Sunflowers

Over the past month or so I've been preparing a field on one of the ridgetops at Chaplin Bend to plant sunflowers for a dove field.  On May 4 I was able to get the seeds planted, racing to beat a thunderstorm that was bearing down on me.

I planted two varieties of sunflower seed that day.  The larger part of the field I planted with Clearfield sunflowers, a special hybrid designed to be resistant to Beyond herbicide (think of Roundup-ready Corn, but these are Beyond-ready Sunflowers).  Around the edges and at the far end of the field I planted just some regular Peredovik sunflowers.

Because I was racing the rain, I was not able to cover the seeds as well as I would have liked.  I planted them in rows with my seeder and cultipacked the field, but there were still lots of seeds just laying on the surface of the ground, where the birds had easy access to them. The good news is that it rained hard within an hour of the seed being planted.

As of last week, the Clearfield sunflowers were coming up great, having germinated and moved along to the four-leaf stage:

The Peredovik seed, on the other hand, had produced next to nothing--the edges and the far end are nearly bare.  Did all of that seed get eaten by birds?  Or was it bad seed?

To address the problem, On Thursday May 17 I re-disced the edges and far end of the field and replanted them.  At the far end I planted a pound or so of wildlife mix (sunflowers, millet, corn, a little of this, a little of that) that my friend Brandon Campbell from NRCS had given me.  Around the edges I planted the Peredovik seed that had been left over from the first planting.  This time, after I planted I lightly disced the field again to cover the seed a bit.  Here's hoping that this time the seed will germinate.

But we need rain!

Native Grass

Like most farms in Kentucky, the pasture at Chaplin Bend was primarily tall fescue, with some white and red clover thrown in for good measure.  Fescue is great for pasture but lousy for wildlife.  So one of my main objectives for the first year at Chaplin Bend Farm is to replace nearly all of the fescue with better habitat.  About 30 acres in the bottom was killed to make room for corn this Spring.  And next Winter we'll replace about 50 acres with a variety of trees and shrubs.

But my big project for this Spring was to kill another 50 acres or so of fescue and replace it with a mix of native warm season grasses, including Little Bluestem, Side-oats Gramma, Wild Rye and Indiangrass, and wildflowers, such as False Sunflower, Purple Coneflower, and Partridge Pea.  This mixture show create great habitat for quail and rabbits and will also be better than fescue for deer, turkeys, and more or less everything else.

I began spraying a few weeks ago to kill the existing pasture;  this week I planted 53 acres with the new grasses and forbs. I acquired the seed from Roundstone Seed in Upton Kentucky.  The seeder--a Truax Flex II Drill--was provided at no cost by the Mercer County Conservation District.  Here's a picture:

The Truax has a seed box specifically designed to handle native grass seed, which is very fluffy and hairy.  The seed box includes specially designed agitators that keep the seed from clumping up and draw it to the feeder:

Brandon Campbell from the Mercer County NRCS office came out last Friday to show me how to operate the Truax.  Not too complicated really once you understand how to set the seeding rate.

I started seeding early Wednesday morning and finished late Friday afternoon, having planted 540 pounds of seed across about 53 acres.  Lots of hours on the tractor, but thankfully everything worked properly.  I was a little worried for a while that I was going to run out of seed before I ran out of ground, but in the end everything came out nearly perfectly.

Do you know that feeling you have after you've been on the lake all day in a small boat?  Where you still feel the motion of the waves even though you're standing on solid ground?  That's how I feel tonight after 24 hours or so bobbing and rocking on the tractor over the last three days.

Now we hope for rain!

Quail

One of my objectives for Chaplin Bend Farm is to develop a healthy population of quail. To accomplish that I'm planting 60 acres or so or native grasses and windflowers, creating more edge and cover habitat, and developing food plots. But all of that will only work if there are quail around to take advantage of my work. Well yesterday while I was working down by the farm I heard, for the first time at Chapln Bend, the familiar "Bob White" call of a male quail! He was calling on the hill across the valley from the barn--one of the sites where we'll be planting native grasses in a week or so. Needless to say I was encouraged to know that there are at least a few quail around. Here's hoping for a thriving population a few years down the road.

Corn

Yesterday I wandered out into my bottom and was surprised and pleased to see that my farmer friend had drilled his crop and that tiny shoots were beginning to appear:

I'm really looking forward to seeing my bottom filled with corn in the next few months--and to hunting deer over the standing corn next fall!

Food Plots

The last few weeks have been busy for me away from the farm.  Naturally, work piles up at just the time when farm deadlines also loom.  But I managed to get a few days away from the office to get done what needs to get done before the end of May.

First, on the 18th and 20th I sprayed the entire area where we plan to plant native grasses with a mix of Glyphosate (Roundup) and Plateau.  (1 quart of Glyphosate and 6 ounces of Plateau per gallon, approximately 10 gallons to the acre.)  I did the spraying myself, using a 60-gallon boomless Fimco sprayer pulled behind my Polaris Ranger, which saved me probably $1000.  In two weeks (Derby weekend here in Kentucky) I plan to spray the whole thing again, this time using Glyphosate only.

I ordered the grass seed this week:  1 pound each of Little Bluestem, Side Oats Gramma, Virginia Wildrye, and Short Switchgrass per acre (60 pounds of each), plus an assortment of wildflowers including Blackeyed Susan, Bergamot, Purple Coneflower, Illinois Bundleflower, New England Aster, and False Sunflower.  The plan is to drill the seed in mid-May, a week or two after the final spraying.

I've also been working on my food plots for deer, turkey, and doves.  I've plowed about 3 acres on my highest ridge for a dove field.  The plan is to plant Clearfield Sunflowers in mid-May.  Plowing turned up hundreds of rocks, ranging from the size of your hand to the size of a coffee table.  My son David and his friend Tom helped me clear those out of the field last weekend (very hard work).  This coming week I plan to disc the field, then spray it with the Glyphosate/Plateau mix to kill any grass that survives.  I'll try to get the seeds in the ground by mid-May.  Sunflowers require 110 days to mature, so if I plant in mid-May they should be ready for doves by late August.

I also plowed a small bottom down by a creek where I plan to plant a mixture of Deer Vetch and Alyceclover, both summer legumes that tolerate wet soil and shade reasonably well.  I was surprised at the number of rocks that turned up in this plot--I figured it would be relatively rock-free since it was down by the creek.  Fortunately the plot is small so it won't take too much time to clear (and the rocks are all small!).  The plan is to pick the rocks, fertilize, and disc next weekend and then plant as soon as possible after.

Finally, a farmer from nearby Harrodsburg will be planting about 30 acres of corn in the bottom by the river.  He's already sprayed and fertilized and should be coming by to drill the seed around May 1.  Our deal is that he'll leave about 3 acres of corn standing in the back corner of the field when he harvests, and we'll use that as a deer and turkey plot next fall and winter.

So lots is going on.  On Friday we plan to stake the cabin, and I hope next week my dozer man will start digging the foundation.  And we're narrowing in on the plan for the lakes, which I hope to being building around June 1.  More on those developments soon.

Habitat Improvement

On Friday I got word that my application to the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) EQIP ( Environmental Quality Incentives Program) program has received preliminary approval.  This program will help to defer the cost of planting about 50 acres of trees around the farm--including a 50-foot riparian buffer along the entire frontage of the river--and replacing about 50 acres of fescue with native warm season grasses and wildflowers.

The trees won't be planted until next Winter, but we're going to try to get the grasses started this Spring.  To do that, we have to spray the fescue with a mix of Roundup and Plateau herbicides in the next few weeks, then use a drill provided by the NRCS to plant the native grass seed during May.

Today, my son and I walked nearly the entire farm to mark the areas where we'll be planting trees and grasses.  In general, trees will go on the steep slopes and along the streams, and grasses will go on the ridge tops.  Our hope is that trees will help protect from soil erosion on the slopes and stream banks and provide habitat for deer and turkey.  The grasses should be a great habitat for turkey, quail, rabbits and other small critters.

Our plan is to plant a mix of Little Bluestem and Side-oats Gramma, along with a variety of wildflowers, in the grass land plots.  The trees will include a mix of hardwoods (white and red oaks, hickories, and walnuts) with a border of shrubby trees like dogwoods, redbuds, and plums.

I'll keep you posted as we begin to pray and plant over the coming weeks.

Barn Done

The crew finished the demolition of the barn on Friday.  Everything is now stacked into neat piles waiting to be put on a truck and moved to the sawmill:

Now begins the processing of the barnwood into flooring and siding for the cabin.