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A year in the life of a farm

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    At the risk of over exposure here is another food plot experiment pic. This is a 9 acre plot I planted in arrow leaf several years back. I've wanted to convert it back to peas and beans but didnt really want to kill with herbicide. So I mowed it very short first of May then drilled cow peas and sunflowers in to the arrow leaf [ and rye thatch ]. As you can see the peas are starting to take hold quite well growing up thru the clover. I expect the clover to die shortly but in the mean time it has been an effective nurse crop protecting the young peas from annihilation by the deer.

    THe peas hopefully are at a point where they will take off now and stay ahead of the deer till I plant small grains back to the field this fall. With our population seems it takes at least a 7-8 acre field for peas or beans to stand a chance. Next year I will try increasing the planting rate substantially above standard to see if that increases survivability.
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      So when you mow the clovers in mid summer, do you mow after it dies back and come Sept , do you add any clover seed to the Rye seed you plant in the clover in late Sept.? And what type of Beans do you plant? I do Eagle but as you prob. know the Eagle Brand are great beans but not cheep when buying the seed at $88.00 per bag. I am ok with the price but wondering if you have found another bean that does as good, for a lower price? Thanks again

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        For most of the clovers...arrow leaf, crimson, the white clovers, berseem etc...I find they last quite a few yrs. if managed right without needing additional plantings. I do replant the red clovers more frequently. After having planted various combos of rye, wheat, and oats one thing I have noticed is while the deer seem to equally graze all the small grains early once they have gone to seed they no longer eat the rye. So for fields where I'm going to leave the small grains standing thru the summer I'm going to go exclusively with wheat.Deer relish the wheat heads and birds, squirrels etc seem to like them better as well.

        I like to have something growing in all the fields all the time. I have grown Eagle seed before and found it performed much like cow peas. Did good but a lot of the growth came on late after antler growth had completed . THey last till frost kills them which is generally too late for me to plant anything in the fall behind them.

        To keep something growing year round the combo I'm liking best now is regular soybeans in the summer. THis yr. the beans I planted were half the price of cow peas thus even if needed to increase planting rate 50% to handle deer pressure you come out ahead. The soybeans go to bean by late summer when I plant rye, and various legumes behind them early fall.I have crimson essentially permanently established in all these fields and it coordinates really well. Usually some beans are left standing on the dead plants which are readily eaten. Also the fall planting process will germinate some of the beans which of course the deer love. THey die first frost.

        I do not plant round up ready soybeans just regular schedule 4 [ i think] beans.

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          Excellent information. Thanks for doing this thread.

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            Yes,never worry about giving us too much on this thread, invaluable stuff here.

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              Learned something new today. Deer will eat the seed heads from elbon rye. I've not noticed it before where I've seen them relish the seed heads from wheat. While this pic isnt the best this is standing rye in a clover field I leave unmowed all summer. Most of the rye seed has been eaten. Will cause me to rethink my fall plantings.
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                Saw something on my evening drive looking at bucks that I have never seen before. A beaver grazing in a clover field. Yup, 100 yds from nearest water eating clover. Had my wife with me and no gun. Wrong combo. Needed gun and no wife but alas maybe another day. Beavers have their own ideas how to manage the water resources which generally doesnt coincide with mine.

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                  Originally posted by elgato View Post
                  Saw something on my evening drive looking at bucks that I have never seen before. A beaver grazing in a clover field. Yup, 100 yds from nearest water eating clover. Had my wife with me and no gun. Wrong combo. Needed gun and no wife but alas maybe another day. Beavers have their own ideas how to manage the water resources which generally doesnt coincide with mine.
                  Driving around the farm with no gun? Hmmmm.....What are the bucks looking like? Any growth over there on the bayou?

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                    Ok, lets talk about the beans, I have had Eagle Beans last till fall also, and I disked them in, to plant the Rye. So did I understand, you planted Rye in standing Beans? Do u think I could just spread in Rye seed to my beans and let the fall rain push the seed into the ground? You have a no till, but I do not have access to one, the Rye is one of the easiest to plant. Thanks for letting me think out load, and bouncing things off you

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                      Bucks looking stout! Have to pace myself cause it's too early to get so excited I cant sleep at night. But have seen some that appear sure to be giants. Couple of observations. I'm seeing more deer on the clover than the beans or peas. Deer are starting to get on the vetch even though it's only 3-4" tall. And all the deer are hammering the protein pellets all day long. THis even with more crops growing than they could ever eat. Might be the molasses in the feed. Considering the quality of our feed I'm good with that. Just grin and bear it and keep the feeders full for the next 60 days.

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                        Originally posted by deer farmer View Post
                        Ok, lets talk about the beans, I have had Eagle Beans last till fall also, and I disked them in, to plant the Rye. So did I understand, you planted Rye in standing Beans? Do u think I could just spread in Rye seed to my beans and let the fall rain push the seed into the ground? You have a no till, but I do not have access to one, the Rye is one of the easiest to plant. Thanks for letting me think out load, and bouncing things off you
                        Yes I plant the rye combo directly in to the standing beans. I plant conventional beans which have dried out by the time for fall planting. But yes I think you could broadcast rye in to the standing Eagle beans and with rain get germination. May need to plant a little heavier seeding rate.

                        If you want to take a tour of the farm someday come on down and I'll show you around.

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                          Awesome thread.
                          thanks for sharing

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                            thanks for the invitation, I may just take u up on that.

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                              Thank you for your very informative thread. I have a 400 acre place in ETX where the soil has more sand. I plant the same winter cultivars as you are doing, summer I have used Alyce, to dry for vetch to do well. Vetch was the summer plant of choice when I lived in FL.

                              This year have planted mix in some fields of brown top millet and Alyce in an attempt to increase overall dove numbers on the ranch. Additional fields in milo and Alyce, so far all seems to be doing very well. Thanks again, for your thread.

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                                In the never ending quest to stop coons from robbing protein we first tried the pvc sleeves all the way down the legs of the feeders. That didnt work. SO we tried cutting off a bottom section as you see in the photo. Also as you can see in the photo that didnt work. I'm going to cut another section to see if that makes a difference.

                                I know there are feeders designed to keep coons out but I havent wanted to spend the $ to replace all my feeders. So I keep trying things to coon proof what I have. Sharks teeth, tar, grease ,fly bait....Nothing yet. What I'm sure of is that non target specie waste of protein is material and there is a real payback if it can be accomplished.
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