Gleaton Chip Ranch Updates

[DUKFVR]

Great ! Thanks for sharing!

[bgleaton]

The deer are hammering protein and cottonseed. We added an additional cottonseed feeder in each pen so that there are 2 cottonseed feeders in each pen. we now have around 700lbs of cottonseed per feed pen. Saw a lot of fawns and everything is still very green and tall. The grass is nearly 4ft in some areas. All of the blackbuck seem to be doing really well. We will be putting some cattle out there next week to graze thru end of August/early September to help reduce some grasses. Thistles are everywhere out there. I was told that big fall rains cause thistles to pop up everywhere. I’m hoping we can figure out something to reduce/prevent them from coming back next year.

I pulled some cameras this past weekend and are starting to see G4’s staring to grow. I’ll try to post some trail cam pics sometime this week.

[bgleaton]

Here are some pictures from two weekends ago:

[Puncher51]

Awesome!! You should be able to recognize some bucks by now, curious how many of your big boys are still around.

[bgleaton]

I’m hoping by the next card pull I’ll have a better idea. Once I get the next round of pics I’ll post some comparison pics from last year to this year.

[bgleaton]

My dad and brother are out there this weekend moving some bow blinds around and getting some feeders filled.

Here is a picture of the two cottonseed feeders to show the consumption over 2 weeks:



We will top off the cottonseed feeders one more time this year because we want to make sure it's all gone by Sept. 1st just to be certain it's out of their system by the time the rut rolls around. I know our deer aren't eating a 30% diet of cottonseed so they won't have a high level of gossypol in their system but we just want to be certain.

My twin brother sat in the big blind this morning and saw 9 doe, 4 fawns and the big male blackbuck:




We got the sign hung up. Shout out to BrokenJ for making it for us:

[BrokenJ]

Looking great, glad to see some nice bucks were on your place after fence!

[bgleaton]

We moved one of our large bow blinds to a section that will be near a 2-acre food plot and within 150-yards of water. We are readjusting some of our spots to ensure we can hunt a North or South wind. This blind is looking WNW to the feeder.

[Puncher51]

Looking good! I love following along! I can’t wait to see what you can grow now that you’ll have more control over age structure.

[bgleaton]

We will see how everything does after a couple of years of management and feeding. It’s kind of like we are starting over. The good news is that we have been feeding heavily going on 8 years now. The good thing is that we won’t have to worry about the 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 yr olds jump the fence and get shot. I really wish the two 12-pointers weren’t shot. That 4.5yr old typical 12 could have been a stud this year!

[Stonecold69]

Y'all have a good looking place, enjoy following along.

[bgleaton]

Originally Posted by Stonecold69

Y'all have a good looking place, enjoy following along.

Thanks!

[Patton]

Originally Posted by Stonecold69

Y'all have a good looking place, enjoy following along.

x2 thanks for consistently posting and sharing

[TildenHunter]

Looks like you guys definitely fenced in a good group of deer. I predict you guys will really enjoy the venture!

[bgleaton]

As you can see we have quite a few bucks on our place. We will have to get a better understanding of their age and figure out how many we need to remove. We have seen two pretty nice bucks, one of them is in the second picture.

[Puncher51]

Wow! You definitely have a ton of bucks!

[SHSU18]

lots of bucks!

[Patton]

Dang I think I counted 15 deer in that first picture!

[ParishTiger]

Have you been able to identify the split G2 buck from the previous year?

[bgleaton]

Originally Posted by ParishTiger

Have you been able to identify the split G2 buck from the previous year?

We haven’t at this point but hope to soon.

[bgleaton]

Here is a picture of one of the blackbucks we stocked.

So far we have seen around 35 different bucks on our trail cameras. We will definitely need to do our best and get our numbers down this year. We registered and got our MLD permits (11 doe tags, 6 buck tags). We will most likely need to use them all to help lower the numbers. We will see what the wildlife biologist says.

[bgleaton]

After looking at our numbers and speaking with our biologist we are going to try to remove 20% of our deer herd this fall. We will be going after 11 doe and 5 bucks. We aren’t shooting any “trophy” bucks this year. We will be going after a 7.5yr old 8pt we have history with and find 4 other bucks. I’ll be able to post some buck pictures next weekend after I get the camera cards.

Our fall food plot fields are very tall and dry. We are going to have two fall food plots again this fall but we may try something different this year. We are thinking of spraying the fields with Glyphosate in late August and then broadcast our seed blend and fertilizer in late September or early October and then take our UTV cultipacker and try to lay the dead forage on top and create a nice mulch/thatch layer. We typically disk the fields and that works well when we get a lot of rain but disking dries up the soil quick and our topsoil/organic matter tends to be getting worse. Also, disking 5-6 acres takes a very long time. We may disk one field and see which style works better. I wish we had a grain drill but we don’t at this point in time. Curious to get yalls input as well on this.

[Big pig]

I think you will really like the alternative to disking. What I have seen is the field isn’t as “clean looking”, but performs better. It does take a lot of poison ($) , but saves tractor time and diesel.
I am not a farmer, but the later we plant, the better our late winter plots are.
More rain, cooler weather.

[yotethumper]

Originally Posted by bgleaton

Our fall food plot fields are very tall and dry. We are going to have two fall food plots again this fall but we may try something different this year. We are thinking of spraying the fields with Glyphosate in late August and then broadcast our seed blend and fertilizer in late September or early October and then take our UTV cultipacker and try to lay the dead forage on top and create a nice mulch/thatch layer. We typically disk the fields and that works well when we get a lot of rain but disking dries up the soil quick and our topsoil/organic matter tends to be getting worse. Also, disking 5-6 acres takes a very long time. We may disk one field and see which style works better. I wish we had a grain drill but we don’t at this point in time. Curious to get yalls input as well on this.

This is how I do all my food plots, it works well.

[bgleaton]

We put our last load of cottonseed out yesterday to ensure we have some through the end of August. They are hitting everything hard right now with the lack of rainfall. We will continue to feed protein free choice thru mid September and then start throwing corn and feeding protein on our timed feeders. So far we've fed around 20,000lbs of protein/cottonseed in total (12,500lbs of protein & 6,500lbs of cottonseed).

It's been really dry out there but we got 0.8in of rain on Wednesday which was a great surprise. Other than that it's been a dry July/August out there. I'm hoping that we get some tropical storms soon that will provide some moisture throughout Texas...fingers crossed.

[RMW]

I don’t why but them high fences seem to grow big deer. Get ready in 4-5 years to see some monsters, beautiful place btw. Need some rain badly, where I hunt it hasn’t rained in 2 months.

[bgleaton]

Here are some pictures of some of the bucks we've gotten on our trail cameras recently:


We have this 8pt aged at 7.5yrs and have pictures of him for the last 4 years. We are hoping to get him this year.


This is a pretty 10pt with two kickers off his G2. We have him aged at 7.5yrs and started getting pictures of him in 2015 when he was 3.5yrs.


This is a nice wide 9pt that we have aged at 6.5yrs. We aren't sure which buck this is at this point.


Young 10pt (2.5yrs)


Wide 8pt


3.5yr old with split brow and drop tine


4.5yr old 10pt. We are really hoping this buck adds some length and mass over the next 2-3 years.


Crazy 12pt. We have him aged at 3.5yrs.


3.5/4.5yr old 10pt


Tall 8 with short brows. Haven't decided if we are going to go after him or not. I hate bucks with short brow tines.

[Patton]

Looks like you got the right bucks! Seriously those genes are going to be great to work with and those deer are looking good.

[yotethumper]

That genetic potential is unreal.

[Puncher51]

Originally Posted by Patton

Looks like you got the right bucks! Seriously those genes are going to be great to work with and those deer are looking good.

X2!! Lookin’ good!

[BrokenJ]

Awesome! Glad to see some nice ones got wrapped up in the fence! Great deer

[Krivoman]

No way i would let that 8 stay. Great pics.

[bgleaton]

We were out there this past weekend. The cows are off and it's very dry. Not sure if we will be planting food plots or not this fall just due to no rain but we will know more within the next 3 weeks or so. The broomweed is everywhere along with dead thistles. I may cut some lanes in some of our fields to allow some winter forbs to grow because the broomweed and thistles are thick!

I sat in the big blind one morning and saw some deer but not too much activity. After walking a little bit we noticed that the oaks are loaded with acorns this year and they are dropping everywhere.

We noticed that at least one of our blackbuck doe have already had a baby. We will need to keep an eye on the blackbuck population to make sure it doesn't get out of control.

I'll try to post some updated trail camera pictures this week.

[DUKFVR]

Thanks for the update!

[Bowhuntinonly]

Nice, I enjoy your thread, I hunt just west of Menard on the river. Check out Grant Woods website for growing food plots in rocks, of course they get more rain there. Growingdeer.com

[bgleaton]

Here are a couple of bucks we will be passing this year:

[Puncher51]

Beautiful bucks! I can’t wait to see all those bucks get a little more age on them

[bgleaton]

My dad found a nice 3.5yr old 10pt dead near one of the cross fence, it probably got hung up which is unfortunate. Heading out there next weekend to shoot 3 or 4 doe to start reducing some numbers. We had our small pond dug out this past week to make it around twice as big and add some clay to help ensure it holds water even in the driest conditions. Hoping to broadcast wheat and fertilizer next weekend and cultipack over top and see what grows. We haven’t had time to Disc so I’m looking forward to see if this will work or not. I’ll post some updates after the weekend.

[DUKFVR]

Good Luck & Thanks for the updates! Where do you get the clay out there for the ponds?

[bgleaton]

The guy that was digging the pond actually found a real good bed of clay about 6ft below the current pond so that’s where they stopped and just made it wider. All we need now is some rain to help fill it back up.

[DUKFVR]

Originally Posted by bgleaton

The guy that was digging the pond actually found a real good bed of clay about 6ft below the current pond so that’s where they stopped and just made it wider. All we need now is some rain to help fill it back up.

Thanks & Good luck!

[bgleaton]

I was able to get on the scoreboard and shot a doe this past weekend...1 down and 10-12 more to go.

We planted wheat, silver river clover, and little burr medic this past weekend. I broadcasted the wheat, mowed the fields, broadcasted the clover/medic, and then used the cultipacker over everything. I saw we got around 1/2in of rain last night so hopefully that’s enough to get it going over the next couple of weeks.

[bgleaton]

Here are some pictures of the work we did this past weekend. As you can see they were able to dig out our small pond and make it around 15ft deep.


Nice 4yr old blackbuck. We are going to let him go another year.


Here's a nice 3.5yr old buck:


Blackbuck walking to the feeder:




Here are two pictures of our South field. I spread 250lbs of wheat and then mowed the field. After I got done mowing the field I spread 2lbs of silver river clover and 2lbs of little burr medic and then cultipacked the field. This field is around 2-acres. This is the first time we've planted without disking so we will so how it works. We got 0.9in of rain the day after planting and then another 0.25in yesterday so hopefully that will give it a good start.




We planted our other 3-acre field in 50% wheat and the other 50% in silver river clover and little burr medic.

[Puncher51]

Looking good! I love the updates

[bgleaton]

Here's a quick picture of the South field that I planted with winter wheat and silver river clover. The wheat is just starting to come up pretty well and the dead thatch has helped protect the seed from birds and from hotter/drier weather. We did not disk the fields this year, just broadcasted, mowed, and cultipacked over top. Hopefully we will continue to get rain.

[bgleaton]

There were a bunch of deer in this field this past weekend.

[Chance Love]

Still looking good, Man.

[bgleaton]

We are going to try to reduce our blackbuck female population by half over Thanksgiving weekend. The population is growing so fast and they just stand at the feeder and eat all of the corn and protein. Going to try to keep 2-3 bucks and 2-3 females at most.

[Puncher51]

Originally Posted by bgleaton

We are going to try to reduce our blackbuck female population by half over Thanksgiving weekend. The population is growing so fast and they just stand at the feeder and eat all of the corn and protein. Going to try to keep 2-3 bucks and 2-3 females at most.

Yup, they populate like crazy. It’s nice having something extra to look at, but a pain when they move in and eat everything

[bgleaton]

What do you guys think the ages are of these two bucks:



Short brow tines!

We need to reduce our numbers this year by shooting 6 bucks and 9 more doe. We were thinking of removing these two bucks but wanted to get yalls opinion on their ages. Thanks!