Stressless Farm Blog - Wildlife Habitat Improvements

[Stressless]

What I've found is the local herd around my farm really enjoy the buckwheat, the growth is out performing the browsing pressure so its not a failure.

The nannies and fawns have been very active the last week or so. It's got another 3 weeks or so before I turn it for fall seed thatch.

It's about 2.5' now. The switchgrass band in front looks good as well, a good mowing and it'll be ready to take off in the the late summer.

 

[Stressless]

Experimenting with BuckWheat for my plots was a success - what we found was the buckwheat was the BIG draw in the area - LoL NOT the expected result so so goal of having it 4'-6' high to smash down over a seed bed didn't pan out.

Browsing pressure on buckwheat. I planted 4 plots across the 100 acres and they all looked like this... or worse. Deer candy around here. The neighbor let his rye go to seed and then is going to use that as thatch to nurse his seed.

I was able to seed brassica (3# mixed brassica and 6# tillage radish) / acre and a green blend, (150# winter peas / 25# oats) acre. I didn't do beans as there just wasn't enough buckwheat left to use as thatch to get germination.

The primary focus on the farm is the pond restoral but it's time for fall plotting so that's getting some attention as well. On Backpad where we cut out the forested middle that was blocking full sun I planted 10' of switchgrass to break up the plot. This is just after trimming/cutting the weeds down to the top of the swtich. You can see in front of the switch that the buckwheat didn't get a good catch/got terminated by browsing and generally failed!

Lots of open soil on the scrubby leftovers of buckwheat so broadcast the seed and harrowed it in about 1/4" - ground was hard after the drought we had the last couple weeks.

The legumes are doing great, I wanted to bring back some legumes in the Dam, they had petered out pretty good so I frost seeded as described earlier I want it be a mix of grass and legume after the second cutting I'm not disappointed.

Bottom Plot, was just grass and nasty last year - I sprayed / killed it last summer, planted rye last year had a real good catch and frost seeded this spring - what a turn around! I'll over seed all the legumes with cereal rye in early Sep.

 

[at1010]

View attachment 132822

Experimenting with BuckWheat for my plots was a success - what we found was the buckwheat was the BIG draw in the area - LoL NOT the expected result so so goal of having it 4'-6' high to smash down over a seed bed didn't pan out.

Browsing pressure on buckwheat. I planted 4 plots across the 100 acres and they all looked like this... or worse. Deer candy around here. The neighbor let his rye go to seed and then is going to use that as thatch to nurse his seed.
View attachment 132816

I was able to seed brassica (3# mixed brassica and 6# tillage radish) / acre and a green blend, (150# winter peas / 25# oats) acre. I didn't do beans as there just wasn't enough buckwheat left to use as thatch to get germination.

The primary focus on the farm is the pond restoral but it's time for fall plotting so that's getting some attention as well. On Backpad where we cut out the forested middle that was blocking full sun I planted 10' of switchgrass to break up the plot. This is just after trimming/cutting the weeds down to the top of the swtich. You can see in front of the switch that the buckwheat didn't get a good catch/got terminated by browsing and generally failed!
View attachment 132818

Lots of open soil on the scrubby leftovers of buckwheat so broadcast the seed and harrowed it in about 1/4" - ground was hard after the drought we had the last couple weeks.

The legumes are doing great, I wanted to bring back some legumes in the Dam, they had petered out pretty good so I frost seeded as described earlier I want it be a mix of grass and legume after the second cutting I'm not disappointed.
View attachment 132821

Bottom Plot, was just grass and nasty last year - I sprayed / killed it last summer, planted rye last year had a real good catch and frost seeded this spring - what a turn around! I'll over seed all the legumes with cereal rye in early Sep.
View attachment 132820

This is an interesting observation as it mimics what I have seen as well - in regards to buckwheat. I am not sure where or why some folks don't believe it will be browsed. I suspect that is more directly correlated to beans in the area and deer densities.

My only tip - is always planting a legume with buckwheat - at a minimum!!

Great stuff as always! Enjoy this thread!

 

[Stressless]

I was able to get most of my "greens" or annuals plots in last Monday, those are the ones I terminated the rye in late May and planted buckwheat in.

The pond restoration, and other farm chores kept me busy so I didn't get out to check them until yesterday when I got the last plot planted up front, the one Mose used to stage his equipment and turn around in.

First time putting Australian winter peas in and brassicas, the method is to crush thr buckwheat down over the larger seed and used that as thatch to support germination. You can see above most of my buckwheat was turned into deer poop and didn't have the mass left to cover anything really. It was anticipated that this would be 1-2" of 5' buckwheat laying on the seed. Nope. All my buckwheat look like this after harrow and rollng.

To get good seed soil contact I either harrowed the plot, seeded, then harrowed again, or just seeded and harrowed.

I was pleased to see the excellent germination of the peas and brassica, the oats are in with the peas and doing great as well.

Peas and Oats

Brassicas

Another thing that's new this year is putting a plot on a powerline between my neighbor and I. We discussed it and said is it'd be great movement but only would work if a screen could be put in.

I got a screen blend from Northwoods whitetails, and planted when I put the buckwheat in. It needs a soil temp in the 60's and can't tolerate a mild cold spell.

This site hadn't love, never been planted before. Prep was just the drag harrow about 10-15 times and some Glyphosphate.

Screen came in real nice, about 7' now and should go to about 10' by the end of Aug. We'll see how it fairs after it dies in Oct with a frost but I'm very pleased with this success.

 

[Stressless]

A lil bit of overlay with another thread but waiting on a plane ride back to TOO from a work trip.

The screen was a outstanding success.

About 10' high

This allowed me to add two .13acre plots, cutting an adjacent .75 acre bedding area between these plots amd FrontPad created a good movement between bedding and plots.

Trying to utilize buckwheat and brassicas was a disaster from over browsing. This is FrontPad brassicas browse and nothing I can do about it. So removing brassicas from the plot lineup from here in out. BackPad brassica plot got smashed even worse.

I layered another 230#/acre on both the greens AND the brassicas plots. Got it down on 14 Oct w .6" rain on the 15th.

The good news with the plot experiments is the greens side is a solid draw and able to withstand the browse pressure, next year I'll have all the none legume plots in greens and just roll that annually. Plan is to let the rye bolt and mature then seed a summer mix along the @at1010 mix route? Spray with gly in Aug and plant the peas/beans/oats - Sep w rye and crimson clover and layer again w rye if need be in Oct.

The greens are in the foreground of the picture below.

 

[at1010]

A lil bit of overlay with another thread but waiting on a plane ride back to TOO from a work trip.

The screen was a outstanding success.
View attachment 138004
About 10' high
View attachment 138005
This allowed me to add two .13acre plots, cutting an adjacent .75 acre bedding area between these plots amd FrontPad created a good movement between bedding and plots.

Trying to utilize buckwheat and brassicas was a disaster from over browsing. This is FrontPad brassicas browse and nothing I can do about it. So removing brassicas from the plot lineup from here in out. BackPad brassica plot got smashed even worse.

View attachment 138006

I layered another 230#/acre on both the greens AND the brassicas plots. Got it down on 14 Oct w .6" rain on the 15th.

The good news with the plot experiments is the greens side is a solid draw and able to withstand the browse pressure, next year I'll have all the none legume plots in greens and just roll that annually. Plan is to let the rye bolt and mature then seed a summer mix along the @at1010 mix route? Spray with gly in Aug and plant the peas/beans/oats - Sep w rye and crimson clover and layer again w rye if need be in Oct.

The greens are in the foreground of the picture below.
View attachment 138007

Looks really good, buddy!

I notice some smartweed in plots, often that is an indicator of acidic soil conditions - do you have soil tests of these areas? Sometimes a little lime can help to increase the soil PH, and decrease weed competition - all in one!!

As for the spring mix - I would continue to keep it as diverse as possible (buckwheat, spring oats, annual clovers, etc.). Lastly, I would NOT give up on brassicas - even if they are being demolished, they are helping your soil, break up compaction, mine nutrients, etc. I would suggest slamming some does on the farm.

Have you all done a native browse survey? How is the oak, maple, hardwood regen in the area? I suspect your deer numbers are far about 50% CC and this can and will lead to habitat and soil degradation.

Hope this is a bit helpful!

AT

 

[Stressless]

@at1010 - K so it took a bit for me to locate the report - the local Ag guys I use let me a little befuddled with what they were advising. This is from last fall, The only plot I added lime to is Ski Jump (4.9 pH) 2000#/ acre pellitized lime and 2000# spreadable CalPro pulverized Limestone - BackPad came in 7.2 pH which seems a tad high for the last application of AgLime I made. Prolly just me getting samples from the first couple inches as I don't till of disk - one of the reasons is it's a strip mine spoil bank, first sample was in the low 5's in 2016.

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So I keep a ~ kinda journal on the plots in the Google Earth - it really helps me keep track of the progress and what the heck I did. THis is the history of BackPad - just a semi-mowed/brushhogged field until 2016.

Summer 2016
225# 5-14-42 2016 1/2 Brassicas and 1/2 chicory and Greens

Feb 2017
Leaves Blown
Red/white alfalfa chicory #100 4-15-42

Aug/Set 2017
50#/ 50# Rye/ Winter Wheat
pH 5,2 - added 1800# Ag Lime, 31# 11-52-0, 75# 0-0-60

Mar 2018
Leaves Blown
spot frost seed Red/white alfalfa chicory

Aug 2019
pH 6.3 - added 1250# Aglime/Acre

2020
Mar leaves Blown
pH 7.2
May 5oz IMOX
July Gly +24De
Aug Gly +24De
Sep 14 burn Add N-P-K
200# Rye
Oct 8 200# Rye

2021 - Ultimate no till JS
Split in two -
3 Feb - Frost Seeded switchgrass
June 15 50#/buckwheat/acre sprayed with Gly Harrow before and after
Aug 11 sprayed reamining buckwheat with Gly
Brassica side sowed 3#/acre brassica mix /6# acre tillage raddish /acre
Greens side Greens side 25# oats/60# winter peas /acre
Sep 10 Greens side 200# Rye, spread 100#/acre urea 46-0-0 so 46# of N/acre
Oct 14 Total plot failure - 230#/acre rye

For simplicity This is the link to the Soil report and lime I put down: https://theohiooutdoors.com/threads/easy-ag-lime-via-atv-spreader-yes-its-a-thing.26805/

This soil sample is from June 2020

We added the DAP MAP and UREA at the recommended rate and didn't add in the removal rate.... This is the Co-op agronomist recommendation based on the samples above.

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So Dr. @at1010 It hurts when I do all this work and gets shitty results.... -- I'm just requesting your input/opinion brother -- It's mine to try and fix. Like I said I did the Exact same thing on FrontPad and BackPad, both well pads, both old strip mine spoil banks that got opened up (Leveled) to make a well pad. much different results!

Many of my other plots that I've planted are doing great but this one, BackPad is just a disaster - right smack in the middle of where I need the draw/movement. Not sure my application of rye last week will help for that but I will hopefully get some OM in and be able to get a good catch in the spring.


Along the line on deer numbers/ Carrying Capacity - the Outfitter North (2000 acres of woods 400 hundred of reclaimed strip mine tops - poor grass) and 400 acres South 300 acres woods and 100 acres recalimed strip mine tops - 50% better as a farmer has managed it for five years for hay. 540 acres to the West 40 acres of prime hay and 12 acres great plots ( thats the neighbor I share chores and such with), my 100 with 4 acres of plots.

In that contiguous 3440 a total of 12 does were shot last year. Mine(2) and my neighbor(10) - there is no way to limit the 'herd' short of a high fence. The properties N and S don't shoot does, So with my plots I must plant something specifally browse tolerant for the outcome I want, the diversity blends Spring and Fall Winter are catching my attention.

 

[at1010]

Ok - this is a lot of information but I will be happy to give you my novice opinion.

1. I agree with getting the K up - be ideal to see the base saturations on all fields around 5-6%
2. Pine, spoil, bottom, pipeline, front pad - be sure if/when liming you are using a calcitic limestone - no MG.
3. Ski-jump - I would use dolomitic lime - you need to increase both the CA saturation and MG saturation here
4. Let me ask you - how do your soils feel? Might sound funny to ask this, but my guess is they feel a bit "tight" don't they?
5. Keep in mind, there are antagonistic and synergistic relationships among all soil nutrients. So, if we put on more N (for example) than can be taken up by the plants (once converted to nitrate) - we run the risk of leaching, and with that leaching taking CA out of the soil. CA is inversely correlated to MG -so as CA decreases in our soil, MG will take its place on the soil colloid.
6. In areas where CA saturation is below 70- gypsum is also an option (a little more costly) - but it will help to lower the MG below 20 and increase CA to up to the 70 range. Gypsum will increase PH - so keep that in mind.

I had to consult my good friend (farmer in GA) to ensure my thoughts were correct. So on these fields where you have a PH over 7, MG over 20, and CA at or near 70 -it might make sense to add elemental sulfur. Sulfur will drive out the MG that as in excess (above 20) and it will also lower your PH. Lowering the PH will make the K buildup easier.

Lastly - I am not sure how large these plots are, but I would absolutely suggest continuing to add diversity when planting. I would continue to put down rye, clovers, etc. There is a darn good chance you wont be able to have huge turnip bulbs in smaller plots due to the deer density - so to combat this, we just need to balance our expectations.

Let me know your questions. Hope this helps.

AT

 

[Stressless]

That's some good gouge man. I'm going to retest the plots after the season and have everything lined up for the '22 growing period.

I had not heard about the elemental sulfur - I'll read up on that as what I think happened is the AgLime I used twice was Mg not Ca balanced. I've been focused on only Ca lime since the test in '19. I do appreciate the time you took to look at this and offer your advice/opinion. I've already added Ca lime CalPro and Pellitized - both Ca based. The new tests should show me where/what I need to tweak.

As these plots are all on crap soils either spoil banks or recent forest I expect none of them to still be > 7 pH - I'll also ensure I get the root depth of 2-4" where last time I just took where it appeared to have organic material - some areas that was only 1/2 deep.

I'm in for building the soils to produce the greatest amount of browse resistant forage I can, focusing on Sep-Late Nov timing of max available forage. The brassicas I could grow but they won'y let them grow to yeild so that's out of the lineup. No way to increase the plots sizes or acreage in any appreciable way so based on the results I'm seeing soil test in Nov, augment pH in Dec, augment the minerals at turkey season, Spring diveristy planting with a targeted foraige Aug/Sep layered planting with Oct rye backup for '22.

 

[at1010]

That's some good gouge man. I'm going to retest the plots after the season and have everything lined up for the '22 growing period.

I had not heard about the elemental sulfur - I'll read up on that as what I think happened is the AgLime I used twice was Mg not Ca balanced. I've been focused on only Ca lime since the test in '19. I do appreciate the time you took to look at this and offer your advice/opinion. I've already added Ca lime CalPro and Pellitized - both Ca based. The new tests should show me where/what I need to tweak.

As these plots are all on crap soils either spoil banks or recent forest I expect none of them to still be > 7 pH - I'll also ensure I get the root depth of 2-4" where last time I just took where it appeared to have organic material - some areas that was only 1/2 deep.

I'm in for building the soils to produce the greatest amount of browse resistant forage I can, focusing on Sep-Late Nov timing of max available forage. The brassicas I could grow but they won'y let them grow to yeild so that's out of the lineup. No way to increase the plots sizes or acreage in any appreciable way so based on the results I'm seeing soil test in Nov, augment pH in Dec, augment the minerals at turkey season, Spring diveristy planting with a targeted foraige Aug/Sep layered planting with Oct rye backup for '22.

Great plan!

As for the sulfur - sulfur reacts with the soil and makes sulfuric acid, which is why it lowers the PH. You do want to ensure there is decent drainage and I would expect this plan to take a few years to work the balances out. Sulfur will also push offer whatever is in excess from the soil colloid - CA or MG. IF CA is over 80% base saturation, it will push it off and if MG is over 20% it will push it over. For you, pushing your MG lower will naturally increase your CA (inversely correlated) and the sulfur will reduce PH - to 6.5-6.8 where K uptake is more efficient. Likely other CA, N, ETC. will also be more efficient.

Last items I will make mention
1. More is not always better
2. soil tests are your friend and so is time - try to be as consistent as possible
3. if you are unable to increase plot size, but want diversity in plantings - that can handle browsing, stick with clovers, grains, hairy vetch, etc. I love rye grain for the root structure. Alfalfa overseeded with clovers/grains could be ok but it is a relatively expensive plant to maintain and grow but on small scale might be worth consideration.

Best of luck - hope this all helps.

AT.

 

[Stressless]

Okay, so inside the Utilization Cage i got this kind of payback.

Brassica outside the cage, to the dirt, so it seems the soil would produce can be and will be better but helps my understanding.

As stated I spread 230#/acre of cereal rye 14 Oct, that night it rained, I was hopeful that I'd get a catch and have candygrass for the does about rut time.

This is the rye and red clover catch since 14 Oct- now 1 Nov

 

[Stressless]

I've left the core area on the property pristine since about mid Aug. The areas I had the TSI work done have now had about 5 months of growth and I hadn't set foot in it. I decided that in the middle of the Rut - any bucks that I might bump weren't local guys... so I took chance and went in mid-day on the ebike and setup a cam on one of the openings we created. BeaverBottom4.

That red in Bottom Plot is where I shot Dutton the local core buck. The openings hve responded very well, here's 5 months woody browse coming up from a single hinge cut poplar.

So I'm looking fwd to pulling this card in January or so. Figure post season before green up I'll take the sw thu each one and spend 10-15 mins dropping the dead ones to the dirt and baisically making sure three or four paths thru each is nice and clear. I'll also clear and mark where I'm going to put the clumps of evergreens, 3 or so in each opening. Prolly won't matter as this will be a multiflora maze next fall.

 

[Stressless]

Well, since I have no baseline I'm not sure what hanging a camera randomly in the woods would show but I'm pretty happy with these guys using the TSI openings I made in daylight during the season.... a couple vids from one of the openings - the only one with a camera - BeaverBottom4

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Lucy, We got some planting to do....

 

[Stressless]

Gonna see if I can plant/graft some more in the next year. Of all the areas on the farm with the snow pack - these trees are by far the biggest draw. the couple apple trees behind them lost all the fruit by early Dec. I'm liking the diversity of different fruit trees in the same local area to keep them coming in...

The crab apple trees are a big draw right now in the FrontPad food plot - note that even thou there is rye and some brassicas left - they are under 14" of snow and ice and the deer aren't using the energy to get down to that. The old fruits still heavy on the tree are dropping - tracks look like the deer are waiting w mouths open... that new path to potato hill is getting some action.

 

[Stressless]

..and they came out for the afternoon crab apple snowcone.

 

[Stressless]

Planted some "disease resistant" strains of chestnuts on a couple plots 2 years ago - inspecting last spring the dang furry bastards ate all the buds off so I fenced them this year and with the snow and ice sheet I'm really glad I did. Kinda wondering how long, with some actual protection now, it'll take them to start fruiting?

 

[Stressless]

Removed all the brassicas and buckwheat, fall greens and plan to overseed rye at 125# in Sep, that way I'll keep something growing in the plots consistently. it also follows the guidance of keep your plots standard to keep the movement and attraction the same across farm and not vary by what ripens or has a better palatability over the months. Once the spreadsheet is created it's a pleasure to measure!

Called Merit this AM, prices are accurate, to get my legume mix ready for frost seeding in the next week or so. Soil test next week as well - amend as necessary in Apr. With the 'mix' from Merit I just measure out the one amount at the blue arrow for proper seeding rate/ plot, add the inoculant they give me for the Birdsfoot to the seed mix and spread.

 

[Stressless]

Played around with the spreadsheet and reread some over at the No-Till thread, so this is 2022 in nutshell, rolling every plot into the same mix(s) and keeping happy plants consistently growing that will withstand the browse pressure as well any planting I think - welcome to discuss. All prices are from Merit and my local Ag store so it's close. I'm trying the new switchgrass cultivar called RC Big Rock - developed out of Cave-in-Rock.

 

[Stressless]

Spring frost seeding is a wrap. Got all 11 plots harrowed and the ones for turkeys blinds blown off. Got about half done Thursday worked until after dark to get it in before that freeze, got the rest done Fri when it thawed, all are back to legume plots. Some were bare ground (1 1/3 rate) some perennial legumes (2/3 rate) all had rye on them from last fall.

The harrow did a good job scarifying the ground to prep the plots while not removing any OM and leaving the rye to grow and feed the critters until spring greenup. Applied simazine to all mine and my neighbors plots where we wanted switchgrass and got that on the ground as well.

- this is 1/2 or 6'x4' I used the 6'x8' on the plots that I'm taking back to legume plots this year.

Also very happy with the TSI openings put in last year, they have produced lots of woody browse - filled a card up on one opening with 80-85% being daylight use.

 

[Stressless]

Zak and my cadet came up to help the old man get some chores done..

We got all 42 3'-4', 34 bald cypress and 8 white spruce, planted on Thurs. Messy but a day.

The lads got after it again yesterday, all 105 in the ground. Got all 9 forest openings w 1 bunch of 3 red cedars, 2 bunches of white spruce, 3 and 4 per bunch. For 10 conifers in each .13 acre opening.

Also I cut/opened extra paths thru each of the 9 openings.

Greenbriar got some 3-4' white spruce and 15-18" ers in a hedge line...

So all bare root are in the ground. Very happy.