Stressless Farm Blog - Wildlife Habitat Improvements

[Stressless]

I've been working on getting switchgrass established as a visual barrier to the public road down the way from this plot, one of the weeds that can out compete switchgrass is foxtail. The 12' bands of switchgrass here on FrontPad plot got heavily infested with foxtail which was still in the dough stage of seed development on 21 Aug.

Quinclorac 1.5L must be used with Methylated Seed Oil (MSO) to target foxtail and other noxious grasses/weeds. The application rates are somewhat strict or you'll harm/kill the switchgrass you are trying to recover. The switch must have 3 to 4 leaves off the main stem usually 2 y/o switchgrass or the quinclorac/MSO will kill your young switch.

I sprayed on 21 Aug. Effects pics below are on 30 Aug.

Application rate was 64oz of Quinclorac 1.5L/acre+ 32 oz of MSO/acre and 20Gal water/acre (for the Fimco 7 nozzle sprayer that's 40psi@3mph)

I knew I'd overspray a foot or two of the legumes but wanted to terminate the foxtail starts that were in that edge. As you can see below the quinclorac smoked the legumes and is terminating the foxtail. The switch is still dark green, where I didn;t overlap the spary. Where I did about 20'x2' I might have burnt the swtich... we'll see. The foxtail, other weeds, and everything else that got hit or overlapped spray areas are browning up.

Hit this plot and two other areas where the switchgrass has a larger footprint next to bedding/travel areas for about a 1/2 acre total.

 

[Stressless]

Got back to TOO about 1300 Wed and it was threatening rain and actually got some sprinkles on the way to the farm from CMH. With that wet 'kick in the pants' I got 12 bushels of rye overseeded, 150#/acre, and then mowed all the plots over the seed- finishing up just at dark. Long day with a 0300 wake up in FL. That's a wrap on the food for the farm critters this year.

17 Mar, frost seeded legume blend 8#/acre
23 Aug Overseeded crimson clover and oats into the legumes oats 50#/acre CC 15#/acre
13 Sep Overseeded cereal rye into the oats crimson clover and legumes 150#/acre

The plots and dry tonnes I have growing is either going to draw good deer or not. If the kids come up to harvest some meat in gun season I may put some corn out but that'll depend on what we see on camera and the neighbors. Cliff and I are planning to go w/o "Bought and Bagged Bait" this year. We'll see. The Amish on the West are baiting, the the outfitter to the North is baiting so planning on primarily rut hunting. Nothing exciting showing up on cams so far to get me back for those glorious pre-rut 20-31 Oct days.

 

[Boone]

How did overseeding the rye into the clover work out? There don't seem to be many bare areas in the pictures for the rye to germinate,

The lack of rainfall this year has hampered my gly-throw-mow plots so this may be an alternative for me next year.

 

[Stressless]

@Boone - I think there are a couple parts to your question above.

There don't seem to be many bare areas in the pictures for the rye to germinate

What I've found over the last 4 or 5 years is that rye and oats don't require "Bare Dirt" to germinate and thrive - They will for sure on bare dirt with moisture, rye being the more hardy and I have an example below. @at1010 can probably provide the science behind it but the long thin seeds will absolutely fall through the legume leaves and clover stolons and achieve seed to soil contact.

There is a certain % of seeds that obviously don't make it to the soil but I've found overseeding 150#/acre for rye and 50/# acre for oats gives me a good catch and fills in the horizontal space, of course the closer to an appreciable rain the better. Another seeding TTP I've learned is to brushhog the plots directly after seeding, my laymans observation but looking at the seeded area before and after there's no question that it helps settle a higher % of seeds to the soil. I have a 44" roughcut tow behind and between the cutting debris/wind/6 tires (4 for UTV/ATV and 2 for brushhog) the seeds get to where they can and will germinate and gives the primarily root of that germinating seed, the radicle, a chance to get to soil.

How did overseeding the rye into the clover work out?

The oats and rye both had a great catch this year doing the TTP's above.

FrontPad plot is the worst soil and is getting heavily browsed,

2" plot is better soil and gets some shade so the growth there is surpassing the browse pressure. I'd guesstimate that > 90% of the oat/rye seed germinated and is growing across all the plots. There is very little grass in the plots so those long stems are almost all Oats or Rye

The lack of rainfall this year has hampered my gly-throw-mow plots so this may be an alternative for me next year.

The drought around my farm this year has been bad as well these are from my WX station at the farm. About 1" of rain since the beginning of Sept thru 11 Oct.

September

October

The rye example in dry conditions. I had some work done along Crescent Pond in Sep, coal mined spoil bank opened up - nasty shale, clay and rock. Spread rye and crimson clover 16 Sep.

About 3 weeks later the rye germinated and rooted in almost no rain, not so sure about the crimson clover.

The difference between the rye growth in the plots where I overseeded into soil that had a crop growing, compared to seeded on bare dirt is, again just a observation, but I'd say 200-400% better in the overseeded areas.

Across all the plots the clover is getting dry and almost looks like it is going dormant the cereal grains are still producing. This is normally a great growing period for the cool season legumes. I am getting a little concerned about how fast the clover can react to a rain. Hopefully the oats and rye will really jump as well with a good rain in the forecast again.

Hope this is helpful - any questions LMK.

 

[Boone]

Thanks for your detailed update! I can see the rye/oats clearly in that second pic. Gonna have to try this next year.

Hopefully we all get the rain they are calling for this weekend to give our plots the boost they need.

 

[Stressless]

This plot, BackPad, as I've said is terrible soil. By overseeding the cereal grains into the legumes I've kept something growing throughout the hunting season. It got browsed truly chin high mid-late Nov but the horizontal space has had something growing it it from Sep thru Dec. In the warm spell coming up this week the rye will grow at temperatures > 38° F.

Herd management: We put seven 1 1/2yo or older does on the dirt (1 per 14.3A), neighbor Cliff and his crew put fifteen 1 1/2yo or older does on the dirt (1 per 33.3A). Both properties are still carrying a healthy herd population and getting closer to a 1:1 ratio and age class spread than we've had in a number of years.

The buck above, Willis, just kicked the crap outa me this year. I had him on daylight cams thru 11 Nov (when I left) and hadn't blown him off the property, I think creating deep woods bedding/woody browse pockets (in 2021), softening the edges of the plots, redoing access routes and some stands all played a part in giving me the most opportunity at a decent buck.

If you like hearing a nice buck grunting like a mule turn it up a bit.

Winter chores coming up, blowing leaves off the plots, terminate any large suckers/large invasives in the deep woods pockets and frost seeding are the primaries prior to turkey season. Indications are good.

 

[Stressless]

The overseeded rye consistently offers a bit of forage whenever it warms up. As soon as the crust comes off they roll in across all 5 acres of plots.

Most of the bucks have shed, but the majority of deer around the farm right now are unaccompanied minors.

 

[Stressless]

This is first soil sample taken in 2017 and last sample taken last month. All farm soils were below 6 pH when I started this food plot endeavor. I screwed up by tilling a couple plots in 2016 instead of going no-till - LoL but I didn't know what I didn't know. Tilling was what the organic farmer neighbor told me was best. A disc hasn't touched it since the fall of 2016. I've learned much from the No-Till So Easy thread and have tried to apply the TTP's to my small farm to increase the draw, create lines of movement thru the same blends of crops and keep crops growing in the plots throughout the year.

pH:
Below are lots of numbers but by sampling and administering the bag spreadable lime in posts above we've been able to bring most of the plots into the correct 6.7-7.0 pH range. Two Plots SkiJump and Edge, both relatively new, still need an application of lime to bring them into the desired range, the rest are in the target window.

Organic Matter: Across the plots the OM is being built up by 100-300%

Nutrients: When I applied Hi Mag pellitized lime, before I found the Hi Cal spreadable lime I got the Mag too high in many plots. To counter that I applied two types of gypsum, roughly 1500# acre, a pellitized fast acting and a granular one that works over time. This was pread right after the samples in 2023 (Right side below). Gypsum 'should' increase Calcium (Ca) and decrease Magnisium (Ma) PPM. Gypsum also leaches other nutrients so I expected to P and K to be reduced as well and that's the challenge I'm at now. How to best increase P and K. There numerous pics of the plots browsed chin high, aka 'Removal' whether for hay or in bellies, it has to be replaced for the crops to thrive, I picked close WTI seed brands to the blends that I have in my plots.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

 

[Stressless]

One thing I don;t like about WTI Soil sample resutls is they don't give you the Saturation% or Ratio's. Found a couple ref documents on OSU Ag site that allows you to figure those from the WTI PPM results. So you can get the raw values to start figuring.

From this it's strait forward to get the Lime required and P and K if you go the synthetic fertilizer route. Called the local CO-Op and the cost of fertilizer has gone down dramatically from last year.

To get the plots dialed into the pH and P and K nutrients the spreadsheet takes the WTI results and spits out what's needed. Total to dial the plots in, 19 bags of spreadable AgLime, 17 bags of MOP (0-0-60) and 9 bags of MAP (11-52-0) across the 11 plots. I have feeling the P and K values will be required yearly due to removal of a majority of crop.

 

[Stressless]

I've been working on getting switchgrass to grow in food plot areas that need screening or soft edge to have the does/deer bed closer to the food. That in turn gives me more depth of cover. Some of my switchgrass plantings are doing well, some not so much. BackPad plot switchgrass was 3 years old and from what I've read every 3 years is about right to burn and kill off woody stems in the switch if burnt at the right time. The right time is right at spring green-up when the energy store has moved from the root to buds/leaves. The fire terminates the stems ability to move energy back to the roots and 'should' kill the woody stem.

I took an afternoon during turkey season that fit the 60/40 rule, 60℉ or less and 40% humidity or higher. Prescribed burns call for Winds 5-15mph but I like >=5mph or close to that. I did this chore solo and had a couple brush fire tools but only used the backpack blower to stop cold a couple very minor kickups.

 

[Big_Holla]

I'd imagine burning very little at a time is the key to doing it by yourself, other than wind/weather. I've done it to our little fields up here behind the house but haven't had the guts to try it down there yet. Our switchgrass plantings are pretty old now and not a whole lot left that isn't getting overgrown with small trees.

 

[Stressless]

The trip to the farm was a by-product of needing to go help mom with her health and care givers so this was an opportunity I hadn't planned on.

Does are dropping fawns and turkey poults are just starting to hatch and walk so I had a couple competing outcomes. Do what work I could on the plots/screening and not endanger the wildlife I am trying to promote. I had seen a couple big broods of turkey poults so it was proof, after the fact, that hitting the predators hard for works to get more birds.

I didn't apply IMOX in April but I did apply fertilizer across all plots and added lime on two plots, bringing them into the ~6.7-6.9 pH range. Sep '23 was when all the plots were now in the 'same' rotation, i.e., no new ground, same crop ( legumes and overseeded annuals ).

The overseeded annuals, Crimson Clover, Oats and Rye had a good catch thru the perennial legumes. The amount of catch varied but the older plots seemed to get a better catch than the newer plots. Without IMOX some grasses were in dough stage and would have been GREAT to terminate that garss seed but it wasn't worth the risk of injury to the target wildlife. Figured I'll spray Clethodim in later June a week after I brushhog all the plots down to 7"-8".

Older plots - Spoil

FrontPad

BackPad

In these thicker older plots I could see beds in them, and no way to clearly see if there were fawns or poults so I didn't molest them, left them until I'm back in later June and will cut at that time, as I did in '23.

2inch, Dam and Ski Jump didn't have nearly the heavy rye so I crept along about 1-2mph and everything worked as planned. The tow behind brushhog with freshly sharpened blades didn't make too much clumpy mulch with the 6"-10" of legumes and sparse rye, and I didn't jump/bump/hurt any wildlife.

2inch

This is first time the plots are outpacing the browse on the farm.

- Significant doe harvest
- Upping the dry tonnage by no-till (thanks Albert!)
- Not applying IMOX across consecutive years
- Getting the N,P,K and pH dialed in

All the factors above played a part in this. This is chicory outside the utilization cage and there wasn't any discernible difference for the first time between inside and outside the utilization cage.

The switchgrass screening in a couple plots needed some help, the Switchgrass was trying but competing with weeds on TopTop and Pipeline (both about 1/2 acre planting of switchgrass). There wasn't any issue with endangering wildlife so it was just whether to cut or not and see if it helped let the switch outperform the weeds. Also
an update to the switchgrass burn and termination of early successional growth.

TipTop

Pipeline

 

[Stressless]

I needed to get up to the farm and get a number of things knocked out as well as fam stuff with the boy in TN and mom in OH. As mentioned above I brushhogged, 2" plot and others that had sparse rye in early June. This is 2" plot UT cage in early July and is showing fairly significant browse pressure. The cut plots show good to excellent growth in the UT cages.

Cut half the 10 plots on Monday and the first of two equipment failures, broken belt on the brushhog and no on site spare. Took a week to get the spare and get the others cut with a significant rain between them. I'm curious if there'll a difference or not going into Aug overseeding and cut... Sprayed clethodim on 5 July across all plots 13ish oz / acre with crop oil and 3.5# of AMS.

Sharpened the blades before each of the two cuts and it seemed to work better than good. It's a rough cut brushhog so I don't expect a even cut and some thatch matting in the thick rye UTV crushes before cutting. Rye from overseeding 135#/acre last Sep. Got real good catches on FrontPad..

.. and BackPad

The legumes under the rye looked well established but seemed to be struggling which was expected, we got ~1.2" of rain between the two plot cuts. The rye should have soaked up a chunk of the N the legumes have been fixing.

---

Got roped into mushroom cultivation from my son's hobby making mushroom mycelium. He made Shiitake mycelium last spring and I took some up to camp and inoculated some logs. It went something like this, in Mar when I frost seed, I cut the hardwood bucks for the inoculation which gets done in Apr during turkey season. Apparently wood need to be cut 4-6 weeks prior to inoculation and that fits those farm visits well. Last Mar I cut a stack of wild cherry and sycamore for the first experiment with growing mushrooms at will.

To do it roughly you need:
- mycelium in plugs or grain spawn but that requires a specific tool
- drill with bit for the plugs
- hammer for the plugs
- melted wax, so burner etc...
- wax applicator ( rebar with a bit rag taped to the end
- something to hold that log up to Drill holes in a diamond pattern laterally, insert plug, smack with a hammer, dip wax rag, dab each plug end.
-- turn
-- repeat
- place stacks of inoculated logs on sacrificial logs that lie on the ground

I only had enough plugs for the wild cherry, got those cherry bucks done and stacked .... and then you wait.....

 

[Stressless]

.. for about a year.

When I got here there were old fruits ( I had seen them sprout on a cell cam I had watching that stack) With my first time trying this I wanted to see if anything I did actually worked. Those were past prime Shiitake's and so I looked up how to try and make them fruit. Youtube for the win.

So with my logs fruiting I concocted the best largest container I had and made it kinda hold water with a couple layers of 5mil plastic.

I'd say I got about a 60% good soak with 100% being completely submerged for 18 hours. A PITA without a proper soaking container. Laid the semi-shocked logs out.

Got a couple decent flushes and that proved the process worked - lots room for improvement but the 60% soak, we grew mushrooms worked.

Mrs was coming up over the 4th of July so I took the other five logs of the stack from '23 and got a better soak, maybe 80%. "they" say 3-5 days from soak to harvest, our Flash to Bang was soak and ready to eat after picking 90% of the flush was 7-8 days. Chris's Mrs is a great cook and she whipped up a bunch from the first little flush on the 4th.

In the middle of all the Shiitake stuff I looked up from a chore redoing the outhouse and a big silver maple log was covered with beautiful oyster flushes. Picked a couple pounds for the guys that came over Tues for a fish fry.

The second shock went much better with better control of water temp and soak length. The amount of pins on the logs was about 75% more than the first 5 logs.

---

I cut a bunch of poles this March and inoculated 30 logs in Apr at turkey season for sacks full of 'shoorms in '25. Glad to see that the system worked. Tried three different wood types to see if that matters. My boy bought the grinder attached bit for making the proper depth holes and also changed to grain mycelium which takes a special tool but man it works well. Smash some mycelium grain into the tube, put over the hole, thumb plunge, refill the tube - next hole. Used my Taco's built in inverter for power out in the woods.

 

[Stressless]

With the ongoing drought, the farm is right between Moderate to Severe, I'm very happy with the way the plots are actually performing. 5 years ago I'ld of had bare dirt. Now with the 365 of something growing and minding the creation of thatch I have viable crops surviving and ready to germinate/grow when the moisture comes back.

The gully washer that happened on 17Aug after three weeks of getting seared helped on some plots but it never had a chance to soak in that amount, 2.2" in around 2 hours.

I put down ~100# of oats on 10 Aug in front of the forecast rain that didn't happen, cereal rye went down in front of the rain on Sep 5th that only spit out .2" and then nothing since.

Inside the UT cage shows a healthy crop when the growth isn't foraged off. the crop is growing right thru the heavy rye stalk thatch and staying alive.

This is 12 Sep in full drought and you can see the Oats from early Aug germinated and are growing/browsed.

I've found the deer really like the chicory and favor the flower stalk.

In the drier parts of my plots the crops are dormant and not a leaf or two above the thatch if it's there. In the fatter shadier spots both the oats and rye look like they germinated and took a toe hold. The slow to non existent growth due to drought has let the browse well overwhelm the growing capacity of the plots they looks cropped as close as late March.... chin high.

I put in other threads the work Caleb and Mose did with a pic each here. BackPad, Edge plots and the bench below Edge.

Dammed the seep exit from Crescent pond. Good location for a couple more wood duck houses this winter.

 

[Stressless]

There bounty in the cages but browsed hard across the 5 acres of plots.

Even with the minimal rainfall the oats and rye caught, the legumes are plugging along and when not chin high by the deer are growing better than anticipated.

Wjen I did the TSI in the forest and also opening up some plots I had an eye towards mast production. When I could I put the border of the plot on white oaks then red oaks... @" had a great line of three white oaks that the opening faced North, great for sun scald yet opening up 50% of the canopy. This is the second year and it was great a mast production.

Dissatisfied with the amount of mature bucks the land is holding but the Amish and Outfitter are baiting June to Feb. Just an observation. Will pull cards when I get back up for gun season with the kids and see how the plots are holding up.
6-8 more friut trees in
The area I had leveled in Aug had wash going so slowed with straw for some months before I get a drain pipe in there or it gets sodded enough to hold. That's the Pear tree and it'll be joined by six to eight more fruit trees this spring. Moved the Shaggy stand after Mooch sat it and got busted by does rolling on the bench to the left of this pic. Can't wait till this matures in a year or two,