A year in the life of a farm

[unclefish]

I really like the diversity in that plot instead of a monoculture! Just awesome and your results speak for themself.

[deer farmer]

That my friends is a nice food plot. Good job Elgato

[elgato]

Just posted this on the protein thread but to repeat. I have fed 1/2 the protein here on the farm this yr. vs. last year. Suspect we will look back to this longingly come July.

[Backwoods101]

Lower protien intake seems to be common this season.

[BillyloMexico]

Just posted this on the protein thread but to repeat. I have fed 1/2 the protein here on the farm this yr. vs. last year. Suspect we will look back to this longingly come July.

That will help the pocket book, but more importantly I believe that they're getting what they need!! Which is always a positive after the Rut....

[Jtrisler]

Well, 19 pages of reading posts and enjoying pictures was well worth it! Rusty, you have and awesome thing going with the farm.

I live not far from your farm in Jonesville and hunt our 500 ac of WRP in Harrisonburg. Keep up the hard work and I will be subscribing to keep up with your progress.

[Sotex1]

Awesome thread thanks for sharing

[elgato]

I'm ready to start planting but ironically it is too wet to plant. And the forecast calls for rain everyday for the next 10 days! I'll get going the day it is dry enough.

My plan is to plant 42 acres in group 5 soybeans no till directly into the fall small grains. I have a 10 acre field and a 3 acre field I'm going to plant in a 'jungle' of cowpeas, sunflowers, and milo. I'm planting 13 acres of sunflowers with proso millet mixed in{ Last year the deer wiped out the sunflowers so I'm doubling the planting rate} Lastly I'm experimenting with a 6 acre field of sunn hemp.

Pictures to follow.

[gingib]

WOW! You got your hands full.

We are getting rain at all the right times

[unclefish]

!!!!!SUNN HEMP!!!!!!

Can't wait to see your results!

[elgato]

Tried to be patient but failed. Had to plant 'something' today. Drilled 65 lbs/acre group 5 soybeans into this standing wheat field which also has a lot of rye grass in it. Will spray with gly as soon as planting is finished.

What I learned is that because the green wheat in late dough stage doesn't get very tall it doesn't get mashed into a thatch when the drill runs over it like elbon rye does. I want the small grains to form a thick matt on the ground to suppress weeds, hold moisture, and moderate soil temperature. I will wait till the other fields start turning a bit brown before I continue planting.

I like the elbon rye better for this method but it was scarce and expensive last fall. I tried a different rye..I forget name...in the mix but its not much different than the wheat. Unimpressed!

[unclefish]

Good stuff Rusty. I couldn't find Elbon either so I had to use Rhymin rye instead. I don't think it will get as tall as the Elbon was last year but I haven't checked on it in two weeks.

[elgato]

Thats what I used. I have some volunteer Elbon which looks terrific. Very unimpressed with the Rhymin. I used 50 lbs rye and 100 lbs wheat per acre. Will try triticale or something else this fall if elbon not available.

[elgato]

Fawns are dropping here. Saw a couple last week. Suspect we are in full fawning now.

[Mr Sid]

Fawns? That's Interesting Mr Rusty. That puts breeding mid September to early October, like some areas SW of Rapides. Have you seen a change in breeding dates through the years on your place?