Iowa_Buckeye's 2017 plots

[Iowa_Buckeye]

And time.....
Like I've said in the past, I am pretty much just a patsy in this operation! Isn't my equipment or property, but I am living the dream helping the landowner for the privilege to hunt there.
Aside from the tractors themselves, we have pretty much pieced our equipment together from Craigslist and such. Farmers out here don't have much use for the smaller implements anymore and you can get decent stuff fairly cheap.

 

[giles]

And I'm truly happy for you guys. You have a great thing going!

 

[Dustinb80]

Yes he does!!

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

Made a trip to the farm this morning with to goof around with my girls (and look for a turtle nest, but that will be another thread). My buddy had been up there earlier in the day to plant the 2 back plots with beans. Here are a few pics of them.

First plot (~3 acres), looking generally east in this pic. We have a stand in the tree just to the left of where my finger is pointing. It is a great early season stand to bow hunt as it faces north and the wind usually sets up well for it. The plot also dog-legs north at the stand and makes a nice pinch point in the plot. Only about 40 yards across where the stand is.



Looking north from the base of the tree the stand is in. Late summer we will work up the ground on the right side of the pic for a good fall green source to draw them in close. Maybe oats or rape or something.



Panoramic of the whole plot. It is a great view from the tree.



This is the second plot he planted this morning. It is about 200 yds north of the other and is also about 3 acres. We have a tower on the north end and a stand in the tallest tree on the far (south) side of the pic. Also a great view from the tree. The tower is where my daughter Reese shot both her doe and buck last year (corn then). This plot is also where the snapping snapping turtle nest was.



I took a quick peek at the plots we planted last week and the beans are popping up!

 

[Bigslam51]

Hell of a setup!

 

[MoonLab]

Nice. Good work.

 

[Spencie]

I imagine with plots that size you are providing plenty of food sources. Is it all gone by early spring? My 3 acres of plots are sometimes gone by the end of October.

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

I imagine with plots that size you are providing plenty of food sources. Is it all gone by early spring? My 3 acre plots are sometimes gone by the end of October.

It basically depends on 2 things; if the fuggin river comes up at the wrong time, and how brutal cold the winter is.
All but about 12 to 13 acres of our plots can go under water if we get too much rain north of us all at once. This seems to happen about every other year.
And if it is real cold the deer flock to and pound the plots pretty quickly. We usually have enough food to hold them through the gun seasons, and if we need to we get truck loads of corn to get them through (and so we can find sheds!). Last year we had a great growing year and a pretty mild winter. As a result a few of the bean fields were barely hit when we disc'ed them under this spring.

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

We did some plot work today. Pretty much worked on our some of our smaller kill plots that we wanted to put turnips, rape, and such in.
We had prepped the ground last weekend and during the week, so it went pretty quick with one guy spreading and one guy rolling. Got 9 of them done in total.
And I confess we used some buck-in-a-bag mix. We haven't made it to the seed store as of yet (about an hour drive), so it was convenient....

Some current pics of a couple of our row crop plots.





A kill plot we call Triangle. My buddy killed a perfectly symmetrical 166" 10 here the first year we put it in. You can see the stand on the far end.



We call this one Eagles Nest (as there used to be an eagle's next by it, until a big wind took it out). Ladder stand on the right, and hang on in the tree to the left.



This is a new one for this year. Didn't plant it today, and plan to put beans/oats in it in a month or so.



Hard at work on another!



The tree pretty much in the middle of this pic has a stand in it, the one I was pointing at in my last post. One of my favorite places to hunt early season.



This one has been in clover the past 3 or so years. It was getting weedy, so we tilled it up. The N left by the clover should be good for the turnips/rape.

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

And it wouldn't be a normal day at the farm without something breaking.
This happened on the first plot of the day. After re-assembly and some red-neck engineering, we got her going again. Still holding up!
But if anyone has an old junker Dunham packer, I would give you some coin for the end cap!

 

[Bigslam51]

Lookin good!

 

[Spencie]

It wouldn't be food plotting without some adversity. Things are looking good for you.

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

I ran up after work today and got two of our larger brassica plots broadcast and packed. One is about an acre, and the other is about 3.
After I got done I took a ride around the farm to see what was up. Lots of deer out feeding. Saw one decent buck, but mainly dinks, does, and fawns.
Now we just need some rain to get them all going.

 

[hickslawns]

Wow. That is a lot of work and expense to plant. You are fortunate to be able to do these things. As ate up with deer hunting as I am, I honestly don't know if I'd want this much work with it.

 

[Bigslam51]

Wow. That is a lot of work and expense to plant. You are fortunate to be able to do these things. As ate up with deer hunting as I am, I honestly don't know if I'd want this much work with it.

I would! I'd love to be able to do that stuff! You don't know how many times I've envisioned this at the best farm I hunt, 90% of it is alfalfa, it could be so much better.

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

Wow. That is a lot of work and expense to plant. You are fortunate to be able to do these things. As ate up with deer hunting as I am, I honestly don't know if I'd want this much work with it.

'Working' at the farm is my stress relief. It is mindless work where you see immediate results from your efforts, unlike my endless days in an office.... I like farming the deer as much as I like hunting them anymore.
And with our connections through farmers, buying seed from dealers (as opposed to companies marketing the same stuff to hunters for more $$$), etc. we keep our yearly costs down to where they are manageable. We split the cost of the seed, chemicals, and tractor fuel 3 ways. I think I am into for about $700 this year. Not bad considering the amount of enjoyment my family, friends, and I get out of it.

 

[jagermeister]

And it wouldn't be a normal day at the farm without something breaking.
This happened on the first plot of the day. After re-assembly and some red-neck engineering, we got her going again. Still holding up!
But if anyone has an old junker Dunham packer, I would give you some coin for the end cap!

Ha! I had to laugh, only because I've been in the same boat before. If you ain't breaking stuff, you ain't working hard enough! What's really funny is I've done the exact same ratchet strap fix myself!

 

[Iowa_Buckeye]

Messed around with the plots a bit today.
I over-seeded one of our bean plots that is getting completely devastated by the deer with purple top turnips. Also sprayed it again to kill what weeds were there.
I didn't really take a pic of the plot, but it is in the foreground of this pic. The doe was bedded in the shade and decided to get going when I went to take the pic.



Looks like the ditch weed is doing well this year. Should have some dopey deer.





There was also a bad strip of water hemp in one of the other bean plots. I guess we missed spraying this strip earlier in the summer or something?? So I tilled it up and also put turnips there.







And I grabbed this little guy for a pic! He wasn't too happy.

 

[Dustinb80]

Very nice IB