Food Plot....If Winter Ever Ends

Future home of buckwheat, soybeans, cowpeas, sunflower, and sorghum...if we ever have a Spring.

Gobblers

These birds are moving in for Spring Turkey Season (21 April-11 May)

Hinge Cutting of Cedars

With the warmer weather finally arriving (hopefully) I decided to bust out the chainsaw and do a little hinge cutting on a grove of cedars I noticed during the winter. This should create better cover and encourage deer bedding, as well as better habitat for the rabbits and maybe even some quail.

Work Day Reverts To Plan B

The temperature was to get up into the high 30's on Thursday, and to anyone who lives in the midwest you know that would be balmy for this winter, which has seemed to spend more time in the negatives than in the positives. This had me excited to actually get a little outdoor work done in the form of hinge cutting some cedars to create better bedding cover for wildlife, as well as getting my post hole digger running.

Upon arriving to the property I quickly discovered that was not to be, as my chainsaw quickly let me know it was boss by refusing to run. My post hole digger also let me know it would not be working by displaying worn out cracked fuel lines. However, being new to this land management gig there is always other work to do so I set out to have a productive day anyway. I hopped on the quad and took a ride down to the box blind, which is in desperate need of repairs before the upcoming season. I headed back to the shop and did a little carpentry work to produce a new floor for the two man blind. I then realized that I will soon need to transport a tractor from my brother-in-law's place to the property for spring food plot planting, and decided it might be time to ensure the trailer is in working order. After some airing of tires that was complete. It was now time to reward myself with a cigar break.

The final task of the day was to tour the land and check trail cameras. This was truly the pleasant surprise of the day. I checked trail camera #1, which hadn't had much action since deer season ended and it had 26 pictures, mostly of a doe and two yearlings that I get numerous pictures of all over the property. Then I checked camera #2, which said it had taken 110 pictures. Upon seeing this, I was a bit annoyed, figuring the cold weather had caused my camera to malfunction and take a photo every 12 seconds of nothing for a while (anyone with trail cams is aware of this extreme cold weather effect on the cameras at times).

Upon arriving home, I popped the sd card in my laptop and was pleasantly surprised that all of these pictures were legit, and that many displayed a dozen or more deer at a time in the pics. It looks like the herds are recovering quite well from two years of drought and a rough winter. 

Spring Food Plot

As I sit in the house looking out over the frozen tundra that has become of Northern Missouri this winter. I cannot stop researching spring food plots to plant. It seems with every article I read I change my mind on what I will plant. I have gone from clover to grain sorghum to an acre of buckwheat, but have finally decided on a mix of buckwheat to help with my fall plot along with a mix of other goodies to better feed and attract the deer prior to a fall clover mix.

50% SOYBEANS

35% COWPEAS

5% SUNFLOWERS

5% BUCKWHEAT

5% SORGHUM Opinions??

Winter Is Getting Old

Certainly I am not the only one who has grown tired of winter. Couple that with how antsy I am to break ground, plant some food plots, and do some timber stand improvement, and I am about to lose it stuck in this house.

Early Most Wanted List for 2014

This was the first trail camera I set up, and having no prior experience with trail cameras I was just a bit off on the height for this first pic. It's unfortunate, as I would have really liked to see the buck under that rack.