Land/Wildlife Management Without Chemicals?

[Catscratch]

I think dgallow had it figured out a long time ago and you really need grazers involved to optimally manage

I learned a lot from dgallow. We kept in touch for a while but not long enough.

 

[Native Hunter]

I use no chemicals on fruit trees and have tons of fruit.

I do use Gly to establish food plots, but if I was willing to disk, that could be eliminated.

I do stump treat with chemicals.

In the past I have used chemicals in the prairie, but have just about quit doing that.

 

[SwampCat]

I think dgallow had it figured out a long time ago and you really need grazers involved to optimally manage

I think it is pretty common - especially on this forum - to think of habitat management as deer food plot or fields - which is a very limited for what a lot of us do

Among other things - I am growing brown top millet for dove hunting, sunflowers for dove hunting, japanese millet for ducks on ground so wet you couldnt ride a four wheeler across it, I have a five acre pollinator field, nwsg fields, I have done hack and squirt on timbered ground, I have almost ten miles of trails and over 30 acres of plots for deer and turkeys, I have impoundments that require vegetative control, fifty fruit trees, blackberries, muscadines. I am lucky if I can get a sxs into about half my ground from Feb - Jul. Miles of barbed wire fence rows - and more

 

[SwampCat]

I use no chemicals on fruit trees and have tons of fruit.

I do use Gly to establish food plots, but if I was willing to disk, that could be eliminated.

I do stump treat with chemicals.

In the past I have used chemicals in the prairie, but have just about quit doing that.

I am pretty sure you live in habitat management utopia

 

[Native Hunter]

I am pretty sure you live in habitat management utopia

I wish...........................

 

[BenA]

We've removed and prevent so much of the historical management components, that I doubt we'll ever see what it Is supposed to look like. I would love to go back in time and see what my property looked like in the early 1400's.

 

[hillrunner]

Removing bison and regular fires have changed what little native landscape we have left immensely.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I learned a lot from dgallow. We kept in touch for a while but not long enough.

As mentioned here in the past, the cattle guys figured out frost seeding and such at least a generation or two ago. As it gets brought up in deer nut circles, what is old is new again.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Removing bison and regular fires have changed what little native landscape we have left immensely.

Not even 1% of the original prairie left. One of the few bigger patches is the Flints Hills in Kansas and Oklahoma. Cool place with some bison wandering around without fences.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

The biggest prairie left in Tennessee is 10 acres! Heard that the other day and was depressed

 

[rocksnstumps]

Some good things happening too. I’ve got a monster bee balm bush this year.

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Noticed wild bergamot (common name one of the bee balms) has been popping up all over this year. Must have had some beneficial factors last couple yrs.

10+ yrs ago an old pasture area kinda exploded in milkweed. 5 yrs ago would say was heavily dominated by goldenrod. Now this yr seeing some expanding patches of bergamot. The bigger areas are just loaded with bumblebees right now. They love that purple stuff. Yes, bull thistle too. I see that stuff from afar and wanna go chop it down. Get up close and full of bees, sigh. Ok will leave alone this week...

 

[Angus 1895]

If you got a good fence and don’t mind a “ calorie challenge “ on the beeves…..they will eat thistle.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Have seen a few herds up this way of Highland cattle. Those things almost forage like goats. But with their really thick coats not suited for warmer areas

 

[SwampCat]

Another problem that us “new” managers have to deal with are all the invasives. I have ash and elm dying like flies. Alligator weed takes over the surface of every still waterway - where you cant even see the water. Invasive fish, invasive plants, invasive bugs, invasive people.

 

[b116757]

We have a 60 acre native grass hay meadow on the one farm in it’s natural state I do fight invasive sereasa on the edges and removed about 20 small tree pockets that had come up out in it over the years but it’s pretty much as natural a tall grass prairie as you’ll find. I could make more $$ tilling it up but it would hurt my soul to do that.

 

[T-Max]

I pulled a patch of Johnson grass by hand every year for the last 4 years right by my driveway gate. It got bigger every year. This year I mixed 1/4 gallon of water with 1/4 oz Plateau and 1/6 oz MSO and took it out. That’s not much chemical for something that was about to take over.

I have been spraying my plots this year with a backpack sprayer. The exercise is plenty, but I do like that I am very selective about what and how much spray I am doing. I use a couple quarts of chemical per year while the ag that surrounds me gets sprayed with actual tons of it. They use spray rigs, airplanes, helicopters, and even the center pivots to apply it. It’s insane…


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[Belo]

I have a 1.5 acre clover plot and about an acre or so of fall plots on my place. I also have over 200 fruit trees and while I don't love using chemicals either, I think we should also understand that what we plotters and small property folks do use is not even a drop in the bucket of what is used by big ag. Spraying 20 gallons or so of roundup out of a boom is really nothing. Spraying fruit tress with OTC bonide is really nothing from what my grandfather had to have a license to spray with.

All that said, simple PPE isn't overly burdensome. I wear a tyvek when spraying and a 3m full face with a vapor cartridge (particulate isn't what you need) and of course some nitrile gloves. Be smart and at our volume we're not impacting the environment and you can almost guarantee your own safety.

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Edit to add, the best maintenance for my clover plot is not the max arrest, it's the mowing at 8" height.

 

[Belo]

I use pretty much no chemicals on my fruit trees only exception would be if I notice a cambium minor infestation on my apple trees then I mix up permethrin. I do throw them a little triple 10 in the spring. Now for pasture managment it’s a diffrent story I spray a lot of selective herbicides for mostly brush control and invasive control we hand cut off hundreds of Osage orange and honey locust sprouts in the last couple days each small stump gets a small dose of Tordon RTU

Out of curiosity, what volume of trees are we talking and what else besides apples? There's for sure a way to limit spray and some more organic style sprays, but stuff like peach leaf curl can only be solved by copper...

 

[SwampCat]

To be honest, i could probably do cool season deer plots without spraying or spraying very little. I dont believe I could grow anything - effectively - in the summer without spraying. I guess I could bush hog as soon as dry enough in the spring, then bush hog again before planting, disk, plant - and there would be some percentage of the planted crop make it. Positively could not do most of the duck impoundments. The less chemical used, the more labor, fuel, machine hours - and less production.

The guy we lease duck land from row crops about 3000 acres. I asked him if he could successfully plant that without chemicals. He is about 45 years old, so is not old enough to experience back when they used fewer chemicals. He said he can barely hire enough people now and would take a lot more manpower. He thought equipment costs would escalate but offset some by reduced chemical cost but would also be reduced output. Said he believed cost of produced product would rise

 

[T-Max]

I have a 1.5 acre clover plot and about an acre or so of fall plots on my place. I also have over 200 fruit trees and while I don't love using chemicals either, I think we should also understand that what we plotters and small property folks do use is not even a drop in the bucket of what is used by big ag. Spraying 20 gallons or so of roundup out of a boom is really nothing. Spraying fruit tress with OTC bonide is really nothing from what my grandfather had to have a license to spray with.

All that said, simple PPE isn't overly burdensome. I wear a tyvek when spraying and a 3m full face with a vapor cartridge (particulate isn't what you need) and of course some nitrile gloves. Be smart and at our volume we're not impacting the environment and you can almost guarantee your own safety.

Amazon.com

Edit to add, the best maintenance for my clover plot is not the max arrest, it's the mowing at 8" height.

I am guilty about proper PPE, but I do use the wind to my advantage and avoid walking where I have sprayed. For my kids sake, I should probably be better on that front.


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