New blank canvas farm tour in Northern MO

[Hoytvectrix]

Personally I like a lot more forbs in the open areas as opposed to native grasses.

I'd spray the pastures in blocks and see what comes up that is already in the seedbank....could be good and could be bad before you go planting back any natives.

I'll take a field of annual sunflowers, giant ragweed, trailing wild bean and foxtail over a native grass stand any day of the week.

Personally I like a lot more forbs in the open areas as opposed to native grasses.

I'd spray the pastures in blocks and see what comes up that is already in the seedbank....could be good and could be bad before you go planting back any natives.

I'll take a field of annual sunflowers, giant ragweed, trailing wild bean and foxtail over a native grass stand any day of the week.

You guys are awesome. This was also going to be part of our strategy. Here is a video on Craig Harper where he discusses this:

Apparently, in most of their study areas, they have found it to be better to just kickstart early succession with disturbance than to try and intentionally plant either NWSG or NWSG + forbs. Better = more suitable habitat and food for deer, turkey, and quail. The only reason I am not immediately jumping into this is because the county where this farm is located has extra incentives for monarchs as well as quail habitat. I'm still learning about these programs, but my hope is to get either extra income or offset some of the costs like fuel, herbicides, or burning equipment. Also, I have seen some of the conservation land that was converted using a monarch mix and I think that is one of the prettiest pieces prairies I've ever seen.

 

[Brian662]

Diversity will definitely be important in converting your property Hoyt, can't wait to see what you decide to do.

Although I'm not the world's biggest Don Higgins fan, I do believe he has a good handle on what mature bucks like. I've heard him on a podcast state that some of his older bucks never go into his switchgrass where others never leave it. He feels its important to have offerings of a variety of cover types to capture a wide range of animal habits. I 100% agree with this, as well as the herd has different requirements at different times of the year.

I also believe that killing the pasture grass will unleash a potentially superior replacement in forbs/cover. The downside to this is that I believe from what I recall, you are an absentee landowner, and the growth from unwanted weeds to invasive species can/will happen quick of you aren't there to keep a handle on it. I would suggest trying that method in smaller quantities unless you have the time/resources to police it heavily the first few years.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Made it to the farm this past week. Was able to get a few more chestnut and hazelnuts planted. Also decided to add a bit more medium red and crimson clover to a few of the brassica plots. Considering the two different droughts and everything has been backpack sprayed and hand seeded, I have been pretty happy with what we have for a few plots going into the fall.
Seeded August 4th:


Seeded July 4th. I am assuming the brassicas turning in the middle are from heat stress. Although these are putting on bulbs that are about the size of a chicken egg, they are not bolting yet.


Another small 1/4 acre plot that is really just for keeping a camera to learn how the deer are using the property throughout the season:


Probably the tallest buck rub I have found in my life. I'm 6'1" for reference. This was taken on September 5th.


One of my favorite things about getting bucks on video (with audio) as opposed to photos is that you gain a little more perspective on their behavior. I think these two bucks lost velvet within the last day or two based on other trail cameras. It looks like they are already sizing each other up.

Couldn't help throwing in another scenic photo of one of the better views of the farm:

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Made it out for a first hunt with the cold front last weekend. I had two encounters with mature bucks in three sits, so it was about as good as I could ask for. I have not been very aggressive with where I have been hunting as I am really just trying to better understand how the deer move in and around the property. I did see this guy on the first night.

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I hunted this stand with what I thought was the right wind, but I still think he ended up catching a whiff of something he didn't like that must have swirled in the valley.

I planted 4 plots of brassicas and clover this summer and the deer have absolutely destroyed the brassicas.


I didn't get a chance to put up exclusion cages, but a multifloral rose in the new plot is showing what the brassicas would be without the browse pressure


I did spread some winter rye in all of the plots, but I will likely just be relying on broken beans in the ag fields as a food source. One of the 4 plots did produce radishes a little larger than golf ball sized, so that might do the trick too.

 

[Brian662]

Very nice buck, glad to hear it's off to a great start!

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Have a few updates for the new farm. I have struck out so far this fall, but have had a few good encounters. Some of these videos were posted in another thread. I am posting them here just to keep some of this all in the same place.

October archery hunts:

The decent 10 I had a few encounters with during archery is the buck my brother ended up taking:

We think his core area was pretty much dead center of the farm because we were getting daylight photos of him and another mature buck nearly every day since the middle of the summer.

November firearm hunts:

Although personally coming up empty in the main firearm season, it was a blast to be able to see so much rutting action. Most of my other hunts in and around the rut happen in deep timber. There was just so much more activity that we could observe that pretty much always made for eventful hunts. Another observation I had was how responsive bucks of all ages were to grunting or rattling. I am not sure if it is because they are so much more visible or they have been unpressured, but I feel like I have never seen so many bucks respond to calling.

This has been an extremely informative hunting season so far for the new farm. We knew all along that we were lacking food and cover. But understanding how deer are using the farm as is has definitely showed some lower holes in the bucket that could be plugged. I'm sure this was more of a worse case scenario for a first hunting season. Neighbors left standing corn and didn't start harvesting until the final couple of days of the season. Our renter chose to do some minimal cultivation and anhydrous injection in our ag fields two days before the season opener. We are going to be working on improving food and cover in the meantime.

Despite having fairly limited food available, I'm still pretty excited for late season hunting. The topography sets up just about perfect for late season bedding cover.

 

[Mortenson]

Beautiful farm! I enjoyed the videos.

 

[Brian662]

Congrats to your brother on a nice buck. I enjoy watching deer almost as much as hunting them, it's so fun to learn a new farm. Glad to hear you're experiencing first season success whether or not it results in tagged deer or not.

 

[356]

This is a fine thread to follow. After purchasing our NW Mo farm in 2017, it was 2022 before I harvested anything. This year we harvested four—including two does. The new hunters (which are many in our family) get “byes” on age restrictions. Thanks for sharing the journey. I hope you can get a nice one during the late alternative season.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Just a few updates for this farm. I have been working with NRCS for enrolling a few sections of the pasture into pollinator habitat through EQIP. This is the tentative plan over the next few years. Although we have been approved, I am still working with the local private lands biologist with what will be best in the long run before we officially begin transitioning from the pasture. This will likely happen this summer. Here is just what I have been thinking for now, but this could very easily change:



Again, our biggest and lowest hole in the bucket that needs to be filled is cover. The initial focus is on east facing slopes that are currently already a bit of a pain to bale for hay. The dominant winds are out of the west, so I am hoping we can increase some bedding cover on the east facing slopes first, followed likely by the south facing slopes. Hopefully this gives us time to learn what works and what doesn't, without changing too much too early.

To the point of increasing cover, this weekend was an aggressive one for tree and shrub planting. I planted 330 bare root seedlings between MDC and Kansas State Nurseries. (Note: past-self that ordered all of these seedlings in September was an overly ambitious a-hole lol). A little under half of them are getting the help of miracle tubes and some cages, with the remaining being left to the elements. Here is a list of most of what was planted:

My focus has been on thicket forming shrubs like viburnum, hazelnut, elderberry, plums, and sumac to do some of the heavy lifting with creating some food and cover in the process. Also, I tried to compliment what was either missing or already growing well on this farm or our adjacent farms.

Over the winter, I took advantage of the warmer temps by building my own acorn/nut planter. I got the idea from another forum, but this is what it looks like:

There are a couple of options that are commercially available, but I didn't feel like spending a couple of hundred bucks on something I am not sure will work. For the time being, it worked pretty well. I planted about 200 American and hybrid hazelnuts, as well as about 100 acorns in a couple of hours on a warm and wet December day. I am looking forward to warmer soil temperatures to see how successful the nut and acorn planting ends up being.

A couple of the more scenic views from the past weekend:

 

[Hoytvectrix]

As I was planting trees this past weekend, I kept having run-ins with these guys. I'm going to head back down and hopefully get my Dad on his first turkey in quite a few years.

This would be the first turkey hunt on this farm. I think it sets up pretty nicely because you get the benefit of watching them come in from a ridge or two over.