Bought my 1st chunk of land - hopefully first of many

K

KsHusker

Active member
Been wanting to have a chunk of land for many years -- finally had the opportunity present itself and we've been waiting since last fall for it to happen. Closed on it yesterday - land butts up to our house so w our existing 6 acres it's nearly 80 -- has a public trail running through it so that cut out 10 acres or so or it'd be close to 90. (Land doesnt follow section lines due to a trading trail back in the Pioneer/Indian Days)

Anyways excited about it and cleaning up some brush - deer/turkey use it -- has a potential to have a wetlands put in and hoping I can get with NRCS to sell an easement and recoup some money plus put in the habit.

We plan on building a house on part of it that has a great view. Torn over selling part of it to get all of our money back but will wait a while to make that decision. If I can get enough income coming in between habitat and farming to mostly make the payments that will help me hold off.

Too late for me to part ways with the farmer farming it now - he just uses a corn/bean rotation and of course Chemically poisons everything.

A neighbor about my age started farming 3 years ago and uses less chemical - is willing to plant wheat/milo and add that to the mix and also uses cover crops instead of constant tillage and spraying things nonstop. I think he's interested in farming it next year. If farming doesnt work out converting to grass is the other step I could take along with partial wetlands -- has a creek running through it with fish as well.

It's in NE KS -- we live here for now - not my ideal place but it's where our business is - next land purchases I hope to be in SW KS -- Pratt/Dodge area/GC area etc.

Probably going to be asking some questions about how these conservation programs work and the nuances of them. The wetlands I'm hoping can happen and make it a permanent easement so I get the most money - the land is in a flood zone so worthless from a development standpoint and probably need drain tile installed to make it better farm ground anyways. I dont want to make that investment. Parts are full of trees and I'm hoping to log it out if I can - they need to be thinned out and cant wait to get to work with the skid loader tearing out worthless trees and brush.

No pheasants but there is a covey or two of quail around - so hoping with some small improvements and getting the beans out of the rotation along with more native plants I can see more quail.
 
Good deal. A permanent easement with the NRCS pays 100% of appraised value if I remember correctly. I also think a 30 year easement pays 70%.
 
Winchester30 said:
If you need help getting rid of those nuisance quail, let me know! 😆
Click to expand...
Ha - they're far and few between but I'm hoping to change that

Deer on the other hand - shoot them all - dont mind seeing them but they're over populated around here - Hope to have some doe killing shoots with friends or local kids if Im motivated to get some blinds set up so we're not freezing our you know what off in Jan.
 
KSnative said:
Congrats - but are you sure you want to clear that brush?

Hinge cut some trees instead, maybe?
Click to expand...
Deer and quail dont live in trees.

People from the eastern part of the US and eastern half of KS dont understand that.

/Sarcasm -- :) I like native plants - not honeysuckle, crap elms and dead - pretty much all worthless. There'd be more wildlife on the place if all the trees were gone and it was all native grasses/plants. Gimme a bulldozer and set me free - about the only thing that would be spared would be walnuts, a locust here and there, along with a lone hedge, cottonwoods and oaks. - rest can burn. Well I'd save some fruit trees - but most trees do not belong on the prairie. Need to walk it real good this winter and see what trees I can sell for slabs/logging and burn a lot of the rest. then let the weeds grow.
 
KsHusker said:
Deer and quail dont live in trees.

People from the eastern part of the US and eastern half of KS dont understand that.

/Sarcasm -- :) I like native plants - not honeysuckle, crap elms and dead - pretty much all worthless. There'd be more wildlife on the place if all the trees were gone and it was all native grasses/plants. Gimme a bulldozer and set me free - about the only thing that would be spared would be walnuts, a locust here and there, along with a lone hedge, cottonwoods and oaks. - rest can burn. Well I'd save some fruit trees - but most trees do not belong on the prairie. Need to walk it real good this winter and see what trees I can sell for slabs/logging and burn a lot of the rest. then let the weeds grow.
Click to expand...
I'm old and easily confused, but wasn't suggesting that you promote forestation. Rather that you cut some trees down, leaving the tops hinged over to provide cover - particularly from avian predators. Sounds like found yourself a very nice place, and plan to serve as a good steward to the land.
 
I suspect your comment on trees was tongue in cheek but I just noticed the very relevant input just 7 lines or so down in this very string.

Lots of outstanding reference material out there on nurturing quail habitat - let me know if you actually are in search of such information.
 
KSnative said:
I suspect your comment on trees was tongue in cheek but I just noticed the very relevant input just 7 lines or so down in this very string.

Lots of outstanding reference material out there on nurturing quail habitat - let me know if you actually are in search of such information.
Click to expand...

No not really - trees do not belong on the prairie - native plants and grasses/forbs with some sporadic woody cover will do wonders for mr Quail, turkeys and deer not to mention multitudes of other wildlife. I expect a lot of wood burning save for the trees I want to keep as a privacy barrier where we build our house.

Would gladly volunteer my time to run a dozer or excavator with a thumb to go to town where trees have taken over.

I get what you're saying about the hinge cutting - depending on the tree they'll just grow back. I'd like most of the wood gone.
 
Shelter belts are good. So is burning, but you probably won't eliminate many mature trees unless you get a fire hot enough to be difficult to control. And you don't need a hot fire anyway to yield maximum benefits.

Please make sure you have really good insurance before you torch dry trees!
 
KsHusker said:
a locust here and there
Click to expand...
Of course it's yours to manage as you see fit, but I would wage an all-out war on locust trees. A locust here and there will quickly become 100 or more, especially if there's some disturbance to the existing vegetation and/or soil.
 
matto said:
Of course it's yours to manage as you see fit, but I would wage an all-out war on locust trees. A locust here and there will quickly become 100 or more, especially if there's some disturbance to the existing vegetation and/or soil.
Click to expand...
Not sure locust is actually a tree, but certainly agree that the only good locust is a dead locust! :) They are, however, not all that easy to kill from what I've seen. Cut them then individually paint the "stump" with stump killer - let me know if you know a better way. They are tenacious.
 
I cut them and treated the stumps with Tordon for years. That works. Sort of. You'll still get some resprouting from nodes on the root system that are far enough away from the stem that you treated. As I'm sure you know, what looks like a stand of individual locust trees is really one organism. Just a bunch of different stems growing from the same, very extensive, very hard to kill, root system.

Based on input from people here, I've switched to a basal bark treatment of 75% diesel fuel and 25% remedy applied in late summer/early fall. Allegedly if you time the application correctly the tree will be drawing nutrients (and herbicide) into the root system to store it for the winter and you'll kill more of the root system and even smaller nearby stems that you didn't treat. Too early to tell if it's working that way for me, but cutting and treating is a pain and I'm sick of the resprouting.
 
matto said:
I cut them and treated the stumps with Tordon for years. That works. Sort of. You'll still get some resprouting from nodes on the root system that are far enough away from the stem that you treated. As I'm sure you know, what looks like a stand of individual locust trees is really one organism. Just a bunch of different stems growing from the same, very extensive, very hard to kill, root system.

Based on input from people here, I've switched to a basal bark treatment of 75% diesel fuel and 25% remedy applied in late summer/early fall. Allegedly if you time the application correctly the tree will be drawing nutrients (and herbicide) into the root system to store it for the winter and you'll kill more of the root system and even smaller nearby stems that you didn't treat. Too early to tell if it's working that way for me, but cutting and treating is a pain and I'm sick of the resprouting.
Click to expand...
I'd sure like to know if that works. Sounds less labor intensive the the old cut-and-paint stump approach that seems like it slowed, but did not permanently cure the problem. Where did those things come from, anyway - some foreign lab funded with our tax dollars? :)
 
matto said:
Of course it's yours to manage as you see fit, but I would wage an all-out war on locust trees. A locust here and there will quickly become 100 or more, especially if there's some disturbance to the existing vegetation and/or soil.
Click to expand...
I meant the big ones -- correct me if I'm wrong but thinking they are native -- and I hear ya about a disturbance -- I've learned that the hard way on the 6 acres/forest we moved to as I've been clearing it out - I think a fire got hot enough this spring it killed several sprouting up in the grass.

We have a handful that I'd guess are 150-200 plus years old maybe 100 yrs at the youngest - but based on what I know the area I'd guess in that older range. Those I dont mind.
 
matto said:
Based on input from people here, I've switched to a basal bark treatment of 75% diesel fuel and 25% remedy applied in late summer/early fall. Allegedly if you time the application correctly the tree will be drawing nutrients (and herbicide) into the root system to store it for the winter and you'll kill more of the root system and even smaller nearby stems that you didn't treat. Too early to tell if it's working that way for me, but cutting and treating is a pain and I'm sick of the resprouting.
Click to expand...

My buddy has been using that around Kinsley and other areas he manages in the vicinity and works good for him - the diesel "sticks" to the bark and penetrates it along with the herbicide -- he's killed quite large trees with this method - after they're good and dead you can knock em over and pile em up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top