My Little Slice of Paradise

[Paradise725]

I also just came across this trail camera picture from July 15th last year. Notice the height of the soybeans in the background. I planted my soybeans at the same time this year as I did last year but they are not doing nearly as well. I think the difference is two-fold:
1. I planted ag beans this year instead of eagle seed forage soybeans. I was convinced there wouldn't be that much of a difference given that the field is nearly 5 acres in size. I'm starting to second-guess that decision...
2. The local crop fields (not super close, but there are several within a mile of this field) are all in corn this year. I'm wondering if the deer are just hammering my field because it has the only soybeans around.

This pic was taken from the RH corner of the field as shown in the panoramic view from the post preceding this one:

 

[Chainsaw]

Happy to see your thread here Luke!

 

[Paradise725]

Thanks Dave. I sure hope you copy and paste your thread over here too! I would love to be able to read your thread thoroughly again before I get into any timber harvesting, which may not be too far down the road!

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks Dave. I sure hope you copy and paste your thread over here too! I would love to be able to read your thread thoroughly again before I get into any timber harvesting, which may not be too far down the road!

I was thinking of starting with a recap of the logging project listing all of the wrong things done as well as the right things done and then proceeding on with the remainder of the cut as it unfolds.

 

[Brushpile]

I really enjoyed reading your thread, and it should definitely get the ball rolling!. You might want to consider making a Y shaped food plot, or extending branches off your plot into a Y shape, so that you have an arm of the Y to hunt, regardless of the wind direction.
http://nighthawkpublications.com/journal/424/journal_2.htm

 

[Paradise725]

I really enjoyed reading your thread, and it should definitely get the ball rolling!. You might want to consider making a Y shaped food plot, or extending branches off your plot into a Y shape, so that you have an arm of the Y to hunt, regardless of the wind direction.
http://nighthawkpublications.com/journal/424/journal_2.htm

Thanks Brush! Glad to see you made it over to this forum. I'll be following along with your thread as well as many of the other QDMA transfers! I like the idea of a y-shaped plot, just haven't had a good location to plant one yet. Maybe in the future I'll be able to carve one out of an area that is currently timber. I have an L-shaped plot that has proven to be pretty good over the years, so I can appreciate the benefits of shaping food plots to allow for hunting with multiple wind directions.

 

[Paradise725]

Made it back to the farm yesterday, and put in an exhausting 12 hours of work in 98 degree heat. I can only hope that my brassica plots turn out to be worth the effort. I rented a fertilizer buggy and spread 2500 lbs of 19-19-19 and 300lbs of 34-0-0 across 6 different food plots. The last plot I fertilized was on a bench on the powerline. Since it is fairly steep to get in and out of there, I did it last. Unfortunately, my Ford 3600 (2WD) didn't quite have the traction to pull the fertilizer buggy back up the hill from the bench. After trying multiple angles to get out of there, I ended up driving the tractor as far up the hill as I could get, and putting on the parking brake. My buddy then hooked up his 3/4 ton diesel Silverado and was able to give me the little extra pull I needed to get out of there. I'm summarizing the story quite a bit, but suffice it to say that I wasted a solid hour and a half getting the tractor unstuck in a VERY hairy situation given the slope of the ground we were on. I won't be trying that one again... Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture during that process, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I did manage to pull my trail camera memory cards. Although they had only been left out for 7 days, I did have some pretty nice bucks show up. Two of these I recognize from last year ( they are 3.5 yr olds this year I'm reasonably confident). The third I'm still trying to place and I believe he is at least 4.5.

3.5 yr old buck that we called Loppy last year:

Loppy in the background with a big 10 pt in the foreground that I believe to be 4.5+:

And finally a buck that was really a quite small 8 pt as a 2.5 yr old that blew up into a really nice deer this year. I think I'll call him "High and Tight"

I had several other cameras out on the food plots that I burned down with gly last week, so not surprisingly, I didn't get a whole lot of activity on them in only a week's time. The 10 point in the foreground a few pics up is definitely going to be a hitlist deer. I'll hold off on the 3.5's this year probably as long as my cameras turn up some of the more mature deer that I know survived last season.

 

[Paradise725]

My plots that I sprayed with gly got a pretty good kill, despite the fact that my sprayer wasn't cooperating last week. Here is a pic I took yesterday. Note that the plot where I got the fertilizer buggy stuck is on a bench between the two plots you can see in the picture. The terrain is steep enough that you can't see the plot even though I'm standing on the tractor while taking the pic. The far edge of the "bench plot" is only 100 yds away. You can actually see the bench plot in a photo I posted last week because I climbed the power tower about 15 feet up to take the picture.

 

[Triple C]

Paradise...Good to see you over here! Looking forward to following along. Will be interesting to see how you develop your property. 725 acres is one huge piece of ground! Keep posting.

 

[dogdoc]

Great property. You some really nice bucks on your place.

Love the power line view.

 

[Btaylor]

I will be following along as well. Great property to have to develope over the years. Some good looking deer coming along too.

 

[lakngolf]

Some nice bucks you have there. I would put High and Tight on the hit list.

 

[dogghr]

Love the power line shots. Beautiful tract of land. But no more snakes, them things are bad news. Good stuff.

 

[Paradise725]

Thanks to all for the comments!
Dog doc, the powerline is the most enjoyable spot to hunt on the farm for me. You can't beat the view. I'll have a redneck on it some day...
Taylor, one of these days I'll put together a time lapse from the last several years to show you how much the quality of our deer has improved. It's amazing to me to see the progression through years of trail camera pictures.
Lakngulf, yeah he is a super impressive deer and will be very tempting. I believe I passed him at least twice last year. I would be happy with him no doubt but kinda hope I can hold out for a deer I know is 4.5 or older.
Dogg, your property reminds me a lot of mine from a terrain standpoint and I follow your thread closely to see what kind of tidbits I can pick up.

Headed to the farm this weekend to check cameras... Stay tuned!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Paradise725]

Well I splurged and bought a used 2012 Polaris Ranger EV this morning... It's electric! The dealer had put brand new batteries, wires, and clamps in it for me. I got up super early and drove to southern IL to pick it up, and had it back down to the farm by noon. One of the biggest challenges for my farm layout is access. Now, I can very quietly drive past my destination food plots at the front of the farm and cause very little disturbance to wildlife.

I planted 6 different plots in the LC brassica mix on July 23. We got 1.5 inches of rain 3 days after planting. Other than the distribution being uneven due to some technical difficulties with my bag spreader, I'm very pleased with the germination and the plots are starting to look great.

You'll notice that I only planted half the plots, which was on purpose. The cereal grain portion of the mix will be spread August 27, a week before our archery season opens.

My bean field is looking pretty decent, although the ragweed is really kicking butt in the spots where I missed it with the sprayer. I'd also like to report that all 3 of my chestnuts are thriving still. One is already 4' tall in the tube!

I over seeded a section of the bean field with LC brassica mix, and am happy to report good germination:

I also pulled trail camera cards and got some pics of some pretty good bucks, many of which are 3.5 yr olds I believe. I'll share those in a later post...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wbpdeer]

That is a nice ride you got young man. Hope it works out just as you need. You are making the right changes on your farm. Keep up the good work.

 

[dogdoc]

Don't try to compare Ag beans with the eagle beans. Those Ag beans can't keep up with Eagle . I have planted both side by side and the Eagles easily produced 3X the forage. The deer hammered both so i don't think there is any preference as far as browsing - just the amount of browse produced.

 

[Paradise725]

Don't try to compare Ag beans with the eagle beans. Those Ag beans can't keep up with Eagle . I have planted both side by side and the Eagles easily produced 3X the forage. The deer hammered both so i don't think there is any preference as far as browsing - just the amount of browse produced.

I had heard others say that Eagle beans weren't worth the price because Ag beans would do just as well in a 5 acre field. Having tried Eagles for 3 years in a row, I decided to save some money and see how the Ag beans would do. No comparison if you ask me. The Eagles did much better. The Ag beans got browsed so heavily that they still are getting out-competed by weeds after the post emergent gly treatment. The Eagles never had that problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OkieKubota]

Love that Polaris EV... I want one for our place as our road access is smack down the middle of our property but can't be helped because both sides are hollows, creek bottoms, ridges, etc...

 

[Flyfixer]

Great looking crop of bucks! That electric ranger looks sweet, quiet travel would be great. What is the range on one of those?