Spring is upon us!!!!

     The groundhog has spoken, and its almost that time to start breaking ground (or spraying ground!)!  

It is the time to implement the 6 P's.  Proper Planning Prevents Poor Plotting Performance!!!

I cant stress enough about getting all your ideas rounded up and putting them into action as soon as possible.  Now is the time to get those soil test done. Now is the time to get that equipment looked over and maintenced!  Now is the time to get those last fruit trees in the ground. 

While it sounds like a lot of work, its what you and I live for .  I heard one time that there is no off season, and nothing could be more true.   Just imaging hunting doves over that beautiful sunflower field, or hunting deer over that standing corn.  Those days make it all worth the blood, sweat and tears, and cash!!!

Let's head to the shop and get started checking stuff out, and Ill see you in the field!!

Soybean Comparison--Eagle Forage Beans vs. Dyna Gro Group 7

     This past spring I decided to try an comparison on a small plot behind my home.  I wanted to see if there was an Ag soybeans that would hold a candle to the amazing growth of Eagle Forage Soybeans. 

The Eagles are known for producing  tons of forage for deer to browse on in the spring and summer months, sometimes reaching 5, 6 or even 7 feet tall!!  They are Roundup Ready and very, very drought tolerant as I found out this summer.

The other bean I chose was a product of the Dyna Gro seed company and is a group 7 Ag bean.   What that means is that the plants job is to produce seed pods and beans for harvesting.

I no tilled these beans in on May 1st, and they received 1 inch of rain the following weekend.  Needless to say they got a great jump, but that was it for a long, long while!   The beans didn't get anymore rain until July 4th when we had a good thunderstorm that dumped one more inch of rain.

 Here are some pictures of the beans in August.

Dyna Gro's

Eagles Forage Beans

     While I suspected that the Eagle would get taller and produce larger leaves, the Dyna Gros hung in there and while shorter, they still make a lot of leaves.

Since the DG group 7's are in an earlier producing class, they did flower and begin putting on pods about 4 weeks earlier  than the Eagles. 

Here some pictures of the beans once they dried down and lost their  leaves

Dyna's on left and Eagles on right

Here are some individual plants that I pulled so you can see how many pods the two produced.

Dyna's

Eagles

Side by side---Eagles on left and Dyna gro Group 7 on right

Conclusion----Just what I had expected, the Dyna Gro's produced many more seed pods and beans and the Eagles produced much taller, leafier plants, as they are designed to do.

One side note on the two beans, the Eagles are forage type as I mentioned above.  If you live in a areas with a high deer density, and they are browsed very low to the ground, they will continue to grown and put on new stems and leaves.  

The Dyna Gro's on the other hand are bred for seed production.   If they get up 6 to 8 inches high and a deer comes in and snips the plant off a few inches from the ground, it is done. It will not grow anymore or produce any forage or beans. 

I guess the best of both worlds would be to plant a mix of these two varieties to achieve the best of both worlds!   Thanks for following along with my little experiment!!!

Chester Co. Corn Update---November

Got to visit some plots I had planted in Chester co. over the Thanksgiving holiday.  To have been a extremely dry summer, the corn looked better than I had expected it to.   The ears were good sized and most stalks had 2 ears per plant, which was rare this year.

Also took a few shots of the WI Clover-Chicory Mix that we planted last fall!  It looked great, even though the deer had been hammering it to the ground!!   Even saw were some of the oats had reseeded that we mixed in with it. 

Good Luck Everyone!!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish all the hunters heading to the stand in the morning good luck!

    It was a great year for me, I got to meet tons of great guys and work on some very cool leases and farms.  Never would I have thought that I could have a job that combines so many of my hobbies into something that I get paid to do. 

   A simply thank you isn't enough,  but I hope that I've helped you grow and maintain productive food plots, that in turn will provide you and your family and friends with some quality time together, whether it be in a tree stand or around the table enjoying a meal together that was harvested on your place.

    Hope you and yours have a wonder holiday season, and be sure to thank GOD for all things, because without him,  none of it would be possible!

Justin

   

Big Kentucky Job!!!

Lewisberg, KY---  I don't mind telling you that this job worked me over!!!  It was my biggest job to date and probably bigger than all my other ones put together!!  It all started back in early August when I was invited up to Lewisberg, Ky to visit the lease of a group of guys from the Nashville area.   Don't let  anyone fool you, this area is home to some giant deer, which goes hand in hand with the habitat and the food sources in the area. 

The lease consist of 1600 acres, 800 of which was put into shallow water inpoundments and converted back to native wetlands and prairie.  The other 800 acres are nice mature hardwood ridges and hollows which makes for an awesome all around package!!! 

We came  in and decided on installing about 18 acres worth of plots, ranging from .25 acres to 4.5 acres each.  We used the Fall mix on most, but also had 4 different plots that had some established clover, so we reseeded those in a perennial mix along with lime and fertilizer.  Around every corner of this farm was another awesome stand, or land feature that would make any hunter jump at a chance to hunt it.  While I didn't get as many picture as I would have liked too, I hope you can enjoy these.

Fall Update #2 River Run Lodge- Bedford Co. TN

Bedford Co. TN---Had a guy call me up one day from Florida, interested in having some plots put in.  I said ok, where at???  He proceeded to tell me of his lease in TN that was only miles from my home and located on the banks of the Duck River in Bedford Co.  We discussed his plans and decided on putting in about 4 acres of fall attraction plots in several different locations on the farm.  Here are some shots I snapped that day in Mid August.

Food Plots are in High gear!!!

Wow, it's been busy since I was last here.  Hardly time to take a break from one set of plots to the next!  Here is a brief recap of some past jobs this fall!  Enjoy, and good luck everyone as we take to the woods!  Be safe out there!

Bowling Green KY--  I got to meet a really nice guy from Frankin, TN who purchased this farm to hunt on and be closer to his grand children.  What two better reasons to purchase land!!   We worked down about 3 acres of plots with our Fall Mix of  winter wheat, oats, and Austrian Winter Peas, and then top dressed it with a few pounds of  Reseeding Crimson Clover.