A Little More Habitat Work

J

jaytee

New member
Well I spent Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday with a dibble bar and 750 shrub seedlings that I'd ordered from the MDC nursery. Had a little help on Monday with a fellow QUWF member and we probably planted a couple hundred in about 3 hours and then I spent all day Tuesday and got all but about 75 or so in the ground. The area I'm working on is going to be a covey headquarters area thats roughly 500 feet long and about 40 feet wide and it seperates my NWSG field from a food plot/idle field area. Planted wild plums, aromatic sumac, gray dogwood, roughleaf dogwood, hazelnut, witch hazel, blackberries and black chokeberry.Here's a few pics. This first pic is the before pic.

FoodPlotpics404.jpg


And here's the after pic. I know its hard to see but trust me, there are about 700 shrubs planted in this area.

027.jpg
 
Awesome! In a few years you will be enjoying the fruit of your labors.
 
Jaytee,

Love reading your habitat posts, it's easy to sense your passion for the land.

Just for fun... if you could only plant one type of plant, what would it be ?
 
FLDBRED said:
Jaytee,

Love reading your habitat posts, it's easy to sense your passion for the land.

Just for fun... if you could only plant one type of plant, what would it be ?
Click to expand...

Thanks, its my pleasure in posting, just hope I dont bore you folks too much. As for the question, thats a tuff one. Not sure I can answer it but I'll put another spin on it, kinda along the same lines. If I could only have one implement, it would be a disc. With a disc you can always have weedy cover and early successional habitat which is key for small/upland game. As for you original question, now that I think about it if I could only have one plant it would be ragweed and we've got enough of it in our soil we dont even have to plant it, just run a disc over the ground and it'll come up in grand fashion.:cheers:
 
Good stuff your doing jaytee!:thumbsup:

Not bored yet:) keep us updated.
 
CP18C approved

Nice stuff in my mailbox today. From the NRCS office in Lake Andes SD. Enclosed you will find a copy of the approved Conservation Plan and Schedule of operations for your CP18C Eshablishment of Permanent Salt Tolerant Vegetative Cover.:)

Now I just have to wait until Aug when the planting of the 21.6 acres happens. The Saline area is 6.7 acres and the rest is to square up the plot. It will be 190 ft due east of a established 5 row wind break and a 120 ft wide CP33 Quail Buffer planting. This quarter is normally planted in a corn/bean/winter wheat rotation. It is currently in winter wheat so I'm hopeing for a very successful planting:thumbsup:

The total acres on the farm in CRP is starting to add up, over a full quater now in 12 different plantings :D
 
Last edited:
SDJIM said:
This quarter is normally planted in a corn/bean/winter wheat rotation. It is currently in winter wheat so I'm hopeing for a very successful planting:thumbsup:

The total acres on the farm in CRP is starting to add up, over a full quater now in 12 different plantings :D
Click to expand...

Jim, what are you planning for your pre-plant ground prep? Have you heard of alleliopathy? It happens if you do not deal with the winter wheat stubble before planting grass. It will suppress its growth. Disking black or burning stubble are only two options I am aware of.
 
Right now all the NRCS requires is the application of a herbicide prior to planting and a clean,smooth seedbed. I could have it disked as burning is not a thing I'm comfortable with. Thanks for the heads up.:thumbsup:

Since I am a absentee landowner the NRCS will do the planting and so far they have done a excellent job for me so I will check with them before it gets planted.
 
SDJIM said:
Right now all the NRCS requires is the application of a herbicide prior to planting and a clean,smooth seedbed. I could have it disked as burning is not a thing I'm comfortable with. Thanks for the heads up.:thumbsup:

Since I am a absentee landowner the NRCS will do the planting and so far they have done a excellent job for me so I will check with them before it gets planted.
Click to expand...

One year I had the same FWP CRP being planted on each farm. Both into wheat stubble. East farm accidentally caught on fire so planted into no wheat stubble. West farm was planted into wheat stubble.

East farm came in great 1st year and west farm took 3 years and many treatments of herbicide to establish. If you don't burn it you want to have it disked black. That ground prep should all be cost shared anyways.

Depending on seed mix I would look into pre-emerge applications of milestone and/or plateau which should also be cost shared.

Also, you must mean the Soil district that plants the grass. they office with NRCS but are not NRCS. Important distinction. They do all my tree work and just got done planting and fabricing 21 acres of trees. They have planted some grass for me too. They do a good job. I assume these are the guys that office out of Lake Andes?
 
Last edited:
I too, am an absentee landowner, and I envy you guy's that have the time and equipment to work your land. It's a special bond between you and the land, watching it devolope, and the wildlife flourish... makes the reward that much greater.
I've been getting text's (and bills) from the guy's I hired to replant my CRP, and in my situation, I'd do it again to make sure the job gets done, and done right. Went above and beyond what the basic CRP planting consists of because I am trying to create a diversified habitat for all seasons.
My area is more quail country( although really it's deer and turkey) than pheasant. Yet I've seen as many as 20 in one year.All the seed has been planted, from the tallgrass prairie, pollinator, firebreaks, switchgrass...only thing left are the food plots. I believe "if you build it, they will come."
All that is left to do is watch and see( and of course, pay the bills)
 
Kudos to your commitment to quail and the habitat. As far as the foodplots, are they part of the CRP contract?
 
food plots planted today,they are part of the crp contract for rental rate, but there is no cost share towards the planting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top