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- Here is Forest putting the finishing touches on our electric fence to ironically keep out the deer.
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- Forest working some ground in preparation for soybeans.
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- Forest and good friend Anthony planting one of six apple trees…just in range of a good archery stand by coincidence of course.
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- Preparing a ladder stand for one of our hunters.
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- So, these beans don’t look bad. They are relatively thick, have canopied over and look overall to be healthy. But, for this time of year should they look better? These beans are literally adjacent to one of our bean plots that is fenced off. They were planted at the same seeding rate, same fertilizer rate, and on good ground….the only difference is they were not fenced in.
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- This picture is of Forest literally 20 yards away from the previous picture. The difference, these beans are electrically fenced off. There are no signs of deer browsing in these beans and OHHHHH what a difference it made. By fencing in these beans the deer are browsing the non fenced beans quite a bit. This was done with purpose. The non-fenced beans will provide good forage and attraction keeping the deer from even trying to penetrate our saved beans. These beans will yield better and will last much longer. So far, it looks like our spring work is paying off.
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- A good alfalfa field like this one is hard to beat. Alfalfa is a preferred food source from early spring until several hard frosts have sent the plants dormant.
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- One of our soybean plots. Looking good for mid July.
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- Checking cameras!!!
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- In spring and early summer, a good place to get cam pics is at a mineral site.
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- Do deer like soybeans? I think so.
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- From the moment your soybeans emerge they will start to attract deer. These beans are not fenced in.
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- This time of year, if you are not getting many good buck pictures, or buck pictures at all, don’t be discouraged. It is not uncommon for me to get sporadic buck pics all summer long as the bucks are bachelor grouped up. They are either on your property or they aren’t…and many times it has nothing to do with what food source you have. Be patient, when they disperse and break up later in summer and early fall, you will start to see them.
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- One of my trail cameras caught Ryan and I doing some spot scouting after a morning hunt.
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- Ryan shot a nice doe Saturday evening. A good shot and she didn’t go very far. The deer right now seem to be keying in on alfalfa, winter rye, and brassicas. Our soybeans are still fenced off.
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- Broken Toe Buck
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- Broken Toe
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- This is a video still of a nice buck I filmed 11/3/13 on a morning hunt with Ryan Hyer…no cam pictures of this buck.
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- Hyer Buck on a winter rye plot, in a mock scrape
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- “Hershey” in a mock scrape
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- Mature buck crossing a brassica plot in the morning.
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- Mature buck in a mock scrape made in a lane connecting exterior beans and an interior plot
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- Mature buck in a mock scrape
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- You can stair all you want there is nothing in that blind…not yet anyway!
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- First picture of the year of “Barkley”. Two video clips to go along with the pictures. Not a picture of this buck until mid-November. Never assume these deer you pass up aren’t there…it just takes time sometimes for them to show up.
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- Barkley working the mock scrape. I have more photos of mature bucks on this mock scrape made on a lane connecting an interior green plot with an exterior bean field than on any other camera.
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- Is this Barkley? I’m not sure but I think so.
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- I have tons of pictures of bucks and does on this winter rye plot…many during daylight hours.
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- Buck in mock scrape
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- If you look in the background you will see a nice buck following this doe in the front on this picture. This is the buck Ryan Hyer and I had by us a few weeks back. I see he’s still around.
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- This nice buck showed up late in the season. No doubt spending more time on my farm because of the food sources.
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- Digging up brassicas!
