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My New Plot
Topic Started: Sep 11 2012, 10:26 AM (4,116 Views)
Friggs
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THE NEW PLOT

I've been wanting to start a new plot for sometime now and finally found the time this spring. I picked a spot just on the edge of the woods west side where it slopes down into a cedar swamp. This one acre site also backs on to an old fence line which has about 20 feet of trees along the south side of this plot.

Here is the site before I started back in early April 2010 looking south towards the old fence line and cedar swamp is back in 100 ft. on the left.

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I'm assuming this spot was an old pasture and was cleared over 125 years ago. You can see by the types of plants growing that the soil is sandy with shrubs and Hawthorn trees and very little large grasses and weeds. This soil holds very little water and usually dries up during the hot summer months and is low in fertility, as shown in the soil test below. This site was selected because their were fewer trees to cut then elsewhere.

You can see the PH and K is not to bad and everything else needs improvements.
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That being said, I know it's going to be a challenge and knowing that it will take several years to get this soil to where I can grow something half decent. So my plan is to grow Rye/Oats and red clover in the fall followed by Buckwheat in the following early summer and back to the Rye mix during the late summer for winter. These crops will grow in poor soils and low PH and will improve the soil over time. The rye and buckwheat will scavenge certain nutrients and build organic matter and the clover will add nitrogen. The oats are for feeding the deer and will die out after a hard frost.

So this spring we started clearing out the shrubs and trees. We placed some of the trees and shrubs in piles to burn and others we piled along the east tree line for critters to hide under. After all this work we decided to clear only 1/2 an acre instead and see how things go over the next few years and expand if need be.

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Then we sprayed 41% Glyphosate (round-up) and burned some of the plies and of coarse the grasses and weeds two weeks later.

I recommend you don't ever burn by yourself and get at least 4-5 helpers with shovels and brooms and watch the winds. Make sure someone in your group has expeirence.

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Another view from the south facing north-east.
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So for the rest of the summer we sprayed 2 more times every 3-4 weeks and applied 15 bags (1320 lbs/ac) of Dolomite Lime and disced it in. The soil test requires 34 bags but decided to add 15-20 bags the following year, that stuff is around $6.00 a bag.

Then on August 18th we decided to fertilize and plant. This was the only time I could plant and was going to be busy for the next few weeks.
I threw down 5 old bags of 5-20-20 that were given to me and were rock hard. I knew that the P&K were fine and the N was probably nil or very little left. After spreading this old fertilizer I then threw down a bag of urea (46-0-0) and threw my seed down next.
I decided to plant a 50/50 mix of rye grain and oats at 75 lbs/ac each and 16 lbs/ac of double cut red clover. I know thats a lot of clover and don't expect it to do that great and will be an indicator as to the soil. The next day after planting we got about 3/8 inch of rain and another 1/4 inch on August 27th. A week after planting we had germination and things looked good. Then we got that nice full day of rain on Saturday Sept. 8th.

Here is the plot on Sept. 9th about 3 weeks after planting.
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I'll try to keep this post going and show my progress or my failure over the next year or two. I still have to pull a few stumps and clean things up a little here and there.

Here is a before and after shot, you can see the same spruce tree in the middle of the photo....
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Enjoy...Friggs
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Posted Image BigRackSlayer
BigRackSlayer
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Great post friggs you did something similar as me looks good. Look forward to watching your progress.
Kevin
BigRackSlayer
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Posted Image bigr
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Great to see posts like this ! Gives me ideas as well ! PS. I really like over seeding clovers . You might be happy with it ?
More updates please !
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Ikantski
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Looking good, I'll definitely be following, our soil is pretty close. What kind of equipment are you using to disc?
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Friggs
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Ikantski
Sep 11 2012, 11:47 AM
Looking good, I'll definitely be following, our soil is pretty close. What kind of equipment are you using to disc?

My 205 acre hunt camp is 1 1/2 hours from home so I'm a weekend warrior like some on this forum. I grew up on a farm so I have a litte experience growing stuff.

I use mostly my ATV with pull behind equipment that I purchased over the years. Here is the my arsenal...

2002 Yamaha Kodiak 400cc with 15 gallon boomless sprayer.

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Here is an old set of 4 foot disc's with adjustable angle, this hooks up to the rear of the ATV and works great for my sandy soil and goes deep enough.

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Also, a 44 inch swisher mower with 11hp and twin blades, which I use to cut most of my trails.

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Some of my trails to my new destination plot which are 6-8 feet wide and I can drive my pick-up truck to.

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Friggs
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Friggs
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This weekend 4 of us are heading up to cut and clear trails to treestands and clear deer run/trails. Also, have to fix fence line along the road, cattle might get in a have a free buffet dinner.
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Posted Image BigRackSlayer
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Hey friggs that mower you have how do you like it? Is that like a mini brush hog or is it more for grass?? You have pretty much the same set up they work great don't they?
BigRackSlayer
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Awesome looking trails Great job
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Friggs
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okplotz
Sep 11 2012, 01:41 PM
Hey friggs that mower you have how do you like it? Is that like a mini brush hog or is it more for grass?? You have pretty much the same set up they work great don't they?

Swisher makes several types of mowers. Mine is a 44" finishing mower and about 8-10 years old. The highest it will cut is 4.5 inches. I only cut brush up to 1/2 inch in diameter, not certain but it would probably cut thicker stuff.

http://www.swisherinc.com/

Swisher makes a rough-cut mower which cuts higher and thicker stuff. The blade design is different, free swinging blades like a bush-hog. Check out youtube also.

I'm pleased with mine and this winter I'm going to change the cutting height to about 7-8 inches by making a extension bracket for the wheels.
I have cut clover, rye and maybe buckwheat next summer for the first time.
I cut my truck trails in mid June and again in late August and the trails looks great all year.

Friggs
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Posted Image BigRackSlayer
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Right on thanks for the info
BigRackSlayer
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Friggs
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I thought I would update you on the new destination plot. I'm pleased so far with its progress especially on this new virgin unfertile sandy soil at almost 7 weeks old. Still another half acre to clear to the right and next to the fruit tree orchard.
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There has been some grazing by deer, turkey and bear. I'm hoping to get a trail camera on this new plot in the near future. Baby clover coming along nicely.
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Here are some photos of my kill plot which is 1/4 acre and 3 years old. Planted this fall with 50 lbs/ac of rye and the same with oats and 40 lbs/ac of golden peas and 12 lbs/ac of double cut red clover. I know it's thick and was planted early (Aug. 18) but that was the only weekend I had till late September. This plot also started off in rough shape but improved as time went on. By planting rye grain, oats and clover and liming and fertilizing.
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Here is a fawn that was in the kill plot an hour before i pulled the memory card.
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A doe and her two fawns having a late dinner in the kill plot while raining.
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I had lots of photos of action in the kill plot and hope later that these young ladies bring in the boy's......Friggs
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lacrouge
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good work on that plot and its looking great. taking everything I see and read here and hoping to put it to use on my first food plots next year.

cant wait to get them going and hope to have some pictures to show and some success in my first shot at the food plotting game

keep up the good work, its nice to see that you dont need mega bucks in equipment to get a plot going
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Lanark Hill Country

Good work Frank! If you plant it, they will come, lol. Thanks for sharing your progress with us. The wildlife in your area love you, lol. I really need to get one of these plots going. Just have to get the tools together for the job.

George
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Great prgrossion for reading and the plot looks awesome. I bet the peas are what is being hammered in the kill plot eh ?
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Friggs
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UPDATE

Here are some photos of the new plot after the gun season taken Nov. 18th. It was foggy with frost a few mornings as you can see by this first one. The oats are starting to die-off and turning yellow/brown.
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Lots of deer tracks through the plot and few sightings of does and young bucks running by. I'm pleased so far with the results, could be worse.
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Here is the before and after shot again.
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I'll be checking this new plot over the winter to see if any deer are digging through the snow to get to some food.
Can't wait till spring to see the rye and clover shoot up and to work on the other side to make it a full one acre.
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Ikantski
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Looking good. I hear you about getting back to work, can't wait to punch my tag so I can get back to cutting.
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Renegade
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Great job on this. I am going to start planting rye or winter wheat next year for the first time. :cheers:
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Friggs
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Renegade
Nov 27 2012, 02:47 PM
Great job on this. I am going to start planting rye or winter wheat next year for the first time. :cheers:

Thanks Renegade, Winter Rye should work up in your neck of the woods. Maybe add some oats too, both not expensive.
Friggs
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Friggs
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Ikantski
Nov 27 2012, 02:45 PM
Looking good. I hear you about getting back to work, can't wait to punch my tag so I can get back to cutting.

I got my brother addicted this year to food plotting and he can't wait to start on the other half acre and plant buckwheat in this plot next year.
We've been talking and planning on splitting on a tractor with a FEL maybe next year.
Friggs
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Friggs
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Well the wife and I went up to the hunt camp for a little visit on Dec. 1st & 2nd. weekend. We had some snow on Nov. 28th and I wanted to see if the deer were feeding on the new plot through the snow. The last time I visited the new plot was the last day of the gun season Nov. 18th. and at that time I changed the card in the trail camera at this plot. I was also curious about the deer activity after the gun season. So here are some photos I took of the action on the new plot.

Lots of deer track all over the plot for 3 days of snow.
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Digging down to the rye and oats.
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Nice little highway to the food plot.
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I also noticed dribbles of urine in certain spots, I guess the bucks are still at it.
I'll try to send some trail camera pictures next.

Friggs
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Friggs
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As I mentioned earlier, the wife and I visited our hunt camp after a snowfall 3 days earlier.
I pulled the card from my trail camera and was curious about the deer activity especially after the gun season and this previous snowfall. This trail camera is placed at an opening to a food plot from thick cover and bedding area.
I refreshed the trail cam on the last day of the gun season Nov. 18th and the last few days of the season we saw no deer movement. I guess with all the noise and hunters moving around the neighborhood the deer were hiding in the thick stuff.

I returned 13 days later and checked the trail camera again and found 32 photos. Ten days after the gun season the deer started to return to the food plot but only at night and not during the day.

Here is the first deer to return a buck ten days after the gun season.
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Then a doe and fawn returning from the food plot 9 hours later.
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An hour later the same buck returned. The next night at 9:43pm this 6 point passed through and returned again the following night with a different buck.
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These two guys hung around at the opening for well over an hour and sparred back and forth till 2am. Later that day I checked the camera and found these photos.
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I was worried that the deer activity would change do to our hunting activity but it looks like they returned, but at night only. Most of these deer have been around for several months and I am curious to see how many made it through the gun season. I'm heading back up this weekend to harvest an X-mas tree and will check the camera again. I'm curious again because this week only is the controlled hunt in our area. No one is hunting on our property (that I know of) so maybe the deer will hold up there or not, we'll see.

Friggs

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Great work on the plot. It's nice to see somebody give so much back to the game they hunt. That yearling buck looks like he has great potential! Nice and wide as a 1.5er :)
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Very cool !
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I have noticed the same , my friend took out a 6 pt. during shot gun in our food plot, i have not seen a deer since, and no pic's. I see the coyote's are hanging around quite regularly.
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Friggs
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swampdogger
Dec 7 2012, 09:27 AM
I have noticed the same , my friend took out a 6 pt. during shot gun in our food plot, i have not seen a deer since, and no pic's. I see the coyote's are hanging around quite regularly.

We shot two small bucks a 6 and 8 point during the first week of the gun season. After that, didn't see anything and heard no shooting. This year no one in our camp was allowed to shoot does or fawns, same with next year until our numbers are up.
I saw one coyote also but it got wind of me before I could shoot it.

How are your radish's doing, getting eaten ? Much left ?
Im planning on adding some radish's to my rye, oats, clover mixture and slowly get them use to it. Two years ago I planted a 1/2 acre of a brassica mixture and they didn't touch it.

Friggs
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Radish top's are get'n eat'n, but the radish themselves have not even been touched. I have another small plot with turnip, and that has not even been touched. I will get some pic's to-day, while out with the muzzle loader. :fudd: :renedeer:
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Friggs
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I thought I would update you and share some of my thoughts....
Check the trail camera again on Jan. 4/12 and found 21 photos from my kill plot that were all taken in early morning. I was happy to see them entering in the morning instead of evening.
I like this spot for trail pics because its on the edge of the woods which comes into my kill plot and most deer stop there and check things out before entering into this plot.
There were a couple of pics of the same doe and her fawn eating and also a nice 8 point which I haven't seen since the summer in velvet at my mineral site.

This guy looks about 3 1/2 yrs. old by the length of his G2's.
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Here is a close up

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He stood there for about 2 minutes while eating and then moved into the kill plot.

Early this spring I started to really watch my deer herd and wanted to see how many and what sex and age group I had. I also wanted to see how they patterned and there overall health. I started this by placing a trail cam at my mineral site in late March that was 50 yards back from this trail camera in the bush. I watched and counted the deer that came to the mineral site that spring through summer. I saw three pregnated does at the site and returned with there fawns several weeks later. One doe had twin fawns, one had one fawn and the other doe no fawns. I also saw several bucks of different ages starting into velvet. Three of those bucks hung around till fall which we shot two of them and this buck above was last seen this past summer and showed up again on Dec 24th. This showed me that he made it through the fall deer hunt in good shape.
Its hard to tell the does from one another without fawns but the bucks are easier because they have the same rack patterns every year but longer. The bucks are starting to shed there racks and lose their swollen necks and will be hard to tell them from the does.
Can't wait till this spring and summer to start over again....Friggs
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I know I was way off judging ratios before using cameras. How about you ?

Great posts !


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Friggs
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bigr
Jan 12 2013, 09:30 PM
I know I was way off judging ratios before using cameras. How about you ?

Great posts !

I agree Bigr, In the past and before trail cameras I always assumed we had more does than bucks. You would only see deer during hunting season or the odd deer you bumped while walking and most of those were does. Also, you would see signs of browsing, scrapes, rubs, tracks and droppings. IMO, I think trail cams are the most important piece of equipment to monitor your deer habitat improvements and movement. You can capture these elusive bucks at night or entering your plots 24/7 and figure out their travel routes.
This spring I'll have 4 cams all together.

Friggs
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Ikantski
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Nice daytime pics and congrats on getting a couple of bucks during hunting season! It'll be interesting to see what happens when you put brassicas back in now that they're trained to eat there.
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Ikantski
Jan 17 2013, 11:59 AM
Nice daytime pics and congrats on getting a couple of bucks during hunting season! It'll be interesting to see what happens when you put brassicas back in now that they're trained to eat there.

Ikantski,
I agree with the brassica in time it will work. The very first time I started growing plots I planted brassica, big mistake. My deer never seen brassica or tasted this stuff before. Most of my area is bush or wild crappy pasture so my herd is not accustomed to any crops being planted or whats not native. I noticed and would recommend to anyone in the same situation with crappy soil to plant and grow grains and clover and add brassicas and other plants such as peas and beans slowly with the rye/oats/clover combination.
Actually the two young guys at our camp got the bucks and my brother and I saw lots of does and fawns but didn't shoot anything this year, does/fawns are off limits this and next year. I've shot my share of deer over the last 30 years so I just enjoy the company and my property and just being in the outdoors.

Friggs
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Friggs
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I thought I would update this post on my new foodplot and its progress. I started it last fall with winter rye, oats, peas and red clover and from the previous posts I was pleased with its progress through the winter.
As you can see by this first photo taken April 17th not much is going on.
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This second photo was taken May 16th and you can see the winter rye and clover is starting to grow.

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Third photo taken June 12 th.

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On June 12th I decided to mow both my plots this new plot I only mowed 10-12 ft. strip around the outer edge of this plot and keep the middle tall for cover and let the rye root system reach its full growth. I wanted to also see the difference between mowing and not.

North edge of new plot
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west edge
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And my small plot i mowed it all to release the clover. The rye was at the heading stage so this mowing should kill the rye.
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Finished small plot
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I hoping to mow again next week and see both plots progress.

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Partikle
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Wow, looks great. Are you getting any more visitors over the summer coming by to graze?
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Looking Good !
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Looks great! Have you had trail cameras up on the plot this spring/summer?
"Only accurate rifles are interesting." - Col. Townsend Whelan
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Definitely looks good. That clover should have a good hold with that nice cover crop of rye. Good luck!
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Friggs
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Tim H
Jun 26 2013, 10:29 PM
Looks great! Have you had trail cameras up on the plot this spring/summer?


I only have a trail camera on my kill plot and not my new plot. I'm hacking one now with time lapse and motion detection. In the mean time, here are some photos of deer and bear feeding on the rye and clover in this 1/4 acre kill plot.

The deer have been in this plot regularly, here is a doe group on March 17th feeding.
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Then again on April 6th
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Then on May 5th mama bear and her little 2-3 month old cub (lower left) came and hung around for a week or so and I have several photos of them both, he they are on May 13th.
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Here is the sow rearranging my camera for me, thank god for master cable locks.
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Here is a pregnant doe on May 19th
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Two more on May 30th
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Here is a young buck on June 2nd
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I've moved this trail camera to my mineral site last weekend and the deer have been hammering this lick for the last 3 months. Can't wait to see the new fawns and bucks.
Enjoy...Friggs
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Friggs
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I thought I would update you all on the second year of my new plot. I was really pleased with the outcome of this 1/2 acre plot. I thought I would change the mixture a little bit from last year.
I mowed this plot back on July 16th to six inches to kill the rye which had headed and then sprayed a mixture of 2L/ac glyphosate and 1L/ac 2-4 D on August 8th.

This is what the plot looked like after 2 1/2 weeks after spraying. Notice most of the weeds and rye are dead, except for some of the red clover trying to fight back (green stuff).

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Then on Aug. 25th I mowed everything once again to six inches and disced it in once and left it as is because it started to rain.
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I came back on Aug. 29th and disced it again and spread 100 lbs of triple 19 fertilizer (200 lbs/ac) and planted fall rye @ 50 lbs/ac, oats 50 lbs/ac, 4010 peas 50 lbs/ac disced this seed in lightly and rolled, then added tillage radishes 5 lbs/ac and red clover 12 lbs/ac and rolled again. We got some good rain on Aug. 30th and maybe some more this weekend.

Here is the new plot all planted and rolled on Aug. 29th and waiting for rain.

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Friggs

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Should be a great combo! You might not get much out of the peas asthey need a little more time but everything else should get hammered!
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Ikantski
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That looks amazing, should be a great plot.
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