G&H Farms
- Thread starter SwampCat
- Start date
I didnt get it bloody. There is this thing called a swim test. He failed.
This 30” copperhead bit my Mt Cur on the tongue last night. My dog is ten years old and spends a lot of time outside in the yard - and never been bit. In 20 years of owning my place, this is only the fourth copperhead I have seen here. Have found a dozen of so rattlesnakes in the yard and dozens of cottonmouths - and fortunately - his first snake bite is a copperhead. His tongue swelled up so much he couldnt close his mouth and started have breathing difficulty and had to carry him to vet last night at midnight. A couple of steroid shots reduced the swelling and had him breathing better in 30 min
The little ones starting to show up. Fawn recruitment is pretty low here - typically less than .5 fawns per doe.
The piglet:sow ratio is much higher - maybe three pigs to one sow. They are born in a higher ratio - but after three months, a lot of piglets are gone. I think the cats and coyotes work on them pretty hard
I typically dont like to mow my clover, because the weeds tend to shade the clover, prolonging its life in our typically hot, dry, summers. this year the carolina horsenettle tried to takeover this plot so I decided to mow before the horsenettle put on fruit.
Deer were right back in the plot the next morning. A rare daytime hog was in that plot an hour after I finished. Hogs on my place dont root in the plots very often - unless there is a native pecan - and then they will turn the ground over under that tree looking for nuts.
Muscadines are starting to get ripe - a month earlier than normal. An unusually large crop this year.
Top pic from right, a small bronze Carlos, a purple Cowart - about the size of native muscadines, and a large bronze Fry - almost ripe. The small Carlos will ripen to the same color as the Fry. Pretty much ever critter on the place eats muscadines.
One of my duck holes - thick with smartweed. Spraying gly and spreading golden millet at same time. I usually go two ways over the smartweed to get a good kill because it is so thick and lays down when I run over it. If you can time it right with still some mud - usually get a decent stand. If it does come up ok, then the army worms will find it in september and have to spray for them.
I know ducks eat smartweed - but in my area, it is thick. They will generally not land in it when it is so thick they cant see water. They like it when water is over the top of the smartweed - but I cant put that much water on it.
I would say we have somewhere around 75 on the fields at one time around 5 in the evening. Not great - but I have seen worse
Are you going to burn the millet?
No. i burned a millet field about six or eight years ago and after burning seventy acres of pasture, it stopped at a two lane blacktop right across the road from my neighbor’s house. I used to burn as part of my job, attended a lot of controlled burning classes - that one scared me. One hundred degree temps forecast for next couple of weeks and one rain in the last month - no, I am not going to burn.
It wouldnt make any difference. In my state, we are legally allowed to top sow wheat on a disked field beginning Aug 15. I have seen many times when a 1000 lbs of wheat on a bare field would not attract a single dove. Farmers here aerial seed wheat.
I have come to the conclusion, here - in non row crop country, you have to attract your doves all summer long - burning or bush hogging a field two weeks before season will not necessarily attract huntable dove numbers. I do the same thing every year - some years eight people kill a limit in thirty minutes, some years we dont see a dove. I have no understanding of why doves are - or are not here - from year to year.
