Posted By: Ranch Dog
Seeding Marathon! - 03/27/18 12:23 PM
On Sunday evening I finished an 8-day blitz of planting 10 acres in native grasses and 6 acres of food plots. I've been wondering if I would get it done or not as I've been running my wife and dad to doctor appoints for weeks (nothing local), but on the 17th I was told that I didn't need to drive anywhere until the 27th. I checked the weather, and it looked like there would be no rain until the 27th, but a very good chance after that, so I got busy.
The area to be planted in native grasses is my extended yard, from the highway up to and around the houses. Douglass King Seeds had suggested that I turn the soil back in October and plant a cover crop of oats that could be folded back into the ground as when I planted the natives. I think I posted a topic about this work. This area had been nothing but bahia, I was tired of mowing it and wanted something that tied into my work with The Nature Conservancy on the rest of my place. A bit of an intricate project, at least when dragging something in the ground, as I have water and electricity buried everywhere! Back when I had the work done, I specified a minimum of 24" below the surface, but I've had two contractors since, left unsupervised, did less, and that has led to some problems. Anyway, the native project is everything inside the white outlines.
The oats that came up were about 2' tall; I mowed them earlier this month.
I made a run up to Douglass King Seeds in SA, and picked up the seed mix, and used the LandPride seeder to put it in the ground. Before the seeding, I ran the Dirt Dog chisel plow through the stubble, then fertilized with 18-48-0 at 150/acre.
With the completion of that work, I moved right into the food plots. I had both Pogue's Spring Buck Buffet and WI's PowerPlant, similar products, so I blended them; 40 lbs of the Buck Buffet to 50% of PowerPlant. The mix would work out as follows.
Some of my senderos serve as fire breaks, so I take them to earth at the first of every year. These just needed the fertilizer and seed.
This plot had WI's Pure Attraction in it that was playing out, so I just mowed, fertilized and no-tilled the seed into the ground.
Plenty of goodies going back into the soil!
Total tractor time in the last eight days was 40 hours even. 19 hours with the native grasses and 21 with the food plots! I was tuckered out Monday but needed to clean both seeder and tractor.
This forum has been slow so I thought I would give you something to read. Now, I'm taking my dad to the VA Clinics up in AUS.
The area to be planted in native grasses is my extended yard, from the highway up to and around the houses. Douglass King Seeds had suggested that I turn the soil back in October and plant a cover crop of oats that could be folded back into the ground as when I planted the natives. I think I posted a topic about this work. This area had been nothing but bahia, I was tired of mowing it and wanted something that tied into my work with The Nature Conservancy on the rest of my place. A bit of an intricate project, at least when dragging something in the ground, as I have water and electricity buried everywhere! Back when I had the work done, I specified a minimum of 24" below the surface, but I've had two contractors since, left unsupervised, did less, and that has led to some problems. Anyway, the native project is everything inside the white outlines.
The oats that came up were about 2' tall; I mowed them earlier this month.
I made a run up to Douglass King Seeds in SA, and picked up the seed mix, and used the LandPride seeder to put it in the ground. Before the seeding, I ran the Dirt Dog chisel plow through the stubble, then fertilized with 18-48-0 at 150/acre.
With the completion of that work, I moved right into the food plots. I had both Pogue's Spring Buck Buffet and WI's PowerPlant, similar products, so I blended them; 40 lbs of the Buck Buffet to 50% of PowerPlant. The mix would work out as follows.
Some of my senderos serve as fire breaks, so I take them to earth at the first of every year. These just needed the fertilizer and seed.
This plot had WI's Pure Attraction in it that was playing out, so I just mowed, fertilized and no-tilled the seed into the ground.
Plenty of goodies going back into the soil!
Total tractor time in the last eight days was 40 hours even. 19 hours with the native grasses and 21 with the food plots! I was tuckered out Monday but needed to clean both seeder and tractor.
This forum has been slow so I thought I would give you something to read. Now, I'm taking my dad to the VA Clinics up in AUS.