FarmerDan
5 year old buck +
I only got $5
Input shortages
- Thread starter yoderjac
- Start date
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
I think that goes without saying? I think the goal of most of us that have been at this a few years is to provide nutrition for not only deer, but song birds, game birds, rabbits and such. Most guys that understand deer nutrition needs will plant some of each of three types of deer crops: Grains, Legumes, Brasicas. Somewhat critical actually, as one provides for the other. Usually a few varieties of each as they often mature at different times and provide nutrition accordingly. Also the Legumes fix some nitrogen and all provide potash as they are terminated.....which in turn provides fertilizer and soil armor....and preserves moisture.. Lots of good books and videos on these topics out there....but you gotta do your homework. We could get into lots of details here....but that requires many pages. Not sure about others....but I consider many factors when picking crops for deer the year around. So "THERE".....grin.
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
Then....there is soil health.....
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I can address that. From a QDM perspective, the only food that counts is food that is higher quality than the available natives foods available during the stress period and ends up in the bellies of deer. When we grow at a lower intensity, there is more nutrients available on a per plant basis. Yield goes down, but quality doesn't have to. It doesn't matter if the nutrients come from natural nutrient cycling with smart mixes of legumes and grasses and soil health practices or from high input intensive conventional farming sources.
There in lies the rub for commercial farming. Yield matters and the equation becomes much more difficult. For QDM, the focus is really on providing sufficient quality food during stress periods regardless of yield on a per acre basis. In fact having fewer high quality plants per acre but the same amount over the entire management area can be a benefit. Thin strips of great cover in an area with generally poor cover has been shown to have more fawn predation. Fawning is more concentrated in areas that are easier for predators to hunt.
When we are talking about commercial farmers feeding our high populations of humans, things become much more complicated.
Thanks,
Jack
I have never had a throw n mow plot of wheat, clover, and brassicas do as well as a plot planted with either some kind of tillage or with a planter. I keep messing with throw n mow just because - but if I didnt have a lot of acreage in food plots already, I would not use that method. If you only have an acre or two in plots, you need them to produce as much food as possible.
Here in the south - food plots for deer serve us as places to hunt and as easy access high quality, high protein food sources for the deer. Even in our hot, dry stress period of late summer, deer dont seem to suffer food wise
That being said, so far I have had pretty good luck with not only throw n mow on my millet dove plots - but I have a five acre field I have not planted in three years that comes back every year from residual seed. It actually grew two crops of browntop millet last year.
Here in the south - food plots for deer serve us as places to hunt and as easy access high quality, high protein food sources for the deer. Even in our hot, dry stress period of late summer, deer dont seem to suffer food wise
That being said, so far I have had pretty good luck with not only throw n mow on my millet dove plots - but I have a five acre field I have not planted in three years that comes back every year from residual seed. It actually grew two crops of browntop millet last year.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
After all the damage I had done to my soils, I too struggled with T&M for quite a while. My clay had such low OM, it would quickly crust making it hard for T&M. I had to use min-till for quite a few years raising a tiller with my 3-pt hitch so it barely hit that top inch to break up crust. Also I tend to use T&M and a short-cut for min-til/no-till without a no-till drill. I found the use of a cultipacker when doing forms to T&M or min-till makes a big difference for me. Timing with respect to rain is a bigger factor with T&M if you don't use a cultipacker to press in seed.
Wheat doesn't surface broadcast well for me unless I cultipack it, but WR/clover/PTT all surface broadcast well for me now that my soils have improved with just T&M, but cultipacking still improves the germinate rates for these.
Every region is certainly different when it comes to climate and soils. It took me a while to find the best techniques for mine.
CarolinaDawg
A good 3 year old buck
Agree, It definitely goes without saying. The plant’s purpose is to transfer the nutrients from the soil to the animal. The more we geek out on the soil health, the healthier our wildlife becomes.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
Dang..didn't know that Bill. I'm getting into my first year of bees and planning on a hive or two at the family farm which is where my plots are. Certainly been known to spray some glyphosate now and again
I have had bees for twenty years and still spray gly. Remember, bees will fly up to three miles when foraging. Unless you own about 20,000 acres - your bees probably spend a lot of time foraging on other peoples property - who more than likely use a variety of chemicals on their property.
westonwhitetail
5 year old buck +
I’m not sure that gly itself kills bees, but the vast acres of monoculture crops that RR crops create doesn’t help the bee population like a prairie would
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Easy on your tractor this year. I work for the power company and mingle alot with the line crews.
Lots of equipment waiting for parts..... Polaris side by sides are pretty much collecting rust this year in their shop because of parts. Bulldozer and a tracked bucket vehicle waiting forever for parts. Piston bully snow machines were down alot too. Forget about power plant outage headaches...... Need a bunch of stuff to make that happen............ Adding a few weeks to a main unit breaker replacment due to aluminum shortages.....
No-till is easier with sprayt chemicals. Old school weed treatment was the plow, then a disc a week later to kill the young seedlings, then seed bed prep. Everything man does is unatural... All has its ups and downs.
Lots of equipment waiting for parts..... Polaris side by sides are pretty much collecting rust this year in their shop because of parts. Bulldozer and a tracked bucket vehicle waiting forever for parts. Piston bully snow machines were down alot too. Forget about power plant outage headaches...... Need a bunch of stuff to make that happen............ Adding a few weeks to a main unit breaker replacment due to aluminum shortages.....
No-till is easier with sprayt chemicals. Old school weed treatment was the plow, then a disc a week later to kill the young seedlings, then seed bed prep. Everything man does is unatural... All has its ups and downs.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
And the resident insect populations are a lot lower because of it.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
a nod to BarnDog.....
I have no empirical data to validate or substantiate the claim
Insofar as possible, i try minimize or avoid chemical pesticides/herbicides but will still spray gly around base of baby trees
bill
Ordered my Polaris side X side end of January. Looking at a May deliver. There were a couple things he told us NOT to add because of supply issue could delay delivery even longer.
Europe is ahead of the US in restricting the use of Gly. Austria has already banned it. Germany will ban effective 2024. Many of the EU countries are leaning that way - primarily because of a supposed link to colony collapse disorder - thought to be caused by a build up of the chemical over time in the wax. If there is any truth to that, it makes one wonder how there is a bee hive left in the US farming country. No doubt, today’s herbicides dont do bees any favors.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
If anyone is concerned about it, they should watch a few of Jonathon Lundgren's videos on this (I think Barndog was the one that pointed me in his direction). There are probably 5 or 6 out there that are mostly the same. The one from green cover is perhaps the most disturbing if I remember correctly. If you don't do well with disturbing information, it's best you don't watch.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
From what I can glean ,the cause of CCD may be a multifactorial perfect storm of pesticides,herbicides, and multiple evil viruses borne by Varroa mites
bill
