On Monday and Tuesday of this past week I was privileged to have two of my nephews on the farm with me putting in fall food plots, trimming shooting lanes on stands, creating exit and entrance routes to stands, and of course checking cameras.  They said “thank you for taking us” but the pleasure was all mine!  All the things accompanied with preparing for deer season are great reasons to get our youth out enjoying the outdoors and learning about nature.

Each time we embarked on a new task, the questions would come.  Why are we cutting the fence here?  What seed are we putting in here?  And with each answer you could sense an understanding of why I do what I do to make my farm a better place to hunt.  Over supper Saturday night we pounded through the trail camera pictures and I heard plenty of ohhh’s and ahhh’s and “look at that one”.  “How old is that buck.”

Years ago I went through the same so called learning curve with my son.  Today, I bounce ideas off of him as we work together in developing plans for hunting grounds.  I’ve changed or tweaked many plans based on input from Forest who today I consider a polished land manager.  One day, if my nephews Brady and Boden stick with their passion for the outdoors they too will be able to walk into an area and see what the potential is.  Never be too proud to stop and listen to other’s ideas.

My nephews Brady and Boden spreading winter rye seed on a new interior plot.

This year, I didn’t plant summer brassicas.  So, what I did do was plant my fall green plots a little earlier than usual.  My usual target date for these plots is about September 1st…this year they went in about 10 days earlier before some timely summer rain.  I did this to hopefully get some bulb production as well as forage from my fall planted brassicas.  We’ll see?  I also started the process of creating all my exit and entrance routes using my 3 point rotary mower and spraying several areas with glyphosate.  A little trimming was also done around some stands to make sure there were good shooting lanes for this fall.

Some Dairyland Soybeans I planted in an exterior plot. One of my clients actually works for Dairyland Seed and hooked me up with some nice seed to try! I would say so far they look awesome…I’m trying some varieties recommended by them to help with soybean shatter.

The vast majority of my trail camera pictures were taken over green soybeans.  Two spots were hit the hardest with one being the end of a draw that is loaded with white oaks. The deer are really spread out right now as there is so much good food available.  I was actually surprised to get as many nice pictures as I did.  Remember to not take too much stock in what you get on cameras right now…there is usually a pretty substantial shift in what deer will be around and where they’ll be by October 1st or so.

Most deer right now are feeding heavily on green soybeans and alfalfa.

I’m starting to update my 2015 pictures page.  Check out a small sampling of what I’m getting so far click HERE.