Rit
5 year old buck +
I have a 9 acre former hay field. On 2 sides of the field is my woods. On the other 2 sides is a state route that is really busy and the other road is a residential road with about as much foot traffic as auto. For a visual the field is a rectangle.
I have tried unsuccessfully to put 7 acres of Swithgrass into this field 2 years running and planned to leave 2 acres for a destination plot. I actually have some noticeable switch this year but not near what I should for the amount of seed I put down. The field is starting to fill up with weeds even though it has been sprayed with Atrizine, Simizine, and hit with Glysophate in early May. I’m not sure what happened to the germination of the switch but it’s not nearly what I was hoping for. I have pretty much decided this field won’t be in switch.
The spring was wet and cold then we went better than a month with no rain and very high temps. I have put double the effort into this field but very short on the return. The weed prep the fall prior both years was fantastic. The field has some clay in it but alfalfa grows just fine.
When this was a 9 acre hayfield only and nothing screening the roads it wasn’t uncommon to see deer in it every night. Sometimes as many as 20. You could watch 150” bucks spar in early October it was a sight to see. But I wasn’t in control of the field and no fertilizer was used after the first planting. The use became less every year and last year the field was a total bust.
Sorry about the long intro. With all that being said I am surrounded by a 1000 acres of Big AG fields. I would really like to make this 9 acres the ultimate destination plot. I’d like to start working on screening the two sides that have road traffic and have 4-5 acres of premium food in the rest. I have already planted 2 Kieffer pear trees with plans to add more pears, American plum and a few chestnut trees, along with other native browse plants. I have a fair amount of Eastren Red Cedar trees on the property so Apples are a big question mark. Just looking for some more ideas on what I can do in this space to maximize the drawing power.
Just inside the wood line on this plot I have another smaller plot 1 3/4 acres that was a TNM WR plot. It was a good draw and more than likely I will put that plot back into WR this year.
I may even put in an acre of Norway Spruce to add some thermal cover. The overall plan now is to have 4-5 acres of food in one large plot but create lots of edge, bends, and little coves to separate the plots using fruit trees, dogwoods, and any other native browse trees that I can plant. I also dug a small water hole on one end of the field.
Thoughts?
I have tried unsuccessfully to put 7 acres of Swithgrass into this field 2 years running and planned to leave 2 acres for a destination plot. I actually have some noticeable switch this year but not near what I should for the amount of seed I put down. The field is starting to fill up with weeds even though it has been sprayed with Atrizine, Simizine, and hit with Glysophate in early May. I’m not sure what happened to the germination of the switch but it’s not nearly what I was hoping for. I have pretty much decided this field won’t be in switch.
The spring was wet and cold then we went better than a month with no rain and very high temps. I have put double the effort into this field but very short on the return. The weed prep the fall prior both years was fantastic. The field has some clay in it but alfalfa grows just fine.
When this was a 9 acre hayfield only and nothing screening the roads it wasn’t uncommon to see deer in it every night. Sometimes as many as 20. You could watch 150” bucks spar in early October it was a sight to see. But I wasn’t in control of the field and no fertilizer was used after the first planting. The use became less every year and last year the field was a total bust.
Sorry about the long intro. With all that being said I am surrounded by a 1000 acres of Big AG fields. I would really like to make this 9 acres the ultimate destination plot. I’d like to start working on screening the two sides that have road traffic and have 4-5 acres of premium food in the rest. I have already planted 2 Kieffer pear trees with plans to add more pears, American plum and a few chestnut trees, along with other native browse plants. I have a fair amount of Eastren Red Cedar trees on the property so Apples are a big question mark. Just looking for some more ideas on what I can do in this space to maximize the drawing power.
Just inside the wood line on this plot I have another smaller plot 1 3/4 acres that was a TNM WR plot. It was a good draw and more than likely I will put that plot back into WR this year.
I may even put in an acre of Norway Spruce to add some thermal cover. The overall plan now is to have 4-5 acres of food in one large plot but create lots of edge, bends, and little coves to separate the plots using fruit trees, dogwoods, and any other native browse trees that I can plant. I also dug a small water hole on one end of the field.
Thoughts?