Gleaton Chip Ranch Updates

[gingib]

love your setups and excellent cull buck

[fullsizeaggie]

Can't help with the cost on cedar clearing. I would recommend grubbing or shearing for the least amount of disturbance. Slash could then be placed along contours for erosion control or any other areas that water moves through. Some piles are beneficial for wildlife but I understand they are ugly and can get in the way. Mulching does leave lots of tire poppers but can be effective in most cases. It does inhibit growth for a period of time but in the hill country, mulch on the ground is better than rocks sticking out. These thin soils really need the organic matter build up that mulch can provide. Cedar has an acidic oil that "stuns" the soil when burned or stacked in a certain spot. I can't say whether mulching in a high density area will shock the ground or not. Get seed on the ground as soon as you disturb an area as well.

[bgleaton]

1/12/2017 Update

Here's a picture of one of our setups that shows how much cottonseed they've eaten in about a week.


I will be out there this weekend to try to shoot one or two more does to help continue to lower our numbers. I'll upload some updated trail cam pics after the weekend.

[bgleaton]

****! why do the cell phone pics always turn sideways. How do i prevent this from happening?

[bgleaton]

Eliminator Spinner Plate Review

We installed several Eliminator spinner plates on our feeders this year and I wanted to share our experience. One of our 1,000lb feeders would be empty around 1 1/2 months with a regular spinner and 20in diameter varmint cage, but since we installed the Eliminator spinner plate, this feeder now lasts nearly 3 months. We have seen a huge reduction in corn loss on all of our feeders since we installed them. One thing we had to do was to increase the feed times about 2X to make sure they were throwing out around the same amount of feed per feeding. We used to get numerous pictures of raccoons hanging on the varmint cages at night and since we installed these new spinners, we hardly ever see any raccoons hanging on or around the corn feeders. I can't believe how much feed these **** things were getting from our feeders.

[KactusKiller]

We buy it by the truckload. It ranges anywhere from $270 to $320 a ton, which is still quite a bit cheaper than protein and yes these cages are way cheaper than a protein feeder. If you are looking at buying a protein feeder, check out Krivoman feeders. Another plus is that raccoons and other non-target animals won't eat it. We purchase cottonseed, not cottonseed hulls.

As you can see below, cottonseed is great for post rut, spring and summer time. It's a feed high in fat, energy and protein. We feed along with protein so the deer herd can still get all of the other beneficial minerals and we normally feed it from the end of December through May/June. We feed protein year-round.

Cottonseed:
Gross Energy - 5.39 Kcal/g
Crude Protein - 22%
Fat - 17%

Chopped Alfalfa:
Gross Energy - 4.25 Kcal/g
Crude Protein - 19%
Fat - 2%

Protein Pellets:
Gross Energy - 4.19 Kcal/g
Crude Protein - 20%
Fat - 2%

Don't forget the fiber in cottonseed is really high as well which is great for post rut winter time when browse is scarce. It's like 20% I believe

[bgleaton]

We found a guy (from TBH) that's coming out this weekend to do some cedar clearing and will be mulching the cedars. I will post some videos and pictures of everything once he's done. I'm excited to add some mulch on these bare areas to try to help improve the soils and improve the oaks.

[bgleaton]

Cedar Mulching

The guy will start mulching/clearing cedars tomorrow and work for 4 days. Here are some pictures of what the guy is clearing/mulching on our property:




















My dad will be out there showing him all of the locations. He's going to send me some pictures and videos of the progress. I'll post them up once i receive them.

[gingib]

Who is it if you don't mind me asking?

[bgleaton]

The guy who posted above - b.a.saha. Very nice guy and very reasonable.

[stxslayer]

That will be an awesome transformation. In for the pictures. I love keeping up with this thread.

[bgleaton]

Cedar Mulching Pictures

Here are some pictures from the cedar mulching. He's working through Tuesday. I'm very impressed with how quickly he's been able to go through some of these areas. The guy doing all of the mulching is awesome and I would definitely recommend his work. Here are some pictures he sent:














Sorry about the side wards pictures. I'm not sure how to fix this. This always happens with my cell phone pictures.

[JeffJ]

An idea on acres/hour he is getting done?

[bgleaton]

I'm not really sure how many acres he is getting done per hour or per day, but i will say that he is going through these cedars a lot faster than I thought he would. In fact, we have had to add more things to clear every day because he is clearing through Tuesday afternoon. He was able to do all of the clearings at the NW corner and the Middle and mulch around a bunch of oak trees in about 6 hours.

[BrandonA]

That lucks great