bossgobbler
Yearling... With promise
Good evening everyone. I spend a lot of time on this site looking for and gaining a lot of valuable information. I really appreciate all the kind folks on here who share their insight and knowledge to help others. The information I’ve learned here has been extremely helpful. The improvements I’ve made to our land, soil, and deer herd can all be directly linked back to the things I’ve learned here.
I’m trying to add a new 1.5-1.75acre plot this season. It’s an experiment that I’ve been thinking through but I’d like to see what various people think of it and ways they might tweak it or make it better. I’ll give you a little background of what we have here.
I am in southeastern Ohio. We own a small piece of ground of 50 acres in a pocket that seems to be a good area. We have hunting neighbors all around but the deer herd in this area has pretty much called our place the center of their range. The deer spend a lot of daylight hours on our land pretty much year round.
In the past 5 seasons I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest 4 nice bucks here at home. 133” 4.5 yr old 10pt, 136” 4.5 yr old 11pt, 148” 4.5 yr old 10pt, and 167” 3.5 or 4.5 yr old typical 10 with 16 total points. Each of those deer lived here as long as I can remember after 1.5 yr old.
The way the land is already set up it naturally holds deer. The small things I have done to enhance our property have really made the land an attraction to a lot of deer and turkeys. I would say we have a total of 3-3.5 acres planted each year.
The last 5-6 years I’ve focused on improving the soil as much as I can. The things I’ve learned here have become evident in the ground I’m working with. Thank you to everyone! I currently have clover growing well in 1-1.5 acres and wheat, rye, oats growing in various areas. Some of those plots will be converted back to turnips in July.
The new piece that I’m working with is 1.5-1.75 acres. It’s currently in wheat, rye, oats with a fall planting of medium red and white ladino clover. It also had some radishes in it this past fall. This plot isn’t intended to be hunted over. It’s mostly an experiment and just wanted to improve the food available to deer.
I will be doing a soil test soon but I’ve never done one yet. The soil looks poor based on the grasses previously growing in it before I started the plot this past fall. I added about 5 tons of lime and probably 600-800lbs of fertilizer. I added the lime in early September.
I bought some crimson clover to frost seed by late February. I also really enjoy turkeys. Actually, more so than deer. Anything I do I want it to be good for turkeys and deer. I plan to let the crimson clover help me out this spring and summer.
In May I plan to start keeping the wheat, rye, and oats mowed back a little bit. I have mixed emotions about that. I usually don’t mow my cereal grains because I love the bedding, nesting, and seed heads available for turkeys. But I also plan to try some soy beans in there this summer. My neighbor gave me 300-400lbs of Ag beans. Knowing I want to try the beans should I let the grains grow up or keep them cut back? When would you kill the current plants to prepare for beans? When is optimal time to plant beans in southeast Ohio? My thought was that if I mow it a few times it won’t get tall enough for turkeys to nest and fawns to hide.
I don’t anticipate the beans to turn into much. It’s mostly just a “maybe they will”, or “what if they do?!”. It’s a trial. The neighbors across the road plant beans or corn each year. I’m guessing they’ll do corn this summer.
Following the beans, I’ll follow up with drilling more cereal grains in early September and planting Durana clover at the same time.
After reading all of that what are your thoughts? Do you think it’s a good experiment or is it wasteful trying to turn it from cereal grains and clover, to beans, and back to grains and clover again? I suppose I’ve overthought it as I do almost any decision I ever have to make. The knowledge you folks possess will help me decide what to do. Thank you all in advance. Have a good evening!
I’m trying to add a new 1.5-1.75acre plot this season. It’s an experiment that I’ve been thinking through but I’d like to see what various people think of it and ways they might tweak it or make it better. I’ll give you a little background of what we have here.
I am in southeastern Ohio. We own a small piece of ground of 50 acres in a pocket that seems to be a good area. We have hunting neighbors all around but the deer herd in this area has pretty much called our place the center of their range. The deer spend a lot of daylight hours on our land pretty much year round.
In the past 5 seasons I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest 4 nice bucks here at home. 133” 4.5 yr old 10pt, 136” 4.5 yr old 11pt, 148” 4.5 yr old 10pt, and 167” 3.5 or 4.5 yr old typical 10 with 16 total points. Each of those deer lived here as long as I can remember after 1.5 yr old.
The way the land is already set up it naturally holds deer. The small things I have done to enhance our property have really made the land an attraction to a lot of deer and turkeys. I would say we have a total of 3-3.5 acres planted each year.
The last 5-6 years I’ve focused on improving the soil as much as I can. The things I’ve learned here have become evident in the ground I’m working with. Thank you to everyone! I currently have clover growing well in 1-1.5 acres and wheat, rye, oats growing in various areas. Some of those plots will be converted back to turnips in July.
The new piece that I’m working with is 1.5-1.75 acres. It’s currently in wheat, rye, oats with a fall planting of medium red and white ladino clover. It also had some radishes in it this past fall. This plot isn’t intended to be hunted over. It’s mostly an experiment and just wanted to improve the food available to deer.
I will be doing a soil test soon but I’ve never done one yet. The soil looks poor based on the grasses previously growing in it before I started the plot this past fall. I added about 5 tons of lime and probably 600-800lbs of fertilizer. I added the lime in early September.
I bought some crimson clover to frost seed by late February. I also really enjoy turkeys. Actually, more so than deer. Anything I do I want it to be good for turkeys and deer. I plan to let the crimson clover help me out this spring and summer.
In May I plan to start keeping the wheat, rye, and oats mowed back a little bit. I have mixed emotions about that. I usually don’t mow my cereal grains because I love the bedding, nesting, and seed heads available for turkeys. But I also plan to try some soy beans in there this summer. My neighbor gave me 300-400lbs of Ag beans. Knowing I want to try the beans should I let the grains grow up or keep them cut back? When would you kill the current plants to prepare for beans? When is optimal time to plant beans in southeast Ohio? My thought was that if I mow it a few times it won’t get tall enough for turkeys to nest and fawns to hide.
I don’t anticipate the beans to turn into much. It’s mostly just a “maybe they will”, or “what if they do?!”. It’s a trial. The neighbors across the road plant beans or corn each year. I’m guessing they’ll do corn this summer.
Following the beans, I’ll follow up with drilling more cereal grains in early September and planting Durana clover at the same time.
After reading all of that what are your thoughts? Do you think it’s a good experiment or is it wasteful trying to turn it from cereal grains and clover, to beans, and back to grains and clover again? I suppose I’ve overthought it as I do almost any decision I ever have to make. The knowledge you folks possess will help me decide what to do. Thank you all in advance. Have a good evening!
