Fall season preparation. Rye/rape/turnips/scrapes

The excitement builds as all 3 acres are ramping up their production. Check out the healthy sign here in the Extreme plot. Big sign = big deer. Here's a closeup of the small burnett and chicory. It's the Extreme mix from the WhiteTail Institute; a good perennial crop for bad soil and dry conditions. After a solid 2 days of rain, it's back strong after being beaten down by the heat and dry conditions here in Michigan lately. This hardy perennial mix will keep producing year after year.
I'm thinking this may be the first scrape of the season, complete with the overhanging branch they love to use to rub on their pre-orbital gland. We'll watch it and put the cam here if it shows more use.Here's a look at the plot where I put in rape and turnips on August 11. The rape is coming up around 3" or so, and will be prime for hunting season. It goes sweet after a frost as the sugars come into the leaves. The deer really hit it when that happens.
This appears to be almost all 'volunteer' seeding from the buckwheat I had in prior. After mowing it and disking it under, I get a free round of crop from the seed. NICE!
Here's a look at the rye I put in on the 6th(150 #/acre). 9 days later it's already 4-6". Rye is a good cover crop, to be turned under in the spring as a green manure to help build my soil.Another spike checking out the minerals. Watch out!

Buckwheat success and minerals...

Can't tell you how happy I am at what is happening. The buckwheat is huge, and attracting does and bucks. Adding to that attraction, I put out 10# of 30-06 Minerals from the Whitetail Institute, and within 2 days, these pics occurred.

The combination of high protein in the buckwheat, and the added minerals should help grow larger deer and bigger racks.




Even the does are checking out the minerals...

Buckwheat - Unbelievable growth. You need to try this...

Here are pics of my 2 acres of buckwheat. Planted it at #25/acre, in light soil, with no fertilizer. I am impressed.


Here's another shot. Man I am happy about this crop. It obviously stays ahead of the deer, grows very well in poor soil, and is highly palatible, with high protein to boot. What a great crop.



I'm laughing at how easy this stuff is to get to grow...It's just rampant.



In a month or so, I'll turn it under with the disk, and put in my winter crop of austrian winter peas, oats, and some rape. The deer will have a lot to eat all through the end of the year, and even into the snow.

Summer Disking-weed control

Just read in WhiteTail News from the WhiteTail Institute (www.whitetailinstitute.com) that if you repeatedly disk a plot in 2-week intervals all through the year, you will reduce total weed seeds by 80%. This process brings seeds to germination, they grow, then are disked under, and the process repeats. Each disk cycle kills thousands of plants, never to regerminate. Over a year, that top layer is depleted. It makes sense if you think about it. And it works better overall than using herbicides because they only work on the plants they touch.

I'm figuring an acre of land has literally billions of weed seeds in the upper 8" of soil. Amazing.

On another note, the buckwheat is 12-15" in places, and the deer are finally taking to it, mowing portions here and there. I'm glad about that, and that means good nutrition and better deer. Slowly my 3 acre goal is coming into focus.

Lessons learned-Buckwheat / Iron-Clay Cowpeas / Chicory

Disked up 2 acres Mid-April, spread #25 of buckwheat on this plot. Lesson: Wait till the weeds come in, then hit it with Roundup, wait 10 days, then plant. I also think #50/acre would have been better. They seem a bit thin but the growth is great, so, I note it for the future. I put down no fertilizer, by the way, just as a test. The soil isn't all that great, but so far, they look good. Buckwheat is a great annual, smothering out some weeds, growing rapidly, handling heavy grazing pressure, and tolerating most any soil. Additionally, they bring up potassium and phosporus so that future crops do better.
I broadcast seeded them over disked soil, then ran the cultipacker to press them under. They are best planted 1" down, but I have no planter, so this worked pretty good, but some areas are somewhat thin. You can see the weeds there also...




Chicory-This hearty perennial has a long tap root and tolerates drought very well. I have some plants that are a foot tall! I now have to mow this field because I made the same mistake I mentioned prior: planting immediately after disking. RULE-anytime you disturb the soil, you will get weeds. Hopefully the repeated mowing will keep the annuals out in the future, as I cut the tops off before they go to seed. I have hardly any grass weeds, but a lot of broadleaf. We'll see how the mowing does next year specifically. Here's a shot showing the very nice growth. My soil is very average, and this stuff germinated easily, and grows very strong.



The best way to have a perfectly clean perennial plot for planting is to think in terms of 2 years. Start in April of the year.
Pick a plot and spray Roundup on it until most of the weeds are dead (You cannot easily disk a heavily weed-infested plot, unless you have a big tractor. If so, skip that first step).
Put down the proper amount of agricultural lime to per a soil test, and incorporate it down 4-6" into the soil by disking, and then roll it smooth.
Wait for weeds and spray Roundup in May, June, and then again in Sept, never disturbing the soil.
Then, in the next year, put in a early 'frost seeding' of a good clover mix like the one from the WhiteTail Institute right after the snow is gone the NEXT spring. Overseed, fertilize, roll it like mad, and let the spring rains do the work. You'll have virtually no weeds, and the lime will have had time to activate. The results should be stunning.

I'm playing around with buckwheat because I need to improve my soil. Plus, it's just fun.

Spring plot preparation

2 projects ongoing. 1) The acre of turnips/rape I put in last fall is now fully limed with 3200 lbs, and I'm spraying Roundup May 8. Will disk it under and put in #50 buckwheat and #100 19-19-19. 2) My middle acre is under a kill of Roundup as we speak to remove all grasses, so I can disk it, after which I will spray Roundup again as the broadleaf weeds will show up. Plans are to put in Durana Clover from Penningtonseed.com in late summer.

Winter blahs...get out of the cabin

There are times when you just have to get out of that house. We've had snow since early December, '07, and I'd had enough. The sky was blazen blue, and I got my double sided axe and went out and hacked an old red oak whose top had been ripped off a year ago. That rich wood smelled pungent and it gave me a good sweat for an hour last weekend. Something about working out in the air really helps your spirits.

This is a great time to spruce up, or start, a mineral lick. Put them near an active trail in good cover, preferrably in the woods. Set up a trail cam and see what happens.

Also, get out and check for sheds. You might find a nice rack that ran past you last season...

Last hunt of 2007

1/1/2008-last legal hunt in MI. It was a beautiful night to hunt. 25 degrees, snow falling lightly, slight west breeze, silence and cold. I was hoping the deer would come into the turnips. They had been, despite the snow cover. We'd had some slight thawing over the weekend, and they were back to pawing through snow for the turnips. I had to decide where to sit-my north blind overlooking the corn bait I put out, or the turnips way in back. 50/50 odds. I chose the deep spot figuring if they come out of the swamp bed and head east across the back, I might have a chance to interscept them. It was a gamble.

I see nothing. Time passes slowly in the cold. Long underwear, sweat pants, jeans, and then heavy wool pants, t shirt, 2 shirts, and then a heavy coat, pull down hat all aren't enough to keep you warm for almost 2 hours sitting still. For almost 90 minutes I sat in silence, wondering where they were, what they were doing. 2 juncos, for the 2nd day in a row, flit into the arborvitae tree near me, apparently taking roost for the night in the dense cover. A red tail hawk screams nearby and then leaves. Mourning doves careen overhead, their flight almost out of control, but fast. More waiting.

I'm facing west but there is no sun. The snow and gray clouds block it out. The gray is everywhere, even, dense, dreary, foreboding. The snow slowly adds up in the blind. Darkness descends, slowly, evenly, peacefully. The mind is active, thinking, plotting, working scenarios, doubting, questioning my skill. My gun, cold and black, lays across my lap. I rest.

5:20. I glance left-south, and then, in absolute perfection of form, grace, and ability, they are there. A line of does, 10 or so, I cannot count fast enough. A lone buck, 7 points or so, is in the middle of them. They are running, medium speed, heading south west into the swamp to their bedding area. One bounds high, 8' or so, as if only to show off her form. I attempt to stop them, loudly emitting 'baaap', 'baaap', badly imitating a doe call. They never flinched. And just as quickly as they appeared, they are gone, into the thicket. My heart, still beating rapidly, slowly returns to normal. They never re-appeared.

And so the season ends on a mystical note. I waited till 5:45 and then exited the blind and walked back in the dark, snow, silence. Beautiful.