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    Prairie Valley Farm

    Well, it finally happened...

    After 4 years of planning, I finally started habitat work on a piece of family land.



    An intro to the property....

    My mother owns 42.75 acres of the original 70 acres passed down (and bought) from my great grandmother. I originally thought this land had been in the family since the 20’s when my great grandmother and great grandfather were married, but after some research it looks like THEY inherited it from my Great Great Grandfather.... who probably bought the place (along with several others) in the mid 1870’s. I grew up hiking, hunting, camping, and fishing on every square inch of this place. Every summer I’d stay with my great grandmother for a couple weeks, most nights of which I slept in the hay barn, and even an old hollow burr oak trunk. To say that I feel a deep personal connection to this land is an understatement.

    The farm is in what used to be Blackland Prairie. It’s soils are what the locals call “black gumbo”. Predominantly, Frioton Silty Clay Loam and Whitewright-Howe Complex as the Soil survey calls them. After decades of constant tillage in the 20’s-50’s for cotton and corn, the high ground has eroded to exposed chalk, and the bottom land can get REALLY boggy in winter/spring.

    There is dang near zero cover on the place. My great grandfather was known for not allowing even blades of grass to grow in his fence rows.... as such, the only trees that have come up has been in the past 35 years since my mother bought it. There is one small chalk ridge on the south side of the place that was always wooded with burr oaks, white oaks, and post oaks.

    I hope to eventually restore the pasture land to an extremely diverse prairie. Native American Seed Company has a 45+ species blend of my seed bank has been depleted too much to produce natives without buying seed. The shallow soiled slopes would have historically been savannah, and I intend to restore those to such as well. Post oaks, burr oaks, white oaks, and chinkapin oaks will be planted at wide spacings on those slopes after native grasses have been established.

    This project will be slow, as I don’t have large amounts of resources to throw at it, but I hope to use this thread to document the transformation.


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    #2
    Prairie Valley Farm

    Yesterday we knocked out some needed prep work before the real work begins...

    In the 20’s a road bed was dug against the creek to provide firm ground for equipment to move around when the bottomland is soggy. It acted like a dam of sorts, as it really trapped the runoff from the whole hillside and forced it to infiltrate.
    Because of this, sections of the field hold water for much of the winter and spring. The worst area being right at the entrance gate. Today I cut down a small section of the road level with the field, filling a small ditch that had started next to it.


    Next up was the creek crossing. There is a 6 foot diameter pipe that acts as the culvert for the crossing, but the top foot of it had been exposed over time with erosion. I scraped up enough dirt to cover it with 14-16” of loose dirt, that ended up being 7-8” packed. I also flared it out quite a bit for better departure angles on equipment so we don’t high center anything. I encountered a plethora of earth worms while moving dirt, one of which was probably the largest I have ever seen. There’s a reason they used to say of the soils “you could plant nails, and sow crowbars”




    Then... I mowed the 2.25 acres that will end up being the food plot (plus screening). This field was most recently planted in hay grazer 2 years ago, but VERY wet spring/summers made it impossible to plant. It went a little wild with cockaburs, ragweed, broomsedge, etc.. I figure mowing it low will let everything green up well, and get rid of obstructions to spraying gly to get the plot in. The back 2.5 acres of this field will be left fallow for now.


    Once those were done, we decided to start cutting junipers. Although native to Texas, they should not occur in this area of the prairie due to the historic frequency of fire. They have been choking out the few trees that are original to the property, and they must go... we got about 30 or so trees downed before it was time to pack it up for the day.









    The plan is to continue dropping the cedars in place, let them dry down for a year or two, then burn this 7.5 acre unit. I know it might kill a moderate percentage of the existing trees, but there are LOTS of acorns on the ground to regenerate. Also, I feel like it would really jump start the seed bank.

    Hopefully I can get back out with the chainsaw for a couple days after spring break. And I’m chomping at the bit for it to be mid April so I can spray down the plots!


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      #3
      Prairie Valley Farm

      My plans for this year are to plant a main 2-acre deer plot I am using a mix similar to @elgato summer mix, a 0.5 acre deer plot with 50/50 Alyce clover and aeschynomene, and a 2 acre upland game bird plot for dove.


      The red areas are deer plots and the blue is dove. The yellow is screens I plan to plant. I also plan to break the biggest deer plot up into 2 with a screen most of the way up the middle, stopping about 40 yards short of the north edge. As well as screening the south side from the rest of the remaining field.

      I figure getting food established is the easiest first step, and I will work on cover next. Neighboring properties have some decent cover, so I can draw in from there for the first couple of years.


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      Last edited by IkemanTX; 03-01-2020, 02:52 PM.

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        #4
        The food plot in center lays out as a converging hub with multiple tree line funnels

        The point at SE corner already has some trees for cover and a potential bedding area

        How do you plan to access your plots?

        I see a lot of potential for success

        bill

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          #5
          How cool! This is why I want to buy some land. I would love my boys to have something left to them that they can pass along, and so On and so forth.

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            #6
            Originally posted by TreeDaddy View Post
            The food plot in center lays out as a converging hub with multiple tree line funnels

            The point at SE corner already has some trees for cover and a potential bedding area

            How do you plan to access your plots?

            I see a lot of potential for success

            bill


            Access is from a country road along the north. Definitely not ideal for hunting with our predominant NW winds, but I have some ideas.

            There won’t be too much hunting pressure on the place. I doubt we will hunt it this year, because the deer numbers in the area are abysmally low. If we do start getting a little sit of deer utilization, I really only aim to have a place for my stepson to get a deer on each year.


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              #7
              Check out mapping trophy bucks by brad herndon

              Very helpful when viewing too/aerial maps

              bill

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                #8
                Cool thread. Love planting native species...I planted some Alamo Switchgrass several years ago on my old place and although it took a while to get established...it turned out awesome. They made great food plot screens and were 6-7 feet tall.

                Will be following along.

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                  #9
                  Good stuff. Are you really going with that big native mix? It might be better to do either a tallgrass or shortgrass prairie mix instead. Also, I would avoid switchgrass. Yes, it's great for screening cover but it has a tendency to take over and drown out everything else in the mix. Are u going to do a govt program like crp/tpwd upland pastures program? Several companies sell a shortgrass and tallgrass mix and can omit the switchgrass if you ask them

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                    #10
                    Following. Cool history on the land. I have some of the same blackland prairie (Hunt County), but some of mine is wet bottomland along the creeks. Your place looks very similar to mine but most of my old pastures are covered with cedar/juniper that I'm cutting slowly. I've found that with some lime and a little fertilizer, clover plots grow well here. I'm continuing spring and fall plots to build up the organic matter above the clay and seems to be helping after a couple of years.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by unclefish View Post
                      Cool thread. Love planting native species...I planted some Alamo Switchgrass several years ago on my old place and although it took a while to get established...it turned out awesome. They made great food plot screens and were 6-7 feet tall.



                      Will be following along.
                      I am considering either switchgrass strips or Miscanthus/Gigantus for permanent screening in places.

                      Originally posted by Mountaineer View Post
                      Following. Cool history on the land. I have some of the same blackland prairie (Hunt County), but some of mine is wet bottomland along the creeks. Your place looks very similar to mine but most of my old pastures are covered with cedar/juniper that I'm cutting slowly. I've found that with some lime and a little fertilizer, clover plots grow well here. I'm continuing spring and fall plots to build up the organic matter above the clay and seems to be helping after a couple of years.

                      Much of the place stays soggy like bottomland along the creeks. It dries out well in between rain events, but if there is a lot of consecutive rains, I run the risk of drowning out plots. I am starting with a food plot mix designed to break compaction. I will be leaning heavily on good deep tap roots like turnip, radish, and safflower trying to improve drainage. I may even run a subsoiler through at some point to improve infiltration.

                      Originally posted by .243 WSSM View Post
                      Good stuff. Are you really going with that big native mix? It might be better to do either a tallgrass or shortgrass prairie mix instead. Also, I would avoid switchgrass. Yes, it's great for screening cover but it has a tendency to take over and drown out everything else in the mix. Are u going to do a govt program like crp/tpwd upland pastures program? Several companies sell a shortgrass and tallgrass mix and can omit the switchgrass if you ask them

                      I am REALLY hoping that there are enough natives to recover with the use of prescribed fire, but I seriously doubt there will be. Most of the place was plowed every year from the late 1800’s and into the 1940’s for corn and cotton, so my hopes aren’t high for native diversity left in the seed bank.

                      If natives don’t respond to killing out the domestic grasses, I will be going with the seed blend below. It is put together specifically to match what naturally occurred on the Blackland prairie. I have had 2 separate wildlife biologists mention it as THE best case scenario planting for my location. If any single species begins to overtake the area, I will spot treat with a selective herbicide. There was native switch (not our modern “improved” varieties) in the Blackland Prairie, so I do want it back in the pastures if I end up having to plant. As far as government assistance, my parents don’t seem to be comfortable with the easements/restrictions that often come with the cost share programs. Even though they have zero intention of ever selling the place, they don’t want to enroll in anything that will adversely effect the value.

                      Without gov assistance, I will have to convert pastures in bite size pieces so I can afford it myself.

                      Specializing in native wildflower and prairie grass seeds from the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana region.




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                        #12
                        Well, I couldn’t resist any longer. I went ahead and built another 2 acre mix on GreenCoverSeed’s Smart Mix app... this one for a dove plot. I haven’t gotten the shipping quote, but so long as it’s not crazy, I will still put the order through.




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                          #13
                          Not to side track, but i would be would planted assorted mast trees in some areas
                          As soon as possible. In a few years you would have results and an acorn buffet.
                          Be sure to cage securely.

                          BP

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Big pig View Post
                            Not to side track, but i would be would planted assorted mast trees in some areas
                            As soon as possible. In a few years you would have results and an acorn buffet.
                            Be sure to cage securely.

                            BP

                            I’ve got the first 20 or so in in-ground grow bags right now. And, I plan on doing a lot of direct seeding of burr oaks, post oaks, sand post oaks, and chinkapin oaks after the big burn on the 7 acres.


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                              #15
                              Well, it’s not related to the farm, but we just put a deposit down on a GSP puppy! I am totally stoked.
                              The litter is due in late May, so we have to be patient. But, I hope to have the pup with me at the farm as much as possible.


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