The Massey

[KSQ2]

I sprayed the back foodplot for a complete redo yesterday. While I was there I downloaded the card. I’m not sure if all cell cams work like this, but tacticams send a relatively low quality pic and the stored pics are much better; we got this pic a while ago, but it wasn’t very clear. This is the best we’ve gotten on camera at the Massey so far.

We also picked up a buck at a longtime permission spot. I’d like to see a little bit different angle; but if he’s the buck I think he is, I’ll be a little conflicted, he’s possibly pretty young yet.


I THINK this is him from last year.

On a sidenote, look at the difference in the amount of green from last year to this! I LOVE rain!!!

 

[T-Max]

You know more about your deer than I do surely, but I'm not sure he is as young as you think. Look at last year's pic and compare his face to the young buck next to him. Look at this year and he has a BIG body for August. He'll look like a giant when his winter coat and muscle come back. His antler mass at the bases looks great too. I dunno man.

 

[KSQ2]

You know more about your deer than I do surely, but I'm not sure he is as young as you think. Look at last year's pic and compare his face to the young buck next to him. Look at this year and he has a BIG body for August. He'll look like a giant when his winter coat and muscle come back. His antler mass at the bases looks great too. I dunno man.

You could be right, this isn't our place, so the bucks don't get quite as close scrutiny. About the mass though, I've been fooled too many times to think much about mass until the velvet comes off.

 

[KSQ2]

I have a feeling this whole alfalfa experiment is at best going to be a work in progress, and at worst an expensive hard lesson. We’ll see….
I sprayed the 10 acres with gly and 24D on Saturday. The target plant date is September 11th.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I have a feeling this whole alfalfa experiment is at best going to be a work in progress, and at worst an expensive hard lesson. We’ll see….
I sprayed the 10 acres with gly and 24D on Saturday. The target plant date is September 11th.
View attachment 30174

I've got a friend who grows roundup ready pioneer alfalfa on a gas line right of way and in food plots and he's always bragging about how easy it is to grow and take care of, he just mow once or twice and hit's it with roundup when the weeds start coming. I think he's in his second year and loves it, I'm almost tempted to try it myself.

 

[KSQ2]

I've got a friend who grows roundup ready pioneer alfalfa on a gas line right of way and in food plots and he's always bragging about how easy it is to grow and take care of, he just mow once or twice and hit's it with roundup when the weeds start coming. I think he's in his second year and loves it, I'm almost tempted to try it myself.

That is encouraging. We got a variety called Viper I believe. It is also RR , and the best of Becks offerings. As expensive as it is, I’m hoping it’s beyond me messing it up!

 

[Mennoniteman]

That is encouraging. We got a variety called Viper I believe. It is also RR , and the best of Becks offerings. As expensive as it is, I’m hoping it’s beyond me messing it up!

I guarantee I could mess it up for you. I bought a $500 bag of pioneer RR alfalfa and got the wise idea I would experiment and drill it into a 2.5 acre ladino field then mow the ladino on top of it. The alfalfa didn't grow, and a 1/4 acre field that I disced and planted with the leftovers is all that I have to show for the $500 bag

 

[KSQ2]

I guarantee I could mess it up for you. I bought a $500 bag of pioneer RR alfalfa and got the wise idea I would experiment and drill it into a 2.5 acre ladino field then mow the ladino on top of it. The alfalfa didn't grow, and a 1/4 acre field that I disced and planted with the leftovers is all that I have to show for the $500 bag

That's the kind of expensive experiment I'm talking about! We've spent nearly $2200 just on seed for this, that's doesn't include lime, inputs, and spray...
We did get a price break on the seed for ordering early; and Becks will replace the seed, if we don't get a good stand. I'm not sure how you go about proving you did everything right though. Our seed guy is a really good dude though, and I think he'll help all he can if the planting goes awry.

 

[Mennoniteman]

That's the kind of expensive experiment I'm talking about! We've spent nearly $2200 just on seed for this, that's doesn't include lime, inputs, and spray...
We did get a price break on the seed for ordering early; and Becks will replace the seed, if we don't get a good stand. I'm not sure how you go about proving you did everything right though. Our seed guy is a really good dude though, and I think he'll help all he can if the planting goes awry.

Inputs are expensive but important, fertilizer is more important than a lot of us tend to appreciate. I decided to skip a year to save money, and barely noticed a difference, than I skipped a second year of fertilizer because it was so dry last summer, and the quality of my plots plummeted drastically, now I'm playing fertilizer catchup. On hindsight, the next time I decide to save money on fertilizer I will just downsize my field accordingly and still use the full rate of fert on a smaller area and let the rest of the plot lie fallow for a year.

 

[KSQ2]

Inputs are expensive but important, fertilizer is more important than a lot of us tend to appreciate. I decided to skip a year to save money, and barely noticed a difference, than I skipped a second year of fertilizer because it was so dry last summer, and the quality of my plots plummeted drastically, now I'm playing fertilizer catchup. On hindsight, the next time I decide to save money on fertilizer I will just downsize my field accordingly and still use the full rate of fert on a smaller area and let the rest of the plot lie fallow for a year.

We don't plant much brassicas for this very reason. I'd rather have a half acre, or even 1/4 acre, of them that have greens 2.5-3' tall and deep green in color, than an acre or 2 that are short and yellow, with bulbs the size of ping pong balls.

 

[KSQ2]

We missed a really good rain yesterday. Got to our doorstop and just died. I’m not really complaining, rain has been wonderful this summer. I think it’s more of a symptom of long term drought ptsd; kind of gives me that ominous feeling…

 

[Mennoniteman]

We missed a really good rain yesterday. Got to our doorstop and just died. I’m not really complaining, rain has been wonderful this summer. I think it’s more of a symptom of long term drought ptsd; kind of gives me that ominous feeling…

I know what you mean about drought ptsd, in 2024 much of PA had no rain to speak of from mid-August to the end of October and our fall plots were mostly failed plantings. So we're a little on edge as we've been dry since late July again this year. Hopefully you will continue to get fall rains like KS did this summer.

 

[KSQ2]

We got a couple more stands up this afternoon. While getting everything ready to head up the tree, looked to the east about 30 yards and saw this…

How in the world have we hunted this tree for 4 years and I haven’t seen a persimmon grove literally in bow range?! Pleasant surprise, but also an eye opener of just how unobservant I am. lol

 

[KSQ2]

I got some stand prepping finished this afternoon on the Massey. I’ve been eyeing this spot for several years. After putting our cell cam there all last season and seeing just how much daylight traffic is gets, I finally decided to hang a stand. It will prolly only get hunted once and the morning will have to be perfect. I hung the stand on Thursday and today I went in to cut lanes. I did it the old fashioned way…

There’s no getting the tractor into this old overgrown meadow anymore. I can tell you one thing, I’ll NEVER complain about putting lanes in cover with a brushhog again. Today’s work was brutal! There were times the trail I made to the stand was more of a tunnel. It’s simply amazing what a good summer of rain will do to cover.
Here’s the pic from the stand after the trail to the stand tree was finished, along with several deer lanes cut out, and finally the natural scrape tree freshened and improved. Looks like the tree is setting about 27 yards from the base of the stand tree — perfect! I doctored the licking branches with black widow branch butter — and yes, it stinks!! lol

 

[Mennoniteman]

rain heading east from dodge city...

 

[M. R. Byrd]

rain heading east from dodge city...

Light rain at the Ponderosa now. Any of you that have been in SW Kansas in August know that green is a color of the irrigated corn fields or the John Deere machinery in the fields. Normal pasture color would be khaki or the color of a manila folder. Not this year. We have been blessed with abundant rainfall and more frequent rainfall. In this area, sometimes, you can go 2 to 6 months without any moisture. The normal rainfall here at the Ponderosa is 17.50", with the rain I had on Monday, I am up to 23.85". Praise the Lord.
With the rainfall in the area being around 20" much of the dryland is winter wheat. Twenty inches won't produce a wheat crop, so continuous cropping is not possible. So the cropping is plant half the dryland to winter wheat in September/October and the other half of the acres are summer fallowed. This allows the subsoil to store a year's rainfall for the next crop year. The other dryland crop in the area is milo and more recently varieties of dryland corn. The seed companies have continued to develop more dryland corn varieties and it is replacing some of the milo. Corn has more herbicide options than milo, so that is one of the driving issues. Plus, corn has a positive basis in this area because this is a high area of corn usage at the feedyards.
I have travelled to a good number of counties out here and the dryland corn has looked really good, but it is hard to tell just how good from the road. On the other hand, you can see from the road what the potential for the milo crop is. All the milo fields look green and excellent and I suspect a bin buster year, the likes I have never seen in my lifetime. There is always too little elevator bin space for the milo crop and much is stored in giant piles on the ground, a thing of artistic beauty with the various colors of the milo painting interesting designs. This year there will be a lot stored outside.
Well that is it from the Ponderosa. I hope and pray those to the east looking for rain will get some of what is passing through Dodge at the moment.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Light rain at the Ponderosa now. Any of you that have been in SW Kansas in August know that green is a color of the irrigated corn fields or the John Deere machinery in the fields. Normal pasture color would be khaki or the color of a manila folder. Not this year. We have been blessed with abundant rainfall and more frequent rainfall. In this area, sometimes, you can go 2 to 6 months without any moisture. The normal rainfall here at the Ponderosa is 17.50", with the rain I had on Monday, I am up to 23.85". Praise the Lord.
With the rainfall in the area being around 20" much of the dryland is winter wheat. Twenty inches won't produce a wheat crop, so continuous cropping is not possible. So the cropping is plant half the dryland to winter wheat in September/October and the other half of the acres are summer fallowed. This allows the subsoil to store a year's rainfall for the next crop year. The other dryland crop in the area is milo and more recently varieties of dryland corn. The seed companies have continued to develop more dryland corn varieties and it is replacing some of the milo. Corn has more herbicide options than milo, so that is one of the driving issues. Plus, corn has a positive basis in this area because this is a high area of corn usage at the feedyards.
I have travelled to a good number of counties out here and the dryland corn has looked really good, but it is hard to tell just how good from the road. On the other hand, you can see from the road what the potential for the milo crop is. All the milo fields look green and excellent and I suspect a bin buster year, the likes I have never seen in my lifetime. There is always too little elevator bin space for the milo crop and much is stored in giant piles on the ground, a thing of artistic beauty with the various colors of the milo painting interesting designs. This year there will be a lot stored outside.
Well that is it from the Ponderosa. I hope and pray those to the east looking for rain will get some of what is passing through Dodge at the moment.

Glad to hear that you're having a decent year rain wise. If the KS dryland corn doesn't do well this year it probably wouldn't any year.

 

[KSQ2]

Light rain at the Ponderosa now. Any of you that have been in SW Kansas in August know that green is a color of the irrigated corn fields or the John Deere machinery in the fields. Normal pasture color would be khaki or the color of a manila folder. Not this year. We have been blessed with abundant rainfall and more frequent rainfall. In this area, sometimes, you can go 2 to 6 months without any moisture. The normal rainfall here at the Ponderosa is 17.50", with the rain I had on Monday, I am up to 23.85". Praise the Lord.
With the rainfall in the area being around 20" much of the dryland is winter wheat. Twenty inches won't produce a wheat crop, so continuous cropping is not possible. So the cropping is plant half the dryland to winter wheat in September/October and the other half of the acres are summer fallowed. This allows the subsoil to store a year's rainfall for the next crop year. The other dryland crop in the area is milo and more recently varieties of dryland corn. The seed companies have continued to develop more dryland corn varieties and it is replacing some of the milo. Corn has more herbicide options than milo, so that is one of the driving issues. Plus, corn has a positive basis in this area because this is a high area of corn usage at the feedyards.
I have travelled to a good number of counties out here and the dryland corn has looked really good, but it is hard to tell just how good from the road. On the other hand, you can see from the road what the potential for the milo crop is. All the milo fields look green and excellent and I suspect a bin buster year, the likes I have never seen in my lifetime. There is always too little elevator bin space for the milo crop and much is stored in giant piles on the ground, a thing of artistic beauty with the various colors of the milo painting interesting designs. This year there will be a lot stored outside.
Well that is it from the Ponderosa. I hope and pray those to the east looking for rain will get some of what is passing through Dodge at the moment.

This is so unusual and so very needed out that way!

 

[KSQ2]

Light rain is falling here at the house, not sure about the Massey. We’re right on the line of the rain right now. OK is getting dumped on like last week. We’re currently under a flood watch, so somebody thinks we’re gonna get a good soaking.

 

[KSQ2]

The Massey got missed so far, but the deer were enjoying the cooler weather this evening. This buck’s g3 went beyond his main beam.