Sam's Stompin' Ground! - Illinois 170 acres

[Sam16]

I just got back from the farm. The main objective this weekend is to get 7 Dunstan Chestnuts into the ground that my dad found at the Walmart for $19 each. Each tree was 9-10” tall. I really hope they survive. By the time we were done I was too sweaty to remember to take good pictures. Here’s one of 2 of them that we put within bow range from one of our box blinds along with this clover plot. I will soon be killing this clover to put in a fall plot. I know it’s not ideal to plant in late June, I’m hoping the excess moisture in the ground will get them going. And they were container trees.




The 1/2 acre clover I mowed last trip is getting absolutely hammered. We had a camera on it and it showed a lot of activity. Not surprised with how lush it is.




My farmer planted about an acre plot in soybeans for us just under 2 weeks ago and they are starting to pop. I spent some time spraying the weeds mixed in. This doe was with another when I drove up. Love to see that




And finally, I checked 4 cams I had out. These two bucks look like they are off to a nice start! I am pretty excited because I put a camera in a spot I’ve never hunted or had a camera, and it showed a lot of activity.




One more update... I jumped what looked to be a 3 yr old buck out of the tall grass that we burned. It’s starting to get really thick. Probably waist high, maybe higher.

Thanks for reading! Next trip will be to spray a couple fall plots so they are ready to be tilled and planted in mid to late August.




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[Native Hunter]

Looking good Sam. Clover looks lush, and your deer antler growth is really taking off.

 

[Sam16]

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I got out to the farm last weekend. It’s been about 3 weeks with almost zero rain since I was there last. The 7 dunstans are struggling to say the least. Here’s 3 of them showing one toast, one struggling, and one looking ok. I watered each of the 7 trees got 2 of the 5 gallon buckets of water from me. I hope that’s enough to save some of them. 1.40” rain is expected tomorrow!!

I should’ve known this was going to happen when i planted these in June. I couldn’t pass up the deal at Walmart on these containerized trees.

!!!

Beans have been in ground for about 5 weeks and have little growth. They are just waiting for the next rainstorm to explode, I hope!


Mineral stump update.... this one is getting nipped hard! Pretty neat! I put a camera on it to see what I see.



We have a buck we recognize from last year. I believe he’s 3.5 yr old.



I sprayed and killed off food plot areas so next trip will be to disc and plant in mid/late August. Thanks for reading.



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[Mennoniteman]

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I got out to the farm last weekend. It’s been about 3 weeks with almost zero rain since I was there last. The 7 dunstans are struggling to say the least. Here’s 3 of them showing one toast, one struggling, and one looking ok. I watered each of the 7 trees got 2 of the 5 gallon buckets of water from me. I hope that’s enough to save some of them. 1.40” rain is expected tomorrow!!

I should’ve known this was going to happen when i planted these in June. I couldn’t pass up the deal at Walmart on these containerized trees.

!!! View attachment 12796View attachment 12797View attachment 12798

Beans have been in ground for about 5 weeks and have little growth. They are just waiting for the next rainstorm to explode, I hope!
View attachment 12799

Mineral stump update.... this one is getting nipped hard! Pretty neat! I put a camera on it to see what I see.

View attachment 12800

We have a buck we recognize from last year. I believe he’s 3.5 yr old.

View attachment 12801

I sprayed and killed off food plot areas so next trip will be to disc and plant in mid/late August. Thanks for reading.



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I hope you get that rain for your beans. Radar shows a few spots headed your way at this point.

 

[lakngolf]

Hope the rain bails you out. Spring / Summer tree planting is so dependent

 

[buckhunter10]

Always looking good on your farm Sam!

 

[Native Hunter]

I wish I could send you some of our rain. We have been lucky so far. Keep up the good work!

 

[Sam16]

I have salvaged the chestnuts!! Remember these were planted in mid June and we have received VERY little rain since then. They were struggling bad. 2 weeks ago I drilled 3 holes in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and used that to deliver a nice, slow stream of water to each of my 7 trees. Each tree got 2 of my 5 gallon buckets. It seemed to save the day. I did the same thing yesterday.

Check out the new growth on a tree that I had completely written off... lesson learned!

2 weeks ago


Yesterday (after i cleaned up the dead leaves)




I am a proud Dunstan Chestnut daddy hahaha!

Clover is still getting hammered. Check out my janky exclusion cage. Probably 6” of extra growth within cage!



Can anyone help with a weed ID? This weed has taken over one of the plots I’m prepping. Luckily it seems like a quick mowing would clean it up before disking.




Last but not least I had a great 2 weeks on the trail cameras. Once I get those bucks loaded up I’ll add them.

Thanks for looking!
Sam


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[Sam16]

As promised... this first buck we call “The Funk” because he was pretty goofy looking in 2017. He seems to have mostly straightened himself out. He’s pretty visible this summer.






Not sure who this is but he’s got a big body



Another buck I can’t put my finger on. His name will be... Mick Dagger




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[swat1018]

The weed is marestail. Hard to kill, in the Midwest it's resistant to Glyphosate, and quite frankly 2,4-D rarely kills it either.

 

[T-Max]

Marestail is soooo hard to kill. Its top will droop over and just when you think it has reached the point of no return, it perks back up!

 

[Prairiesneak]

On my production acres, spraying dicamba in the late fall was the way to get ahead of my marestail problem. Great thread!

 

[bigbluetruck]

Marestail isn't super hard to kill, it's easier than pigweed and palmer amaranth.

A mix of dicamba and 24d (the mix ratio is on the label of dicamba for sure) is a good kill on it but once it starts to bloom, nothing short of napalm will kill it.

Marestail hates competition just an fyi

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[swat1018]

Marestail isn't super hard to kill, it's easier than pigweed and palmer amaranth.

A mix of dicamba and 24d (the mix ratio is on the label of dicamba for sure) is a good kill on it but once it starts to bloom, nothing short of napalm will kill it.

Marestail hates competition just an fyi

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Any weed is easy to kill if you can use anything you want to kill it. Hard to use that cocktail in the crops where marestail is a problem.

 

[Sam16]

Another day of work at the farm in the books. We managed to get 4 plots disced and seeded in Real Worlds Deadly Dozen. The 4 plots only total 1 acre, but should be productive. Has anyone tried deadly dozen?

Winter hardy Oats
Rye grain
Winter Wheat
Purple top turnips
Rape plus
Impact collards
Forage collards
Crimson clover
Tillage radish
Sugar beets
Austrian winter peas
Oil seed radish




Bucks are coming along very nicely. I am also surprised to see them hitting licking branches and pawing the ground so much in August. Any age guesses on these bucks???





We are rounding out our offseason work! I am going to head back one more time in September to overseed some oats/rye/wheat into some failing beans. It’ll be October before you know it!



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[Sam16]

We have lift off on the 2018 season!

It was a wet weekend, and I wasn’t all that optimistic of getting many hunts in. The weather was decent enough Saturday morning to try it. I am glad we did. Shooting light was 6:30, and by 7am I got a text from my buddy on one of our food plots that he shot a doe and had several others in the field. At 7:15 I had a doe give me a quartering away 26 yd shot which I happily took! I thought my shot was far back (which it was) but that quartering away angle is so deadly. She barely made it 50 yards.




Both of us had does continue to work through our food plots...




Great start to the season! We got them all taken care of and got big in for the afternoon with a lot of optimism. For some reason the movement was slow.... now time for me to make another reply and show off some of our habitat work results!


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[Sam16]

So pretty! This above pic is my best looking food plot for whatever that’s worth. This blend is the Real World Deadly Dozen

Below is the same blend. Not bad! Pretty set up for sure. I hunted here in the afternoon and saw nothing! That tree in the pic is the first apple tree I planted on the farm 5 yrs ago. You can see it has probably 20 apples sitting on it now. Golden Delicious


My buddy hunted this in the afternoon and saw 1 doe. We have never hunted this spot so it’s more of an expirement... deadly dozen didn’t come up nearly as well here but I overseeded with oats.



Finally some buck pics. The first has been a regular all year, The Funk is an 4.5 yr old.



New buck. Looks like a 5.5 yr old. He came by 3 times during night time in last 2 weeks.



Thanks for looking! We are probably taking a few weekends off due to other events taking up time. Hoping the rest at the farm will help make our rut more productive. We will be back at it on October 26th.


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[buckdeer1]

Very nice but I wouldn't use dicamda unless you are certified as it is a very touchy herbicide and was almost outlawed.It drifts and no way to control it.I use interline and crop oil.Pigweed and marestail both need to get a higher quantity of spray than grass with gly.

 

[farmhunter]

Congratulations on the Double! Place looks really well done - and some nice bucks for sure!

 

[Sam16]

Sorry for the delay but just now getting to an update from last weekend. We had left the farm alone since opening weekend and it seemed to pay off. My buddy got into one of our favorite stands early on Friday. He saw 6 does throughout the hunt before he heard a 8 pt grunting and growling coming out of the timber. He entered our field edge where there’s a big hub scrape and Anthony said he was ripping that licking branches to shreds. He was on his back legs, pawing dirt 20 feet behind him and going crazy. He stopped at 15 yards and that was it. Double lung. It’s not the biggest deer on our farm and Anthony admitted there was some serious ground shrinkage but he was so jacked from the show the buck put on. We believe him to be 3 yr old, but I couldn’t even get mad. My buddy was thrilled so I was happy for him.



The Saturday morning was uneventful. Saturday afternoon I got nestled into a thick brushy ravine early. It was warm, 60 degrees. I was shocked when at 3:45 I was almost startled by the unmistakable sound of buck chase a doe. 2 does in this case. It sounded like a train coming through the timber. I heard loud buck grunts and I got real excited. All 3 deer stopped at about 50 yards up the ridge. I got a few moments to admire the big 10 pt with at least one brow tine that looked to be 6-8 inches. He had my heart pounding. Unfortunately they turned around and went back where they came from and out of my life. Not a single deer after those early chasers!!

Needless to say I am chomping at the bit to get back out there tomorrow afternoon and the weekend. Good luck to all.

Sorry I didn’t take many pics last weekend to share. I’ll do better this weekend.


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