Recent content by farmlegend

This has been the second consecutive disastrous fall plotting season for me. From my late August planting, I didn't get a consequential rain until after we'd had our first hard frost. Had a couple showers that whole time that each threw down 0.3-0.4", but temps went right back up into the...

I have very fussy deer that aren't impressed by brassicas, turnips, winter peas, radishes, and others. But my deer devour alsike clover. I've used it for over 20 years. Establishes easily by frostseeding. For wet soil, it's a winner. Here's some deer on alsike last Saturday afternoon. Shot...

I’m in southern Michigan. All that Great Lakes air swirling around, it’s customarily markedly cloudier than most parts of the country. And for the last six weeks you’d swear we were in high desert. Skies clear and as blue as you’d see in the mountain west. Day after day. I’ve experienced...

I spent some time yesterday looking at my files of trail cam photos from prior years. Damn, those plots were lush and green in those normal rainfall years.

Getting ridiculous. 11 acres of fall plantings pretty much a bust. Some rain moved through this past week, and all but a trace of it missed me. A buddy ten miles away got over an inch. Foodplotting meets the Old Testament.

Rye seed spilled outside my barn a month ago. In some years it would have sprouted and be 3” tall by now. Nothing brings on drought more reliably than seed in the ground.🤣

Most of my 15a of plots is clayish loam. Some silt loam. Biggest project is 9a of mostly sandy loam that was highly degraded and compacted as a result of max-tillage rowcropping; I’m in year four of the reclamation. My tractor is a JD 990, 41hp, 4WD with loaded R1 tires. Hopefully it can...

Depends on circumstance and what sort of vegetation you’re dealing with. With the frequency of these August-September-October dry spells in recent years, I’m getting a bad attitude toward the investment in these fall planted plots. This time I’m not going to bother with another seed dump...

Tend to agree. Even with a good chunk of mowed residue, I’m thinking a good two rain events within 10 days of planting, minimum, maybe more if it’s hot and sunny the rest of the time. This is shaping up as two consecutive years of miserable throw-and-mow August-Septembers in my neighborhood...

FWIW where I live, TWC is no better than the others.

Whenever I see some know-it-all comment "be sure to plant your seed just ahead of a good rain" I know the author is a know-nothing blowhard. When I completed 9 acres of throw & mow on Sunday, our forecast called for 70% likelihood of rain on Tuesday. Within hours, they adjusted it down to 5%...

Thank you CnC and all others that have participated in this wonderful thread. Completed 9a of “throw and mow” Sunday afternoon. Cereal rye, a small bit of leftover wheat and oats, some chicory, plantain, YBSC, balansa, crimson clover, and a bunch of leftover oddball seeds to clear out the barn...

The dude I bought it from, whom used to rebuild cultipackers, put that on there as a surprise. It has been a username of mine on various outdoor forums since the year 2000.

Absolutely noticeable with summertime clover. Go through a dry spell and the deer are eating somewhere else, and right after a good gullywasher and they’re all over the clover once again.

Developing new method for seeding deeper into thistle patches; I use my barrel spreader to cast seed 8-10 feet into the edge of the thistle patch, and my buddy follows up behind me with the 4’ packer. Then follow up with the next “row”. Requires two guys to do it efficiently. Good workout for...