Williams Creek Farm of SW Iowa

[cbw]

Thanks for the tour, you have a beautiful looking property. How have the deer responded to your nitro boost and carbon load plantings?

Thanks! We are thankful.

Re: carbon load—this will be our first time planting it.

Re: nitroboost (NB)—last fall, I tested by drilling it alongside GreenCover’s fall release (FR) and a brassica mix in the same plot. FR and NB performed about the same—both strong earlier in the fall, and then late season, deer hammered the brassica.

Comparing GC to NB, both priced about the same. Currently, I lean slightly towards NB because they are lighter on the WR (I prefer to over-seed WR the first of Sept) and they have more varieties in the mix. As far as customer service, both are stellar… as a startup, Al from NB is super responsive. And GC ships super fast and very solid systems in place. (I’m in a biz group with their CEO)

I’ve also done some self-mixes, but for the small amount of food plot acres we have, when I want lots of variety, I find these premixed options are a good solution.

As noted above, this summer, I’m testing a couple plots of not doing any spring/summer planting. Hoping that will prove successful to drive down cost and time.


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[Buckhunter10]

Thanks! We are thankful.

Re: carbon load—this will be our first time planting it.

Re: nitroboost (NB)—last fall, I tested by drilling it alongside GreenCover’s fall release (FR) and a brassica mix in the same plot. FR and NB performed about the same—both strong earlier in the fall, and then late season, deer hammered the brassica.

Comparing GC to NB, both priced about the same. Currently, I lean slightly towards NB because they are lighter on the WR (I prefer to over-seed WR the first of Sept) and they have more varieties in the mix. As far as customer service, both are stellar… as a startup, Al from NB is super responsive. And GC ships super fast and very solid systems in place. (I’m in a biz group with their CEO)

I’ve also done some self-mixes, but for the small amount of food plot acres we have, when I want lots of variety, I find these premixed options are a good solution.

As noted above, this summer, I’m testing a couple plots of not doing any spring/summer planting. Hoping that will prove successful to drive down cost and time.


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Thanks for kind words. I believe you planted the Carbon Load last fall vs. NB (spring planting this will be your first time).

CL is our fall mix. I really pride myself on the ratios of our mix compared to the comp. We are only 55% grains - so we can give more clover, brassicas, peas, etc. to our customers.

All in all - a lot of great companies out there! We sure appreciate those who give us a chance or even just follow along.

Have a blessed day!

Al

 

[MN Slick]

To help make the farm payment, we have been selling hedge posts. We cut from Jan 11 through the end of May. It has been great to get my boys to learn to run a chainsaw.

Saturday had a guy buy everything we had on stock plus everything else we cut through this year. (600 or so)

This year, we tested selling the best one as bow stave posts. Still have some inventory left on those.

What creative ways do you guys do for income generation from your farm?


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Hedge stumps sprout like a mofos. We bought a farm where the guy cut a ton of hedge and the stumps are raging. I wish he treated the stumps. I sprayed some of bushes with Crossbow last summer and thought I kilt them but some of them are kicking out new growth this year. Just a heads up.

 

[cbw]

I believe you planted the Carbon Load last fall vs. NB (spring planting this will be your first time).

CL is our fall mix.

Ya. What he said.


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[cbw]

Hedge stumps sprout like a mofos. We bought a farm where the guy cut a ton of hedge and the stumps are raging. I wish he treated the stumps. I sprayed some of bushes with Crossbow last summer and thought I kilt them but some of them are kicking out new growth this year. Just a heads up.

Thanks! That’s what I love about this forum—being willing to share your experiences and ‘gotchas’ to help others. They do sprout like crazy!

When we bought the farm, there was very little browse. So much that in the winter, the deer were stripping honey locusts of the bark.

The first couple years we cut hedge, any stump that we cut lower than knee high the deer kept browsed down. (Great mineral stump according the guys at MSU Deer Lab).

Now with some TSI and other habitat improvements, the hedge sprouts are not as preferred and we are starting to treat them using undiluted gly around the stump cambium layer. (Cheaper than garlon or Triclopyr).

We will definitely be monitoring!


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[cbw]

Hedge stumps sprout like a mofos. We bought a farm where the guy cut a ton of hedge and the stumps are raging. I wish he treated the stumps. I sprayed some of bushes with Crossbow last summer and thought I kilt them but some of them are kicking out new growth this year. Just a heads up.

Is there enough stump to try hack and squirt?


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[T-Max]

Hedge is so resilient. I have treated cut stumps with Tordon and had them resprout. Almost everything we do has to be treated multiple times.


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[MN Slick]

Thanks! That’s what I love about this forum—being willing to share your experiences and ‘gotchas’ to help others. They do sprout like crazy!

When we bought the farm, there was very little browse. So much that in the winter, the deer were stripping honey locusts of the bark.

The first couple years we cut hedge, any stump that we cut lower than knee high the deer kept browsed down. (Great mineral stump according the guys at MSU Deer Lab).

Now with some TSI and other habitat improvements, the hedge sprouts are not as preferred and we are starting to treat them using undiluted gly around the stump cambium layer. (Cheaper than garlon or Triclopyr).

We will definitely be monitoring!


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He flush cut them. Most are surrounded by MFR too so between that and the sprouts it's hard to get to the stump.

 

[cbw]

Gorgeous rainbow last night.


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[Buckhunter10]

Gorgeous rainbow last night.


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Wow!! Thanks for sharing. That’s incredible!!

 

[cbw]

Willow update:
We planted 75 hybrid willow cuttings along the road for a screen on May 5. We put cardboard around some of the cuttings to weed control, and others we did nothing. Below are the pics from a couple days ago.

* None looked super healthy.
* Leaves withered.
* Those with cardboard seemed to be impacted the same as those without cardboard.
* Cardboard definitely helped to be able to locate the plantings. I would probably use it again on all cuttings.

Any insight on what would cause the leaves to wither like this? (or what to do to prevent it)





Some are looking fine:




Also great to see some oak regrowth where we cut down a gnarly bur oak.

 

[cbw]

Drilled some RC Big Rock switch for screening on July 18. Much later that I had wanted, but I wanted to make sure that the brome had a good burn-down before drilling. We've only had 1/4" in the last two weeks. I was surprised to see it coming up already.

 

[cbw]

Hedge stumps sprout like a mofos. We bought a farm where the guy cut a ton of hedge and the stumps are raging. I wish he treated the stumps. I sprayed some of bushes with Crossbow last summer and thought I kilt them but some of them are kicking out new growth this year. Just a heads up.

We have some sprouts off some stumps that we didn't treat when we cut them down a couple years ago. This summer I tried a mix of 3 parts diesel and 1 part Triclopyr 4e in a backpack sprayer. Basal bark treament where I could get to the trunk, otherwise, folier treatment. So far that has done the trick. Just had to be careful not to get it on anything else.

My forester prescribed a 4 to 1 ratio in basal bark treatment of a black locust infestation that we have, so I tried it on some of our hedge as well. Toasts them.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Has it been dry? I am thinking the willows are struggling due to not getting enough water? I know I had some planted along a creek and they did amazing but the ones planted in drier areas didn’t do well.

 

[cbw]

Has it been dry? I am thinking the willows are struggling due to not getting enough water? I know I had some planted along a creek and they did amazing but the ones planted in drier areas didn’t do well.

Good point. They are planted in a low spot that is usually very wet. Had to kill a bunch of reed canary grass in part of the area we planted. We had a wet spring, but the spigot has turned off the past 3 weeks. Did get a 1/4” yesterday.


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[cbw]

CRP Update

This Spring we put about 9 acres into Quail safe CRP. This included shorter natives, about 2 acres of early succession and a 1.8 acre food plot . We just finished mowing the short natives. Lots of Foxtail. Didn’t get any pictures.

Here’s a couple pics of the foodplot. I went with Milo / grain sorghum this year. First time I’ve planted Milo. Checked it tonight and it is super weedy but most concerning there are no heads on the stocks yet. We planted in mid June. If heads don’t appear soon, I may need to salvage it with a rye/ clover mix or something.

Here is where the Milo meets the early successional planting.

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[cbw]

Another pic of the early successional with the sunflowers open. Mix of

Grain Sorghum (Milo)
Cowpea
Perl Millet
Buckwheat
Sunflower


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[cbw]

Here is why I don’t kill all my hedge stumps. The deer hammer them for the first couple of years. Incredible mineral stump.

Looks like a manicured bush!

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[cbw]

Got all our fall foodplots in on Saturday. Grateful, as we’ve gotten an inch of rain nice and steady this week.

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[cbw]

Last year, we planted a couple screens of GM. Right after we got them in the ground, the drought hit. Nothing grew. We purchased from two sources, and neither grew. The seller said they were probably dead.

But we have had a nice surprise this summer—some have started popping up. Probably only 10% of what we planted, but better than nothing. We’ll see what happens in the next couple years.

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