I had originally planned on getting my food plots planted before I left on my elk hunting trip, but I wasn't able to get to it, so that was on the agenda for this weekend. I had a total of 49 acres to plant so I had plenty of work ahead of me. I was doing several different styles of planting and mixes, but when it was all said and done I had 2,650lbs of seed to plant!
My utility trailer that I haul my tractor on is rated at 7,000lbs and there is no way I could haul all that seed plus my tractor and stay even close to the weight limit so I ended up getting the seed and hauling it down there on Friday afternoon. Here's my company car pulling our little trailer with 2,650lbs of seed on it.
Saturday morning I loaded up the tractor and headed down to get the seed in the ground. I've added a weight distributing hitch and that helped a bit, but I think I'm still sagging a little too much in the back. The tractor and loader weighs around 4,500lbs and the mower on the back weighs almost 1,000lbs so with the weight of the trailer it ends up pretty close to the 7,000lb capacity.
Here's a little less than 1/2 of the seed. 450lbs of Rye and 450lbs of Oats and 200lbs of Turner Seed's Fall Deer Mix. Not in the picture but I also put in 50lbs of a clover/alfalfa mix that I got from Browning Seed in Plainview.
Here's what Turner Seed's Fall Deer mix looks like out of the bag. It includes Wheat 14%, Oats 14%, Rye 14%, Barley 12% and winter peas 14%, plus a little tiny bit of hairy vetch 5%, purple top turnips 5%, alfalfa 5%, madrid clover 5%, hubam clover 5%, arrowleaf clover 2.5% and essex rape 2.5%.
When I was at Browning Seed picking up the rest of my seed, I talked with them about what I was doing and they suggested adding some alfalfa and clover mix to the rye and oats that I was planting. They were very helpful and mixed me up a 50lb batch with 25lbs of Alfalfa and 3 different types of clover. I forgot to write down what the different types of clover were, but I remember 1 was arrowleaf and I think one of the others was white dutch. Here's what their mix looked like. The alfalfa and clover is VERY small seed.
In an attempt to make a food plot on the shooting lanes that would be impossible to resist, I added about 1olbs of winter peas that I had left over from a couple years ago and 10lbs of the clover mix from Browning Seed to 50lbs of Turner Seed's Fall deer mix. I put this down on about a 1/2 acre so I'm hoping it turns out irresistible! Here's the clover mix and winter peas added to the Turner Seed Fall Deer mix.
And here it is after mixing it all together. You can see there are more peas and if you look really close you can see more of the clover and alfalfa.
The alfalfa and clover is so tiny that I was worried about using it in my spin spreader/seeder so I decided to mix it in with 50lbs of rye and 50lbs of oats to try to have a little more control over spreading it out. I broadcast it out over the best looking places on the 2 fields I was going to plant.
Here's the tractor with the broadcast spreader hooked up and ready to go. I only used it for the shooting lanes and to spread the alfalfa/clover mix with the rye and oats. Talking with the guys at Browning seed, I broadcast the alfalfa/clover mix first then went over it with the grain drill when I was planting the straight rye/oat mix.
After I broadcast the seed on the shooting lanes I ran the disc over them very lightly. Maybe a couple inches at the most. This cleaned up the last little bit of stuff that was growing on them and lightly buried the seed. The forecast showed 80% chance of rain so I was counting on it to pack the seed in so I didn't go over it with anything to pack it down.
On a small 2 1/2 acre field, I planted 150lbs of the Turner Seed fall deer mix with the grain drill. I keep messing with the settings, but I had it set way too low. I ended up going around the field 3 times before I got it all put down. It made for a nice clean looking field though!
After finishing that, I pulled the plates off the other side of the drill so that it was as wide open as you can possibly get it. I loaded it up with 500lbs of Rye and Oats (plus about 20lbs of winter peas) and mixed it up and got after it. I only paid $250 for this grain drill a couple years ago and it is about a 1950 model, but it really has done well for me. I've spent about $50 for some parts and done some very minor repairs to it, but overall I have been very pleased with it. Here it is loaded up with seed and ready to go.
I was planting a 13 acre field per the FSA but by the time you actually look at the field on paper vs. in real life I think it is really only about 12 acres because of one area that has grown back over with grass and one area that has an erosion problem. The drill is 14' wide and you can cover some ground fairly quickly. I pull it in 6th gear and using the GPS it shows about 5mph when running at normal speed. I disced this field almost 2 months ago and then sprayed it with roundup 3 weeks ago. Overall I thought it was pretty clear of weeds and grass, but there were a few spots that either I missed with the roundup or it came back before I got back down there to get it planted. Here's a view from the drivers seat when I was running the drill. Pretty easy to tell where I'd been and what still needed planted.
With the drill opened all the way up, I got it all planted on the first pass. I ended up putting down 800lbs of the rye/oats mix for about 66lbs per acre. A little heavier than I wanted to, but better too much than too little and having to go back over it again and again. I do need to figure the settings out a little better before planting the big field though.
My utility trailer that I haul my tractor on is rated at 7,000lbs and there is no way I could haul all that seed plus my tractor and stay even close to the weight limit so I ended up getting the seed and hauling it down there on Friday afternoon. Here's my company car pulling our little trailer with 2,650lbs of seed on it.
Saturday morning I loaded up the tractor and headed down to get the seed in the ground. I've added a weight distributing hitch and that helped a bit, but I think I'm still sagging a little too much in the back. The tractor and loader weighs around 4,500lbs and the mower on the back weighs almost 1,000lbs so with the weight of the trailer it ends up pretty close to the 7,000lb capacity. Here's a little less than 1/2 of the seed. 450lbs of Rye and 450lbs of Oats and 200lbs of Turner Seed's Fall Deer Mix. Not in the picture but I also put in 50lbs of a clover/alfalfa mix that I got from Browning Seed in Plainview. Here's what Turner Seed's Fall Deer mix looks like out of the bag. It includes Wheat 14%, Oats 14%, Rye 14%, Barley 12% and winter peas 14%, plus a little tiny bit of hairy vetch 5%, purple top turnips 5%, alfalfa 5%, madrid clover 5%, hubam clover 5%, arrowleaf clover 2.5% and essex rape 2.5%.When I was at Browning Seed picking up the rest of my seed, I talked with them about what I was doing and they suggested adding some alfalfa and clover mix to the rye and oats that I was planting. They were very helpful and mixed me up a 50lb batch with 25lbs of Alfalfa and 3 different types of clover. I forgot to write down what the different types of clover were, but I remember 1 was arrowleaf and I think one of the others was white dutch. Here's what their mix looked like. The alfalfa and clover is VERY small seed. In an attempt to make a food plot on the shooting lanes that would be impossible to resist, I added about 1olbs of winter peas that I had left over from a couple years ago and 10lbs of the clover mix from Browning Seed to 50lbs of Turner Seed's Fall deer mix. I put this down on about a 1/2 acre so I'm hoping it turns out irresistible! Here's the clover mix and winter peas added to the Turner Seed Fall Deer mix. And here it is after mixing it all together. You can see there are more peas and if you look really close you can see more of the clover and alfalfa. The alfalfa and clover is so tiny that I was worried about using it in my spin spreader/seeder so I decided to mix it in with 50lbs of rye and 50lbs of oats to try to have a little more control over spreading it out. I broadcast it out over the best looking places on the 2 fields I was going to plant. Here's the tractor with the broadcast spreader hooked up and ready to go. I only used it for the shooting lanes and to spread the alfalfa/clover mix with the rye and oats. Talking with the guys at Browning seed, I broadcast the alfalfa/clover mix first then went over it with the grain drill when I was planting the straight rye/oat mix. After I broadcast the seed on the shooting lanes I ran the disc over them very lightly. Maybe a couple inches at the most. This cleaned up the last little bit of stuff that was growing on them and lightly buried the seed. The forecast showed 80% chance of rain so I was counting on it to pack the seed in so I didn't go over it with anything to pack it down. On a small 2 1/2 acre field, I planted 150lbs of the Turner Seed fall deer mix with the grain drill. I keep messing with the settings, but I had it set way too low. I ended up going around the field 3 times before I got it all put down. It made for a nice clean looking field though!After finishing that, I pulled the plates off the other side of the drill so that it was as wide open as you can possibly get it. I loaded it up with 500lbs of Rye and Oats (plus about 20lbs of winter peas) and mixed it up and got after it. I only paid $250 for this grain drill a couple years ago and it is about a 1950 model, but it really has done well for me. I've spent about $50 for some parts and done some very minor repairs to it, but overall I have been very pleased with it. Here it is loaded up with seed and ready to go.I was planting a 13 acre field per the FSA but by the time you actually look at the field on paper vs. in real life I think it is really only about 12 acres because of one area that has grown back over with grass and one area that has an erosion problem. The drill is 14' wide and you can cover some ground fairly quickly. I pull it in 6th gear and using the GPS it shows about 5mph when running at normal speed. I disced this field almost 2 months ago and then sprayed it with roundup 3 weeks ago. Overall I thought it was pretty clear of weeds and grass, but there were a few spots that either I missed with the roundup or it came back before I got back down there to get it planted. Here's a view from the drivers seat when I was running the drill. Pretty easy to tell where I'd been and what still needed planted.With the drill opened all the way up, I got it all planted on the first pass. I ended up putting down 800lbs of the rye/oats mix for about 66lbs per acre. A little heavier than I wanted to, but better too much than too little and having to go back over it again and again. I do need to figure the settings out a little better before planting the big field though.Speaking of the big field (33 acres), it is still waiting to be be disced and planted. I was trying to line someone up to disc it for me since it would take me 3 or 4 days with my tractor, but I couldn't get anyone lined up in time so I could get it planted this weekend. I was also pushing the rain and actually just got done with the 13 acre field before it started to rain. I loaded 600lbs of wheat into the grain drill where it should stay dry and then put the other 900lbs of wheat in the pickup and hauled it to the trailer just as it started to rain. I got plenty of excersise before it was all said and done. I unloaded 2,650lbs of seed off the trailer, then put 1,750lbs of it into the broadcast spreader and grain drill, then loaded 900lbs of seed back onto the pickup and then unloaded it into the trailer. I still get the fun chore of loading that 900lbs of seed back into the pickup and then into the grain drill sometime in the near future.
It rained enough that it would have been sloppy trying to get the big field disced and planted, but not enough to do much good for anything else. Right now the forecast has a chance of rain every day the rest of the week, so hopefully it will get it watered in good.
Overall I was pretty happy with getting what I did planted before the rain. The remaining field has to get planted by December 1st for the CRP program that I enrolled it, but I'm really not planning on hunting that field so if I don't get it planted for a couple weeks that should be okay
A couple other pictures of stuff that I thought were neat. I thought this spider web looked pretty cool with the rain/mist on it.
These are Chittamwood (Bumelia lanuginosa) berries. I have a lot of these trees on the property and this is the first time they have had many berries on them. Not sure how it will affect wildlife usage though.
Last picture of this post. I saw these growing in some brush. I think it was some type of gourd on a vine that just happened to grow up in the brush. The fruit is about the size of a cherry tomato. Anyone know what it is?
Lots of information if you actually care about any of this stuff. Hopefully all the effort will be worth it in another month or so!
A couple other pictures of stuff that I thought were neat. I thought this spider web looked pretty cool with the rain/mist on it.
These are Chittamwood (Bumelia lanuginosa) berries. I have a lot of these trees on the property and this is the first time they have had many berries on them. Not sure how it will affect wildlife usage though.Last picture of this post. I saw these growing in some brush. I think it was some type of gourd on a vine that just happened to grow up in the brush. The fruit is about the size of a cherry tomato. Anyone know what it is?Lots of information if you actually care about any of this stuff. Hopefully all the effort will be worth it in another month or so!Well, that's it for this post. Nathan
1 comment:
I am doing a senior project for Cameron University in Lawton, OK. I need a picture of a Chittamwood tree. I was wondering if i could have permission to use your photo in a brochure that will be printed. I would cite that i used your photo.
My e-mail is kaci.clippinger@cameron.edu
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