Badgerfowl's habitat projects

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Grossed 120" unofficial.
 
In July I was very curious to see if the deer would like the rape and turnips I planted. I wasn't worried about the GHR as I knew they'd hit them as they did in 2013. I think I found my answer. Nothing but stalks left basically. I noticed some bulbs were eaten too. Saw one turnip bulb that was probably 8" across. Had as many as 12 deer in our field one night this past week. There's still plenty of corn standing as well which usually means we see very few deer.







 
I knew they would hit them good. They love them over by me. As soon as they are a couple inches tall the browsing begins and it lasts until all the bulbs are eaten, usually sometime in December or January.
 
The turnips and rape were hit after a couple good frosts. Radishes well before that. Even with clearing the field every time we hunt they still kept coming back. Wish we had a better way to access our place but we are limited by water.
 
Any guesses on age? I've got a 9 pointer that's a little bigger but smaller than what I shot. These are the biggest I've got on camera this year that are possibly still out there.




 
Made a quick visit to our place this weekend. We've got a few deer hitting our field still. Typically at this time of year, you can walk our place and never cut a track. They are definitely digging for the bulbs now. We took down a couple trees to expand my clover plot in the woods. Kicked up 4-5 deer while walking in on Sunday. Looked over my apples quick and noticed this on what will be a 4th leaf Hudson's Golden Gem. Any idea what this may be? Hopefully not fireblight as it's supposed to have some resistance I believe. It's only on the main trunk where pictured. I didn't notice it on any limbs at all.





 
Very nice badgerfowl. I haven't been back up since gun season but I imagine my field looks the same. Without a doubt the bulbs keep the deer around during the winter when most of the them would be gone if the bulbs weren't there. Combine those bulbs with rye plots that green up early in the spring and you have yourself a deer factory. As LC used to preach, providing year round food will keep them coming back day after day, year after year.
 
Made it up to our place for the first time in two months and was able to get some pruning in.

4th leaf Sweet 16 before:



After:



4th leaf Honeycrisp before:



After:

 
5th leaf Freedom before:



After:

 
Field looked like this all over. Brassica bulbs eaten to the dirt and poop.

 
Tough to see but there's some clover under there.

 
Its pruning season! :)
 
Looks good Jon!
 
Got my apple trees from Cummins and CrazyEd last week and was able to get them all in the ground on 3/28. Had to bust through about 1-2" of frozen ground but underneath everything was frost free.



We've got about a foot of decent soil with sand underneath.



Sweet 16 on B118 from CrazyEd.

 
Added topsoil and pel lime to the holes.



Cummins trees looked pretty good.





 
Black Oxford in the ground.



Centennial



Kerr

 
I think I'm up to 22 trees now at our place.



Also managed to broadcast 6lbs of medium red, 4lbs of an alice white, kopu II, jumbo ladino, and marathon red mix, and also threw about 1lb of DER in for an experiment.

 
Planted a Zestar! and Black Oxford (B118) from CrazyEd at my parents lake house. These will be for our own consumption. Can't wait to try a black oxford!



 
That's awesome that you were able to get them in the ground already!
 
I was a little worried as the week prior was very warm so I told cummins to ship the next week. Then it turned cold again with lows in the single digits. The surface was frozen but underneath was all good. Its pretty dry for this time of year so far but there's plenty of moisture in the soil. We might have a chance w/ the turkeys this spring if it doesn't completely flood before then.
 
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