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Post by Foggy on Jul 13, 2022 17:08:27 GMT -6
I bought 107 acres from Potlatch back in 2007 and basically had a fairly mature Red Pine plantation on most of it. I owned two 4-wheelers and thought I could get by with them....and only intended to open up a few "pockets" in the pines and let nature take care of the rest. For about two year or so....I was able to do that and I made a few food plots out of some small openings and my wife and I worked our tails off to pick up logs and grind stumps from our trails - which were basically fire lanes made when the timber company planted the land.
Slowly a plan evolved.....and I bought a tractor and put up a shed. I think that was in 2009. Adding some implements and renting a stump grinder.....and later buying a stump grinder and a grapple for the loader changed the dimensions on my land. I first bought a gear-shift tractor (790 JD) and that was really difficult to operate the stump grinder with...and to operate the loader / grapple as well. Upgraded to my JD 3320 and I was in tall cotton. Added a bunch of implements.....and was able to accomplish so much more in far less time than when we began. About that time....my wife decided that she was not helping much more.....as the tractor had kinda replaced her efforts at lopping and grubbing.
I got up to about 4 or 5 acres of food plots by doing everything the hard way.....and had increased my trail network to a few miles of trails through the pines.....when I got the bug to log off those pines. That was a monumental decision for me....and a great way to improve my property for deer. I used the proceeds from logging to buy a small cabin and put some heat and electric in there which added to the enjoyment of our hunts. Also traded up to the Kubota CAB TRACTOR which I will never regret. That ended the deer fly and hornet concern that plagued me at times. AC and Heat is not a bad thing either. No comparison in operating comfort. I also expanded my food plots to ten acres total.....and plan to do no more for several years to come.
During this period....I ground over 3500 stumps + from this property.....and erected nine box blinds, put in a well, got electric onto the property, put up gates and a deer pole and several other things that make this land a better place to hunt. Lots of work....and lots of satisfaction in completing some of those tasks.
So...then along came my desire to get away from row crops and get into "regenerative ag" for my food plots.....and eliminate the dependance on chemicals for weed issues and lessen my dependance on fertilizer. I suppose I am midway into that effort at this point.....and can see this is the right direction for this property and for me.....and my physical ambition today.
So....I now find that I need to plant 10 acres (via my drill) about once each July....and then either drill or broadcast those same 10 acres with rye each Sept 1 or so. Maybe roll or mow the rye each July. Also I need to mow about a one acre building site a few times each summer.....and perhaps 7 or 8 miles of trails from 1 to 3 times each year. I need to keep my buildings up to speed and spray a few weeds a few times each year. Maybe add some fertilizer....and may have some fence or occasional repairs to accomplish.....and there is always some storm damage....but that is about it. What a change in time requirements between this year and just a few years ago!
Getting rid of tillage issues and stump and tree issues has become a HUGE time saver for me. What about you? How have you changed what you do??
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Post by smsmith on Jul 13, 2022 17:35:10 GMT -6
I'm boring. I've been pretty much doing the same thing for 10 years now. It did take me a few years to carve out my plots with a chainsaw, atv, and sprayer.
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Post by badgerfowl on Jul 13, 2022 17:47:30 GMT -6
I started doing everything by hand basically. Backpack sprayer and bag seeder. Then we bought the hills place and I pretty much neglect the river bottoms other than the apples and an occasional brassica plot.
With a nice shed at the new place we’ve got a little tractor and the atv. So now I get to do stuff the easy way with implements (rotary tiller, rotary mower) and atv spreader,sprayer, drag, and cultipacker. If I can’t get to a spot it’s still done mostly by hand with throw and mow. I’ve got three plots that I establish that way. The other two I can get the tiller to.
I can get the atv to all 5 so they at least get the drag run over them.
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Post by Foggy on Jul 13, 2022 19:22:48 GMT -6
Funny how things have changed for me. At one time a windstorm would keep me busy cleaning up with a chainsaw and a trailer and pulling logs for days on end. Now?......I almost never use a chainsaw. I simply drive to the tree with my tractor....grab the tree with my grapple and I break it into two or there sections by pushing it against a few trees....and put them in a "bunny pile" somewhere. It may take me five minutes per tree to handle such an event. We had a big windstorm the other day. I suppose I lost 5 trees over my trails. I was all done in 15 minutes or so. Then I found another one over my plot as I was drilling seed. I had the forks on the loader and just lifted it into the woods behind it. Event was over in a minute or two. Such things were a hassle in the past....and now I just take that stuff in stride. I dont have the energy for allot of chainsaw work anymore.  |
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Post by smsmith on Jul 13, 2022 19:29:50 GMT -6
You'd never get a big, orange tractor around in my woods to clean anything up. I like it that way. The thicker the better  |
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Post by Foggy on Jul 13, 2022 21:00:51 GMT -6
You'd never get a big, orange tractor around in my woods to clean anything up. I like it that way. The thicker the better You might be surprised what I can amble through. That orange snake can go many places. |
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Post by Sandbur on Jul 14, 2022 2:06:00 GMT -6
I started big into foodplotting back in the early days of Whitetail Institute. I tried many of those things and got by with minimal equipment. No four wheeler and I still don’t have one, but maybe should get one to drag deer out.
I planted a few apple trees for family use and that turned into a major focus where I now have more trees than I can count. My wife’s grandma gave me some seedlings and taught me how to start them from seed. I started seedlings from domestic and wild crabs with some interesting results. I even have seedlings of seedlings, double pippins I guess. I learned to graft and still do a few trees each year. Last year’s drought and running out of room have reduced my apple tree planting to just a few per year. Stu has been a great help in my apple journey.
My foodplotting interest has dropped way off and I have given most of my minimal equipment away. I just don’t have the interest in it anymore. At present, I can have good hunting without these small foodplots of this and that mix. I am surrounded by ag lands of beans, corn, alfalfa, sweet corn, edible beans in some years, and potatoes. My rental acres are in corn and alfalfa and my renters puts in the two foodplots I have.
I have some northern Mn hunting property and used to have some tiny food plots up there, but I gave up on them. I have just had timber harvested a few times and leave it at that. I have a forestry consultant who is an avid deer hunter and he has done a good job of handling the timber harvest. A few apple trees are surviving up there on the thin soils. I also had a hunting cabin up there and someone burned it down. Actually life is easier without it. I just stay in a fish house when I hunt up there.
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Post by Sandbur on Jul 14, 2022 2:17:41 GMT -6
I started big into foodplotting back in the early days of Whitetail Institute. I tried many of those things and got by with minimal equipment. No four wheeler and I still don’t have one, but maybe should get one to drag deer out. I planted a few apple trees for family use and that turned into a major focus where I now have more trees than I can count. My wife’s grandma gave me some seedlings and taught me how to start them from seed. I started seedlings from domestic and wild crabs with some interesting results. I even have seedlings of seedlings, double pippins I guess. I learned to graft and still do a few trees each year. Last year’s drought and running out of room have reduced my apple tree planting to just a few per year. Stu has been a great help in my apple journey. My foodplotting interest has dropped way off and I have given most of my minimal equipment away. I just don’t have the interest in it anymore. At present, I can have good hunting without these small foodplots of this and that mix. I am surrounded by ag lands of beans, corn, alfalfa, sweet corn, and potatoes. My rental acres are in corn and alfalfa and my renters puts in the two foodplots I have. I have some northern Mn hunting property and used to have some tiny food plots up there, but I gave up on them. I have just had timber harvested a few times and leave it at that. I have a forestry consultant who is an avid deer hunter and he has done a good job of handling the timber harvest. A few apple trees are surviving up there on the thin soils. I also had a hunting cabin up there and someone burned it down. Actually life is easier without it. I just stay in a fish house when I hunt up there. I will add that I think the Whitetail Institute clover is a great product. Their other mixes did not impress me. The WI clover would draw deer better than alfalfa, but it continually needed to be clipped, fertilized, and limed. I just didn’t want to do that amount of maintenance any more. Too much work and I didn’t enjoy it. When it is all done and said, I don’t enjoy the foodplots and would rather be on the lake fishing, wandering the woods, or spending time with family. I really don’t like maintaining and fixing equipment with gas engines, so I have as few as possible. |
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Post by Reagan on Jul 14, 2022 4:47:19 GMT -6
My biggest changes are pretty minimal.
I used to haul a disk and UTV to my property to put in one plot. The loading of the trailer and hauling stuff through the woods was time consuming. I then started putting a few plots at my dads place where the equipment was kept. That was much easier.
I originally had an over the shoulder bag spreader. I put down hundreds if not thousands of pounds of stuff with that thing. Seed, lime fertilizer.
Now I own a different place where the equipment is stored. No more hauling! I break out a disk every couple of years. I haven’t put down fertilizer or lime in 2-3 years and I now have a spreader mounted to the UTV. More throw and mow than anything.
The old place was big timber and no room for tree planting. I’ve planted 1000 evergreens, 8 crabs, 3 chestnut and a bunch of ROD at my new place. I’ve grafted some pears apples and persimmon. I enjoy the trees more than the plots.
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Post by smsmith on Jul 14, 2022 6:10:56 GMT -6
You'd never get a big, orange tractor around in my woods to clean anything up. I like it that way. The thicker the better You might be surprised what I can amble through. That orange snake can go many places. I've got a number of spots where I can barely get my atv through. Tractor no bueno |
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Post by Tooln on Jul 14, 2022 6:11:50 GMT -6
You'd never get a big, orange tractor around in my woods to clean anything up. I like it that way. The thicker the better You might be surprised what I can amble through. That orange snake can go many places. If the orange snake can't go around maybe it's big enough to go over it.  |
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Post by smsmith on Jul 14, 2022 6:29:08 GMT -6
I started big into foodplotting back in the early days of Whitetail Institute. I tried many of those things and got by with minimal equipment. No four wheeler and I still don’t have one, but maybe should get one to drag deer out. I planted a few apple trees for family use and that turned into a major focus where I now have more trees than I can count. My wife’s grandma gave me some seedlings and taught me how to start them from seed. I started seedlings from domestic and wild crabs with some interesting results. I even have seedlings of seedlings, double pippins I guess. I learned to graft and still do a few trees each year. Last year’s drought and running out of room have reduced my apple tree planting to just a few per year. Stu has been a great help in my apple journey. My foodplotting interest has dropped way off and I have given most of my minimal equipment away. I just don’t have the interest in it anymore. At present, I can have good hunting without these small foodplots of this and that mix. I am surrounded by ag lands of beans, corn, alfalfa, sweet corn, and potatoes. My rental acres are in corn and alfalfa and my renters puts in the two foodplots I have. I have some northern Mn hunting property and used to have some tiny food plots up there, but I gave up on them. I have just had timber harvested a few times and leave it at that. I have a forestry consultant who is an avid deer hunter and he has done a good job of handling the timber harvest. A few apple trees are surviving up there on the thin soils. I also had a hunting cabin up there and someone burned it down. Actually life is easier without it. I just stay in a fish house when I hunt up there. I will add that I think the Whitetail Institute clover is a great product. Their other mixes did not impress me. The WI clover would draw deer better than alfalfa, but it continually needed to be clipped, fertilized, and limed. I just didn’t want to do that amount of maintenance any more. Too much work and I didn’t enjoy it. When it is all done and said, I don’t enjoy the foodplots and would rather be on the lake fishing, wandering the woods, or spending time with family. I really don’t like maintaining and fixing equipment with gas engines, so I have as few as possible.I find myself easing up on foodplots too. In another decade or so (if I get to live that long) I could see being done with plots. Maybe use a mower to keep the current plots/forest openings in an early successional stage and be done. To be honest, I don't think my hunting would be much different by doing that. As far as gas engines go, I'm with you entirely. I am very, very thankful to have the neighbor I do. Without him, I'd be paying somebody a fair amount annually. |
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