A year in the life of a farm

[elgato]

Hey Rusty. Do those herbicides not harm your beans? Would love to learn more about them.

I hope this later planting does well for you!

Both herbicides work with beans { and possibly all legumes} Flex Star is designed for broadleaves in soy beans and works very well. I notice some of the night shades survive but kills most everything else. Section...cleth...kills grasses.

I mix them together thus only one spraying. I do not use round up ready soybeans so this is good option.

BTW sunn hemp planted earlier doing very well and about 8" tall. Getting plenty of grazing pressure but seems to be staying ahead of the deer. Haven't seen it take off like advertised but growing faster than peas for sure. I'll take pics in couple weeks as I'm off to Argentina for duck/dove combo hunt.

[Nailhead]

Both herbicides work with beans { and possibly all legumes} Flex Star is designed for broadleaves in soy beans and works very well. I notice some of the night shades survive but kills most everything else. Section...cleth...kills grasses.

I mix them together thus only one spraying. I do not use round up ready soybeans so this is good option.

BTW sunn hemp planted earlier doing very well and about 8" tall. Getting plenty of grazing pressure but seems to be staying ahead of the deer. Haven't seen it take off like advertised but growing faster than peas for sure. I'll take pics in couple weeks as I'm off to Argentina for duck/dove combo hunt.

This is great stuff. Thanks for the info Rusty and great question UF. I was wondering the same thing.

[drslonghorn]

Good luck down south Rusty. We planted our sunn hemp April 11 along with IC peas and sunflowers. It is between 12-18" tall, I as well thought it would be taller by now. So far the deer aren't touching any of the plots due to all the growth in our CRP and the pastures. Will be watching this plant closely for grazing pressure . We have a very high deer density on our ranch(low fence).

[Mr Sid]

Mr. Rusty, it seams that backwater will be an issue for a while in the "Ro-gully" area. KALB had a piece about deer in an enclosure in the backwater. A non issue for those who understand nature, but worries the purse dog crowd for sure. Good luck with the food plots.
Mr Sid

[elgato]

Mr. Rusty, it seams that backwater will be an issue for a while in the "Ro-gully" area. KALB had a piece about deer in an enclosure in the backwater. A non issue for those who understand nature, but worries the purse dog crowd for sure. Good luck with the food plots.
Mr Sid

Thanks for your comments.

I know that enclosure and the owner very well. Of course they failed to mention that the enclosure has a large high ridge where all the deer can stay till the water recedes.

They also failed to mention that the gal that started all this is in a family that has been having a feud with the landowner for years and her father in law is now in jail over it. Disgusting stuff!

Our place is doing fine. About 80% of my neighbors property is under water which has pushed most of his deer on my place. While I have some flooding...maybe ~300 acres...I'm still in good shape. Most of my property will never go under and plenty of plots to take care of all the deer.

For sure my protein consumption has sky rocketed . It's hard to keep up and we are filling many of the feeders every 5-7 days!

[elgato]

The flood water is finally starting to recede. My best guesstimate is we had between 1100-1300 acres of our 2500 acres under water. I might expect the water to take another month to completely vacate. Fortunately most of my farm is high which has also pushed most of the total herd on me.

Every year is a learning year and this is no different. Beyond the obvious impact of flooding spring has been abnormally wet. The food plots got off to a shaky start with especially the soybeans suffering and rotting then with the influx of deer were hammered to boot. My largest bean field went completely under water. I have another 11 acre bean field next to an 11 acre clover field that is showing intense pressure.

Perhaps my best fields are the ones with sunn hemp. Especially the last field where I replanted a ruined soy bean field with sunn hemp, cow peas, buckwheat, and sunflower, it is doing great. The drier conditions have actually been more conducive to growth. I will increase plantings of that combo next year.

The rain has been favorable for the clover fields and that has been a blessing. The clover not only handles the pressure but thrives.All varieties are doing well

Protein consumption has been ridiculous . I'm putting out 2-3 tons a week. While the good news is most of my farm is high that means I also get to feed all the deer. I'm sure my neighbor will send me a fruitcake for Christmas for feeding 'his ' deer.

One big takeaway from all this is how important it is to manage for the tough times. Even with all the deer pushed on me I do not thick we are exceeding carrying capacity this summer. I do not want to sustain this population but the deer aren't hurt. I believe in many places I could even suspend protein feeding and the deer would be ok. Of course I think protein adds extra inches and is worth it. This is an important consideration for those of us that manage deer herds in the brush country. With all the wonderful rainfall we been receiving recently we need to manage our herd THIS YEAR for lean years that will certainly come.

So how are the bucks on the farm doing? Pictures in due time but from what I've seen so far it will be a fantastic crop .

[macoop]

Please post some pictures of your sunn hemp. This is the first year that I have planted hemp and mine is really popping out of the ground. My deer are not touching it but that is not unusual for my place. There is plenty to eat and they are not touching protein either. Sometimes it takes two years of planting before my deer start hitting a new crop. I guess they don't know what it is yet. I'm going to plant a lot more of it next year if it does as well as it I'd doing now.

[elgato]

Here is my latest project...Bio Char. Experimenting with making it to improve soils in my garden. If it works I'll ramp up and experiment with it in my food plots. I can explain more but here is link that provides good overview.


Here's a nice 9 minute video showing a little Terra Preta history in the Amazon and the benefits of BIOCHAR. In a research project there, they got an 880% increase in yield using BIOCHAR amended soils!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-hSl59ET2A

The process to make it is fairly straight forward. We took a 30 gal drum with loose fitting lid and filled it with wood parts from local mill wright. Put that inside 55 gal drum with holes bored in bottom. Surrounded the 30 gal drum with wood and light it up. Put lid on and let bake for about 4 hours.

The wood in the 30 gal drum turns to a charcoal like substance with all the moisture gone as well as any residues . The water and nutrient holding capacity is enormous. from there I will put it in compost pile to 'absorb' the nutrients then goes in fall garden.

I'm going to experiment with it in a variety of ways and do some side by side testing.I love a new project! Here is a photo essay.

[elgato]

Pictures to follow

[elgato]

Problem solved . Here are pics of the bio char adventure

[BIG BONE]

^^^that pretty cool

[EastTexun]

Have you been comparing notes to the guy on QDMA that is going to make his own Bio Char? I haven't read his updates recently but he was pretty set on making enough to cover one whole food plot if I recall correctly.

[elgato]

Have you been comparing notes to the guy on QDMA that is going to make his own Bio Char? I haven't read his updates recently but he was pretty set on making enough to cover one whole food plot if I recall correctly.

Reading his post and following up with google searches is what got me excited.I needed a good summer project and this fit. I think scale will be the challenge. I will work up to that slowly as I confirm results. For sure here in La. there is no shortage of material to convert.

[JeffK]

Cool project! I keep checking in every time your thread comes to the top hoping to see an update pic of Rolling Stone. How is he coming along?

[GarGuy]

Any recent pics of Rollin Stone?