Predicting total failure...

howboutthemdawgs

Active Member
or maybe I’m being pessimistic because this weather pattern has me in a severe depression. I hate hot and i hot dry, luckily we have both in spades right now. I planted my place in western Kentucky Labor Day weekend. I don’t live nearby so due to a ruptured appendix and a trip to Alaska that was my only time I could make it happen. Planted wheat and brassicas and red clover. About 6 acres total. Most was throw and mow into a summer mix of millet, sorghum, sun hemp, etc that had been killed in mid August. Tilled one plot because it been taken over by smartweed.

Well, it hadn’t rained in about week prior and so far unless a bird has peed flying over it hasn’t received any sense. Luckily there is none in the forecast either! So with that said what is y’alls gameplan when facing a situation like this? I’m still holding out hope that I can salvage something. One of my cell cams is showing wheat growing in the tilled plot. Don’t have cameras on the other.
 
Don't since up the noose yet. Those situations like that call for extra seed in case some parts don't happen. If you had the biomass, you may get something yet. Water can come up via capillary action and get that stuff to germinate. Will it happen there, I don't know enough to say.

Those constraints, given they may not be there each year, call for a simpler model. I like perennial clover for the simple reason, that if what I do in addition fails, I still have clover. My favorite plot is white clover and chicory seeded full of cereals in fall. Getting those cereals to grow with limited equipment is the challenge.
 
I feel your pain dawgs. I’m headed down tomorrow to fix up my throw and mow brassicas that I planted in late July, and to fling more seed among other things. As of now, the rain chances for next week went from looking pretty good to near nil
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I feel your pain dawgs. I’m headed down tomorrow to fix up my throw and mow brassicas that I planted in late July, and to fling more seed among other things. As of now, the rain chances for next week went from looking pretty good to near nil
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I was so excited earlier this week because they were calling for a good chance of rain every day next week...now zero. I haven’t hunted my brand new farm once and until it cools down some I won’t. So frustrating.
 
Some things are out of our hands. My family and I planted several plots and a couple dozen trees in northern MI around 8/20 and the area has had rain every 3 or 4 days, ever since. We've been lucky this year. All you can do is plant when ya know you're supposed to and then leave it to a higher authority. I can't imagine being an actual farmer and the agony they go through with the weather every year.
 
I didn’t do Throw N Mow this year because last year I had a poor showing...I Chisel plowed 1/2 my 2 acre clover plot in mid August because August was very wet and we had lots
Of chances for rain. I planted the plot and got rain that night, 3 days later, and then 3 days after that. It took off! We got a couple more rains before the first of September and then it shut off but my plants were already in great shape so it made it fine the couple weeks we have had with 90+ temps everyday and we got a small rain last night. It should be fine...

The commercial plot I did mid week last week got a good rain last night and if we get another rain within a week should do great!

Plotting in Oklahoma is always iffy in September!
 
Some things are out of our hands. My family and I planted several plots and a couple dozen trees in northern MI around 8/20 and the area has had rain every 3 or 4 days, ever since. We've been lucky this year. All you can do is plant when ya know you're supposed to and then leave it to a higher authority. I can't imagine being an actual farmer and the agony they go through with the weather every year.

The part about being an actual farmer is the God’s honest truth. My deer were fat and happy long before I started planting things for them but dang if I don’t agonize over how my plots do. Real farmers deserve far more respect than they get!
 
I plant durana and wheat. My durana is going to come back every fall when conditions are right - it might be too late for early hunting - but will be fine for late hunts and spring and early summer does, fawns, and antlers. I seed wheat into the clover in early Oct. it will germinate and grow when conditions are right - usually by end of oct - creating a hunting mecca. I have fought it too long - nature always wins. Plant Sep 1st and if it rains and germinates, the army worms get it. If the Sep 1st planting is lucky enough to get rain, the seeds germinate, and the army worms dont get it - it will be calf high by deer season and the deer wont pay it any attention until they really get hungry in January. I plant about sixty acres a year. Doing that, you learn what is least expensive, least labor intensive, and most likely to work. I dont plant early any more and I dont plant multi concoctions of a variety of seeds. I dont have the time Replant or the nervous system capable of worrying about my planting.
 
Our weather is about like yours. No rain of any proportion in the last two months and none in the forecast for the foreseeable future. I disced a little this morning just to ease the pain and be better prepared for when I can plant. (See Native Hunter’s Twenty days without Rain thread). I won’t plant until good rain is forecast or the first week of October, whichever comes first.
 
or maybe I’m being pessimistic because this weather pattern has me in a severe depression. I hate hot and i hot dry, luckily we have both in spades right now. I planted my place in western Kentucky Labor Day weekend. I don’t live nearby so due to a ruptured appendix and a trip to Alaska that was my only time I could make it happen. Planted wheat and brassicas and red clover. About 6 acres total. Most was throw and mow into a summer mix of millet, sorghum, sun hemp, etc that had been killed in mid August. Tilled one plot because it been taken over by smartweed.

Well, it hadn’t rained in about week prior and so far unless a bird has peed flying over it hasn’t received any sense. Luckily there is none in the forecast either! So with that said what is y’alls gameplan when facing a situation like this? I’m still holding out hope that I can salvage something. One of my cell cams is showing wheat growing in the tilled plot. Don’t have cameras on the other.

So, this is all your fault. I knew the Lord didn't like the Dawgs! On the bright side, antlers are done growing, there is a heavy acorn crop, AND deer LOVE corn piles!
 
So, this is all your fault. I knew the Lord didn't like the Dawgs! On the bright side, antlers are done growing, there is a heavy acorn crop, AND deer LOVE corn piles!
Here when we have heavy acorn crops deer won’t come to corn...white oaks and red oaks...
 
I have heavy acorn crops---sawtooths, whites, reds, water, chinkapin, you name it. But, my deer will STILL wear out corn. Jokers will eat ANYTHING.
 
Actually, I’d much rather have no rain than just enough to get it to germinate and die. Back in ‘12 our wr, oats, clover, and radish sat in the ground and did nothing for over a month. The rains finally came the end of October and wallah a huntable plot by the second week of November.
 
You got that right Okie. An overabundance of food especially acorns here usually equals more bucks moving onto the next age category for sure.
 
Typically we seed the beginning of September. The last few years we did this with very little rain forecast. As you can guess, the seed didn't take well at all. This year we still haven't planted because of literally zero rain. Hell, the only rain we got last year was from two hurricanes. As of today, the next 10 days show no rain in the forecast. We're gonna plant this weekend but i'm not hopeful.

I built a pergola with a roof on my back deck. Been waiting three weeks for rain to see if it'll leak. Rain is life!!!
 
My wife must be doing something right, (pretty sure it ain’t me), because my buddy and I planted six plots Tuesday and the rains came Wednesday. We took advantage of the tropical disturbance that came through the last couple days and we were lucky. I prepped a couple plots here at home today and I’ll plant them tomorrow. Now, just need some more in a week or two.
 
Still nothing but a chance two days next week. To my best knowledge that is at least 25 straight days without a drop.
I’d start bird watching before I hunted over a corn pile. I don’t necessarily hunt over my plots but I like what they bring to the table in their ability to hold late season deer.
 
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