Prepped the soil Tuesday afternoon to catch what rain was offered late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Only received a tenth but it all matters.











Put the planter I imported from China on the tractor yesterday. For food plot use, I had suggested that they use larger sprockets on the both the fertilizer and seed augers to lower both rates down for what is typically applied in this role. They asked me to do a bit of research on what the ranges would be, I did, and ten days later I had new sprockets handed to me by a DHL guy! The sprockets change in about 60 seconds, but I had to make new chain sets. I didn't take any pictures but here is what the planter looks like.



Fertilizer is applied ahead of the tiller, the seed is metered through disk openers for depth behind the tiller, and then the seed bed is packed. Going over to Pogue in Kenedy to buy their seed today and will probably knock it out Friday. Goes pretty quick once the planter is on.

Two and a half weeks ago, I had defoliated the food plots and then burnt them a week ago.

nice work. Good luck this coming season!!

Good looking rig and dirt

Thanks guys, love doing this stuff!

We try, but I sure wish I had a little bit of your knowledge and the time! Looks great.

What are all the white pipes, is that some type of irrigation?

Thanks!

The pipes are irrigation stands with rotating sprayers. In the top picture, in the upper left corner, you can see a well house. A well was drilled on the site of this food plot in 1968, a dry hole, and an attempt was made again 12 years ago to no avail right after I bought the place. In a nutshell, the area this food plot occupies was scorched earth.

The casing for the '68 well was still in the ground so I had a water well service look at it and then I went to the Water District to see if I could get it grandfathered as an irrigation well as the county had started to record all the wells. This was approved, and I started everything in motion. The well provides water to a couple of acres of food plots, a pond, small pecan orchard, and nine clusters of live oaks stretched over 900 yards along my entrance road. It's all about the wildlife. For instance, the water for the Oaks became a major source of moisture and shade for bobwhites in the heat of the summer and this lead to other opportunities. With the quail favoring my place because of the water on the oaks, two years ago I got involved with The Nature Conservancy's native grass initiative. I converted 17 acres that run along these oaks to native grasses. This was an old improved pasture that was in brushy regrowth and now sculpted into something that benefits not only the quail but everything including deer. That lead to TNC providing funds for converting a larger amount of acreage, land that had also been improved pastures years ago, back to the native grasses. I like working with TNC, a different approach that TPWD. They have taught me how important it is to focus on the small critters and it is amazing how it benefits the large ones. Sorry man, I wander when I'm tired. Anyway...



Everything can be burnt up brown, but I can make it green!