What are you all doing for spring projects?

I have been getting my new shotgun fitted to me. and geting my goose decoys painted and put away. Not near as much fun as planting. We still have snow on the ground and frost once that is gone then the party begins. I have qiute a few trees I would like to plant this spring for a Shelter belt. Good luck with the CRP.
 
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Building wood duck houses. Want to redo a water way to make it more pheasant freindly. Then plant some trees, and honeysuckle.
 
Getting the incubator warmed up, and thinking of getting that grass thing going too. Then the homestead will be done, well except maintenance. Some time we will have to check on doing something down in IA on our new piece. Then getting going on all the Gun dog training we do all year, nice to have no snow finlay.
 
Trying to start up a Towing Business... thats my goal this year. Every year, it gets more dangerous in my field. Im hoping I can settle down and own a business that'll make me big bucks and being my own boss, require the time off for hunting as i never get often.

Im thinking of Repo and regular towing for now.
 
I've got ~400 mast-bearing shrubs and 100 spruce to put in the ground by hand again, some CSG that is being killed off and replaced with NWG or clover depending on the area, and trying to put in 1-2 acres as a grain plot for pheasant/quail.
 
birdman652001 said:
Trying to start up a Towing Business... thats my goal this year. Every year, it gets more dangerous in my field. Im hoping I can settle down and own a business that'll make me big bucks and being my own boss, require the time off for hunting as i never get often.

Im thinking of Repo and regular towing for now.
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B-man, I know a guy in Armour that has been in that business a long time and could maybe give you some pointers on important parts of getting a business going. He is an avid bowhunter too. PM me if you wnat his contact info.
 
Chris what Species of warm season grasses are you thinking?
 
UGUIDE said:
B-man, I know a guy in Armour that has been in that business a long time and could maybe give you some pointers on important parts of getting a business going. He is an avid bowhunter too. PM me if you wnat his contact info.
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Im looking to get a business plan together first. then find a decent truck then open it up and hope i hit the lottery in a few years with this. Ive done this line of work before i turned 21 to be law enforcement and loved it! now im wanting to get back in. i found several trucks already, just need to get a business plan together and hit it off.


You have no idea how much getting time off for hunting is. its a friggin headache and must be 1 month advance type of planning. if i was my own boss in towing, and arrange time off for hunting, i would do just that. last year, i did not do ONE once of hunting in pheasants or deer bc of work. i always get called in on my vacation time, or a day off. Im one of the three officers in my depart that they whole PD counts on. Im not a SGT or anything. Im still a regular officer. I am on a grant funding to stop/enforce DUI, crash investigations. So we got a grant to reduce this number on tribal land. Im on call 24.7 regardless if im on vacation.. unless i left the city or state, then they cant call me.

I have several friends who have CDLs and could help me when im gone. just a matter of finding a truck, getting the business plan together and so far, its looking good. just need to finalize it and show it to the bank.
 
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captaincoot said:
What you fixing up in IA FCS?
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My Grandma passed away and left some land to us. All prime farm fields. I am hoping to get the rest of the family to go along with the wide fence line and shrub deal. But they will want to rent it out for the most part for awhile yet. Just have to get them all in to hunting.
 
I like the fence deal to. Where would you get the shrub? I think pheasant forever would help you with that if it happens. Sorry to hear about your grandma.
 
FCSpringer said:
My Grandma passed away and left some land to us. All prime farm fields. I am hoping to get the rest of the family to go along with the wide fence line and shrub deal. But they will want to rent it out for the most part for awhile yet. Just have to get them all in to hunting.
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FC, what about like the CP5a field windbreak trees? It is continuous and pays good. I can tell you right now your family isn't going to wnat to take ground out of production. Look at CRP prgrams that pay. That is just one of a host you should look at.

It won't be competitive with cash rent I suppose but best you could do that anything on your own.
 
Yea, cap, if I do it on my own, I will get them from the SWCD again. You can buy bulk cheap. No Programs are going to be looked at this year for sure. But I would like at least a nice swat left on the fence row there are some areas that have tile and left grass for run off. I would like to plant switch and not mow them like they are now. He mowed them because of weeds and broam etc. but if there switch they could stay standing. That would leave a few walking spots for someone right away. But the will just was read the other day so, most likely nothing will get done this year. For any program Don't you have to farm it for a year or so for you to qualify?
 
FCSpringer said:
He mowed them because of weeds and broam etc.
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I don't think you understand the Iowa farming way. You mow the waterway just because you can. I have guys all around me who mow filter strips and just leave it lay don't even bale it.
 
Farming in Iowa has changed, and I don't think for the better. I got a neighbor that mows everything in sight. Last year he mowed the phone connection boxes of and wanted the people renting the homes to pay for them. He also got his mower caught the the guide line wires for the electrical poles. What a sight. Then he complains he can't make money. Why people go to such great trouble for a ditch i'll never know. Farmers have been killed around here to. All for a ditch. They need to get a real hobby.
 
I am going to rework the ground on a ridge that cuts through the middle of a cattail swamp on my parents property, right now its useless weeds and old pasture grass that nothing is really benefiting from. I'll be planting PF's Dove and Quail mix on it, basically a mix of Millet, Sorghum, and Sunflowers. They say the pheasants get a strong food source from it and it makes for great cover. Also doing the same on a piece of land north of me.
 
If the burning gods allow, I am going to switch from my current grazing system to a patch burn/patch graze system (Okalhoma State University format) to reduce the footprint of my burning, increase my brood-rearing cover, and set back plum expansion. I am also doing significant understory cedar control, starting with two drainages south of the highway, with a total of 5 other sites possible. I've got a water control structure to place on one of the marshes and I've started dewatering those. I was planning 1600 acres of prescribed burning, but with the new grazing system, it should be a bit less with some being done in July/August. We'll do the normal food plots. We were planning to do annual disking to the tune of 200 acres, but frozen ground followed by snow and rain made us scrap that plan as late disking favors grassy sandbur over more beneficial forbs. I would also like to install some fencing that would allow me to include more acres in my grazing system, but the calendar is getting short. I've also already had the tree cutter in to remove a bunch of cedar, elm, and locust that are spreading on the area.
 
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