A year in the life of a farm

[Tester]

Any updates? Hope all is well.

[roadkill54]

Thank you Rusty for the positive outlook with all the adversity you and the family have had to deal with in 2020. Been following the thread for years now implementing various practices garnered out of learning's from your experimentation's! I look forward to watching/learning how your deer adjust to their new surroundings from the storms that battered you all this summer and how it impacts their natural forbs and the nutrients that you have so generously provided through plantings...Please keep all of us in the loop as the story continues to evolve - this has become one of the most fascinating wildlife learning's (free education ladies/gents) as good as any 3rd yr 3 HR college curriculum class! Just sayin!!

[SwampRanger]

I love this thread!

[elgato]

Thanks everyone. I keep thinking its time to let this thread die but I appreciate the feedback and its a lot of fun for me as well.I have just transitioned to the ranch and will be there mostly thru January but excited to report there is a lot going on. Just a bit time compromised to report.

I will do an in depth deep dive on the farm when I can collect all my thoughts from everything I am learning. I had Dr. Williams back in today looking at the hurricane damage and going over soil reports while looking at my plots. I did PLFA and Haney tests on every plot and with his knowledge gained immense insight how to improve the microbial functioning of the soil with a slightly different approach to planting scheme. To much for me to relay now though I have learned those tests are far more valuable than the standard tests I've been doing. I am super excited about what I'm learning and where I'm going with the farm. Let nature do the work for you!

Looks to be a good year at the ranch also. Within 24 hours a bowhunter took a beautiful drop tine 183" buck and we got a super massive 211 { Low fence...so much for all the high fence difference talk } this morning. And we are just getting started. Seeing much improvement over last year

[ethic1]

Please don’t let it die! Love the updates!


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[cbail13]

Please don’t let it die! Love the updates!


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I agree. I always enjoy the updates.

[elgato]

Well...I'm enjoying a leisurely morning drinking coffee about to work in the garden an not hunting. So I'll throw a story out that might be relevant to all the hunters out there trying to decide " Should I shoot that buck?" Is he a cull , mgt buck or trophy ? I've been having trouble posting pics for a while but if I can I'll add a couple to provide enrichment to what happened.

Last yr. we had a mature nice 8 pt, couple small kickers, great mass, but narrow at only about 16" that I would guess at 155...160 tops.At least 6 [ maybe older; its not an exact science!!!] as we had noticed him for several years. Certainly quite mature.

My buddy shot him yesterday morning. Mainframe 10 with a bunch of kickers, tremendous mass carried all the way to the tips, 16 1/2" wide scoring 211. His rt side alone was 100" .He was standing in the footsteps of where he was videod last yr. You can see him in last yrs. video on my youtube channel.

The buck made at least a 50" jump...maybe more. What we have learned is that is nigh upon impossible to guess which bucks become the top end trophies. Sure some appear more likely than others. But we have seen countless bucks with great potential never make that big jump to superstardom and then we also have seen the surprises like this buck. The moral of the story for us is that we are extremely conservative on buck harvest letting almost all of them get 7+ before any decision is ever made...and a reasonable batch of them die of old age.

[elgato]

Does this look like a buck that will be 211 the following year? Or would you have shot him because he is a mature 8 pt?

[dope hunter]

Wow! Hopefully you can post some.pics of the 211" buck soon!

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[elgato]

DOnt have good pics of the 211 but here is a photo of buck my buddy took couple days ago

[TildenHunter]

Awesome buck. Congrats to you guys for continuing to grow and shoot monsters!


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[ethic1]

What a monster


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[rtp]

Congrats to your buddy and on your management plan. I want to say unbelievable but that would be incorrect. [emoji3][emoji106]


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[Capt.Bryan]

Rusty, I was listening to our local outdoor show on the way to work this morning and they began talking about a 300" buck killed in Louisiana. Was it killed near you? I believe it was 46 points and 306".

[elgato]

Rusty, I was listening to our local outdoor show on the way to work this morning and they began talking about a 300" buck killed in Louisiana. Was it killed near you? I believe it was 46 points and 306".

I haven't heard anything about it but I have been away from La. for past couple weeks. I will investigate. Outstanding if true.