A year in the life of a farm

[Plan B]

What's happening on the farm?

[bfree]

looking forward to it

[elgato]

Been a while since I posted here. Thought I'd offer a year end report.

Flood, flood, flood, flood.

Yep we have had 4 flood events this year with the current one underway now. The farm is a wet muddy mess! Foodplots we replanted after the first flood this summer are back under again. The drought delayed all plantings but fortunately with unseasonably warm winter weather they seem to be catching up. Doesn't seem to matter too much as the deer have been on the giant red oak acorn crop for the last 6 weeks. Deer have been hard to find and frankly the hunting has been terrible. Does have figured out they are in danger and have disappeared.

The plots that didn't flood look good. I love chicken litter! There is a material improvement in the plots where I added ~ 3 tons acre of the litter. I will continue with that program next spring. My thinking now is to add the litter to the clover plots as soon as it dries out and for the big dual purpose fields amend them in next fall.

The plot in the picture is a 15 acre field planted with 100lbs elbon rye, 50 lbs wheat, 15 lbs crimson, 3 lbs daikon radishes, 1 lb purple top turnips and 1 lb rape all per acre.

Current harvest is 31 does and 15 bucks. This includes several bucks found dead from various causes. All in all I'm happy with the harvest as my overall goal was to remove mouths. We have left some terrific bucks. I still want to remove another 9 doe fawns and 5 bucks. I think that will be challenging considering current movement.

I started a timber stand improvement program this summer. We were able to clearcut about 10 acres before the monsoons set in . This was an area that had damage from a spring wind storm last easter. I still have another 80 acre pine plantation as well as a 20 acre stand I hope to thin this coming summer. Hopefully weather and market supports .

I've been at the ranch since Thanksgiving where the hunting has been a blast Took a 184" 9 pt with 7 kickers. Not the biggest buck on the ranch but at 9 yrs old a wonderful trophy. Best of the holidays to all.

Here are some pics.

[elgato]

For a laugh here is a pic of an apple tree where the bucks had to destroy the protective sleeve to rub. They did this to about a dozen trees planted last winter. Why they have to go after planted trees vs the thousands of acres of other trees I don't know

[Big Mike M]

Got any pics of the harvested bucks? I'm sure everybody is like me and would love to see them.

[Mr Sid]

Thank you for the update to this thread. I thought maybe one of the cartels was holding you for ransom. J/J
Stay safe and keep posting, one of the best ongoing threads on TBH.
Mr Sid

[GarGuy]

Im liking the chicken litter too! One thing I learned bout it is the plots that I didnt put any on this year did GREAT from last years litter . This year i plan to put my litter out in the spring and turn it in. That may give it a little more time to decay before I plant in the fall. My clover absolutely loves it!

[GtownBowhunter]

Well after two days of solid reading I am caught up. I'm honestly speechless at how much you have improved your deer herd. It is truly the BEST thread on TBH I have read by far. Congratulations on all your hard work paying off and I'm staying tuned for more good plot info and LDP's.

[Catarina]

How has the hunting on your mexico ranch been so far this season? Have any harvest or field photos you could share? Lots of good stuff in this thread

[deer farmer]

Elgato, I have seen the things you have mentioned here about the weather and food plots. Floods, drought, floods. Makes it tougher to food plot for sure. But you continue to pass along the experience. Good For You I will have to ck into the chicken poop, thanks to you, it is another thing to put on my list of things to do in this New Year. Thank you again for taking the time to post here so others like me will learn.

[elgato]

How has the hunting on your mexico ranch been so far this season? Have any harvest or field photos you could share? Lots of good stuff in this thread

Sorry for the slow reply as I just returned from our annual family trip to the ranch between Christmas and new years. Like many in South Texas and Northern Mexico we are having a terrific year. Overall the herd is in great shape and the rains really helped all the younger deer as well as a fantastic fawn crop.

What I noticed is that the 7yr old and older bucks for the most part grew predictably. No great unexpected changes. My best bucks were the 5 and 6 yr olds and I have a few giants. One made at least a 40" jump and is rare air.

After that all the younger deer generally look above average as might be expected from such strong pasture conditions.

Here is [ my best guess ] a 9 yr old [ maybe 8 ] 9 pt with 7 kickers scoring 184. He was a mainframe 11 pt last year with all the kickers and probably low 190's. I figured he was done and had a great time stalking a self filming the hunt for him.

[Nailhead]

Thats awesome! Fantastic job. He is very unique.

[Boomboom]

Good looking buck Rusty, congrats.

[TildenHunter]

That Mexico Buck is beautiful. Congrats in ending the season with another awesome buck.

[Catarina]

What a great looking buck, he looks a lot bigger than 183". Those Louisiana deer are awesome, but for me its all about those dark antlers and grey/black capes that only south Texas and Mexico can produce. Congrats on having two incredible properties to hunt.... keep the pictures coming. A lot of good info