This year's food plot efforts included intentions to plant most of the fields to a permanent cover of clover mixes so that yearly efforts would not be quite so demanding. Soil samples were taken and 4 tons of bagged lime were purchased. Half of the lime was spread in the spring. And then other demands on my time superceded prompt completion.
As time was available through June and July, I picked stones. These areas had not been tilled in at least 70 years and so there was a LOT of stones.
I got a little creative as I removed the stones and separated them for future uses.
Behind the tidy little stone wall is a huge pile of all the rest of the stone taken from about half of the acreage I was preparing for planting. Thank you to Bill for helping with some of the stone removal.
On one of the foodplots I call the "Uppergate", I unearthed this horseshoe. I can only imagine the back story of the day this shoe was originally lost. I hoped it would bring me luck. It reminded me that Dad would often launch into the recitation of the poem, "For want of a nail the shoe was lost...".
I spread the other half of the lime, disced the fields again, and finally on the first of August managed to plant the Uppergate (shown), Northpark, and Westpark food plots.
It was a very dry summer and without any rain, I didn't seed the other foodplots until the first week of September, hoping for the best.
Here's a look at the Northpark foodplot (planted August 1) in the middle of October. The seeding was successful as shown by the excellent stand of brassica turnips. I don't think the underlying clover and chicory did very well due to the dry weather. I suspect I will be reseeding all the fields this spring. Or at least doing some frost seeding.
The turnips sized up nice and provided a lot of food and attracted the deer to the farm. In that, it was successful.
This year's food plot efforts included intentions to plant most of the fields to a permanent cover of clover mixes so that yearly efforts would not be quite so demanding. Soil samples were taken and 4 tons of bagged lime were purchased. Half of the lime was spread in the spring. And then other demands on my time superceded prompt completion.
As time was available through June and July, I picked stones. These areas had not been tilled in at least 70 years and so there was a LOT of stones.
I got a little creative as I removed the stones and separated them for future uses.
Behind the tidy little stone wall is a huge pile of all the rest of the stone taken from about half of the acreage I was preparing for planting. Thank you to Bill for helping with some of the stone removal.
On one of the foodplots I call the "Uppergate", I unearthed this horseshoe. I can only imagine the back story of the day this shoe was originally lost. I hoped it would bring me luck. It reminded me that Dad would often launch into the recitation of the poem, "For want of a nail the shoe was lost...".
I spread the other half of the lime, disced the fields again, and finally on the first of August managed to plant the Uppergate (shown), Northpark, and Westpark food plots.
It was a very dry summer and without any rain, I didn't seed the other foodplots until the first week of September, hoping for the best.
Here's a look at the Northpark foodplot (planted August 1) in the middle of October. The seeding was successful as shown by the excellent stand of brassica turnips. I don't think the underlying clover and chicory did very well due to the dry weather. I suspect I will be reseeding all the fields this spring. Or at least doing some frost seeding.
The turnips sized up nice and provided a lot of food and attracted the deer to the farm. In that, it was successful.
1 comment:
Awesome job Phil! I especially like the rock pile!
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