Same
The ONLY upside is that we can do some serious trail management( mowing,trimming branches,etc)
without getting stuck in the bottomland
bill
Drought and Survival
- Thread starter dogghr
- Start date
Same
The ONLY upside is that we can do some serious trail management( mowing,trimming branches,etc)
without getting stuck in the bottomland
bill
True - was just able last week to get tractors down in my bottomland
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Pretty jealous of your rain AND your temps...
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Yeah, about the same here. Rained for about ten minutes this afternoon from a popup shower, but at 103* that lasted about ten seconds once it hit the ground.
I looked at my pigweed plot today (that used to be a buckwheat plot) and it was thriving. The pigweed, not the buckwheat. My only solace is that I could tell it had been browsed back to the stalk (the buckwheat) before it burned up so at least they got something out of it.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
Have you made any changes to your program to plan for hot and dry conditions? I normally have the opposite and have had to adapt everything to constantly wet and seasonal ponding conditions. I normally can't even drive on my trails until July. Last weekend was the first time, and I was still going through water.
I stay off until the threat of rutting up my trails passes, but the trail grass was so tall, I didn't realize it was still wet until I was in it.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Not really, dry weather doesn’t change much in terms of the hunting we do. Maybe closer to water? My biggest concern when it comes to the deer is EHD.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
I mean for plot species selections, and growing methods. I had given up on trying to grow alfalfa, winter wheat, and winter rye because it'd die every spring in the flood. I finally broke out the checkbook and started digging to and make water holes and high spots with the spoils.
That process left me with no topsoil, so I had to shift over to low fertility/restoration type blends to get things going again.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
I don't think there is anything much more drought tolerant than what we plant consistently already. Even back in '11 and '12, enough moisture showed up by the end of Oct/beginning of Nov to get stuff growing or back out of dormancy. Early season can be a wash years like that, but we don't hunt over the plots most of the time anyway. Again, EHD is our biggest concern. All of this said, I will say that in my experience, nothing holds up to drought better the following year after planting, than a conventionally planted rye/clover combo plot.
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Weather is certainly not fair. Another 2” rain on Saturday w temps in the 60s over the wkend. Playing golf tournament I cussed all day.
My clover is typically going dormant by now but not this year. Negative tho is the creeping Charlie that I always battle is too happy.
Hope rain and temps modify for others soon.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Getting a little dry…no rain in over a month and only 2 days of the next 14 are not triple digit temps…
May 28th
To now…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
May 28th
To now…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
In CO now and it’s 58 degrees and raining. Meanwhile at home it’s blazing hot and getting hotter, and no rain since we left which puts our last rain at 38 or 39 days ago I believe? I’m quite sure the oaks we planted this spring will be dead by the time we get back. Hopefully the 2 year old pears are still alive.
I haven’t posted much recently. Too dang hot to do anything. We are at 24 straight days over 100 with no end in sight. It’s going to be 111 tomorrow.
I’m very thankful for the cedar clearing, TSI and prescribed fire we did in April. The new growth is about the only green left on my place for now.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I’m very thankful for the cedar clearing, TSI and prescribed fire we did in April. The new growth is about the only green left on my place for now.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I have been feeding hay for 2 weeks. 4x5 prairie hay is going between $75-$95 a bale...The in-laws started feeding hay last week, getting to dire straights around here.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
When I was a kid, we went through the longest drought in recent history during the early fifties. Of course I was just a kid and didn’t realize the full impact until years later but it busted most of the dairy farmers in our area. My dad was a dairy farmer. It busted him too and we had to give up the place where we had lived for ten years, which was my entire life at the time. I imagine that years long drought took ten years off his life with all the worrying he did. Any time it would be cloud up he would go outside and look up at the sky as if he could make it rain, or at least encourage it. Folks who haven’t lived close to the land don’t fully understand the impact that drought and heat have on everyone and everything. To all of us here I think it’s readily apparent. I just hope and pray that it it ends as soon as cooler weather arrives.
