Working at the Farm - Took a few I-Phone Pics
- Thread starter Native Hunter
- Start date
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
I've been remiss on keeping this thread up to date this year. I will try to catch up a little.
Our 2 day ML season opens two weeks from today. I checked our ML today, which hadn't been shot since last year when my son took his big 8 with it. Looks like it is going to hold a zero extremely well from year to year.
Deer pictures are slow due to drought and hot temps, but they moved a little last week. Hope it picks up soon. Most of our bucks need another year, but this one looks old enough to hunt. That neck is starting to fill out well.
Incredible chestnut year:
Lots of Sawtooths this year.
Pears, persimmons, apples and other fruit incredible this year:
Food plots planted this year:
Native grass cover is great this year. Was colorful and starting to brown out now.
That's about it guys. Until the weather breaks and the deer get to moving more, I'm just in idle mode. However, we will hunt with the ML in two weeks. Wish us luck.
Our 2 day ML season opens two weeks from today. I checked our ML today, which hadn't been shot since last year when my son took his big 8 with it. Looks like it is going to hold a zero extremely well from year to year.
Deer pictures are slow due to drought and hot temps, but they moved a little last week. Hope it picks up soon. Most of our bucks need another year, but this one looks old enough to hunt. That neck is starting to fill out well.
Incredible chestnut year:
Lots of Sawtooths this year.
Pears, persimmons, apples and other fruit incredible this year:
Food plots planted this year:
Native grass cover is great this year. Was colorful and starting to brown out now.
That's about it guys. Until the weather breaks and the deer get to moving more, I'm just in idle mode. However, we will hunt with the ML in two weeks. Wish us luck.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
You have got to share how you got the oats, clover, brassicas, and vetch to all grow together.
Please.
Please.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Mark, what you are seeing that looks like vetch is actually some volunteer partridge pea that just popped up out of the seed bank. There really isn't much of it. I think the trick to getting everything growing together is getting the right amounts of seed mixed together so that the most aggressive plants don't choke out the others.
This plot contains several species, and some of them are not commonly mixed together. I mixed a light dusting of a few warm season species in with my cool season species just to do some experimenting, and it has worked out well. The warm season species have been eaten hard, almost acting as a nurse crop for the others. Look at that close up pic of the food plot and zoom in a little on the top left corner. Those stems that have been bit off are from young sunhemp. The deer have gone through the plot and cherry picked off nearly every plant of it.
Below is what I planted, and I just guessed at the pounds per acre. Ironically, I got the radishes just a little too thick, but that ended up being good, because the drought has kept my perennial clovers from germinating. The only clover that has germinated has been the Crimson Clover. We got one good rain right after planting and it has been something like 37 days since another rain. We were supposed to get some last night and today. I hope it comes.
Diakon Radish
Crimson clover
Medium Red Clover
White clover
Crimson Clover
Chicory
Oats
Wheat
A light dusting of buckwheat
A light dusting of sunhemp
This was a throw and mow plot with no tilling. I killed the existing vegetation with Gly, scattered my seed, cultipacked with a pickup truck, and mowed the thatch with a Grasshopper lawn mower.
In the pictures above you are seeing the best areas of the plot - low ground where the moisture is better and also a little shade. The bad areas aren't horrible, but don't look quite that good - mainly because the clover never got the chance to germinate. Hopefully, it still can if we do get some rain.
PS: Here is a closeup of what happened to nearly all of the sunhemp:
Last edited:
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
That looks fantastic. What's the plan for it next year? I see white clover and wheat in the list, are you going to let that come and transition to clover only?Mark, what you are seeing that looks like vetch is actually some volunteer partridge pea that just popped up out of the seed bank. There really isn't much of it. I think the trick to getting everything growing together is getting the right amounts of seed mixed together so that the most aggressive plants don't choke out the others.
This plot contains several species, and some of them are not commonly mixed together. I mixed a light dusting of a few warm season species in with my cool season species just to do some experimenting, and it has worked out well. The warm season species have been eaten hard, almost acting as a nurse crop for the others. Look at that close up pic of the food plot and zoom in a little on the top left corner. Those stems that have been bit off are from young sunhemp. The deer have gone through the plot and cherry picked off nearly every plant of it.
Below is what I planted, and I just guessed at the pounds per acre. Ironically, I got the radishes just a little too thick, but that ended up being good, because the drought has kept my perennial clovers from germinating. The only clover that has germinated has been the Crimson Clover. We got one good rain right after planting and it has been something like 37 days since another rain. We were supposed to get some last night and today. I hope it comes.
Diakon Radish
Crimson clover
Medium Red Clover
White clover
Crimson Clover
Chicory
Oats
Wheat
A light dusting of buckwheat
A light dusting of sunhemp
This was a throw and mow plot with no tilling. I killed the existing vegetation with Gly, scattered my seed, cultipacked with a pickup truck, and mowed the thatch with a Grasshopper lawn mower.
In the pictures above you are seeing the best areas of the plot - low ground where the moisture is better and also a little shade. The bad areas aren't horrible, but don't look quite that good - mainly because the clover never got the chance to germinate. Hopefully, it still can if we do get some rain.
PS: Here is a closeup of what happened to nearly all of the sunhemp:
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
My plan was for it to transition next year into a plot of Medium Red Clover, White Clover and Chicory. I think that can still possibly happen if my perennial clover seed are just laying there and finally do germinate. The Chicory has germinated and is handling the drought well. If the perennial clovers don't eventually come on, I will have to make a decision on what to do. If no serious perennial weed problems occur, I might just broadcast some more clover into it next spring and mow over the seed. It won't hurt the chicory to mow it, and that might just do the trick.
I am always impressed by your nwsg area. Mine is 95% grass and a very little bit or broadleaves. I have even mowed it, sprayed it, and disked it and didnt really get much of a stand of anything impressive. There was more herbaceous diversity when I bought the place and cattle were on the pastures.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Thanks SwampCat. I enjoy the NWSGs, and I think the quail do too. Yesterday, I jumped 3 different coveys in a 2 acre foodplot. I see and hear quail all the time, but I just thought that was a special event to have them that concentrated.
The most aggressive broadleafs in my stand are tick trefoils, tickseed sunflower, goldenrod and partridge pea. The partridge pea is a strain that is much more aggressive than the native ones. The natives get about knee high and are easily choked out, but the strain I planted gets 6 feet tall and comes back strong every year.
BTY - I saw deer browsing partridge pea in some trail camera pictures the other day. I wasn't sure if they did or not, but now I have seen that they do.
Best Wishes
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
After 44 days without any we are wet again.
weekender21
Well-Known Member
Looking great out there! We finally got some rain tonight after a similar ~45 day drought. Rough one for western NC.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Living in a dust bowl in my little neck of the woods this year. .12" of rain since planting radish Aug 22. Worse than 2016 in the sense that the extreme temps all of September and 1st week of October have added to the drought conditions. Thermometer hit 100 last Friday. Even the native forbs are hanging on for dear life. September and thus far in October have seen the hottest prolonged temps I can ever remember.
Your place looks amazing Steve. Hat's off to a job well done!
Your place looks amazing Steve. Hat's off to a job well done!
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
It's been a long time since my last update. We hunted the muzzleloader season and passed a nice deer that we felt might be 3 years old. After looking at recent pictures I could be convinced he was 4 years old. My neighbor harvested this deer and I can't blame him at all. In our part of the country, a deer this pretty is hard to come by. He is a good neighbor, and I'm glad for him. Below is two of the last pics I had of the deer. He was killed about 3/4 of a mile away.
My son had to get back to work, so I've been hunting by myself the last few days. My dad was sick, so I didn't go out this morning until very late. I went to the new place on the creek bluff. After I left the place we park the truck and started across the field, I had a doe to come running wide open over the top of the ridge. I squatted down and waited, and not far behind her came the old one eyed 8 point that we've got a few pictures of this year. He was very elusive. In the entire year I had only had pictures of him about 5 times, and all of those were in the wee hours of the morning. The doe is heat had brought him out late in the morning and ready to go. He slowed down after he topped the ridge, and I was able to make a high lung shot and bring him down. I was very happy to take an only buck like this at the new place, but thought it would be from my new blind instead of standing on the ground....
The taxidermist did a very quick measure of him and said between 145 - 148. He said the deer looked ancient (and I agree) and said he would try to give me an age once he could examine the teeth better. The deer had a 19 3/4 inside spread and 5 1/2 inch bases.
A few other pics from season:
Thanks for looking guys. That ends my season. This gave us plenty of meat, so we don't need any does.
My son had to get back to work, so I've been hunting by myself the last few days. My dad was sick, so I didn't go out this morning until very late. I went to the new place on the creek bluff. After I left the place we park the truck and started across the field, I had a doe to come running wide open over the top of the ridge. I squatted down and waited, and not far behind her came the old one eyed 8 point that we've got a few pictures of this year. He was very elusive. In the entire year I had only had pictures of him about 5 times, and all of those were in the wee hours of the morning. The doe is heat had brought him out late in the morning and ready to go. He slowed down after he topped the ridge, and I was able to make a high lung shot and bring him down. I was very happy to take an only buck like this at the new place, but thought it would be from my new blind instead of standing on the ground....
The taxidermist did a very quick measure of him and said between 145 - 148. He said the deer looked ancient (and I agree) and said he would try to give me an age once he could examine the teeth better. The deer had a 19 3/4 inside spread and 5 1/2 inch bases.
A few other pics from season:
Thanks for looking guys. That ends my season. This gave us plenty of meat, so we don't need any does.
Last edited:
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Great job Native. Sure could've saved yourself a lot of time and money on that Taj Mahal.
Thanks dogghr. Yes, it is funny that I spent so much time and money on that tower and killed the deer from the ground. If this happens again next year, maybe I will just turn it into a storage building....
