Hunting Season!

Its been a great growing year. Our deer herd really seemed to have benefited from the plots we've planted - as well as other animals. Its neat to see the variety and diversity of animals around. Hunting season is upon us and we've done well so far. All the deer have been healthy and heavier than the past coupoe years for their age classes.

Fall Plots Ready for Hunting Season

Its Early October - and there isn't much left that can be done on the food plots. The clovers have all had their last cutting and are filling in nicely -The Brassica are ankle to knee high - the turnips are apple sized. The corn is starting Yellow, and dent and the leaves are falling from the soybeans. Time to sit back and see how the deer relate to this fall's

Some things we could have done different, but overall I like this years plots and results. To do it again, I'd probably have put in a 2 acre Rye plot on Sept 1 - Maybe next year?

Here's a recent look:

Late Summer Update (9-2-07)

Hello all. The summer in Central NY has been warm & relatively Dry. Great corn weather - and really decent growing weather overall. I had last posted July Updates - so these are the PEAK PLOT pictures from 9-2 - and updates. Above I posted a bunch of Pictures - and then some Cam pictures of the better bucks we've been seeing.

We've got growing CLOVER, CORN, SOYBEANS, SUNFLOWERS, and BRASSICAS currently. I can say that this year we do not have a plot fail, maybe a first! Some are doing better than others - but overall - every plot planted or maintained has been positive. The Apple crop this year is "better than average" - with more than 1/2 the trees producing good amounts of apples.

This year the 2.5 year old Batchelor groups have been using our property as "home base". Its been a definite change from 5-10 years ago wen we started our food plot program. Sure we saw the occaisional 8 point or bigger back then - this year, it feels like we've turned a corner in our managment plan.

I'll post some Fall Pictures soon.

Thanks for checking in.

FH

Summer - 2007

A Mid-Summer update of the plots and their progress.

Our plots were fairly traditional for us this spring - consisting of Corn(4-5 acres), Clover (3 acres) & Soybeans (2-3 acres). The plots supplemented our existing 3 acres of clover.

So this year -our plots are heavier in clover than in the past few years - and less corn & soybeans. We did this because our two farming neighbors are VERY heavy on corn this summer and dowm on green feilds compared to past years.

Here are some mid July pictures:

New Clover Plot - Before 7-15 1st mowing

5-12-07 - Spring Preparation

The "new" plows are a 3 bottom - and they seem a little too large for this tractor on sod ground - but they do a great job where beans or corn were last year. Just
about all the fields to be planted with
beans or corn are plowed - and next
weekend we plan to disk & plant.


Its been busy with the Kid's baseball & softball.
Its gets harder every year to find time do do plots right.

We are also putting in about 3-4 acres of clover this year- and theses plots will be ready to plant next weekend too.

But it hasn't been all work this spring. The beavers have been busy
- and have expanded their pond to epic propotions.

Also - I had time to do a little Shed hunting. No "big" sheds were found - but I did find a couple - including this little 5 point shed.

Also - Last year in hunting season - we had trouble
with wet wood. Tops on the priority list this spring was a good sized wood shed at the Cabin.

2-19-07 - The Dead of Winter

The Real winter of Central NY finally showed itself starting in Mid-January - until today, when we now have on the ground an honest 3-4 ft of snow.

You can see from the picture to the left from 2-18, that the deer have abandoned the corn plots now - they have switched to woody browse.

Any corn that is left, will be used up when the snows melt back in 3-4 weeks. Then the deer will go back and paw for clover & rye in the other plots too.

My Cuddeback has taken some pictures of several bucks coming to the corn before the snows got real deep. The 10 Point on the left was never seen during hunting season, and I never had a cam picture of him. He should be a nice buck next fall!

Below is a nice Coyote on the same trail. There was a dead doe nearby the corn field, that the coyotes were feeding on. I only got a couple pictures of them coming and going though.

Another look at the 10 point - leaving the corn field at the end of January - Still before the heavy snows fell. The Corn was getting some serious use until the 3-4 ft of snow fell between 2-10 and 2-17.

A few other bucks showed up - some with only one antler. Some of the other does & fawns that came to feed every night are pictured below.

This fawn found the camera!

1st plowing - 2007

Its been very mild - and we've had below normal snowfall. I had time, so I plowed a small plot - this isn't common for us - but since there was only brown grass growing - why not?

12-30-06 - Winter is setting in

Time to start thinking about what to plant, and where. I want to have a cohesive plan by April 1st - and I'll lay it all out several times between now and then.

My son & I had a good Grouse hunt this week -
We put up 7 birds and I got off two shots. 1 for 2 is pretty good!

A couple other pictures from this week as well.










Happy New Year

Late Fall Pictures

Every fall, no matter how good our plots looked in the summer, I'm surprised how much they thin out by late fall. I always think we "need more green". Its interesting - because the deer NEVER touch the corn until the snow is near 1 ft deep.

We've found that if we mow the corn - the deer will get on it - even without snow - but we plant corn to sustain deer through the winters - which can be harsh here - and we leave it standing, even if it means that the deer don't come to feed on it in a mild hunting season like this year was. Bot though - they LOVE those bean pods when they start cracking in November - and even when there IS Snow -they will be pawing to get this high protein/fat food source in November.

Every deer we took this fall had Green (clover and or alfalfa) and soybeans in their stomach - and many had apples too.

Here's some late season pictures of the plots this year: