The Land of Milk and Honey

[buckdeer1]

Have you listened to The Land Podcast,lots of great ideas.What drone did you get?

 

[T-Max]

Have you listened to The Land Podcast,lots of great ideas.What drone did you get?

Is that Jake Hofer?
I got a DJI Mini 3 Pro. I have 0 prior experience with them. I was listening to Habitat University podcast one morning and they said you should have one and I had been looking so I pulled the trigger. It is AWESOME!

 

[George]

I like that view T-Max, you can buy a drone for $99 what got you into that $900 model. 48mp is a lot of pixels. Just wondering, I would like to get one.

It looked like you were flying around 100 acres? I see lots of potential for habitat work. How much ground?

G

 

[George]

Do you have to stay in direct sight of a drone to fly, do trees block it out?

G

 

[Mitch123]

Got a DJI Phantom 4K years ago! Always fun to fly around the farms. We have flown it on some bear recovery missions in the corn before. Helps having some eyes above that can see a little further than the people actually in the corn field!

 

[Mitch123]

Do you have to stay in direct sight of a drone to fly, do trees block it out?

G

I’m sure it depends on the drone and model etc. Ours has about a mile radius and have flown it out of sight many times. Our drone is 6-7 years old though, I’m pretty sure the technology today you can fly one a lot further.

 

[George]

I’m sure it depends on the drone and model etc. Ours has about a mile radius and have flown it out of sight many times. Our drone is 6-7 years old though, I’m pretty sure the technology today you can fly one a lot further.

Thanks Mitch, I watched some videos, they look awesome.

G

 

[T-Max]

I like that view T-Max, you can buy a drone for $99 what got you into that $900 model. 48mp is a lot of pixels. Just wondering, I would like to get one.

It looked like you were flying around 100 acres? I see lots of potential for habitat work. How much ground?

G

George, I have a friend that bought a similar drone after years of using the cheaper ones. This one has so many sensors and safety features that it is very hard to crash if you are paying any attention at all. It wasn’t easy spending that kind of cash on a toy, so I call it a tool and intend to use it as such. It has a range of over 3 miles, but I doubt I’ll ever come close to that. It does need line-of-sight, but so far scattered trees don’t seem to bother it. A hill did once. Lost complete remote signal. The drone took over and flew itself home.


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[T-Max]

Got a DJI Phantom 4K years ago! Always fun to fly around the farms. We have flown it on some bear recovery missions in the corn before. Helps having some eyes above that can see a little further than the people actually in the corn field!

We have been checking the cows with it. Pretty handy.


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[T-Max]

And George, this piece is about 220 acres total. I flew another path over some interesting areas and I intend to do a voiceover of that video and post it for conversation.


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[George]

I took your drone flight again, pretty nice looking countryside. Is this not a place where a guy could theoretically hunt deer?

G

 

[T-Max]

I took your drone flight again, pretty nice looking countryside. Is this not a place where a guy could theoretically hunt deer?

G

It is! Theoretically. The problem is the manager (my father) doesn't believe in any plant whose leaf is wider than a blade of grass. An aerial would show our place as a desert in a sea of deer habitat. We have three small bottom fields, two of which are planted to brome and all of which contain cattle during deer season (I know that isn't necessarily a deterrent). I sat with him 10 times last season (nothing better than time with dad even if we don't always see eye to eye) and we saw one deer in total during all of those sits. A doe. Panting. Presumably bumped by the neighbor. In this 200+ acres I have been given complete control of 3-ish acres. If you are going to see a deer on our place it will be on those 3 acres. On a trail camera. At 2 AM. I AM working my tail off on those 3 acres and pressuring dad to allow for more of a mixed-use approach, but so far no luck.

 

[George]

I understand.

G

 

[T-Max]

So, I got a tentative go-ahead from dad to convert one of our bottom fields to a food plot. Before I committed to it, I told him I would come up with a plan. The field pictured is around 4-1/2 acres. I walked it today and would be interested in converting a little over 3 acres. I would like to leave buffers around the edges and would stay away from the slopes to the SE.

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[T-Max]

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[T-Max]

Here is the neighborhood. The South edge of our field is the property line, but the North edge of the neighbor’s is sanctuary and I could potentially draw a ton of deer from that. East of us is big ag, and West and South is pasture with quite a bit of cover. There are very few roads in this area with about 2,000 acres without one. This winter, my focus area was going to be the woods East of this field. I intend to open some canopy and let the sunshine in.

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[T-Max]

I need help with the plan for the field. I have access to most conventional farming implements. We have a plow, disk, springtooth, drag barrow, cultipacker, John Deere FB-B drill, cone spreader, brush mower and spray rig. Small acreage stuff. I would like to give dad the option of turning the cattle onto whatever I end up planting after deer season so that will be a consideration. I can do throw-n-mow or till it up. I would just like for it to be successful for the cattle at the very least. Any ideas would be very appreciated. Since it is only 3 acres, cost won’t be much of a problem and as you can see by the blue dot, it is right by the house. What would you do?


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[T-Max]

I should also add, if I can get this to work, the field immediately to the West will be available to add to the rotation.


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[deer patch]

I have a little one acre plot beside my house that is hard fenced and I turn cows into it just like you suggest. Hard to beat a wheat, oats, rye grain, radish, clover mix for cattle. My cows haven’t showed interest in turnips other than the tops but will eat the radishes. What’s your goal for spring/summer for this area?

 

[KSQ2]

Looks like a prime setup, I’ll let some of the guys with cattle experience chime in.