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A year in the life of a farm

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    Subscribing.........

    I had crazy good luck with peas, winter wheat and turnips in the sandy loam of our N.E.T. place. Deer hit it hard. Would like to try clover.
    Last edited by Tbar; 05-13-2014, 07:37 PM.

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      Was a good week on the farm. From Friday thru Wednesday rained a total of 1 1/2" . Everything was planted and got full germination. I'm already noticing leafless stems where the deer are nipping the young plants . It's why I plant a somewhat heavy seeding rate.

      Thursday we put out 3 tons of protein. For the last few weeks we have been running wormer thru the feeders. Now we have switched to standard formula which is a custom mixed 20% feed. Our feeders hold 300 lbs each . We will keep protein in them nonstop till the end of August. I have the local mill make our feed on demand so it is fresh when we buy it. From the time of milling till totally consumed is rarely over 2 weeks.The feed never gets old are moldy. This I believe to be one of the keys to feeding pellets especially in the wetter environment of La.

      Our custom blend feed contains many of the ingrediants found in all the better feeds....they all use the same stuff ! We add probiotics, digestives and a vitamin/ mineral pac designed for deer. It smells great and is heavily consumed.

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        Have you ever found a wormer additive that worked before you started getting it blended?

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          sorry if i missed it but what does your yearly harvest look like? how many deer do you usually take? do you "cull?"

          do you lease any of it, sell any hunts, or just allow family and friends to hunt?

          edit: oops, just saw the post on page 2

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            Originally posted by Mex. Bowhunter View Post
            Have you ever found a wormer additive that worked before you started getting it blended?
            I assume you mean a commercial feed that has wormer preblended? We've just always blended our own feed and added wormer. The experiment is trying to figure out how much for how long in a wild herd. Also difficult to tell if wormer actually does any good. I think this year we will do some biopsies to investigate parasite load.

            By the way we do not feed wormer in Mexico any more. Figure the dry environment is much less conducive to parasites.

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              Originally posted by elgato View Post
              I assume you mean a commercial feed that has wormer preblended? We've just always blended our own feed and added wormer. The experiment is trying to figure out how much for how long in a wild herd. Also difficult to tell if wormer actually does any good. I think this year we will do some biopsies to investigate parasite load.



              By the way we do not feed wormer in Mexico any more. Figure the dry environment is much less conducive to parasites.

              I was wondering if you used wormer in Mexico.

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                Really enjoying this thread

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                  First I would like to thank you for all the information, I enjoy the read. I also like the alyce clover and so do the deer on my place. But did you say the alyce will reseed itself? Last year was my first planting of the Alyce but I replanted that spot with winter rye last fall. So what would you suggest would be the best way to maintain an Alyce clover plot. Last year I mixed it in with the beans and peas but this year I set aside about 1 1/2 acre of just the alyce.
                  and it is coming up nicely. I still added it to the outside edges of the other bean and pea plots. It is a different type of clover compared to my white clover plot that has turned out nice also. Thanks again for the info. to you

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                    Good read!

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                      Originally posted by deer farmer View Post
                      First I would like to thank you for all the information, I enjoy the read. I also like the alyce clover and so do the deer on my place. But did you say the alyce will reseed itself? Last year was my first planting of the Alyce but I replanted that spot with winter rye last fall. So what would you suggest would be the best way to maintain an Alyce clover plot. Last year I mixed it in with the beans and peas but this year I set aside about 1 1/2 acre of just the alyce.
                      and it is coming up nicely. I still added it to the outside edges of the other bean and pea plots. It is a different type of clover compared to my white clover plot that has turned out nice also. Thanks again for the info. to you
                      Thanks and glad you enjoy.

                      Alyce is fairly easy to manage into a reseeding perennial IF you have enough planted to keep the deer from eating it all up. I plant it along with vetch in fields dedicated exclusively for them. Being a summer crop I compliment it with crimson for the winter. I let the Alyce go to seed and remain standing till killed by frost. Then in the spring mow it and either cultipak or lightly disc to ensure soil contact. Sometimes will add a ~200 lbs/acre 0-20-20 fertilizer before lightly discing.

                      Doing this I have had it last many years before needing to rework and replant. When I can get in the fields early enough in the spring ...frequently to wet here then....I will disc and with the first blush of weeds hit with round up. That helps reduce the inevitable weed build up occurring over the years. Both the vetch and Alyce tend to come up first of May more or less so the key is hitting the weeds before the cultivars germinate.

                      I would repeat something mentioned in earlier post though and that is that I like joint vetch better than Alyce. Deer here like it better also. Great deer food with vigorous growth and I had one field of vetch last 15 years. Both compliment clover nicely as they handle late summer better than clovers which tend to go dormant from heat and lack of moisture.

                      As a last note, Alyce can handle drier sandier soils where vetch prefers more moisture.

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                        This is chicory going to bloom. Time to mow it though deer do love the flowers. I like to mix chicory in permanent clover fields as they have a nice symbiotic relationship. The clover feeds the chicory nitrogen and the chicory is drought hardy and generally doing better late summer.Plus the chicory can last many years if manged correctly. Mowing helps control weeds and stimulates new growth for both the chicory and clover.

                        Mowing now is a slippery slope as fawns are dropping and turkeys are on nests. I'm only mowing the narrow right of ways and smaller fields that dont have small grains. Does love to drop fawns in fields with tall small grains or the taller clovers like arrow leaf. Thus I'll get to them after June 15 when safer.
                        Attached Files

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                          Hey el gato....are you opposed to the chicory reseeding itself or are you just doing it only for weed control? Any downsides to letting it reseed if weeds are not a problem? Will they still eat it good after it bolts?

                          I routinely mow my clover in the spring to keep the weeds at bay but have not mowed chicory yet. Thanks.

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                            I don't have any experience with reseeding. I've let mine stay in blooming stage for several weeks before mowing and the deer love the flowers. Seems this time of year they eat flowers more than plants. Late summer they eat everything. I've just always read to mow when it blooms so that is what I do. I plant about 2lbs acre and am satisfied with density.

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                              Subscribed. Enjoying the education. Thanks for sharing. Keep it going.

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                                subscribed, thanks for sharing

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