Too much food plot.

[MadMadHoosier]

Well my farmer just called and told me he is only willing to plant my big north field (50 acres circled in blue) this year. His soybeans did terrible in the smaller fields last year and I guess he does not want to bother with corn in them the coming year. I already know the only other farmers (2) in the vicinity are not interested. One is too big for my small fields, and the other is about to retire and stop farming all together.
I live in Florida and visit the Kentucky farm as much as time and the wife will allow, and I was hoping to find enough time to food plot the handful of acres (circled in yellow with two bigger plots that flood just northwest and off the map). Now there is another 20 acres (circled in pink) that I'll need to mow, food plot, or ????. I'd like to avoid spraying all together, or at least keep it to a minimum. I'm on my 2nd year with a genesis 5 no-till drill and last years "LATE" plantings of turnips, radish, and jap millet were looking pretty good until the frost hit them. I was late because even the time I do find for the farm, is not always the time I need to be prepping or planting for best results.
A couple of previously mowed hillside strips between the pink fields were let to go wild 4-5 years ago and are quite thick with what ever trees mother nature allowed. I kind of hate to let more go wild, but that is an option. I have two 4 series tractors, a rotary mower, offset flail mower, and a rototiller that has not been used since I got the G5 drill.
The 550 acre farm is used mostly for ATV/UTV recreation, deer hunting, and very little turkey hunting. Years ago it would have a couple covey of quail each year, and I'd love to get them back. And perhaps do something to attract dove, but I think the coyotes and hawks will make that difficult.
Any suggestions, remembering my timing could really muddy the plan? Thanks, Steve.

 

[35-acre]

Really nice land and setup!

I guess those farmers leased the planting rights or something like that from you?

 

[Bill]

I like that place too. Nice fingers to funnel deer.

If I was in your shoes, and to a point I am, have to do while I’m there. I’d plant clover and mow when you can just to keep the open areas from growing in.

 

[Bill]

And it doesn’t have to be pretty clover fields. So what if its weedy.

 

[Mortenson]

Any chance of finding a hay farmer in the region? Put an ad in the papers? I thought in most areas it would be tough not to find a willing farmer. How about a young one trying to get started? A lot of guys are fine travelling a long way. Or is it intriguing to have all those pieces available to you?

 

[MadMadHoosier]

Thanks guys. I really love my property and would move there if my wife would leave Florida - but she won’t. I started out 20 years ago leasing, for good money, to the larger farmer in the area. But about 3 years ago he outgrew me and told me it was just too small for him to mess with. The current farmer is paying VERY little, but I did not care if he did not mind what the deer ate, and It kept me from having to do something with all that tillable. His crops looked SO BAD the last two years, I did not even take his token payment. I like the idea of finding a young upstart, but I have to approach that carefully, because nothing happens in this remote area without EVERYONE knowing About it, and I don’t want to risk losing my bird in the hand.

I’ve been playing around with food plots, but don’t even know what I don’t know yet. For instance, Mortenson, would hay in those 20 acres be a good thing? I would assume so for birds, but also for deer? I should have mentioned this in the first post, because the current farmer said something about him putting hay in those fields, but I have not answered him yet because I did not know if it would be a good thing or not. Now wondering if I should hurry and jump on that idea???

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Can you plow a really good break around it and burn it every 3-4 years? Food and cover

 

[Bill]

Personally I wouldn’t lease it for hay. Well depending on what you want it to look like in October and all winter.

When I bought my place the neighbor was haying several fields. The best thing I did was end that. My fields looked like a golf course all fall after last cut. I’d rather have waist high weeds with clover mixed in over a golf course

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Maybe require him to no till a mix of rye and radish after he takes off the last hay cutting?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mortenson]

Last cuttings here usually are early enough to get some more height. The few local hay guys have off and on got a pile of sheds, but we get snow. I'm not saying it would be my 1st choice, but your situation is unique. When farms rent, you have to rent the bad with the good. If he's willing to put hay in those fingers you could always try it for a few years just to see.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Instead of grass hay, what about Alf-Alfa?

 

[Bill]

Instead of grass hay, what about Alf-Alfa?

That didn’t cross my mind because you can’t grow that much alfalfa without haying it. This would be ideal even if madhoosier had to pay for seed.

 

[BC Buck]

Give someone hunting rites if they maintain foodplots to your liking.

 

[Mortenson]

I was assuming alfalfa as well.

 

[westonwhitetail]

Do you want all 20 acres to be ag field? You could look into converting some of it into NWSG and forbs blends that you just mow or burn when you can. Leave as much area for food plots that you want to plant yourself. There's obviously CRP programs that you could get a payment out of if you wish but your locked in for 10-15 years.

Also I'm not sure if this would work and you would have to be really ambitious but edge feathering the strips of woods might help get more sunlight to the fields to make it worth the farmers time? Also creating more thick cover in those strips if they aren't already. I use to have food plots in the woods with only about 30-40 yards wide. At first they only produced well in the center but then they did much better after taking the larger trees down around the border to let more sun in.

BTW, that property looks awesome!

 

[BrushyPines]

What about planting one finger or fingers in cover and another finger in food plots? Then find their trails to and from cover to food in the wooded areas. Those trails would be an ideal spot for stand locations.

 

[Wild Thing]

I think Alfalfa would be an excellent choice for a few acres as well. I am no expert on alfalfa but I did plant a few acres 2 years ago and have been very pleased with the results.

Here is a link to a thread I posted on the Michigan Sportsman forum which has quite a few photos of the progress if you care to look at all 3 pages of the thread:

Planted some Alfalfa...

I should note that there is no grass in my alfalfa - it is strictly alfalfa and clovers. I have only mowed it once each year and the deer have kept it cropped so it has been very low maintenance.

 

[Mortenson]

Don't forget we're looking at a map of 100 acres from his 550 acre farm. Seems like he does a lot of other plots and has his hands full with time constraints.

 

[BenAllgood]

I'd lean toward keeping them in various stages of succession between early and mid. NRCS has some EQIP programs that are short term to do that. Or, you could start them yourself if you didn't want to wait. One way would be just killing off any cool season grasses and seeing what comes up. Depending on your seedbed, you may not have much, or you could be surprised. Then, just maintain using various methods every so many years depending on the structure you're going for.

 

[FarmerDan]

Maybe enough said already. Just a couple more thoughts.
First, I'd be figuring out why last year's crop in the four or five smaller fields didn't do well. If it's fixable that's one thing. If not, it's another direction to consider. If it's poor soil fertility or productivity, drainage, drought, those kinds of things kinda' eliminate alfalfa. Me, I'd think twice about turning cropland into something else, but the everything in my life is a series of cost-benefit calculations - much to my chagrin. Cropland will always be more valuable than farmland. There will be ups and downs, but I'm betting on a lot more ups in the future.

You can find someone to farm that land if you wish. Free (or some small number) has a lot of appeal. Corn acres will be slim because of fertilizer costs. Your guy will go with soybeans since they need no applied nitrogen and the crop can suck the life out of your soil fertility without him investing a dime to replace it. Maybe. I don't know.

What to do? What to do?