Youth Hunt Success

HERE IS A PICTURE OF BRIANAS BUCK SHOT LAST NIGHT ON THE EAST END OF THE BIG FIELD ON THE CLOVER FIELD (THANKS UNCLE MERLE FOR LETTING US USE YOUR BLIND) 11 POINT, DRESSED OUT AT 170 POUNDS SHOT AT 7:25 PM THANKS STEVE FOR THE PICTURE.  Brian

More Bucks

Looks like this one is still in velvet. Maybe he is a late bloomer or it is possible that some bucks never lose their velvet.

This looks like a really young buck but he is showing some great potential, he is starting to develop some really interesting character in his head gear.

September Rain

How many deer are too many deer? These are a couple different pictures of the browsing pressure that our property is under during the summer months when there is the most amount of forage available for consumption. The recent rain has sure helped everything green up and germinate.

Need a lawnmower, this is off the "Big Field" where we have about 25 acres of food planted, there was probably about 6 inhes of growth inside the fence. We have about 4 acres of clover, 5 acres of clover/chicory mix, 5 acres of sorghum, 5 acres of beans/turnips and 5 acres of turnips. we tryed planting some corn as a screen around the edges of the field and a strip down the middle but it obviously didnt work out. You can see what is left of the few protected stalks that the deer haven't devoured. On another note the turnips are coming up really well, even in the area we planted in the beans because they were getting eaten down so hard.

It isnt always the obvious that gets noticed, looking at these young maple trees you would think they were intended to grow without leaves near the ground.  But that is not the case, that is a typical browse line in an over populated forest that can not support that number of current wildlife calling it home.  This winter we will need to go through and hinge cut these trees to get the forage near the ground.

I havent had cameras out this early in September before, it sure is fun getting pictures of these bucks coming out of velvet. Supposedly they eat the stuff and it is thought to be high in nutrients.

This buck looks decent with good brow tines but his G2 & 3's are a little lacking. His body is starting to fill out and look muscular which is a good sign. Hopefully we will get another angle of him to see how wide he is.

This buck is also decent but could use another year or two of growing to reach maturity.  

Warm Season Success - We Love Grass

These are pictures of some of the better areas of WSNG that came in. This is a 2 year old planting just to the south of the Grainery. The grass averages about head height to a foot or two over my head. That equates to about 6-8 feet of new cover in less than 2 years time with 2 summers of minimal rainfall and extremely sandy soils where most other plants would struggle to survive.



What we had before was your typical pasture/brome grass that would be about 2 feet high. This type of grass is not a tough grass and gets easily flattend by the first early snowfall. Our new grass should hold up well to snow and provide tremendous cover for deer, turkeys and all other types of wildlife.



It is hard to show height and thickness of the grass, I strongly recommend taking a walk through it sometime and experience it four yourself. There are a good number of wildflowers coming up and 4 types of grasses that we planted.



This is a picture of a 4-wheeler from about 20 yds. away when i am slightly crouched down. You can easily see how something can hide in this grass and let a predator pass within yards without being seen.

And the Velvet comes off!

Looks like the summer groups will be breaking up pretty soon, the velvet is off this buck already. That means October is not far away and the testosterone is going to start building.

September heat - when will it rain.....

Looks like a decent 7 point, once the velvet comes off he will probably be pretty thin, another year will look good on him.



We finally have some beans in Iowa that are turning out good. While some of the new food plots will need some more work I think this is going to provide some excellent late season food once all of the crops come down around our farm.