I was fortunate to be able to purchase 72 acres - was an 80 save for the RR tracks running through it now a trail -- anyways next door to the 6 acres we live on now and closed on it last June.
About 45 or so of it is farmed. 22 or so is pretty much waste but about 10 was farmed up until 2018 or so.
I've since parted ways with the A hole farmer (he mistreated the land and to top it off this summer while my wife was walking the trail got up in her face as he farms a neighboring property and aggressively yelled at her and muttered a racial comment under his breath - so glad we dont work with him anymore and all over her parking by the trail and it made it hard to get his tractor out -- she didnt even know he was in the area)
Found a new neighboring farmer who is into crop rotation and cover crops and respected my wishes of leaving more buffers around the edges of the fields and not spraying it into oblivion.
Sold 18 acres unfortunately as building lots - so lost 18 acres of farmland for next year but costing a lot of money to build our new house.
Had the property logged as it's heavily wooded - 120 or so trees were harvested - and I probably got screwed on them - walnuts mostly and some oaks. Glad to see them gone - there are still hundreds and hundreds of trees -- If I had a dozer or track hoe and unlimited fuel I'd go to town. I plan on thinning out as many as I can - Would like to see the woods severely depleted. Too many damn trees in KS as it is - I'll do my part to kill the ones I have. Last winter/early spring I worked with my skid loader when I was bored and tore out small trees and honeysuckle around the field edges -- amazed at the plants growing there and where the property was logged as well.
Burnt the 3 fields that are part of the waste land and were previously farmed - past 2-3 years mostly bunch grass and foxtail -- Holy cow - after burning I can not believe the amount of plant variety I am getting - many varieties of sunflowers, texas thistle, milkweed, partridge peas, wingstem, canadian golden rod, snow on the mountain, ragweed, giant ragweed -- so many pollinators around. 2-3 years ago my dog found a covey of quail on the neighbors property by the road living in some tree belt - havent heard a quail whistle in 2-3 years - so hoping they may venture back to our place if there is any around -- turkeys use it now and deer of course.
Where we are building the house I had to manipulate some terraces - so about 3-5 more acres that was farmed was left to waste -- full of foxtail and some sort of millet or cane == Doves loving it - I was blown away at the amount of sunflowers that came up - place had been farmed for years and sprayed with more Roundup than I'd care to ever know -- so blown away the seeds were still there in the seedbank -- Telling the wife here around Topeka it sure seems like the sunflowers and other wildflowers are going nuts this year - we finally have not been a damn tropical rain forest this summer for the first time in a while - so maybe less rain and sporadic rain since June/july got here has helped rather than the pattern past few years of swamp ass and rain every other day. Will likely burn half the foxtail stuff off next year and see if any native grasses come back. Need to post some photos.
***Next year I need to spray Lespedeza (sp?) and trees that are in the farm fields im letting go native again.
About 45 or so of it is farmed. 22 or so is pretty much waste but about 10 was farmed up until 2018 or so.
I've since parted ways with the A hole farmer (he mistreated the land and to top it off this summer while my wife was walking the trail got up in her face as he farms a neighboring property and aggressively yelled at her and muttered a racial comment under his breath - so glad we dont work with him anymore and all over her parking by the trail and it made it hard to get his tractor out -- she didnt even know he was in the area)
Found a new neighboring farmer who is into crop rotation and cover crops and respected my wishes of leaving more buffers around the edges of the fields and not spraying it into oblivion.
Sold 18 acres unfortunately as building lots - so lost 18 acres of farmland for next year but costing a lot of money to build our new house.
Had the property logged as it's heavily wooded - 120 or so trees were harvested - and I probably got screwed on them - walnuts mostly and some oaks. Glad to see them gone - there are still hundreds and hundreds of trees -- If I had a dozer or track hoe and unlimited fuel I'd go to town. I plan on thinning out as many as I can - Would like to see the woods severely depleted. Too many damn trees in KS as it is - I'll do my part to kill the ones I have. Last winter/early spring I worked with my skid loader when I was bored and tore out small trees and honeysuckle around the field edges -- amazed at the plants growing there and where the property was logged as well.
Burnt the 3 fields that are part of the waste land and were previously farmed - past 2-3 years mostly bunch grass and foxtail -- Holy cow - after burning I can not believe the amount of plant variety I am getting - many varieties of sunflowers, texas thistle, milkweed, partridge peas, wingstem, canadian golden rod, snow on the mountain, ragweed, giant ragweed -- so many pollinators around. 2-3 years ago my dog found a covey of quail on the neighbors property by the road living in some tree belt - havent heard a quail whistle in 2-3 years - so hoping they may venture back to our place if there is any around -- turkeys use it now and deer of course.
Where we are building the house I had to manipulate some terraces - so about 3-5 more acres that was farmed was left to waste -- full of foxtail and some sort of millet or cane == Doves loving it - I was blown away at the amount of sunflowers that came up - place had been farmed for years and sprayed with more Roundup than I'd care to ever know -- so blown away the seeds were still there in the seedbank -- Telling the wife here around Topeka it sure seems like the sunflowers and other wildflowers are going nuts this year - we finally have not been a damn tropical rain forest this summer for the first time in a while - so maybe less rain and sporadic rain since June/july got here has helped rather than the pattern past few years of swamp ass and rain every other day. Will likely burn half the foxtail stuff off next year and see if any native grasses come back. Need to post some photos.
***Next year I need to spray Lespedeza (sp?) and trees that are in the farm fields im letting go native again.
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