Im in Middle TN and planted my Sunflowers on Memorial Day this year. We were a few weeks behind. Leaves are just now browning out. I agree with you if we had them in just a week or so earlier it would've been perfect. we still have some birds in the field. Neighbor is top sowing Wheat now so we should have plenty of birds in the area. Good luck this season. Love the videos!
I can't stop laughing at that Madd Maxx question. I'll be posting my browntop and white proso millet update tomorrow. I've learned something from The Kelley's Country Life. He plants strictly brown top in his 4 acre field. He doesn't burn, but instead uses a zero turn to blow the thatch off of sections and it leaves the seed behind on the ground. I'd never seen that before, but thought it was a cool idea. From what I can tell is that he mows it with the tractor first and lets it sit a few days so the seed will dry and drop off. Then he comes in and runs the zero turn in an ever tightening oval pushing all the thatch to the center so that he has about 10 feet on each side of the thatch line of clear ground covered in seeds. He then moves over to an adjacent section and does it again until he goes over the entire field.
Do you ever worry about pressuring the doves and spooking them off for good when you're videoing or checking the field? When we get to within a month of the season I only go into the field to mow. We don't get many migrators here in Ohio so I have to keep the pressure low on the local birds if I want a good shoot on the opener.
Here in these last two weeks we will stay out of the fields unless we burn it one morning. I go in mid day to limit morning and evening feed pressure Great question!
Also I'm assuming burning off first hurt your millet, milo, and flower seeds? First time I've seen anyone burn the field! Could cut back on weed control a lot to keep/make bare ground.
Once the seed has hardened, it is not hurt by the fire. Plus, the fire rips through there so quick it doesnt have time to burn it either. Fire is GREAT for doves, turkeys, and any forest management. I highly recommed it.
The problem with timing crops is that it's not time that determines when the crop matures, but temperature. The difference in time to maturity between a warm year and cool year can be two weeks. With some things, like corn, drought stress or cold stress can make it seed early, so early maturity and poor yield.
Great point! This year we planted the same date but the sunflowers were about 10 days ahead of last year. We had a TON of rain which I think stunted them. Great point, thanks for mentioning that
A normal mower that has a 4-5" cut height on high level, will throw millet thatch off seed and leave a blanket of seeds...u only need to do 1 strip a week...worked like a charm for us this year...where as burning, u lose alot of seed to the fire
With the lack of rain I don’t think we will be burning, will cut the other half of the field this week probably. we ran over 50 out of that field pulling in. Thanks for following along!
Wow I have never seen something like this and thanks for providing so much of details and showing the process, a great video and an mazing channel, so happy to be connected
Looks good. Was just up at my place and jumped 15 out of the filed midday and saw few flying around. Mowed 4 strips through my sunflowers. Hopefully they will dry out a little more. Start top sewing wheat next week.
Lookin good must be up towards raleigh we got awful dry no ran the month of June and last 2 weeks of May but we got 2 acres of black oil hitting the ground and birds are starting to work. If looking a cheap field option I would recommend white bag birds seed from tractor supply makes good plot 1 35lb bag to the acre but well not be a clean sunflowers field that's foe sure. Enjoy the videos keep em up.
Sure, so that is all available on the earlier episodes. Check out Season 2 of Dove Farming on the channel. In general, it all got planted the first week of May
I believe you can plant a crop, leave it standing, and hunt. You can harvest and hunt. I believe you are entering dangerous territory if you mow or burn and hunt over the field. If a game warden writes you a ticket, you will have to convince a judge you had a legitimate agriculture purpose for what you did. Because dove are migratory birds, I believe you will be in federal court instead of the county court house. I hope you do o.k., you are not the only one who does what you talked about. I know of an instance where some hunters mowed the weeds in front of their duck blind before filling the pond with water. They received a citation for baiting. Seems like they would have been in a better position than you will be.
