The 700lbs of soybeans, rental of the no-till for the weekend, all of the chemicals used to burndown prior to planting, the diesel and time spent planting them are all for naught. The report I got from dad is that we have approximately 50 bean stalks growing on the 15 acres we planted two weeks ago. Hog tracks are everywhere and it appears they found nearly every bean before they had a chance to sprout. Our neighbor has been hunting them hard and has been very successful in killing them when he has the opportunity to hunt. I am very appreciative of his perseverance of staying after them, despite the near triple digit heat over the past week or so. I wish I had the time/equipment to trap them as I feel this is the only real way to make a dent in them. So, needless to say, we don't have any type of summer forage other than the God given natural browse they have. We do have three protein feeders up and going, along with the mineral sites. On a good note, the millet and milo are coming along nicely and we have gotten several timely rains on the crop. Some weed/grass competition, but to be honest, I really don't care. I plan to bushhog and burn the millet at the end of August and will leave the milo standing until the second season. Here is the view from the camp of each.
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I'd love to title this post "Spring/Summer Plots", but dealing with the weather this spring, along with being 4+ hours away has kept us from getting them in the ground until now. We rented the no-till from Deviney and put 1000lbs of seed in the ground on Saturday. It was my first time ever working with a no-till and I greatly enjoyed it. The ground was a little damp in some places and I learned very quickly to avoid those low areas. Clogged hoses don't drop seeds. Anyhow, we got the Tractor Shed Field, Owl Field, and Landing Strip planted with beans at about 100lbs/acre. We decided that we'd rather go heavy in those 3 fields than moderate/light in all the fields on the farm and risk overbrowsing and not having a crop anywhere. I also put in 100lbs of browntop and 100lbs of milo at the homesite. Hopefully the millet will be ready for the first season and the milo should come in nicely for the always cooler, second season. It appears we timed the plantings well as we got a little over an inch of rain on Sunday evening. As far as doves go, I've never seen the number of birds this early as we have right now. I know they will shift when the corn begins to be harvested, but it's a joy to sit at the camp and watch the hundreds of birds using the area. It was quite relaxing to sit outside enjoying a big fish fry late on Saturday, watching the waves of birds loafing around. All of the mineral sites are being hit hard and I put the first camera up at the boss buck feeder/mineral site on Saturday. The snakes are also out in full force as I killed 3 mocassins, a copperhead and a king snake. I wouldn't normally kill a king snake, but when you walk out at 9:00 and he's 4 feet from the back door, it's almost a necessity. Scared the life out of me. I also shot a big boar Saturday afternoon and we saw about 15 hogs just riding through. Lots of wildlife this weekend and it was a very enjoyable trip over with the family. |
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