So far this year, the work on the farm has been mostly the same as in years past.  Spring food plots…followed by spraying…late summer brassicas.  It’s the same routine pretty much year after year once I get a farm to where I want it.  This year the plots look as good as they ever have.  I have incorporated a little more green food plots than what I have in the past.  And, I planted some corn in rotation over a soybean field that was getting some resistant palmer amarynth.

I don’t like corn for food plots because they are expensive to grow. They are awesome at attracting deer in late season and as you can see this year’s corn plot is looking great.

The soybean plots are looking great again this year and the deer are pounding them.

I also made a conscience decisions this year to not run cameras early and then only a few going into summer.  Here’s the reason.  I don’t run mineral or anything like that early on because hunting over any kind of bait (including mineral) is illegal.

The fall food plots got put in on the 17th-19th of August this year. It was very hot, and somewhat dry so I decided to go a little later this year. Southern Iowa got good rains right after planting!

I would hate to have a hunter get in trouble for hunting too close to a mineral site they had no idea existed.  The second reason is I just haven’t found that information gained from cameras very early on does much good for hunting.  I’ve also lost some cameras in the summer do to ant infestations and other problems.  So, this year I put out a couple cameras in June but that’s it.  And not much to report at this time.  The deer are pounding the food plots but I don’t need cameras to confirm it.

Once again this year, the Appin turnips will be a big part of my green food plots.

On August 17th, Amy and I also closed on our second Iowa farm.  Stay tuned…I plan to do something of a play by play on how I plan to develop the new farm into a great hunting farm.