Bearswamper
A good 3 year old buck
Since I just joined yesterday, I'd like to offer a bit of background on what I have learned through the years on our club property. Located in N E Pa on a watershed, we have 5 tillable acres of flat land that is at 2000 ft in elevation on a mountain plateau. The soil texture is very fine sandy loam. Ag zone is 6a. Field lot was cleared of scrub-oak/ blueberry around 1950. Was tilled and planted in corn off and on up to when WTI Imperial clover was introduced. Planting ceased up until 2014 when we started trying WTI sample packs which gave poor results due to poor soil test techniques- (DIY kit). Club member and FT farmer (local) came in and resolved issue with SOIL TEST by PSU, gly, lime, fertilizer, and discing in cereal rye in the fall. With the help of a 2N tractor, old discs, we took it from there by ourselves and have tried soybeans, radish, rape, sorghum, millet, chicory, many types of clovers, cereal rye, wheat, oats, egyptian wheat, sunflower, buckwheat, turnips, and even lab lab. I send in a soil test annually from different areas of the field. The Ph level has since been maintained and only on occassion requires adding a few 40 # bags here and there. Tests tend to show that Potassium is usually below normal so we add 0-0-60 as needed.
Our focus is mainly on whitetail so corn is not a consideration due to the bear population- BTDT. Our deer herd in the last decade would be considered high density. Because of that, most of the crops listed above yielded poor results from overbrowsing. What is working is clovers, chicory, cereal rye, oats, and sorghum (mainly for cover). I have been really impressed by Balansa and even more so by Aberlast due to their tolerance to low temps. With the wet and coolish summer our clover has never looked this good since the second year of ~'96's planting of imperial. This fall we plan on discing 3/4 A of plot that has run it's course and planting cereal rye with red clover for early spring forage as well as a soil builder. We are surrounded by scrub oak, mature oaks so there typically is a lot of mast to feed on. Tried many of the WTI and Biologic products and the ones that were most promising were Whitetail oats plus, Destination, and Chic Magnet. I buy most seeds, fertilizer, and lime from the local feed store. What they can't get I buy from Deer Creek seed co. Next spring I plan to replant the older clover plots using Imperial clover to compare it to the generic white clovers I had been using of late. Been trying crimson but I believe that with our elevation it may be too cold to reseed. I live 10 milles south and our growing season is 2-3 weeks longer in the valley.
Our focus is mainly on whitetail so corn is not a consideration due to the bear population- BTDT. Our deer herd in the last decade would be considered high density. Because of that, most of the crops listed above yielded poor results from overbrowsing. What is working is clovers, chicory, cereal rye, oats, and sorghum (mainly for cover). I have been really impressed by Balansa and even more so by Aberlast due to their tolerance to low temps. With the wet and coolish summer our clover has never looked this good since the second year of ~'96's planting of imperial. This fall we plan on discing 3/4 A of plot that has run it's course and planting cereal rye with red clover for early spring forage as well as a soil builder. We are surrounded by scrub oak, mature oaks so there typically is a lot of mast to feed on. Tried many of the WTI and Biologic products and the ones that were most promising were Whitetail oats plus, Destination, and Chic Magnet. I buy most seeds, fertilizer, and lime from the local feed store. What they can't get I buy from Deer Creek seed co. Next spring I plan to replant the older clover plots using Imperial clover to compare it to the generic white clovers I had been using of late. Been trying crimson but I believe that with our elevation it may be too cold to reseed. I live 10 milles south and our growing season is 2-3 weeks longer in the valley.
Last edited: