said:

First , I want to know if you lifted that cultipacker up on to that table by yourself? I'm thinking 300#? Afraid those days are gone for me.

As for the soil tests. I'm assuming you have pretty sandy soil?? Just a guess from the tests. Your ph is great obviously. Your CEC and OM not much to brag about . So to improve everything from nutrient and moisture retention you need to improve your OM which should improve the CEC. CEC is difficult to make great improvements in.
My suggestion is start a typical Lickcreek type rotation for the nest 3- 5 years before you begin a true perennial plot . The rotation will give multitude of decomposing plants/per rotation which will slowly improve your OM and its resulting soil improvements. If you have access to chicken litter you may apply to help jump that OM. Just think soil building plants, a combination of plants, and a rotation each fall of a variety of plants. Good luck.

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Do you think the fertilizer recommendations look correct?

bearcat said:

Do you think the fertilizer recommendations look correct?

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I don't recall your previous plantings but if these are first time plantings then I would do as suggested or just use 19-19-19 Fert which is easy to get usually. If you have done some previous clover/grain seeding then I would tend to use no N and use 0-20-20 as N tends to feed unwanted weeds and grasses. That is why it is nice to do rotational plantings as the plants themselves will help to establish needed nutrients within the soils that will be used in subsequent plantings. Each soil is certainly requirements of different things.
Initially I had low ph but my OM and CEC were very good. So my early endeavors focused on different problems than you may see.

These are my first plantings. Their suggestion was 0-46-0 and 34-0-0. I may stick with your suggestion for now and re-test before my fall plantings. I’m excited to see how the cover crops end up doing. I had quite a bit of rain the night I planted and we have multiple days this week with high rain % forecasted.

I’ll look into LC’s old plot threads before decided on the fall plantings.


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After about 6” of rainfall over the last 2 weeks, I’ve got some sprouts! We also have 80% chances for rain for the next 8 days. This was a good year for my first attempt at T and M.

Most of my plots were sprayed 2x. 2 of the 5 plots have a fair bit of Bermuda coming back. I’m not too concerned. My main reason for planting was to help with soil building for the fall planting.

On one hand I’m very grateful to have all the rainfall. On the other hand, it won’t dry out enough for me to work on some grade work around our cabin.

There are a few small berms from our new septic system and lateral lines that aren’t helping.


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A brand new place is always exciting! Yours looks loaded with potential. You’re fortunate to have a resource like this site, it’ll save you a lot of time and aggravation. When we bought our first place 12 years ago, I made MANY mistakes!

bearcat said:

After about 6” of rainfall over the last 2 weeks, I’ve got some sprouts! We also have 80% chances for rain for the next 8 days. This was a good year for my first attempt at T and M.

Most of my plots were sprayed 2x. 2 of the 5 plots have a fair bit of Bermuda coming back. I’m not too concerned. My main reason for planting was to help with soil building for the fall planting.

On one hand I’m very grateful to have all the rainfall. On the other hand, it won’t dry out enough for me to work on some grade work around our cabin.

There are a few small berms from our new septic system and lateral lines that aren’t helping.


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T&M looking good. And by appearances you've had plenty of rain. It took me a little practice to learn to seed throw and mow heavy enough and pay a lot of attention to seeding evenly, this helps the new crop defeat the weeds. Seeding heavier has been the difference for me between an average field and a really great field.

It has been a while since I've posted any updates on our place. I got so busy with work, kids football and hunting over the last few months. I was able to get quite a bit done before the start of the season. I got my plots put in around Labor Day that consisted of Oats, WW, cereal rye, turnips and some clover. We had good rains the next day, but not much since. Our 60 day rainfall totals are less than 2". However, they have managed to hang with some spots being better than others. It hasn't stopped the deer from hitting them. I've got one plot that I had to clear some debris and downed trees in the corner. I disturbed the soil quite a bit there and the radishes are thriving in the corner of the plot. I've been surprised at how quickly the deer started hammering those.
I did lose a blind to some straight line winds of 80mph+ before the season started. The previous owner had some nice blinds and that was the one that I wasn't crazy about the location. I was able to move another overlooking the plot it was on.

We were able to finish up our cabin deck as well. I still have work to do on the inside, but at least we can enjoy the nice weather outside. There is mostly painting and trim work that needs to be wrapped up as well as hanging a few barns doors in the bathroom. Its been comfortable, but it is a project I'd sure like to finish. Sitting on the patio after a hunt has been hard to beat.


As for the hunting, its been a good first season so far. The weekends have been quick due to football games not finishing up around 2:00. That is one reason we decided to buy where we did. It gives us the chance to head out afterwards and still get some quality time in at the farm. The family is looking forward to getting some full weekends in and not feeling too rushed. I've been pleased with quality and quantity of deer we've seen. I have seen some nice quality bucks and passed on a few nice ones. The deer management association my farm is enrolled in has set a quota of 88 doe to harvest this year. I'm going to see what I can do over Thanksgiving to help out there.
Here a few pics of some deer we've seen. This spot is probably my favorite spot on the farm. It sits in a bottom area with some great oak trees. We cleared quite a few cedars around these oak bottoms in the spring and summer. There are tons that still need to be removed, but it will leave many with about 80-100 acres of hardwood bottoms similar to this when I get the cedar out of there.

This buck is probably one of my favorites. I've seen him the last few hunts at this stand. I'd love to see him make another year or so. He is going to be a special deer.



This next buck is just a big bodied clean 8. I had some cool encounters with him around Halloween. He is built like a linebacker and has a similar attitude.


Cool looking up and comer with great character


This is the buck I'd like a shot at. He keeps alluding me in person. He is really good a showing up wherever I am not sitting that day! Sorry for the quality, the first 2 pics are screenshots of videos near a scrape.



I'll end on something that I'm sure all of you have gone through as well.
During the offseason, all I could think about was hunting. Now that it is hunting season, I sit in the stand looking around at ll the habitat improvements I can get started on once the season is over!

Did I read that right where you were taking 88 does off 195 in 1 year?

buckdeer1 said:

Did I read that right where you were taking 88 does off 195 in 1 year?

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I think he's in a group of landowners that set that as a total to take. Not sure though.

Place looks great and you have some awesome deer.

You've done a ton of work! Been a busy guy. And yes... spent all yr waiting for hunting season, then spend all hunting season planning new habitat projects. It's a sickness!

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