The Home 70

[Brian662]

I've been a forum member a few years and really enjoy this community. You guys always share good stuff and the amount I've learned here has been important with my own habitat work. I've always been very hesitant to share anything publicly on the internet but I feel pretty good about sharing some of the work I've done on my home property.

Here is the home 70. Located in SE MN and purchased in late 2013. It was "our" first home purchased just before we were married.
Open acreage sets up like a blank canvas, here is the OnX aerial. It looks much different than this now, I assume this imaging is 7 or 8 years old.


Property started with about 38 acres in tillable and is now down to ~9 acres, the two fields closest to the road on the north end remain predominantly corn year over year.

The neighborhood:


I would say the hunting pressure is very high with many small parcels that see multiple hunters.

I'll get started with adding some pics of deer harvested and kind of unroll a few pics as we go that I've saved in my camera roll.

 

[Tree Spud]

Looks like some great views. Soils must be strong to sustain annual corn production.

 

[Brian662]

The views are good, no doubt. Soil is bottom land silt loam. Probably average to above average but they should be rotating more often than they do, IMO.
A few views from different locations on the property.

 

[Brian662]

Couldn't find my buck from 2018 photos anywhere. I'll take a pick of the euro and put it on here later.

First buck I took from the place, Nov 2 2015. Held full draw for what seemed like 5 minutes waiting for him to step out. Had a doe and fawn in the kill plot and he stood in the security cover and watched them. Finally had a basket step into the plot and he wasnt going to let that basket beat him to the doe. Single lung and liver. Went 70 yards, stood there for 2 minutes and laid down. Waited in the stand for an hour after dark before heading home. Was just one of those magical afternoon/evening bow hunts, had so many deer come through the hour before sunset.
Taxidermist aged him at 9.5 years old, wish I still had pics of his teeth, they were all but gone.

 

[maplefarmsllc]

Looks like a small slice of heaven

 

[Tree Spud]

Couldn't find my buck from 2018 photos anywhere. I'll take a pick of the euro and put it on here later.

First buck I took from the place, Nov 2 2015. Held full draw for what seemed like 5 minutes waiting for him to step out. Had a doe and fawn in the kill plot and he stood in the security cover and watched them. Finally had a basket step into the plot and he wasnt going to let that basket beat him to the doe. Single lung and liver. Went 70 yards, stood there for 2 minutes and laid down. Waited in the stand for an hour after dark before heading home. Was just one of those magical afternoon/evening bow hunts, had so many deer come through the hour before sunset.
Taxidermist aged him at 9.5 years old, wish I still had pics of his teeth, they were all but gone.
View attachment 65266

Something about really long brow tines that get me going! Age of 9.5 is amazing. I had one that called our property home get to 7.5 yo and he was starting to go down hill at that point. For a buck get to 5.5 around us is pretty special!

 

[Hoytvectrix]

The views are good, no doubt. Soil is bottom land silt loam. Probably average to above average but they should be rotating more often than they do, IMO.
A few views from different locations on the property.View attachment 65263View attachment 65264View attachment 65265

Some gorgeous land! Thanks for sharing.

What are the small square plots in the first photo?

 

[Brian662]

Some gorgeous land! Thanks for sharing.

What are the small square plots in the first photo?

That's old field growth with a few plantings mixed in. 99% of what you see was in the seed bed. That was last farmed 4 seasons ago and is now 12-15' tall box elder and early successional plant life.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Filmore County?


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[Brian662]

Filmore County?


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Check your PM's from early Nov.

 

[Brian662]

Some miscanthus I planted last year. Three rows along the road, it's chin high already. Very impressed that it is doing so well considering the D3 drought in the planting year. This was planted to screen ag field and CRP/food on my middle field. Lots of slow driving looky-loos around Oct/Nov in this area.

 

[Brian662]

Some shrubs and conifers I planted into a CRP style planting. This is the third growing season on everything, very pleased with how it's coming along. Here is a plum and hazelnut. Also have ROD, nannyberry, highbush cranberry, and nine bark. Conifers include white pine, white spruce, white cedar, red cedar, and Norway spruce. The lines of conifer/shrubs will make semi-circles and funnel deer movement towards my plot/blind at the bottom.

 

[Brian662]

Along the edge of the garden I've started planting little (cheap) Norway spruce and ROD. Once the spruce get big enough they will be transplanted onto the property. The nearest row will be transplanted this fall or next spring depending on free time. The ROD is weed matted and caged so I can get easy cuttings for future propagation.
My wife likes McIntosh apples so the kids and I started a few of those trees for her last year on Mother's day on the back left of the pic.

 

[Brian662]

This is the corn I referenced in the spring weeds thread. It's was no tilled into rye/crimson. Rolled the rye and sprayed. Sprayed once more with gly/dicamba/atrazine at low levels. It is very clean and should canopy soon except for the areas where my drive chain broke on one row of my planter. Still really good rye thatch in most areas, which is awesome. It's about a foot shorter than the farmer's corn in the next field down but I planted later and didn't till. Very happy with it.

 

[Brian662]

We got another 1.75" of rain yesterday. Can't believe how much rain we've gotten this year. Went out after work with the weed whip and mowed some thistle and wild parsnip out of my pollinators. These prairies are in their 3rd growing season and have really come on strong this year, very satisfied with how they're doing. Only maintenance has been once or twice a year mowings in the establishment years, this year they're looking better so I'll just use the metal blade on the weed whip to take out undesirable species.

This is the highest point on the property and the worst soil by a long shot. The diversity in this area is incredible with this mix and the volunteer seed from the seed bank.

 

[Brian662]

You can see from this Pic that I have switchgrass on the north and south sode of this pollinator planting. The flowers act as kind of a food plot when the timing is right, I've seen bachelor groups of bucks really utilize these areas in August and September.
At the end of the day though, these areas are for brood rearing habitat for my pheasant population which is as important to me on this piece as the whitetail habitat. Security cover (switchgrass) bordering the bug heavy openings of these pollinators is just great stuff for the young pheasants.

 

[H20fwler]

Love the pollinator plot and switch, absolutely great for all kinds of wildlife and the soil.

 

[Brian662]

As most here who own/maintain land know, it isn't all sunshine and roses with land management. I'm fortunate to have a friend who is passionate about killing invasive plants and he comes along to help.
Today we sprayed wild parsnip and buckthorn.
1/2 teaspoon of escort and 4 oz triclopyr4 per gallon for the parsnip.
6oz of triclopyr4 and NI surfactant for foliar buckthorn treatment.

Fogging some parsnip. I took a few years off from fighting parsnip and now have about 3 acres chocked full of it. Nasty little plant. Fights through the cool season grasses and switchgrass.