My Central Ky Habitat Addiction

Started mowing my oak tree plantations this weekend. Very happy with the livability so far

2390A60F-1A93-46DF-8048-AE22B5662A61.jpg
.

FCBCB309-BC94-4375-B0D0-84E5DF7839D9.jpg


48A1AAA5-ECB6-4B17-B0EA-7B33424E3AF4.jpg
 
Been mowing around my young trees as well. Satisfying to see good growth on a large percentage of trees. Of the ones I grew in 2012 and planted jan 2013 I think I have a good 65 percent survival rate, and even much better in rich soil. One of my issues was pears in area too wet for them.
 
Got behind on mowing this year!!! Between the kids both playing ball and taking on a new position at work my farm projects are suffering greatly !!

I did decided to bite the bullet and buy a 72 inch Dixie Chopper to leave at the farm so that I can take better care of them !!

Very happy with that decision, Briers and other things had taken over some of my rows but you can flat pluck the trees out of the Briar patchs with a Dixie chopper I have learned

Before:
873F5C39-B836-4716-B85E-E91660BEF8CE.jpg


45EBB092-0135-4C10-A8FD-89A7CC37D225.jpg


After:
5336DEFB-EB29-4360-BB77-1BCC7ABB36A6.jpg


1DC06789-5A00-4447-9184-60765741B080.jpg
 
You are now going through what I did when I created my tree planting. Only difference is I didn't have a Dixie Chopper and still don't.;)

At least you don't have the Sweet Gums. And that's good, because the briers are enough. Even though you mow the rows you will still have to clean out within the rows at a few places to keep those briers from holding down the little trees - unless yours aren't as thick as I have them.

Great job, and I know you will be successful.
 
Hope all you guys are well. I’ve been away from the site for a while but was looking for an old deer pic and ended up on my old thread.
Time has been hard to come by as I have changed careers but my habitat plans continue to grow and we continue to add acreage.

Biggest news I guess going forward is I FINALLY got approved to put 50 acres in the CRP Pollinator program for 2021.

here’s a few pics of this year

My oldest son



My Youngest son
Hosting some friends

My nephew
Got a little trigger happy this year and shot this young buck chasing a doe through the brush

My other nephew





 
You are now going through what I did when I created my tree planting. Only difference is I didn't have a Dixie Chopper and still don't.;)

At least you don't have the Sweet Gums. And that's good, because the briers are enough. Even though you mow the rows you will still have to clean out within the rows at a few places to keep those briers from holding down the little trees - unless yours aren't as thick as I have them.

Great job, and I know you will be successful.



Hope your well and looking forward to catching up on your thread


the fight has been relentless. A wet spring made some areas hard for me to access one of my bottom land plantings was completely overtaken by Sycamore’s. Not sure how I’m gonna get ahold of that area. It’s either going to be mechanical/hand or considering some sort of weed whipper on tractor bucket to apply herbicide to the Sycamore’s

thoughts??
 
If possible, consider covering the trees you planted with garbage bags and spraying the sycamores. Don’t know how big the trees are so this may not work.

You could also cut the sycamores with a chainsaw and stump treat with pure gly.

Good to hear from you.
 
Last edited:
Not habitat work but man oh man are we enjoying what we have been blessed with.
I hosted a dozen kids and some great men for a pheasant hunt this weekend. I never touched a gun and It was an absolute blessing. The deeper I get into habitat the less I enjoy the hunt itself. I have turned my energy to people and sharing my blessings.

 
Had our first rabbit hunt of the year a few weeks ago also.

My original habitat focus was on rabbit and quail. I knew if I could get it right everything else would fall into place. Year after year I have honestly been disappointed. I have build tons of brush piles for cover & roosting. Let’s 1000’s of feet of briar edges establish , and provided tons of food. Well this year it all fell into place. I knew populations were better but didn’t realize how good they were. We hunted a 10 acre patch and jumped 20 +- rabbits. Had multiple rabbits running at same time. Needless to say I was very happy!!

and as for every hunt. We made sure to pile a few kids into the mix!!

 
Looks great,seems like in Kansas the hawks have ate about all our small game and game birds.Do you have many hawks?
 
We got a ton of red tail and sparrow hawks. Farm has grown up a little worse than I prefer that last two years though so there’s a ton of food and cover. To the tune of 20+ acres of good transitional cover
 
I guess it's time for my yearly update. My work life has been crazy as I now cover 8 states!! Farm is 100% native management based and impossible to keep up with.
Wanted to share a great opening weekend at the farm where we let the kids shoot only. Maybe a little inspiration for somebody new to go native. We haven't done traditional plots or much corn the last few years due to time but deer numbers are insane on our small tract.
Thank you all for all the guidance and inspiration through the years, especially @Native Hunter !


We have a lot of youth friends and family for hunts at our farm. Usually have. A big youth weekend blow out and didn't get to this year . To make up for it we let the kids shoot for opening weekend. Man what an opener!!


Both my boys got awesome bucks. A friends son got his first buck ( 6pt) and everyone got a deer.

 
Turkey and small game numbers have improved tremendously also. My oldest son Easton, 13, has taken an active role in helping on our main farm
Where we background 400 cattle as well as manage our family hunting farm. Be hard to do it and my job traveling without him

 
Turkey and small game numbers have improved tremendously also. My oldest son Easton, 13, has taken an active role in helping on our main farm
Where we background 400 cattle as well as manage our family hunting farm. Be hard to do it and my job traveling without him


Congratulations, you really have things going great now. Keep up the excellent work.
 
Back
Top