J-birds place

Plant beans in your plots,I have a few planted but almost 3 weeks of dry and we are about done with wheat harvest so will plant double crop beans but I am going to plant a few acres of liberty beans this weekend and some milo
 
Pulled some cam cards the other day.... Nothing too exciting, but some hope....

First pic of a fawn was on the last day of May. They sure are cute when they are little.... I still have other does still carrying.....
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Then I got a visit from it's daddy..... I want to see how well he fills out this year. Tough to tell in the picture, but in the video he is already as wide as his ears.
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Then on another site....I got visited by the three amigo's! Nothing overly promising, but still nice to see.
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The cam I have on a little wooded opening/plot with lots of "weeds" seems to be getting visited well also. I went in with my weed wacker and just knocked the tops of the weeds off....those the deer had not already eaten. This plot has clover and lots of chicory growing in it, but the deer seem to be just as interested right now in the tender weeds that are shooting up as well. I was going to use my mower but I was fearful that it would mow too short and give the weeds more of an advantage....it wasn't "fun" swinging the weed wacker that much, but I think it was the right tool for the job.

I need to get my allowance back (company cut my pay-check by 10% during covid) so I can get me some windows and metal ordered for the shooting house.....

My corn plots...are a total flop. I wasn't planning on corn this year, but I got some free seed and went for it. I think my planter plugged and as such I have scrapped the idea of corn. I have 1 good row of corn in 3 plots totaling an acre in size. I have a mix of annual clovers and some buckwheat to pick up and use as a summer cover crop to till under for my fall annuals. The deer are moving out into the sprouting ag beans that cover my 100 acres of tillable now so they won't go hungry. I just don't like seeing empty plots.
I also dislike empty fields, I have followed up on failed corn plantings with midjune brassica plantings, somehow brassica is on of the few seeds that seem to beat the heat and drought and manage to grow in midsummer, and the size of the turnips and radishes in the fall are amazing.
 
Plant beans in your plots,I have a few planted but almost 3 weeks of dry and we are about done with wheat harvest so will plant double crop beans but I am going to plant a few acres of liberty beans this weekend and some milo
I typically would....but my other 100 acres of tillable is all beans already. I typically plant beans, but I got the corn seed for free and figured what the heck! My local seed guy has a mix of berseem, balsana and a splash of buckwheat for me that I'll be broadcasting into these plots as a summer cover crop. I'll then till that under come Labor day and plant AWP with a follow-up broadcasting a turnips and cereal grains.
 
I also dislike empty fields, I have followed up on failed corn plantings with midjune brassica plantings, somehow brassica is on of the few seeds that seem to beat the heat and drought and manage to grow in midsummer, and the size of the turnips and radishes in the fall are amazing.
Really? I figured brassica in mid june was too early and they would not be in top form come November and December. I have a mix of berseem and balsana clovers with a splash of buckwheat to broadcast as a summer cover crop in these plots. I'll then plant my AWP around Labor Day with a broadcasting of turnips and cereal grains as well. Your brassica thing has me interested.....I may see if I can find a small amount and see what happens......
 
I'm getting ready to plant brassicas if the forecast holds up. The plot get a cereal mix come fall anyway...

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Really? I figured brassica in mid june was too early and they would not be in top form come November and December. I have a mix of berseem and balsana clovers with a splash of buckwheat to broadcast as a summer cover crop in these plots. I'll then plant my AWP around Labor Day with a broadcasting of turnips and cereal grains as well. Your brassica thing has me interested.....I may see if I can find a small amount and see what happens......
My mid-June brassica crop was my best ever, the only one ever that lasted through most of the winter. One thing, my dirt is of a poor quality and so things grow slower, when I plant brassicas on Labor day like people recommend for zone 6 I don't get much bulb size, and although they get nice tops the greens don't last because there's not enough bulk growth. It takes a little time to grow PTT the size of softballs.
 
I'm getting ready to plant brassicas if the forecast holds up. The plot get a cereal mix come fall anyway...

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So what sort of condition will the brassica be in come hunting season? I normally plant around Labor Day and can get softball sized turnips with lush green forage which is fine for my needs. I would think the bulbs would certainly be bigger but the forage part would decline IF the plant was able to mature too much.... or am I over thinking this?
 
My mid-June brassica crop was my best ever, the only one ever that lasted through most of the winter. One thing, my dirt is of a poor quality and so things grow slower, when I plant brassicas on Labor day like people recommend for zone 6 I don't get much bulb size, and although they get nice tops the greens don't last because there's not enough bulk growth. It takes a little time to grow PTT the size of softballs.
Like I mentioned in another post...I can plant PTT around labor day and get softball sized turnips. If I planted in mid june my concern is actually the plant becoming too mature and bolting. I will try some (I think my local farm retailer has little bags of PTT seed) and see what happens as a test. My deer are not big fans of turnips as it is, but they are getting better about them. They prefer the corn and beans that I have here in ag country, but eventually they seem to get around to at least showing some interest in the bulbs.
 
My mid-June brassica crop was my best ever, the only one ever that lasted through most of the winter. One thing, my dirt is of a poor quality and so things grow slower, when I plant brassicas on Labor day like people recommend for zone 6 I don't get much bulb size, and although they get nice tops the greens don't last because there's not enough bulk growth. It takes a little time to grow PTT the size of softballs.

I have an acre I wasn’t going to mess with but I have extra brassica/turnip seed. If I kill the waist high weeds I could just broadcast the seed and fertilizer before rain and be good right? If I’m trying to time with rain I don’t think I’ll have the time to wait for the vegetation to brown then broadcast and mow.
 
I have an acre I wasn’t going to mess with but I have extra brassica/turnip seed. If I kill the waist high weeds I could just broadcast the seed and fertilizer before rain and be good right? If I’m trying to time with rain I don’t think I’ll have the time to wait for the vegetation to brown then broadcast and mow.
For brassica you don't have to time the rain, just broadcast and it'll start growing when it's ready. But you should spray first, or mow after broadcasting.
 
For brassica you don't have to time the rain, just broadcast and it'll start growing when it's ready. But you should spray first, or mow after broadcasting.
I knew I have to spray and mowing is ideal, I just wanted to spray then get the seed onto the ground sooner then later. I just didn’t want to wait the two weeks until it browned to spread seed and get the thatch on top.

But your saying I don’t have to spray herbicide? I could just mow it low after I broadcasted the seed? Is that because of the time of year it is that competition will not want to grow rapidly?
 
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I knew I have to spray and mowing is ideal, I just wanted to spray then get the seed onto the ground sooner then later. I just didn’t want to wait the two weeks until it browned to spread seed and get the thatch on top.

But your saying I don’t have to spray herbicide? I could just mow it low after I broadcasted the seed? Is that because of the time of year it is that competition will not want to grow rapidly?
It depends on what is growing there now. If it's waist height broadleaf weeds a throw n mow should work ok. If it's grass it won't work well. The grass will choke out the seeds. If you can spray with glyphosate and mow a week later that would be ideal.
 
Exactly what I was going to say about spraying... if you have grass it doesn't work well without the gly. I have brome, fescue, Johnson Grass, and foxtail. Mowing seems to encourage their competition.

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So I disced, spread mixed seed and packed with tractor tires.

My seed mix:
5 lbs beseem clover
5 lbs balsana clover
3.5 lbs Antler King "slam dunk"
-Buckwheat, rape, forage peas, tillage radish
and a dash of PTT

I added the BOB seed simply because I had been hearing about the buckwheat and the success some have with mid june planted brassica....so we will see. It cost me an extra $20, but I figured I might as well experiment a little bit and learn something maybe!
 
More of an update for my purposes more than anything.... So my spring planting of corn was crap....and my summer cover crop was....crap.....so today I planted my fall plots (hopefully 3rd times the charm).


I have about 1.5 acres in plots....Today I row planted 50 lbs of AWP and then broadcast 3 lbs of PTT, 4 lbs of berseem clover and 5 lbs of crimson clover. I will broadcast the bushel of WW a bit later. I have $92 in seed. I plowed last weekend and disced, and then disced again today prior to using my 2 row 309 plate planter for the AWP. The "plan" is that this will provide fall food with the crimson clover and AWP, winter food with the winter wheat and AWP and then some spring food with the winter wheat, any AWP that makes it and the berseem clover. With the plan of that carrying into summer enough to be able to then plow down and start all over again next August/September. We will see how it goes I guess.....

Here is my SW plot....you can see the shooting house project in the back left and my planting rig in the plot. If you see the planting rows I planted in different directions to try to get an even planting. I just used my corn plate (I tested it to see if it would work) to ensure I was able to get the peas to cover the plots.
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Here is my North plot....same concept.... You can see I had one decent row of corn so I left it to serve as some sort of screen. I packed some areas and didn't other to see if it makes any difference.
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Now I just need some rain.....
 
Lookin good. If you want to shave that $92 in seed cost down I’ve found no difference between AWP and 4010 field peas. They seem to have the same frost tolerance, same tonnage, browse preference, etc. Frost master peas are more cold hardy and cost about the same as AWP if that’s a concern. In small plots they’ll typically be demolished anyway.


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Lookin good. If you want to shave that $92 in seed cost down I’ve found no difference between AWP and 4010 field peas. They seem to have the same frost tolerance, same tonnage, browse preference, etc. Frost master peas are more cold hardy and cost about the same as AWP if that’s a concern. In small plots they’ll typically be demolished anyway.


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I have used AWP and frostmaster as well....but never 4010 field peas.....The deer numbers here are low enough that I have mixed winter peas with other forages before and actually had them survive the winter and flower and produce seed pods the following year. My intent is having something to hopefully carry over and not need to plant come spring....but we will see.
 
Did get some work done on the stalled shooting house (I got put on a budget hold)…… Windows in.....and metal hung. Funny how $500 can impact a blind build. 4 windows @ $60 each and then roughly $220 for the metal......but hopefully well worth it in the long run


Also have the peas and the fall plot starting to germinate and pop up.....
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I have used AWP and frostmaster as well....but never 4010 field peas.....The deer numbers here are low enough that I have mixed winter peas with other forages before and actually had them survive the winter and flower and produce seed pods the following year. My intent is having something to hopefully carry over and not need to plant come spring....but we will see.

That must be nice, around me the deer demolish the peas. I think you’ll like 4010 field peas. Paul Knox’s comparisons convinced me to try them and I never looked back. Always trying to save a buck, comes in handy for shooting houses!


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That must be nice, around me the deer demolish the peas. I think you’ll like 4010 field peas. Paul Knox’s comparisons convinced me to try them and I never looked back. Always trying to save a buck, comes in handy for shooting houses!
I’ll look and see price wise how they look.... my seed bill had a bag of peas a bag of wheat a couple pounds of 2 different cloves and a few pounds of turnips as well..... so I would have to see what I actually paid for the peas. Do the 4010’s survive the winter here?

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