Monday, June 11, 2018

Deer Farming 2018, Chapter 2

My little-kid dreams of what I would be as a grown-up pretty much revolved around three choices:  a professional basketball player, a Rebel pilot battling The Empire alongside Luke Skywalker, or a farmer.  The basketball dream died when I stopped growing at closer to six feet tall than seven.  I haven't completely given up on becoming a Rebel pilot, though I'm starting to think The Alliance isn't taking my resume and application materials seriously.  I'm happy to say the farming dream has come true, albeit in a far different way than I had ever pictured.

As I grew up my parents were always doing some form of "farming".  We had cows, chickens, pigs, horses, gardens, crops.....not all that stuff at once, but usually an assortment of animals along with the gardens/crops.  I pictured myself doing the same someday - owning a piece of land and raising some animals on the side while I pursued a different career full time.  Instead I live in town and have zero desire to ever own animals.  Except chickens; I still hope to be a chicken wrangler again someday.  No, the farming I did as a kid, the farming I thought I'd do as an adult, holds no appeal to me any longer.  Instead, I have become a deer farmer.

Not a lot of income in deer farming, at least not the way I do it.  In fact, there is no tangible income at all - only expenditures.  The income arrives each fall in the form of hunting adventures and making memories for my dad and I and my kids.  The job description of a deer farmer boils down to two tasks:  improve habitat and create food sources.  I wrote at length about the habitat improvements I worked on earlier this spring; in hindsight that post should have been "chapter 1" of deer farming, thus the "chapter 2" on this post.  My focus the last couple of days has been on our food plots.

Like real farmers, our success or failure as deer farmers hinges on weather and machinery when it comes to creating food sources for deer.  Our machinery consists of a Ford 8N tractor from the 1950s, or as I like to call it, The Bleepity-Blank Tractor.  Often a less than reliable machine, the old Ford ran really well for us last year which, combined with timely rains, allowed us to grow a variety of high-quality forage for our deer herd.  And now the process starts again.

Step one this year was to mow off the weeds that have taken advantage of the warm, wet spring we've had here in northern Minnesota.  After soaking the plots with herbicide last summer my dad and I are dismayed, and surprised, to see the amount of weed growth we have to deal with again this year.  So I  put the brush hog on the tractor, which has run beautifully so far this year, and I mowed.  And I mowed.  And I mowed.  Three hours last night, another three hours this morning.  The purpose of all this mowing is two-fold: cutting off the knee-high weeds will make the soil work up a little easier - so The Bleepity-Blank Tractor doesn't get overworked - and the trimmed grasses/weeds will drink up the herbicide a little better.

The Bleepity-Blank Tractor waiting patiently for me to scream at it when it refuses to start.  This is our Sand Flat food plot, about an acre that we planted to brassicas last year.

You're supposed to see the tall weeds on the right compared to the mowed portion on the left.  I'm a farmer, not a photographer.  Same plot as above.

Again, a look at tall weeds vs. mowed weeds.  Again, epic fail.  This is a small, secluded plot surrounded by pines that I seeded with oats last year.

Last year:  We seeded our two largest plots, each about an acre in size, with a brassica mix that contained turnips, daikon radishes, and rape.  We also filled about 3/4 of an acre with clover seed and oats.  We seeded our five small plots, each less than a quarter acre, with oats.  The brassicas grew like crazy and provided a ton of food for deer from August through November.  The deer ate the greens above the ground until after the ground started to freeze, then they began digging the radishes and turnips.  It was the first time we had grown brassicas successfully, though we still made one mistake by spreading the seed a bit too thick.  The clover grew but not enough to really feed the deer much; the oats were the attraction in that patch last year.  The oats in the clover, and in our smaller plots, grew as well as everything else, but we planted the oats way too early.  We kind of knew this, but decided we'd go ahead and plant early, thinking that the deer would eat the oat grains off the mature plants.  They did and they didn't.  What deer really seem to prefer from oats are the young shoots of the oat plants that are less than six inches tall.  Once the plant matures it becomes tough and woody, and even when the oat heads formed the deer weren't very attracted to the oat patches.  So even though all our oat plots were a lush green last year they really didn't do much to help our hunting.  Live and learn.

This year:  If we can get the weeds under control (die, weeds, DIE!!) and IF we can get the soil worked into shape (come on you bleepity-blank tractor!) we will for sure be planting the same brassica mix again in the same spots, just a little less thick than last year.  We discovered that wherever the seed was dispersed properly the plants and roots grew much bigger...so plant less and get more.  The clover we planted last year looks terrific right now, lush and tender.  I almost ate some myself, it looks so good, so that was/is a success.  We will be more disciplined about waiting to plant oats until mid-August, and then hope for some fall rains.  So now, what to do with those oat plots for the next couple of months?  I've been researching food plot options, and would like to plant some protein packed, nitrogen fixing legumes....cowpeas, lablab, maybe soybeans.  Not sure yet, but I've got to make up my mind soon I suppose.

As I mowed yesterday and this morning I would find myself getting disgusted at missing a clump of weeds with the mower and backtracking to clip them off, or weaving around trying to evenly mow spots that looked ragged.  I had to smack myself upside the head as a reminder that I'm not attempting to prepare a cash crop, or a food crop for myself or my livestock.  The work I'm doing is for deer, for crying out loud.  They probably aren't going to get picky about uneven mowing.  Point is, we take our deer farming pretty seriously, even if at its base it's a little silly.  But it's a hobby I enjoy, it's a shared activity for my dad and I, it helps nature a little bit, and it makes hunting feel like more than a fall event.  Not to mention that being a deer farmer makes a boyhood dream come true.  I sure wish the shiny John Deere tractor in my dreams would have come true, too.

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