Allgood Acres

[Ben.MN/WI]

Nice property. Are you planting some trees this spring along the property boundary near that house and the road? Trees take a long time to grow, so getting them in the ground as soon as possible is a good idea.

I like the idea of getting a year of hunting under your belt there before making any major changes.

 

[BenAllgood]

Nice property. Are you planting some trees this spring along the property boundary near that house and the road? Trees take a long time to grow, so getting them in the ground as soon as possible is a good idea.

I like the idea of getting a year of hunting under your belt there before making any major changes.

Yes, I'm going to be transplanting some cedars along the field perimeters.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That's a good idea. I'd also recommend marking your tree planting area with steel fenceposts and orange flagging tape so the farmer and sprayer knows where not to go.

I had a sprayer once take out several hundred pine trees when he turned around near my visual screen with his boom out and the sprayer on.

 

[BenAllgood]

That's a good idea. I'd also recommend marking your tree planting area with steel fenceposts and orange flagging tape so the farmer and sprayer knows where not to go.

I had a sprayer once take out several hundred pine trees when he turned around near my visual screen with his boom out and the sprayer on.

I'm going to wait until after he plants the screen to transplant the cedars. I want to have a space between the screen and trees with the trees on the outside edge. Good idea about the posts and flagging. I'll definitely have that marked. That's going to be a lot of work that I don't want to get messed up.

 

[BenAllgood]

The sellers decided to leave this old cultivator behind. Imagine the stories it could tell.

 

[H20fwler]

I love that old horse drawn stuff. I put an old two row planter and an old hay tedder in the back corners of my bigger orchard.

 

[BenAllgood]

That's a welcome sight on the new farm.

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good Ben.

 

[Mortenson]

Great bases on that fella!

 

[Suburbhunter]

Looking good Ben.

X2

 

[BenAllgood]

We had a pretty good trip to the farm. I didn't even bring a bow with me because I had too much work to get done.

I met with a private lands biologist with Kentucky F&W. He was extremely helpful and knowledgeable getting me caught up on the different trees, shrubs, and grasses in Kentucky. We went over options for the property. I think I've settled on putting a good portion of my fields into pollinator plantings. After meeting with him and sprayer to get a quote on killing the fields, I went to the FSA office to get a farm number and then to the NRCS office to let them know I would be interested in enrolling in EQIP pollinator plantings and a Forest Management Plan to open up some canopy for the more beneficial wildlife trees like oaks, persimmon, and beech.
.
Since I wasn't sure what the rain was going to do, I went with Rye at 200 lbs/acre and threw in some mustard for us to eat as well as putting some nitrogen and sulfur into the soil when it decomposes. I had it hayed right when we were there, so it was setup just ok but not great for a throw and mow scenario.

I also ran a push lawn mower over part of my permanent firebreaks and seeded that with rye as well.

Found several LARGE persimmons scattered along the edges of the fields. Pretty good crop this year.

This one has to be close to 60 feet tall. I'm standing about 15 foot above it's base here.

Not a great pic, but you can make out all the clusters of persimmons high in the top branches.

Doing an experiment with standing vs mowed thatch on winter rye.

My youngest helping with the bottom of the bags of seed.

 

[H20fwler]

Good move getting with a biologist early on, that is the first thing we did when we bought our property.
Love the persimmons, I’m jealous wish we had them around here that’s something I hope to try and ad in the future.
Good looking helper too!

 

[BenAllgood]

Good move getting with a biologist early on, that is the first thing we did when we bought our property.
Love the persimmons, I’m jealous wish we had them around here that’s something I hope to try and ad in the future.
Good looking helper too!

Thanks! Having the biologist out there was a huge help. I'd encourage anyone wanting to learn their property and area to get in contact with one. I don't know if they are all like this, but this biologist, Chris Mason, was top notch and knew his stuff. It was a class on my property's flora. I'm not ashamed to say, I was taken to school. He would point out different species, and he knew exactly what they were, if it was good or bad, and how to promote or control it. I'm making an inventory of my property's plant community, and he gave me a huge leg up on it.

 

[Bill]

Don’t know if NRCS program is better. But check out this post to compare.
http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?t...y-for-free-pollinator-seed.10556/#post-192849

 

[Native Hunter]

Awesome update Ben. Those persimmons are deer gold.

 

[BenAllgood]

Don’t know if NRCS program is better. But check out this post to compare.
http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?t...y-for-free-pollinator-seed.10556/#post-192849

Thanks. At first glance it doesn't look like that program is available in Kentucky, but I'm going to do some more digging.

 

[BenAllgood]

Awesome update Ben. Those persimmons are deer gold.

When I walked up on the first loaded persimmon, I said, "Yep, I'm in the land of Native." When I walked up on another that was even more loaded, I said, "I wonder if some of Native's ancestors planted these ancient persimmons."

 

[Bill]

Thanks. At first glance it doesn't look like that program is available in Kentucky, but I'm going to do some more digging.

Opps sorry...

 

[BenAllgood]

Opps sorry...

No, I'm glad you pointed that thread out. It has me doing more research. Can't be too prepared.

 

[BenAllgood]

My son is taking an environmental science class during his senior year of high school. Today, he texted me some of the results from a soil test he was conducting using a sample from one of our fields. The pH was most surprising being neutral. I asked him to get his teacher to verify that, and he said she did. This soil, according to the web soil survey, should be in the low to mid 5's. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been limed in a while.