bueller's blotter

[bueller]

Haven't done much habitat work lately but did run 3 tanks of fuel through the chainsaw cleaning up the mess left behind by high winds a few weeks back. Had several tall standing dead oaks come down on fences and one on a food plot. At least some good firewood was collected. Almost dropped a tall jack pine onto my shed. It had a split trunk about 25 feet up that was broken and hung up on other trees. Started cutting thinking it was for sure going to fall towards the broken half, wrong. I caught it leaning towards the shed as I was cutting and immediately stopped. Got out a ladder, rope, and ATV. Tightened it up enough to get the saw out and replace it with wedges, then I was able to pull it down the way I wanted. Thankfully I was cutting real slow and watching above or I would've dropped this thing right on the shed.

White and Austrian pine plugs being shipped this week and I will hopefully get them planted on Saturday. Last year's white pines and black hills spruce look good. Many of the white pines were browsed while the black hills spruce were not. The spruce have a beautiful green color to them. Hopefully they grow quicker than snail's pace as some report them to do.

 

[bueller]

Made a quick trip up to the property on Saturday and got all my pine plugs planted. At this time my plantings are mainly focused on screening. I planted most of the whites in brush piles, blow downs, or within clusters of shrubs for protection from the deer. The austrians went in the yard and areas where the whites I planted last year were heavily browsed.

Survival rate from last year's plugs is very impressive. I don't think I found a single DOA. Some in the drier spots show brown on the bottom but have pushed new green growth up top. Whites in open areas without protection had the terminal buds browsed off, hopefully they push new growth in the coming weeks.

 

[Bill]

Sounds like your plugs made out better than mine.
I lost of the NS I planted to browse and weeds. No one told our deer they don't eat NS.

 

[bueller]

Sounds like your plugs made out better than mine.
I lost of the NS I planted to browse and weeds. No one told our deer they don't eat NS.

Ouch. I probably should've waited another couple months to call it a victory though. If my browsed off whites die off my survival percentage will take a huge hit.

 

[bueller]

Rotated this rye back into buckwheat for the summer. It was waist high + and developing seed heads. First I spray gly to kill the rye along with any weeds and grasses growing underneath.

 

[bueller]

Had the co-op load up the lime hauler to it's weight capacity, or more likely a few hundred pounds over. Took about 45 minutes to shovel and throw the 1260 lbs of ag lime across my 1/2 acre plot.

 

[bueller]

Ran the spike harrow over the rye after putting down the lime, buckwheat seed, and fertilizer. After I was done I tossed in a little bit of T-Raptor Forage Brassica and Barsica Forage Rape Seed for trial purposes more than anything else.

 

[Bill]

Looks good

But

Took about 45 minutes to shovel and throw the 1260 lbs of ag lime across my 1/2 acre plot.

That doesn't sound fun!

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Good lord Bueller! That's dedication!

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[bueller]

It's really not that bad. I sure wouldn't want to cover acre after acre this way but for small plots once every couple years it's well worth the effort. I took one of my other plots from a pH of right around 5 to 6.3 last time I checked. That plot is full of lush red clover that I planted in the fall of 2015. Not easy to do on our dry non-fertile sand.

 

[Big Snow Man]

Is this the first time you rolled the wheat and planted in it. .

 

[bueller]

Is this the first time you rolled the wheat and planted in it. .

Nope. Been planting into dragged/rolled rye for a few years now with great success. I do the same with the buckwheat in August.

 

[John-W-WI]

You are tougher than me bueller - shoveling 1200 lbs of lime sounds like a lot of work!

 

[bueller]

You are tougher than me bueller - shoveling 1200 lbs of lime sounds like a lot of work!

Getting paid $150/hour makes it a bit easier.
Ag lime = $42 per ton
Pellet lime = $200 per ton

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I had done the same. Except from the back of a pickup. Had my son drive around the plot, and I just wipped shovels of lime around. It turned out pretty decent I think. It took a little over a half hour to empty the truck, which was way over loaded. And we switched back and forth.


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[bueller]

I had done the same. Except from the back of a pickup. Had my son drive around the plot, and I just wipped shovels of lime around. It turned out pretty decent I think. It took a little over a half hour to empty the truck, which was way over loaded. And we switched back and forth.


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If I throw it just right I can get an arc on the ground about three times the width of a vehicle. I usually do three arcs (long, mid range, and short) and then pull forward 10 yards or so and repeat. Having a driver really helps speed up the process and is easier on the body than crawling in and out of the vehicle dozens of times.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Also having a 18 year old son to help throw the lime helps a lot as well! My soil was at 5.8, I put about 3 ton on a little over an acre. Cost of the ag lime, a case of Grainbelt Premium ~($18), if I would have used pellet lime, about $600, and I would have still had to load, and unload 6000 pounds of lime by hand from the truck. At least with the ag lime, it was loaded with a front end loader.

 

[pointer]

Nope. Been planting into dragged/rolled rye for a few years now with great success. I do the same with the buckwheat in August.

Have you ever let the rye mature and then overseed/plant later in the year? If so, do you get much rye coming back? I have a couple of plots that I frost seeded clover on, planted with rye last fall< that I'm thinking I may need to reseed if it's not as thick as I'd like. Just curious if the standing rye would reseed well enough after a rolling that I wouldn't need to put more rye seed down.

 

[bueller]

Have you ever let the rye mature and then overseed/plant later in the year? If so, do you get much rye coming back? I have a couple of plots that I frost seeded clover on, planted with rye last fall< that I'm thinking I may need to reseed if it's not as thick as I'd like. Just curious if the standing rye would reseed well enough after a rolling that I wouldn't need to put more rye seed down.

I have left rye standing. It will reseed IF you get the seed to the ground. For example if you drive through a mature rye field in August with an atv the rye will come up in the tire tracks but little to none will come up elsewhere. Either way I wouldn't call it a full seed rate that comes back. I'd probably add in a bushel of rye per acre.

 

[pointer]

Thanks for the info/suggestion. Since I have the rye there, I may add oats this year just to see. I would broadcast it, then the clover, then cultipack it all down. If I had access to a mower I'd go that route, but either way I need to the rye on the ground by the end of September for youth season. May add some "ice cream" plants like sunflower, soybeans, peas, etc to the plot closest to the blind before rolling it as well.