DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
I have an account that I can look at on the web. It shows that they started the testing Thursday.
What my fall plot looks like now....
- Thread starter DocHolladay
- Start date
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Got my soil test today. They said their soil tech has been out of the office. This is the University of Tennessee Ag Extension Plant, Soil and Pest Center, the only one in my region. You would think they would more than one tech....
This is a 2 acre plot that I am going to be planting 1 acre of. I plan on planting a mix of WW, WO, WR, AWP, clover and some PTT. The other half is the milo/millet plot that I will let die and standing. I will probably use the rotary cutter and mow down a 6' strip next to what I am going to plant. Hopefully this will let the deer, turkeys and other animals figure it out.
Here are the results(I tested all 2 acres):
pH- 6.46
P is high at 60 lbs/acre
K is low at 83 lbs/acre
CA, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn are all sufficient
Boron(B) is 1.2 lbs/acre
Sodium(Na) is 10 lbs/acre
This is a 2 acre plot that I am going to be planting 1 acre of. I plan on planting a mix of WW, WO, WR, AWP, clover and some PTT. The other half is the milo/millet plot that I will let die and standing. I will probably use the rotary cutter and mow down a 6' strip next to what I am going to plant. Hopefully this will let the deer, turkeys and other animals figure it out.
Here are the results(I tested all 2 acres):
pH- 6.46
P is high at 60 lbs/acre
K is low at 83 lbs/acre
CA, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn are all sufficient
Boron(B) is 1.2 lbs/acre
Sodium(Na) is 10 lbs/acre
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
I pulled trail cam pics Sunday and found a buck that has been around for a couple of years that I can tell. I am guessing that he is 4.5 this year(might be 3.5, but doubt it). I have pics of him from last year in velvet, this year in velvet and hard antler.
Last year:
This year:
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs.
Last year:
This year:
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Doing a little more searching of photos, I believe this is him in 2015 at 2.5.
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs.
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
The photo above(2015), he may be 1.5yo but, I am not 100%. Most of the 1.5yo bucks I have on camera are spikes with a few fork horns. This guy has been a 7pt from the get go, he just keeps getting larger antlers. This area isn't really known for "big bucks". This guy may be an exception and be on the way to being a giant 7pt.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
I hope to get day time visit by him to verify what I am thinking. If he is 4.5, I would love for the land owners daughter to shoot him.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Had a new buck show up to the property while I was away. To bad it is a night time photo. Hopefully he will show up Sunday while I am in the blind.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
I also need to go and mow another strip of the millet and milo down for the turkey and quail(deer too). They seem to enjoy the ease of reach once it is on the ground. We used to be able to shoot up to 15 turkeys in the fall, then they lowered it to 6 per county, now its lowered to 1 per county. I may have to get a few guests over to help next fall......
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
While I was out at my local hunting spot, waiting on trail cam pics to load on the iPad, I did a little walking around. It flooded here pretty bad while I was out of town. Where I put the blind is normally good for staying above high water, but you can't get above 7" in one day and a couple of inches the day prior. Luckily I staked the blind down with some after market heavy tent stakes and it stayed, but it was full of debris, had 2 sides collapsed and most of the brush around it had fallen over. I straightened everything up and cleaned out the trash. Here are a few pics I made of the plot while waiting.
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs
Sent from my iPhone using my thumbs
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Just a reminder, this whole plot was done with TNM. The bird seed side was planted in the spring(top picture, left side) and the grain/brassica side was planted in September. I had some issues with the walk behind spreader for the fall mix and ended up throwing it all by hand, fertilizer and seed, but it has done surprisingly well and even.... minus the bumper crop of wild onions. I couldn't make it out because of work, so I had the landowner go and cut two more strips of my milo/millet/weeds for the turkey/quail/deer Saturday morning before the rain. The turkeys were in it Sunday morning bright and early, getting their bellies full of seed. They also made use of the clover, wheat, oats and rye growing on the green side. There is a little AWP growing, but I don't know if the turkeys eat the seed after spreading and no rain or the deer made use of it as it popped out of the ground. Its there, but so far has been minimal on me seeing growth. What AWP I do see it 4-5" tall.
. I couldn't make it out because of work, so I had the landowner go and cut two more strips of my milo/millet/weeds for the turkey/quail/deer Saturday morning before the rain. The turkeys were in it Sunday morning bright and early, getting their bellies full of seed. They also made use of the clover, wheat, oats and rye growing on the green side. There is a little AWP growing, but I don't know if the turkeys eat the seed after spreading and no rain or the deer made use of it as it popped out of the ground. Its there, but so far has been minimal on me seeing growth. What AWP I do see it 4-5" tall.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
I mowed the last 2 strips of the milo/millet/weed plot that I am going to mow until late winter/early spring. I have about 3-4 strips left to cut, but I am going to leave it standing and let nature take its course. I can sit in the blind and watch red birds, starlings, dove, brown-headed cowbirds, etc fall into the standing crop like ducks drop into a timber stand and feed on the seeds. I like it and think it is amazing to watch the birds fold up their wings and fall out of the sky onto the ground. I also like watching the little finches and sparrows hang onto the stalks and pick the seeds off the seed heads.
The landowner's daughter killed a small 5pt on Thanksgiving morning. She was disappointed in the fact that I had shown her a buck that she could shoot and any doe. In her excitement, she didn't take the time to identify what the deer was and just pulled the trigger. I told her that it was ok and she shouldn't worry about it because it is only her second deer and her dad's property. She still apologized for shooting the wrong deer. She learned her lesson in taking her time and making sure that her target is what she wants and not have a hurry up and shoot it mentality. I told her that she was wanting deer meat and she got some, but the bigger bodied deer tend to have more meat on them...lol. I'll post a pic from tapatalk to this post as the picture is on my phone.
I also moved my trail camera from the mineral lick and scrape to the trees in the above pics, as they have continued to get rubbed and more of the trunks and bigger overhanging limbs are shredded. I'll post any pics I get, once I pull the card in a couple of weeks.
The landowner's daughter killed a small 5pt on Thanksgiving morning. She was disappointed in the fact that I had shown her a buck that she could shoot and any doe. In her excitement, she didn't take the time to identify what the deer was and just pulled the trigger. I told her that it was ok and she shouldn't worry about it because it is only her second deer and her dad's property. She still apologized for shooting the wrong deer. She learned her lesson in taking her time and making sure that her target is what she wants and not have a hurry up and shoot it mentality. I told her that she was wanting deer meat and she got some, but the bigger bodied deer tend to have more meat on them...lol. I'll post a pic from tapatalk to this post as the picture is on my phone.
I also moved my trail camera from the mineral lick and scrape to the trees in the above pics, as they have continued to get rubbed and more of the trunks and bigger overhanging limbs are shredded. I'll post any pics I get, once I pull the card in a couple of weeks.
Last edited:
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
As mentioned above, I moved my camera to the trees that were rubbed a while back. I checked the camera today and have a few doe, a few bucks, a raccoon and a coyote or two.I strapped it to one of the trees and the field of view isn't what I was hoping. While I was there, I decided to go back out to the plot and put a t-post in the ground and put the camera on it, hoping for a better field of view. It may mess with the deer as I placed the t-post in the plot looking at the trees. I am sure they will get used to it. I would almost bet money that one of the coyotes will use it to mark his territory.
I hunted last Monday and saw a very large buck, but he had broken his left side off even with his ear tip. I watched him until he left the field. I told the landowner's daughter about it and she just about jumped out of her skin wanting to shoot it, but I told her not to. I saw her heart break, but I explained to her that we only had a few weeks left in the season and he had made it this far, he should be ok(I hope). I explained to her that if he makes it just a little longer, he will drop his antlers and he should be bigger next year. She accepted that and was happy. Best thing I can figure out with her is that her ex-fiance hunts and she is trying to one-up him. I hope she calms down and figures out it isn't a competition.
I hunted last Monday and saw a very large buck, but he had broken his left side off even with his ear tip. I watched him until he left the field. I told the landowner's daughter about it and she just about jumped out of her skin wanting to shoot it, but I told her not to. I saw her heart break, but I explained to her that we only had a few weeks left in the season and he had made it this far, he should be ok(I hope). I explained to her that if he makes it just a little longer, he will drop his antlers and he should be bigger next year. She accepted that and was happy. Best thing I can figure out with her is that her ex-fiance hunts and she is trying to one-up him. I hope she calms down and figures out it isn't a competition.
Last edited:
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
HuntStand has done a pretty good job of keeping up to date satellite photos(Google Maps??) of some of the properties I hunt. Here is the local one where I have the food plot this whole post is about. It was updated last year about late January and again this year.
Green is my milo/millet/native plot(weeds). You can see where I cut strips for the wildlife to eat. It has about 3 strips left now. So this picture was probably taken in Mid November.
Yellow is Clover, WW, WR, oats, PTT, & AWP.
Blue is NWSG.
Black is goat/donkey pasture.
The white dot in the left corner of the property boundary is a blind and the orange dot to the right is a ladder stand.
The southern boundary is a creek and has hardwoods around it and on the neighbor's property also.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Green is my milo/millet/native plot(weeds). You can see where I cut strips for the wildlife to eat. It has about 3 strips left now. So this picture was probably taken in Mid November.
Yellow is Clover, WW, WR, oats, PTT, & AWP.
Blue is NWSG.
Black is goat/donkey pasture.
The white dot in the left corner of the property boundary is a blind and the orange dot to the right is a ladder stand.
The southern boundary is a creek and has hardwoods around it and on the neighbor's property also.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Here is 8.5 minutes of me babbling about the small local foodplot. I cut a lot of the original video out the get it this short. I recorded it on my iPhone, and I can’t get it any bigger for some reason.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
Everything is finally drying up and more rain is expected Monday. We almost beat a 100+ year record for rain in February. We ended up with almost 11" and needed 12" to tie and 13" to set the record. If this would have been leap year, we would have beat the record by a couple of inches. My nearest lake is drawn down to winter pool of 483'. It rained enough in a 2 day stretch(on top of previous rain the ground was saturated) that it came up to 494.6'. Summer pool is 490'. The dam has been open almost every day letting out water, but this last rain event, they closed it because the Cumberland River is busting at the seams and so is the Ohio River. They held back for a couple of days, but it is back open again. As of 10pm, it is at 487.68 and falling back to winter pool. The fishing has been outstanding for just about any species you want to catch. We still have the rains of March and April to go. I hope this isn't a sign of a dry summer.
. We almost beat a 100+ year record for rain in February. We ended up with almost 11" and needed 12" to tie and 13" to set the record. If this would have been leap year, we would have beat the record by a couple of inches. My nearest lake is drawn down to winter pool of 483'. It rained enough in a 2 day stretch(on top of previous rain the ground was saturated) that it came up to 494.6'. Summer pool is 490'. The dam has been open almost every day letting out water, but this last rain event, they closed it because the Cumberland River is busting at the seams and so is the Ohio River. They held back for a couple of days, but it is back open again. As of 10pm, it is at 487.68 and falling back to winter pool. The fishing has been outstanding for just about any species you want to catch. We still have the rains of March and April to go. I hope this isn't a sign of a dry summer.
DocHolladay
Well-Known Member
HuntStand is an App that you can use to check weather, wind direction, mark stands, foodplots, and on some occasions get the landowners info. If everyone on my lease is signed in, we can see where each other is at and chat. It's a very good app once you get past the learning curve. It is free, but you are limited to the number of properties you can click on per month. After clicking on some by mistake and losing my free ones on several occasions, I finally just paid the $12 per year and have unlimited property clicks.
