What are you all doing for spring projects?

[birdman652001]

My plan is to get the thistles under control again after the last couple wet falls and springs wse have had. The thistle have kinda taken over some spots. Gonna put in 3 new water holes and try and get a plum thicket going in my sanctuary.

is it in a pasture or field?


you can use Milestone which is very spendy but that stuff will kill thistles in an hour when applied. my dad owns a spraying business and he uses that stuff on pastures.

cant use milestone on fields bc it will kill anything other than broam, wheatgrass or any other grass. you can spray milestone and should kill 90% of the thistles and you will have to spray spring and fall and then one more time next year and should be RID of thistles. just make sure you dont spray in near ponds or river/creek.

this wont kill sheeps or anything if you have that. cattle, i wouldnt graze for at least 30 days.

take it form me. i got a commerical applicator license as well.

 

[Bob]

On the milestone what grasses will it kill? How will milestone effect legumes? I frosted seeded about thirty acres of summer switchgrass. Also frost seeded some alfalfa into an existing tall wheatgrass patch of 27 acres. All done in late Feb of this year. It will be interesting to see how the swicthgrass does, grasses usually take awhile it is into soybean stubble. As I understand it that should be pretty good. I bought another qtr of land that kinda blocks up some other that I have and thinking of selling a qtr of land near Winner S.D. that I already have rehabilitated. The creek is all fenced out new alflafa. Real clean food plots water all year and fantastic grass cover.

 

[UGUIDE]

On the milestone what grasses will it kill? How will milestone effect legumes? I frosted seeded about thirty acres of summer switchgrass. Also frost seeded some alfalfa into an existing tall wheatgrass patch of 27 acres. All done in late Feb of this year. It will be interesting to see how the swicthgrass does, grasses usually take awhile it is into soybean stubble. As I understand it that should be pretty good. I bought another qtr of land that kinda blocks up some other that I have and thinking of selling a qtr of land near Winner S.D. that I already have rehabilitated. The creek is all fenced out new alflafa. Real clean food plots water all year and fantastic grass cover.

Bob, Milestone works on thistle and broadleaf weeds and some other weeds. Legunes are broadleaves so it will kill em. Best bet with forb/legume mgmt is to clip as no herbicide is safe.

 

[UGUIDE]

Just back from the farm

......after a week of pre planting projects got a good start on the season. Got new CRP marked and staked, tractor is lubed and ready to roll. Disk got a fresh set of notched disks on front gang in hopes that it will work the trash down a little better, rebuilt an old cultipacker with new oak wood block bearings (12' and works good after seeding and prepping seedbeds), trimmed a few trees up that blocking access to grain bins, put new coat of paint on bathroom and laundry room, sprayed the drive with ground sterilant and the building with insecticide. Now we just need the fields to continue drying up and my next step will be to take after the leftover litter with a new 10' flail mower. I am anxious to see how that thing works on turning trash to mulch. I got 70 acres of corn stubble to turn into new CRP grass planting seed bed and 40 acres of food plots to get ready for another year of planting. We're in really good shape this early and have good plans for CRP and Food plot implementation (thanks to past failures of course).

Hopefully get back after it mid April.:cheers:

 

[FCSpringer]

My plan is to get the thistles under control again after the last couple wet falls and springs wse have had. The thistle have kinda taken over some spots. Gonna put in 3 new water holes and try and get a plum thicket going in my sanctuary.

Another good one is Curtail, I had great success with this stuff on our training ground and my land. It will knock out thistle big time, wont kill grasses. but kills most every thing else, broadleaves, trees etc. It has stinger in it which kills the following season as well. It's magic on thistle.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

Started with a crew of 9 and ended with a crew of 8 a week ago Tuesday burning. First time I burned 2 tracts at the same time. Got 5 tracts burned by 3:30 totalling 335 acres. I have a minimum of 3 more tracts I'd like to burn now. We'll do 6 more in July/August to complete the Patch Burn/Patch Graze burning for the year. If I get the 3 more done this spring, that would put me close to 1000 acres if all of the July/August burns occur as well. I'm draining marshes now too. Mr. Beaver is giving me fits there. I may have to take the time to fight back. Called off the strip disking for the year as the ground was still frozen on March 1. Did the first of 3 projects of cedar control. This first project was all understory cedars in two drainages that were closing up with cedars. I'm ordering chemical this week for sericea and brush control. I wish I'd had a young buck around this fall to send forth with the chainsaw to war against cedar invasion all winter. I'm getting too old to crawl around day after day cutting them in the timber. The fishermen are getting restless at the lake, crappie have been biting pretty good. It's starting to take a lot of work to clean up behind them. I'm bidding out shingles for the shelter house, I'll procrastinate on that for awhile. Cabins are due to be delivered in the next two months........don't know where I'll get the time to do that too!

 

[UGUIDE]

Started with a crew of 9 and ended with a crew of 8 a week ago Tuesday burning.

PD,

You didn't lose one in the burn did you?

That is a good "day in the life of" story. I hope your guys appreciate what you do. Well it is way better than any desk job in the cities i gaurantee that.

Thanks for sharing the stories and keep them coming.

What's up with the cabins? they built a couple at the Lions Park in armour to rent out and make some money for travelers coming through. Nice little 2 beds units with air conditioning and heat.

 

[Prairie Drifter]

U,
I burned over spring break, so my son "volunteered" for the morning shift, but went sparking the girl in the afternoon. I think he had a better fire in the morning The cabins are an agency trend, wish that they had funded some kind of staff instead of just adding them to an already overloaded group.

Some of our constituents really appreciate what we do for them, others have no idea and take it for granted. Some even think that they know my job better than I do. Those I can usually shoot full of holes because their facade is usually as swelled as their head.

Mr. Beaver put an arse whoopin' on me today in the marshes. I spent 3 hours pulling 4 dams in my marshes and canals. There are two 12 inch holes in my main marsh dike that will require the backhoe to repair. I really need to remove a 40+ inch diameter tree off of the dike in order to prevent a recurrance. I'm sure I'll get to repeat that adventure again Monday. Will probably have to dust off the traps.

I bid out fence materials for a mile of fence replacement and 10 squares of shingles for the shelter house this week in addition to the habitat work. Sounds like I may have a volunteer group to do the shingle job. That'll help a lot.

 

[UGUIDE]

Mr. Beaver put an arse whoopin' on me today in the marshes. I spent 3 hours pulling 4 dams in my marshes and canals. There are two 12 inch holes in my main marsh dike that will require the backhoe to repair. I really need to remove a 40+ inch diameter tree off of the dike in order to prevent a recurrance. I'm sure I'll get to repeat that adventure again Monday. Will probably have to dust off the traps.

The Beaver story is interesting. The nieghboring 80 acres to me has a new beaver lodge down in the creek bottom and they are dropping trees faster than Paul Bunyan. Neighbor has requested state trapper but no luck. They might be making some good duck, deer and pheasant cover but who knows?