My property tour

[MarkDarvin]

Last time I had a good buckwheat stand, I had turkeys in it every day until I mowed it down.

 

[jlane35]

Last time I had a good buckwheat stand, I had turkeys in it every day until I mowed it down.

We haven’t planted buckwheat in a few years. And the last time we did, it was mixed in with brassicas and clovers. That year my father got a hen out of a group of 30 and I got a Jake with my bow. Those are the only “fall” turkeys we ever harvested off our place.

 

[jlane35]

I sprayed an acre on Friday in preparation for a summer brassica and clover planting. While heading to the field I checked a few apple and crabapple trees out. The crabapple trees have much more fruit then the apples but some is better then none.

I also ordered more seed for my food plots. Catscratch and Mennonite have explained a lot to be about throw and mow and regenerative planting. So at their advice WR and WW were purchased to add into an acre of oats, along with clovers and chicory.

I then decided to buy 25 pounds of mammoth red clover to add into winter peas and another brassica plot. This should give my plots a nice boost coming into next spring. My understanding of mammoth red clover is it matures fast and will end up 2-3 feet tall. And after it’s cut it grows very slowly. So I should have time to broadcast buckwheat, cut the clover, then have a nice stand of buckwheat to throw and mow a fall planting of WR and WW. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m addicted at looking seed catalogs now and trying to decide what would be best to add into my plots.

 

[jlane35]

I love getting fawn pictures

 

[jlane35]

I know I’m not posting anything to exciting but I do it to see if I can learn anything from you guys that directly impacts what’s going on at my property and to keep records I could look back on.

I sprayed a field one week ago and I planned on throw and mow today with brassica. I wasn’t happy with the kill so I broadcasted and sprayed again.


I then checked out my buckwheat fields. It is knee high in most places and the sunflowers are showing too.

I know buckwheat isn’t a high browse item but I see a decent amount nipped off.

 

[jlane35]

I spotted some common daisy and what I believe is Smooth rose growing along one of my fallow rabbit fields.

 

[MarkDarvin]

Nice pics man! I like pairing buckwheat and sunflower.

Where you sprayed, were there daisies there as well?

 

[jlane35]

Nice pics man! I like pairing buckwheat and sunflower.

Where you sprayed, were there daisies there as well?

The daisies are coming up next to our shooting benches where we don’t disc or miss spraying, that’s where that picture was taken. They are also next to the clover plot alongside a hedge row. A few other spots to but that’s all coming to mind at the moment.

 

[Jon]

Nice pics man! I like pairing buckwheat and sunflower.

Where you sprayed, were there daisies there as well?

Great simple combo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MarkDarvin]

The daisies are coming up next to our shooting benches where we don’t disc or miss spraying, that’s where that picture was taken. They are also next to the clover plot alongside a hedge row. A few other spots to but that’s all coming to mind at the moment.

I'm not sure how to manage them, but keep an eye on them. By me they are an invasive plant.

They seem to colonize farmed out or stripped soil, and once they get thick, there doesn't appear to be much else that grows. What I don't know is if they grow because nothing else will, or if they take over and don't allow anything else to grow. There are fields up by me that are totally shot and they're covered in daisy, orange hawkweed, and not much else.

I have them in my super duper clover plot, and so far they don't go anywhere or proliferate. So for now I'm ok with it.

 

[MarkDarvin]

The bees seem to like them.

Another one I’m keeping an eye on is fleabane. It’s spreading, but doesn’t seem to be hurting anything.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jlane35]

I'm not sure how to manage them, but keep an eye on them. By me they are an invasive plant.

They seem to colonize farmed out or stripped soil, and once they get thick, there doesn't appear to be much else that grows. What I don't know is if they grow because nothing else will, or if they take over and don't allow anything else to grow. There are fields up by me that are totally shot and they're covered in daisy, orange hawkweed, and not much else.

I have them in my super duper clover plot, and so far they don't go anywhere or proliferate. So for now I'm ok with it.

At one time this field was a clover field. We will spray gly from occasion around our shooting benches to knock the weeds down or just weedwack.

So common daisies aren’t good for much? I don’t know much about plants, but I’m getting slightly better at figuring out what certain ones are. And that is only because of google imager. I’m coming to learn if it is on our property it’s probably no good and it’s growing bc of something we have done wrong in the past.

The plantains, probably because we compacted the soil and now I’m guessing the daisies because we stripped the soil of nutrients and that’s why they are popping up.

 

[MarkDarvin]

So common daisies aren’t good for much?

No, I'm not saying that.

Anything that drills a hole and pulls up nutrients is ok with me. If it brings in beneficial bugs and looks good to the ladies, that's a bonus. You'll also find me standing up for thistles, so keep that in mind. I found one bull thistle in my clover, and I had a thought to put a cage around it to protect it from getting sat on by a bear.

If any plant becomes unmanageable, that's another story. The keyword there is threshold. I'm a big fan of durable flowers. Another one by me is prairie coneflower. I wish it'd get a little more aggressive. Goldenrod is one that is borderline too much, but it's not where I'm working so it can do it's thing. I've got a couple acres of naturally occurring milkweed in my unmanaged grass areas, and the monarchs to go with 'em. My management prescription there is to leave it be.

 

[jlane35]

No, I'm not saying that.

Anything that drills a hole and pulls up nutrients is ok with me. If it brings in beneficial bugs and looks good to the ladies, that's a bonus. You'll also find me standing up for thistles, so keep that in mind. I found one bull thistle in my clover, and I had a thought to put a cage around it to protect it from getting sat on by a bear.

If any plant becomes unmanageable, that's another story. The keyword there is threshold. I'm a big fan of durable flowers. Another one by me is prairie coneflower. I wish it'd get a little more aggressive. Goldenrod is one that is borderline too much, but it's not where I'm working so it can do it's thing. I've got a couple acres of naturally occurring milkweed in my unmanaged grass areas, and the monarchs to go with 'em. My management prescription there is to leave it be.

I just killed some bull thistle in the throw and now plot I’m attempting. It stuck out like a sore thumb but I didn’t know what it was until you just said that and I looked it up. I also saw some milkweed today in a fallow field by our cabin today.

Do you get many butterflies frequenting your place?

When we go to the Jersey shore on vacation a lot of homes have butterfly gardens and signs up staying they are Involved in a conservation program. There are always monarchs there and these are tiny gardens. It makes me want to plant an acre or so of wildflowers for the bees and butterflies.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I just killed some bull thistle in the throw and now plot I’m attempting. It stuck out like a sore thumb but I didn’t know what it was until you just said that and I looked it up. I also saw some milkweed today in a fallow field by our cabin today.

Do you get many butterflies frequenting your place?

When we go to the Jersey shore on vacation a lot of homes have butterfly gardens and signs up staying they are Involved in a conservation program. There are always monarchs there and these are tiny gardens. It makes me want to plant an acre or so of wildflowers for the bees and butterflies.

I do. If you really stop and look around, you've probably got dozens of flowers already on your landscape, some so common you don't see them as flowers. Thistle, dandelion, goldenrod, apples, cherries, plums, and clover, all count.

I've spent a small amount of money trying to establish wildflowers, and I've come to the same conclusion as most other plantings.

--If it was meant to be growing there, it'd be growing there--

I've accidentally released and discovered more flowers by letting natural regen happen after disruption with a skid steer (physical disruption), a chainsaw (solar disruption), a brush pile (browse disruption), a hole or soil pile (moisture disruption), and a lime (geological disruption) application, and various combinations of those things.

 

[jlane35]

I hope this guy keeps hanging around. I would say every other night he is in the clover plot.

He really seems to be enjoying it by the looks of the video.
https://youtu.be/iV1VLrTN1sA

 

[Mennoniteman]

I hope this guy keeps hanging around. I would say every other night he is in the clover plot.

He really seems to be enjoying it by the looks of the video.

View attachment 19236 View attachment 19237 View attachment 19238

Clover, the magic bullet of food plots.

 

[jlane35]

This field used to be a hayfield. Once we bought the property we asked the farmer to stop haying it. Up until this year I don’t remember much of anything growing besides a few blackberry bushes and all of the grass, which type though I have no clue. Well I was pretty surprised when I drove into the field today while I was cutting our trails.
hairy vetch?
yellow toadflax
Deptford pink?
Hop trefoil

I wish I knew why some pictures rotate when I post them.

the blue spruce I planted as a border around the field and some mixed sporadically throughout it.

 

[jlane35]

I inspected my throw and kill brassica plot. I only broadcasted Friday and it rained Saturday.
It was hot and dry out. But when digging through the thatch I could feel the moisture and the coolness!

 

[jlane35]

Well I feel like a real asshole. I checked on my water troughs because it’s been so warm and dry and I found 5 baby turkeys dead in one. I had a log laying in it so chipmunks or squirrels could climb out but the turkeys couldn’t.