I have been out of town for a while excited to get back home and see how the frost seeding worked out. While I was gone my wife sent me pictures of the deer in the pasture grazing and I was amazed how much it has greened up while I was gone. Love it when the seed comes up and it greens it amazes me how clover rebounds after getting grazed to the dirt. Will be interesting to see if the alfalfa rebounds. One of these years I am going to wait and see how the clover comes back before I reseed.
Clover is coming up strong. Everything else is either dormant, or some weeds poking through. Opened up a new 1/4 acre kill plot two weekends ago that I'm getting read to work over for a summer builder, and then a fall grain planting. Won't be long now.
My year old main chicory/clover plot behind the house is rocking. Deer are in it every day now for the past week or so. I'd say it's about ankle high and it seems to be growing taller every day. I've got about a half dozen clumps of grass in it that I'll spot spray with gly this upcoming weekend and might overseed just a bit, and I'll also top dress it with some fertilizer this weekend as well. I'll post some pics when I can get a chance to pull some still pics off the video camera. Last week I was filming and had 8 separate deer in it all at once. Not bad for a suburban backyard plot about 1/4 in size.
Headed to the cabin this weekend, got a feeling the clover plot is gonna be real wet as well as the other fields. Hoping to be able to do some field work to prep for planting next weekend, and gonna get my apple trees planted.
Just mowed the clover plot here in NC. Need to head back out and spray with some clethodim though. Mowed and sprayed the bean plot to be with gyl. Dropped about 2 tons of lime on it in February. Ground temps should be right to drop the seed in a few weeks. Lows have been hovering round mid 50s-60s with highs closer to 80.
Well checked out the apple and pear trees last night, the young trees up in the pasture are not ready yet but the old sentinel in the pasture is covered in flowers ready to open as well as the other trees around the yard. Going to be a good apple year.
Everything looks good here. Bees are enjoying the clovers. Been too wet to plant this years summer plots but spraying is beginning today.
My perennial clover plots are very grassy. I think I missed the boat on spraying them, the grass is way too tall at this point. Most likely I'll just have to start from scratch at some point on a couple of them. Just tilled about 3/4 of my 3 acre soybean plot last night. Hoping to get back over there tonight and finish the first pass. Hopefully I'll have the soybeans in the ground by this weekend. Then in June, I'll be planting my Egyptian wheat screens.
Luck would have it, you found the windiest and warmest day of the year so far. I was wondering how that Crimson clover looked.
Mowed my 3 clover plots, spraying them later this week. They are doing alright...a little weedy. Not sure if my frost seeding of the dead patches took, i dont see any poking out yet. Completely finished up a new clover/chicory plot that was brassicas last year before he rains. Waiting for that one to poke through. Tilled up an old plot that was all grass from last year today...what a mess. I sprayed it but lots of sod clumps reamin. Hopefully i can get it finished up this weekend. Then i have a kill plot i need to start from scratch, gonna be alot of work. Not 100% sure what im planting yet. And last...i have a open field that im gonna turn into a late season plot. Gonna plant border patrol on the outside, brassicas inside.
It's a dual purpose crop. It was cover crop but it's intended to provide forage for my bees and then when that's done I'll harvest it for cover crop seed for this falls cover crop planting for a big return on the investment. I want to eventually plant cover crop on all my acres and the only real viable and sustainable way for me to afford that is to produce my own cover crop seed. 700 acres at $40-60 per acre isn't very affordable if I had to buy all of the over crop seed, especially for a non-cash crop. The nice benefits of being dual purpose food plot and bee forage acres are a big plus. Eventually I plan on having cattle to graze it all and really give the soil fertility and soil health a big kick at the same time. I'm trying to make a high efficiency machine out of it but it's a big project.
