Recent content by Don M

I have sprayed my clover plots in the spring to kill the annual rye that shows up with little damage to the growing clover, but I reduced to rate to 1 qt. acre.

We have put out almost 100 over the years in Upstate SC and usually check them first in Jan, to refurbish those that need it, clean the boxes out, and refill clean shavings. You can also count the egg membranes left from last years nesting to get an idea of the hatch on your property. A box...

It's great to see what you all have been doing to improve your property...did you make your feeders?

On a regular drill ( not a no-til) you want to get double disc openers. A single disc opener will wind up grass and trash very quickly and stop opening the ground for the seed to drop into. The first drill I had 30 yrs ago was a single and what a head ache.

By 5 wire I mean that I run 5 wires on each post evenly spaced.. The top one is about 6 ft off the ground. The bottom wire is grounded and the rest are hot. None of these wire are staggered or off set. Keeps out 95% of my deer... But this system is easy to put up and take down when needed.

I use a 5 wire electric fence that I simply take the wires out of the insulators and lay the on the ground when I am ready to let the deer in. I have tries Milorgonite , Deer Away, etc with limited success. The fence works the best.

I have planted the Eagle RR forage beans for several years in a single 2 acre field. A deer exclusion fence of some type is necessary for at least 6-8 weeks to get the beans up enough to with stand constant grazing. Newly sprouted beans can easily be wiped out in a few nights of grazing and...

Nitrogen report: So after I spread the urea we had almost 2.5" of rain over 2 weeks with some temps in the 50's but with some frosts too. My fields ( wheat, rye and oats) have grown significantly and are a beautiful green... the deer now pour in in the evenings/nights. So maybe the gamble...

We ended up with 1.25" of rain over 2 days....give the fields about a week and we will look to see if my nitrogen was of any benefit. Praise the Lord for the rain!

Good point....maybe the fertilizer salesman benefitted the most! I do plant various nitrogen fixators in many fields each spring. Planted sun hemp this last summer which is a nitrogen fixator new to me last summer. The deer b browsed it all summer and was fairly drought tolerant. It is now 6ft...

I will put my 2 cents in...I would put out nitrogen at this point. Your P and K from your fertilization are probably still around...they mover very slowly in the soil and are not volatile. Nitrogen on the other hand is volatile and rapidly lost in fertilizer applications hanging around 6 weeks...

My plots here in the upstate of SC look just like the pictures from GA. With our forecast for rain tomorrow, I drilled winter wheat yesterday and will spread urea today, then keep my fingers crossed.

Here in Upstate SC we are now approaching a deficit of 13" in our rain fall. The forecast does look favorable for next Tues/Wednesday. Our farmers are currently drilling wheat...so it's not too late to plant winter wheat, or rye grain. I plan to put some nitrogen on my fields to see if that...

Sunday a front came through from the south and brought 0.32" of rain...which will help some, but not a game changer. Most plots are now grazed down to dirt. Now we have wild fires in the nearby mountains of NC with all the smoke blowing down our way...

Still no rain in sight here in the piedmont of SC. All of our fields look like Brad B in SE Alabama. Now with cooler temps and our first frost predicted this weekend our potential for any significant growth even with rain goes way down. Our deer are still in the acorns.Interestingly enough...