Farm and Ranch life

Roller crimped about 5 acres of an 11 acre dove field this morning hopefully to get doves coming in. Will crimp the rest a week or two before season opener . Tons of seed...brown top millet, sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower. Did all I can do now up to the doves.

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Awesome bucks you got there Baker. May I ask reason for crimping the dove field instead of mowing? I planted a dove field first time this year and would like to know your insight on this. I have a crimper so I am able to replicate your method. Also why are you crimping now and then later? Thanks again
 
Awesome bucks you got there Baker. May I ask reason for crimping the dove field instead of mowing? I planted a dove field first time this year and would like to know your insight on this. I have a crimper so I am able to replicate your method. Also why are you crimping now and then later? Thanks again
Good questions and astute observation. I only crimped a portion of the field early trying to get the doves coming in with the plan to finish the field about 10-15 days prior to season. I started with the crimper but after I made a pass with the bush hog decided to mow the whole thing. There was a fair amount of grass in the field and while the crimper mash what I planted down nicely the grass popped back up. Mowing worked better. All that said I never did attract many birds and the ones that were there left before season. The field was a bust
 
We had a poor season at the ranch last year caused by only ~3" rain from Jan- Sept drastically compromising antler quality. Then the skies opened up and we received nearly 20" rain in Sept/Oct turning the ranch into a solid food plot. Hunting was tough. Nonetheless here is a little video showing what its like hunting south of the border.
 
What a special place! What’s the story on the 16 year old buck?
Back in 2004 I had a tremendous buck we called Airport . He was 31-1/2" wide inside spread and one of the widest net B&C bucks ever. There was a youngster easy to age that had a very similar frame thus we named him airport Jr.which morphed into A J. He was easy to keep up with and I actually have video of him every year. Interestingly he topped out in the mid 170's but always had a giant frame and wide.From about 12-15 he was a giant 5 pt. Had an extra drop tine one year at14 I think. Always cool and appeared to be in good shape last year.
 
What with planting plots and a colonoscopy (ugh) I’m just now watching this one at 6:55 on Sunday morning. You have some great bucks Rusty, on both places. The 16 year old was especially interesting as was the group with the drop tine trying to corner his sweetheart ! Enjoy the vids, I’m subscribed to YouTube.
 
Here a video on timber management we do here on the farm to enhance the habitat for all wildlife including the deer as well as upgrade the timber over time.
 
Here a video on timber management we do here on the farm to enhance the habitat for all wildlife including the deer as well as upgrade the timber over time.

I just found time to watch this one Rusty. Very interesting ! The best part I guess is that it bolsters my confidence that as an amateur I’m doing it right, because your plan is exactly what I followed on my place that I sold as well as my place here at home.
 
One of my favorite time of the year. Fall planting
Great video Rusty. Can you talk a little about what kind of soil you're dealing with and what prompted you to put lime on the spots you did? I was also wondering if you've ever tried cranking up your cool season grass % and drove down your legume % to try to thwart the grasses that come on. I wonder if your sunnhemp isn't throwing off so much nitrogen that the grasses can't help but find a home in it all.

It also seems like you plant just about everything, but no barley?

And one more question, for the enormous amount of biomass you produce, have you seen any accumulation from season to season, or can your biology keep pace breaking it down?
 
Great video Rusty. Can you talk a little about what kind of soil you're dealing with and what prompted you to put lime on the spots you did? I was also wondering if you've ever tried cranking up your cool season grass % and drove down your legume % to try to thwart the grasses that come on. I wonder if your sunnhemp isn't throwing off so much nitrogen that the grasses can't help but find a home in it all.

It also seems like you plant just about everything, but no barley?

And one more question, for the enormous amount of biomass you produce, have you seen any accumulation from season to season, or can your biology keep pace breaking it down?
I like your questions.

Soils where I am are mostly crappy...not fertile enough for commercial ag. This is timber country mostly with some cattle pasture. Soils on my farm are sandy loam to clay loam[ the white yucky stuff ] with one field being red brick clay and lots of spots that are poorly drained [ Thats something I am watching to see how much perculation improves with the process ] . For whatever reason soils change a lot in this area. My buddies farm adjoining me to the west is almost purely red clay.

I added lime to 3 fields because soil samples showed them to be very acidic...I forget the exact PH but 3 tons/acre lime brought it to 6.8. I did soil samples on the 15 acre field shown in the video because after over a decade of just growing sunflowers it wasn't performing well. So I embarked on an 'organic' strategy to pump it up. Fun experiment.

Most of the big fields that I double crop with the sunn hemp legume summer mixture I plant in a rye/wheat mixture at 100lbs/acre along with radishes and turnips. No winter legumes.Couple of them do have crimson clover in them which has been reseeding for years. Those are the fields I was referencing for spraying the grass in the fall. I don't worry about grass in my clover fields though I might spray them with cleth every 2-3 years in August or September when the clover is gone.

Barley...I have seen posts from you on that and took a quick peek to learn. Interesting. Dont know anyone in the south growing it but may give a try with some next year. What I saw at Hancock I think is ~$30/50 lbs. I paid $9.50 for wheat and $19 for elbon rye. Will have to find a cheaper source as I plant about 130 acres each fall.

There can be a little carry over of thatch one planting season too next but after about 10 years of doing this the fields have really improved.But I keep upping the game so will be interesting to see if the soil can keep up. All this is fun stuff!
 
I like your questions.

Soils where I am are mostly crappy...not fertile enough for commercial ag. This is timber country mostly with some cattle pasture. Soils on my farm are sandy loam to clay loam[ the white yucky stuff ] with one field being red brick clay and lots of spots that are poorly drained [ Thats something I am watching to see how much perculation improves with the process ] . For whatever reason soils change a lot in this area. My buddies farm adjoining me to the west is almost purely red clay.

I added lime to 3 fields because soil samples showed them to be very acidic...I forget the exact PH but 3 tons/acre lime brought it to 6.8. I did soil samples on the 15 acre field shown in the video because after over a decade of just growing sunflowers it wasn't performing well. So I embarked on an 'organic' strategy to pump it up. Fun experiment.

Most of the big fields that I double crop with the sunn hemp legume summer mixture I plant in a rye/wheat mixture at 100lbs/acre along with radishes and turnips. No winter legumes.Couple of them do have crimson clover in them which has been reseeding for years. Those are the fields I was referencing for spraying the grass in the fall. I don't worry about grass in my clover fields though I might spray them with cleth every 2-3 years in August or September when the clover is gone.

Barley...I have seen posts from you on that and took a quick peek to learn. Interesting. Dont know anyone in the south growing it but may give a try with some next year. What I saw at Hancock I think is ~$30/50 lbs. I paid $9.50 for wheat and $19 for elbon rye. Will have to find a cheaper source as I plant about 130 acres each fall.

There can be a little carry over of thatch one planting season too next but after about 10 years of doing this the fields have really improved.But I keep upping the game so will be interesting to see if the soil can keep up. All this is fun stuff!
Good stuff. I was curious if you were going off a soil test or if you were seeing visual deficiencies. I was just ribbing you a bit about the barley. I have no idea how it'll do in the south. It works well up here because of the short life cycle. That northern advantage may be a management problem in a longer growing season area.

I like it because I can spring plant it and it's done gone and outta the way by August 1st on it's own. Deer ate the heads, I get to keep the straw.
 
Doug is a lifelong friend and my farm mgr. He's been consumed with the buck since we first started seeing it mid summer. Hunted every hunt since season started Oct 4. His mission was to get youtube quality video of the hunt. He was so shook up he never turned the camera on.

170" even. Pretty special for main frame 6 pt.
 
Doug is a lifelong friend and my farm mgr. He's been consumed with the buck since we first started seeing it mid summer. Hunted every hunt since season started Oct 4. His mission was to get youtube quality video of the hunt. He was so shook up he never turned the camera on.

170" even. Pretty special for main frame 6 pt.
I was of course joking (somewhat) in my disappointment of this buck getting harvested. Truly a special deer and I can understand why he didn't get the camera turned on. That's the kind of deer that can make a grown man melt into his boots!

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