I’ve been doing a lot more maintenance/prepping/planning this year than I ever have before. This year I planted almost 4 acres of cowpeas and I plan to supplement this with soy beans later on. With the little bit of rain that we’ve had out my way, I’m pleased with the results so far. This is about two weeks in the ground and they are already reaching the 5-6" mark. Seems as though the deer have found them too. I went a little large on the plots because I’ve never done it before and I really wanted to just put something in the groud to keep them close and heathy. They’re bedding down pretty good on my place now and I’m trying to keep it that way. The back 35 acres or so don’t get any human traffic. I’m trying to keep that as much of a santuary as possible. I know that’s not a big area, but I think any little bit helps.
I’ve been steady putting out 40-50 lbs of corn weekly since April to keep them around and they’ve been hammering it all summer. It seems as though the corn consumption is slowing with the addition of the cowpeas, but they are still eating it regularly. Got a good deal on corn locally and bought 1100 lbs. By the way I’m going through it, I think that should last me several more months. Of course that depends on how much they want to consume I guess.
It seems I spooked the more mature bucks off with all the tilling/planting, but hopefully they’re still in the area and I’m just not getting them on camera. Still seeing lots of grown deer tracks all over the property. I’m seeing a bunch of does and its been fun following this mom and her two little fawns over the last few weeks too. Hopefully they’ll grow up to be big and healthy bucks someday.
No more signs of rattlesnakes, hopefully I don’t run into any more anytime soon.
BTW, im guessing that the transmission R/W is SCE & G?? Just wondering if they have a program like Ga. Power that will actually assist you in the planting of those areas??
Just a thought, as it could save ya some $$.
Google Project Wings to see what i’m talking about if you wish.
BTW, im guessing that the transmission R/W is SCE & G?? Just wondering if they have a program like Ga. Power that will actually assist you in the planting of those areas??
Just a thought, as it could save ya some $$.
Google Project Wings to see what i’m talking about if you wish.
I know they will till it if we don’t, but I’m not too sure about planting. We’ve had problems years ago with SCEG employees hanging out and taking advantage of having that right of way. Rather than deal with the good ole boy system, we take care of it ourselves. I have a caretaker that tills/clean roads/mows/plants for me. He’s the only one allowed out there besides my family. It just works best for us this way.
They do still come in about once a year maybe to trim the trees off the power lines; that’s a job I don’t want and a tough one.
Its a shame you can’t really trust anyone these days.
We talked about planting sunflowers/millet underneath one of the power lines for the doves, but this being the first year I’ve really planted anything substantial, I wanted to go simple. If this works out we might plant for doves next season.
BTW, im guessing that the transmission R/W is SCE & G?? Just wondering if they have a program like Ga. Power that will actually assist you in the planting of those areas??
Just a thought, as it could save ya some $$.
Google Project Wings to see what i’m talking about if you wish.
I know they will till it if we don’t, but I’m not too sure about planting. We’ve had problems years ago with SCEG employees hanging out and taking advantage of having that right of way. Rather than deal with the good ole boy system, we take care of it ourselves. I have a caretaker that tills/clean roads/mows/plants for me. He’s the only one allowed out there besides my family. It just works best for us this way.
They do still come in about once a year maybe to trim the trees off the power lines; that’s a job I don’t want and a tough one.
Its a shame you can’t really trust anyone these days.
We talked about planting sunflowers/millet underneath one of the power lines for the doves, but this being the first year I’ve really planted anything substantial, I wanted to go simple. If this works out we might plant for doves next season.
if you are wanting to do a bird plot try some sesame. Deer won’t eat it and we had a lot of birds last year with it. Quit with sunflowers as the deer destroyed them.
I’m liking the cowpeas a lot; they are coming up nicely so far and the deer have started eating them on the regular. The field across from me is 100 acres of soy beans, so between that and my few plots, the deer have plenty of food and shouldn’t need to leave for any reason.
I’m by far not an expert. I’d ask Skeeter as he seems to have his stuff together pretty good. If I had to guess, if say to try some of that engineered seed stuff (throw and grow) or lablab. Just need to get lucky with the rain now.
That’s one of my stands in the background…not sure what’s so interesting to the right…
Seems like this 8 and 6 are buddies; they’ve been hanging out together a lot lately on camera. The buck in the back is currently a 6 point, but pretty wide compared to other deer on the property. I’m letting him walk this year in hopes that he makes it through the season alive and is a big boy next year.
