Recreating a Deer Woods
- Thread starter Chainsaw
- Start date
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Dave...Trying to catch up on a bunch of threads this morning before I head to the office. Sorry to hear about your thumb but glad you didn't lose it. Accidents are just that...accidents. Sometimes they just happen. Like you, the older I get the more cautious I am about safety. If it comes with safety equipment or seat belts they're meant to be used. After a close call 2 years ago on the tractor I now wear the seat belt. Went all my life and never buckled the seat belt on a tractor. Now it's like getting in my vehicle...It's the first thing I do when I crank the tractor.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Thanks 3C. I buckled up today for the first time in recent memory and didn't even notice it was on.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
My farmer land renter last year tried something different. He planted sometime in early August thirty plus acres with some in Rye grain, some in Triticale and some in barley with the idea of improving the soil, feeding his cows some with the barley grain, providing fall, winter and early spring deer food, providing fawning cover, and selling the rye and triticale seeds after saving enough seeds to do it all again here. So far it has worked very well. WE are at the harvest time now.
Today we harvested the seeds but I don't know the total yields yet.
The rye planting looked very strong as did the triticale also. The barley being shorter and evidently not as alleopathic if at all had many more weeds in it. Also being shorter the barley left us with a lot less soil building plant material after combining the barley grain out.
As you can see the rye is pretty clean.
Here is the plant material left from the barley. As you can see, it's pretty nothing left and the green is all weeds.
Conversely here is the rye plant material left. It's really quite a heavy amount of dried plant material.
And here you can see the rye is cut high so it is easier on the combine rock wise than cutting lower as for the barley.
And lastly here is the combine going by cutting it's second pass of rye.
Sorry for the double pics;mouse must be hanging up. The triticale was not as high as the rye but it also left a lot of plant debris in the field. So the barley was the least eaten by the deer. The rye and triticale was eaten by the deer seemingly equally to each other and in fact the rye and triticale fed about 64 deer thru the winter and spring. You can see pictures of deer winter feeding in the rye/ tricale earlier in this thread.The barley had a lot of weeds whereas the rye and triticale had some but very very few. So the rye and triticale were the definite winners here.
Now we will have for sale rye and triticale seeds mixed at $300 per ton for the local farmers and the same for the food plotters though priced at per 50 lbs($7.50). The food plotters bring their own bags and usually fill them way past 50 lbs but we are okay with that. It's really all about feeding deer, helping the soil and if sustainable, that is very good enough! Having a farmer plant thirty plus acres in deer beneficial crops and then harvesting and selling the extra seeds while leaving all the thatch to help the soil and then planting the field again for me is a super win-win in my book. Of course there I go jumping ahead. We don't know if it is sustainable until we see how many seeds we have and if we sell them There seems to be plenty of demand for them in this area though. People are asking about them already. We'll see.
Today we harvested the seeds but I don't know the total yields yet.
The rye planting looked very strong as did the triticale also. The barley being shorter and evidently not as alleopathic if at all had many more weeds in it. Also being shorter the barley left us with a lot less soil building plant material after combining the barley grain out.
As you can see the rye is pretty clean.
Here is the plant material left from the barley. As you can see, it's pretty nothing left and the green is all weeds.
Conversely here is the rye plant material left. It's really quite a heavy amount of dried plant material.
And here you can see the rye is cut high so it is easier on the combine rock wise than cutting lower as for the barley.
And lastly here is the combine going by cutting it's second pass of rye.
Sorry for the double pics;mouse must be hanging up. The triticale was not as high as the rye but it also left a lot of plant debris in the field. So the barley was the least eaten by the deer. The rye and triticale was eaten by the deer seemingly equally to each other and in fact the rye and triticale fed about 64 deer thru the winter and spring. You can see pictures of deer winter feeding in the rye/ tricale earlier in this thread.The barley had a lot of weeds whereas the rye and triticale had some but very very few. So the rye and triticale were the definite winners here.
Now we will have for sale rye and triticale seeds mixed at $300 per ton for the local farmers and the same for the food plotters though priced at per 50 lbs($7.50). The food plotters bring their own bags and usually fill them way past 50 lbs but we are okay with that. It's really all about feeding deer, helping the soil and if sustainable, that is very good enough! Having a farmer plant thirty plus acres in deer beneficial crops and then harvesting and selling the extra seeds while leaving all the thatch to help the soil and then planting the field again for me is a super win-win in my book. Of course there I go jumping ahead. We don't know if it is sustainable until we see how many seeds we have and if we sell them There seems to be plenty of demand for them in this area though. People are asking about them already. We'll see.
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dogghr
Well-Known Member
Catching up Chain. Cool comparison of grain plantings. I use wheat and rye each fall and like both. Deer have slight preferance for the wheat. My chief complaint of wheat is it tillers moreso than rye and can be aggravation if roto tiller is used for fall rotation. The wheat seems to take longer to decompose once cut and if thick, as I have this year, harder to do throw and mow. The rye breaks down after mowing much quicker. Place looks awesome.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Thanks Dogghr. Back when we used to shoot does in our food plots we had different plantings marked off in each plot. We then would fill out a daily form showing where in each plot the deer spent their time. Like you we felt they may have preferred the wheat but the difference was very little. The reason we don't use the wheat is mainly because of the heavy thunderstorms here that occur sometimes in late June and July. I've seen many years when standing wheat fields were flattened from a single storm while rye fields stood tall and unchanged.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Thanks J-bird.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
You are very welcome Tom. I enjoyed your visit and am glad you were feeling up to it. When you add up the travel time to and from here and the time we toured different property features and picked up the seeds and got to look at Dennis's corn(12 ft. tall--no kidding), you put in quite a long day. I have thought about the possibility of overgrowing the deer population due to so much browse growth peaking at once as you pointed out and have decided to err on the side of caution and will be sure to keep the growing herd trimmed regularly before it reaches a saturation point. In addition, tree cutting will continue even without any timber sales but just to create new browse growth for five to seven years out and beyond as the current browse growth maxes out.
With the exception of one hard maple grove (about 14 acres that we didn't get to) timber management will be all about the deer for the foreseeable future. We have taken more than enough profit from timber production from the property already and happily the deer will benefit from all of it.
Your enthusiasm and positive predictions have added to my excitement for deer hunting here in the years ahead. Thank You.
dave a.k.a.Chainsaw
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George
Well-Known Member
That sounds like a major ouie Dave, good luck on the mend. I'm glad to hear that Tom is moving around.
I too like to say that I think more about safety as I age, then I go and do seemingly idiotic things like jumping into nearly frozen white water or go to town and fight men bigger than me and half my age.
As usual, it is a great job that you are doing in your Deer Woods.
G
I too like to say that I think more about safety as I age, then I go and do seemingly idiotic things like jumping into nearly frozen white water or go to town and fight men bigger than me and half my age.
As usual, it is a great job that you are doing in your Deer Woods.
G
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Yes George it was a really dumb thing I did.. As I go to physical therapy though there are other people my age who have had similar accidents. According to the physical therapist most of her patients with equipment accidents are older, experienced people. Anyhow I'm healing fine and feel very lucky as compared to others that made the same mistake I did but got hurt much worse than I.
Tom moved around just fine here and on a very hot day.He has a huge amount of enthusiasm for every thing habitat.
Staying safe is important but living outside the box is as well.So keep fighting those young guys but just keep in mind that when you get a bad feeling about doing something, it is best to stop immediately.
And thanks for the deer woods comment.I'm trying to meet as many facets of a deers' needs as possible.
George
Well-Known Member
A wise man you are Dave and I'm already heeding your advise. I put a two week moratorium on live rolling prior to elk season. I have repaired knees and shoulders but now is not the time. Rolling timid is a good way to get a neck or arm broke off backwards.
I even walked my bike down hill yesterday.
G
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Thanks G, I am not all that wise but sure am wiser now than I was in April. We bicycled in a hilly area last summer where 35 miles an hour on a"paved" back road was hit quickly, much faster if you let it. Those half mountain bikes don't stop well at that speed. There aren't many deer there but if one were to step out---OUCH, OUCH, OUCH! I thought if I ever rode that road again, I'd keep the speed in the twenty MPH or so or even walk it.
When you go to physical therapy there people there with all kinds of injuries. About everyone of them did something most of us do regularly and as I they just got sloppy for a moment, one moment too long.
yellowdog00
New Member
As I get older, words I try to think every day is that "Every time I get in a hurry, bad things happen or I get hurt!"
farmhunter
Well-Known Member
Some great updates!! I can feel your pain with you - about 5 years ago I lost my left pointer finger in Sept while we were checking treestand straps - just got it in between the ATV rack and a tree - and - gone! Accidents do happen and they happen Quick!!
I've never seen cedar rust like that- glad I don't have it (no cedars). Going to be a decent apple year in the Southern Teir as well - not the best ever - but respectable.
I just paid double that for rye - maybe next year you can set me up with where to go!!
Hope you heal fast and that you have a great season coming up!!
I've never seen cedar rust like that- glad I don't have it (no cedars). Going to be a decent apple year in the Southern Teir as well - not the best ever - but respectable.
I just paid double that for rye - maybe next year you can set me up with where to go!!
Hope you heal fast and that you have a great season coming up!!
George
Well-Known Member
35 mph doesn't seem like much speed but when one tire or deer miss hap can put you on the pavement, it is fast. I watched the woods carefully on the down hills back at the state park in Iowa. I had a 1 mile an hour endo during a cross country side track the other day into a pile of rocks that stood out of the ground like jagged granite peaks. My after thought was "that could have hurt".
G
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Thank you Farm hunter. The thumb is healing pretty good.I use it now in non dangerous activities ie;no chainsawing yet. Though it was only the thumb that was damaged the entire hand is operating at less than full strength but it gets stronger every day.
Glad you are having a good apple year and that's pretty nice that your area does not have cedar apple rust. The rust definitely cuts into our apple production even on trees just slightly affected.
On the rye paying twice that is a fair deal. On this seed I shouldn't use the word for sale or selling as really we are just charging for the handling of it. We grow it for the deer and to keep us in seed. The excess is merely passed on for what we figure to be covering handling expense.
So please don't look at it as expensive for someone who sells certified seed at $16 or even $24. If we were to actually plant and grow the rye for the purpose of selling it, it could not be produced for what we charge for handling.
In addition to growing and handling expense there would be other expenses like cleaning, testing for seed germination, testing for weed percents, state and or federal permits, bags, seed tags, storage, etc.
And yes I'll hook you up with the guys handling it and we are glad to know people that can use it. And we are getting the fields killed and ready now to start the rye and triticale planting process again to help feed the deer and will likely have excess seed in 2018 as we have this year. I'll update this thread about projected 2018 seed availability in late spring.
And thank you, so far conditions look right for great hunting season coming up;Hope you have a great season as well.
Glad you are having a good apple year and that's pretty nice that your area does not have cedar apple rust. The rust definitely cuts into our apple production even on trees just slightly affected.
On the rye paying twice that is a fair deal. On this seed I shouldn't use the word for sale or selling as really we are just charging for the handling of it. We grow it for the deer and to keep us in seed. The excess is merely passed on for what we figure to be covering handling expense.
So please don't look at it as expensive for someone who sells certified seed at $16 or even $24. If we were to actually plant and grow the rye for the purpose of selling it, it could not be produced for what we charge for handling.
In addition to growing and handling expense there would be other expenses like cleaning, testing for seed germination, testing for weed percents, state and or federal permits, bags, seed tags, storage, etc.
And yes I'll hook you up with the guys handling it and we are glad to know people that can use it. And we are getting the fields killed and ready now to start the rye and triticale planting process again to help feed the deer and will likely have excess seed in 2018 as we have this year. I'll update this thread about projected 2018 seed availability in late spring.
And thank you, so far conditions look right for great hunting season coming up;Hope you have a great season as well.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Our habitat is filling in nicely and I'll post some pictures of some of the regrowth in a future post; the deer have reacted very favorably to the new growth. But for now it is deer picture time. The trail cam pictures to follow were taken over the last couple of weeks. They contain about 1/2 of the different 2 1/2 and up deer from the trail cams. Note; some of my internal camera dates/times didn't set correctly. Most of our better buck activity is still during darkness and the few daytime shots appear quite random so "hunting" to date is more like property border patrolling. The first pic. of the year was a very large doe. Pictures 221a and 224a are of the same buck--no single pic showed both his rack and body. Not seen in the 221 and 224a are 3 or 4 small stickers on his main beams. It is a very fine deer for us here.
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Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
And here is the last pic that evidently didn't fit in the previous post.
As shown by these shots the habitat improvements coupled with better low impact hunting has definitely changed the herd age here for the better. Going back even just five years ago, there were a lot of deer here but they were mostly all very young.
As shown by these shots the habitat improvements coupled with better low impact hunting has definitely changed the herd age here for the better. Going back even just five years ago, there were a lot of deer here but they were mostly all very young.
