What I am Planting This Year | Dream Farm w/ Bill Winke 

I liked that too. She is very smart. Once she learns something it sticks Have a great day.

Heard that brother!😂

Thanks Adam and Troy. Those might be a bit boring this time of year. For example, I am heading to graft and release more apple trees in the next couple of days. Some of that is just too repetitive to show every day - a couple of times per week is about right. We will get back to the daily stuff when the season draws near again. Thanks for the support and the comment.

Hey that was a nice shed , Jordan Thanks for posting, I get excited when notifications of Bill posted!!😅

Thanks for the comment and the support. I appreciate it.

Thanks. We will give updates all along the way so others can see if what we are doing this year is working. Have a great day.

Yes, I had a 3 1/2 acre corn plot. Just gorgeous. I dreamed about the herd of deer that would be using that. I hunted it three or four times and never saw deer one! And there was still 80% of the corn there at the end of the season. They did hit it hard though in January cold snap, like you said. I will still plant some corn, but I am going to lean more toward beans as the "staple" grain this year. Good luck.

Yes, I have at least one more (if not two) that we will make this summer. Have a great day and thanks for the comment.

Agree. I love the work on the farm because it is not only fun and generally useful work, but it is another good excuse to be outside enjoying the land during the rest of the year. Have a great day.

Thanks Steven. Man our subsoil moisture is really low. Worse than last year at this time. I was impressed with how the deer reacted to the sorghum. Plus it does well in dry spots and you can broadcast other stuff into it later in the summer. Have a great day.

Interesting. I stopped planting chicory when the deer on my southern Iowa farm ignored it. That Alfa-Rack blend has some chicory and if they hit that I will start adding it everywhere. Thanks for the input. Have a great day.

I am glad of that too, Carlo! Thanks for the comment.

I have seen that my farm in southern Iowa was better when the main tillable fields were beans. I think deer just like bean better until it gets really cold. Have a great day.

Interesting. It will be educational to see what these deer do with chicory. My southern Iowa deer ignored it.

I agree and have also done this, the chicory is similar to a rape braid leaf plant for tonage for the deer

The deer definitely ate them and they are super easy to add to the outside of any field that isn't going to get sprayed later. Good luck.

Good point. I do still need to get that into shape for long-term planting so I will probably do that this summer, but if I don't, pumpkins will be one definite option. Thanks for the comment.

Man, that is really depressing. I hate it when all the planning of the spring is crushed by a dry summer. It is really disheartening. Better luck this year.

You will definitely be rewarded. You can also (and should) broadcast brassicas into your soybean in late summer to add more tonnage to those plots. Good luck.

Jason, I have not broadcast corn or beans, but I know a lot of people who have and it works just fine. Key is getting the depth consistent (especially with corn). Corn does better when it all comes up at the same time and tassels and pollinates at the same time. That has been my experience at least. It is harder to achieve this when broadcasting. Not as critical with beans. But that said, I know many who have successfully broadcast corn. I think it is important to run over with something like a drag rather than a disk - just to get consistent depth. Good luck.

Ok. I will give it a try. Thanks. I appreciate the tip.

Yes, I should broadcast some oats into my alfalfa plot. That is a good point. I grew up on a dairy farm and that is the way we established our alfalfa fields too. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.

I will. I just hate getting on my soap box. My way of hunting doesn't have to be everyone else's. I just like to keep a certain degree of mystery in my hunting and I fear that if I have the cell cams I will just know too much and the hunt won't be as hard and the success won't be as satisfying. Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I feel. I do think I need them just to learn more about where deer and how, etc. I watched the Mississippi State video on their findings and it didn't line up with what I have learned/seen over the years hunting mature bucks in the Midwest so I am determined to find out if I am missing something or if their data is just skewed toward younger bucks and a different kind of range. So, cell cams are in my future regardless. I just need to know those things about overall mature buck behavior around bedding habits and I just can't learn that with conventional cameras because they are too invasive. Have a great day.

I have been doing that for many years with brassica blends like Winter-Greens to increase total plot tonnage. It has not worked as well with corn because of how tall it is and how little light makes it to the ground, but it works well with sorghum and beans. I have tried fall rye also and that definitely does work, just not as much tonnage. Fall rye has the advantage of coming in green early in the following year, however. Thanks for the comment.

Be wary of cereal rye, Canadian rye, Virginia rye. Keep your dogs out of it. its barbed seeds can penetrate paws, and fur or be inhaled causing serious injury. Search "mean seeds" for more info. I spent $$$ on surgeries for my field trial English Cocker removing a seed that traveled up it's leg.

I don't know the answer to that one Kevin. I have never tried it, as far as I know. I will see if I can learn more about it. Have a great day.

I try to spread them out on the farm, anywhere I have some flat open ground is a candidate. I will put the larger ones (larger than one acre) into grains (corn, sorghum or beans) and then follow up with some additional seeding (broadcast or drilled) into the sorghum and beans in late July. We don't have screening now and that makes some of these spots virtually unhuntable, but they do serve to feed deer and keep them around and keep them healthy. I am going to add 1,000 hybrid willow trees along the most open lanes this spring so that will help long-term. Thanks for the support and have a great day.

Thanks for the comment. I use whatever I can get for free from the local conservation groups or buy from the local co-op as a plan B. They are conventional ag beans, not forage beans. We will likely get out a few times for turkeys. That is always a good time that we share in the field. We will bring you some of the action. Thanks for the support. We appreciate it.

We got rain a day later. We need one more good rain to really incorporate the seed.

Ah, don't say that. We can't handle a third straight dry summer.

Yes, I just have such a long-time farm background that it is hard for me not to use conventional methods. Most of what I plant (the beans and the sorghum) will become multi-species plots when I am done with them anyway because I will broadcast Winter-Greens into them in July. And If run purely no-till on most of it (assume I can work around the soil temperature issues in the spring) I get the same effect with lots of organic materials on the ground that improve soil quality. I will have to give some thought to how I would do this experiment - and really why I would do it. I know the "modern" blends and non-traditional farming methods are popular now, but what I have been doing all my life seems to work well as long as I get rain. Thanks for the comment. I will give it some more thought. I just don't see these benefits that everyone talks about regarding "regenerative" methods. Not sure how that really differs from what I am already doing.

@@bill-winke "As long as I get rain" is always the risk. A no-till, multispecies plot should be more resilient to weather. The MSU Deer lab is doing side by side comparisons on traditional vs regen/no-till. You can find it in their social media. I haven't seen a full article from them yet.

@@RGrizzzz I will keep an eye out for it. Thanks.

Sean, congrats on the Dream Farm. I am sure you will love that! I can approach those three areas from the northwest, so the access isn't as bad as it looks. I have an easement in that direction. Takes a bit of driving from the buildings via county road, but that is the way to get to these without bumping deer. Good luck and have a great day.

@@bill-winke Absolutely. Thank You ! Keep plugging away and teaching.!Field of Dreams” Theory.!

I have heard how effective they are too and I do need to try some. I am not sure why they aren't used more. Possibly due to them be a bit more fickle regarding growing environment than other brassicas (that seem to grow well just about anywhere). I will look into it a bit more. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.

@@bill-winkesugar beets are in WINA beets and Greens, great way to introduce deer to beets

I am just not a big switchgrass lover. I have planted maybe 350 acres of it over the years on farms I have owned or co-owned and the deer rarely used it other than maybe summer bedding in some cases. Plus, it is temporary and needs to be replanted after some years. In the meantime, I could have had that many years on trees and shrubs that will then become permanent habitat. They take a bit longer to grow and start working for you, but trees and shrubs are better used by deer than switchgrass, in my experience. As a result of all those years of failed effort, I will probably never plant switchgrass again.

@@bill-winke ya, I guess I can see that if you have a property that you plan on owning for decades. The short term screening is a great asset for entry and exits though. Beats having to plant an annual screen every year.

@@donaldbowling8620 Yes, very good point.

That makes sense. I need to get one if I am going to be doing this every year, but I do try to keep this "simple" so that any viewer can look at and think, "I can do that" and the less specialized equipment I have, the less intimidating the process seems to be. Thanks for the comment.

I add winter blends such as Winter-Greens, Tall Tine Tubers or even fall rye to the grain plots in the summer. I will try some Power Plant, but you have to have a pretty good sized plot to make that work as the deer just hammer it. I tried it last year and with the slow growth due to the drought, the deer stayed ahead of it. Ended up drilling Winter-Greens into it in late July. I may try it again instead of beans in one or two plots. However, I have had very good success over the years planting grains like sorghum or beans in the spring and then broadcasting (or even drilling) the Winter-Green style blends in the summer.

John, I will do that, but here's a summary: I only shot six total deer with those heads last season: five does and one buck. I was really impressed with the Destrukt 3 blade head. I killed one doe with it using Jordan's bow set at 35 pounds and I hit her on the edge of the shoulder and still got enough penetration for a quick vital kill. (Jordan couldn't draw it back because she was injured and I just couldn't stand that doe standing there for several minutes!). That head was field point accurate for me out to 40 yards also. The EXO 3 mechanicals did fine too, but I am shooting a high poundage bow so just about anything would get plenty of penetration with that setup. I do think that shot with Jordan's bow was an eye-opener. I will likely shoot both styles (mechanical and fixed) from B3 this coming season, but I sure was impressed with the Destrukt 3 blade. Here is a link to that one: b3archery.com/product/exoskeletal-destrukt/

I do like the annual clovers if I am going to till them under to create a nitrogen source for my brassica plots that I rotate into later in the summer. For example, frost seed the annual clovers into a brassica plot in late winter and then till them under in late July and broadcast the brassicas again. This works pretty well and reduces the amount of nitrogen fertilizer you need to add. But, I have not had any experience with buckwheat. For that reason, I am not the best guy to ask to make a comparison between that and annual clover. Good luck.

@bill-winke thx for the info much appreciated

Thanks Edward, same to you.

Boy, I have found them super easy to plant. They grow even if you just throw them out. Our deer eat them under most conditions but last year was strange and they didn't hit them very hard. On a normal year they will eat them well.

Well for some reason it seems to work well with a wind (or thermal) that blows down the valley. Not many deer come from that direction.

That location is a good spot for the clover and I do need some in that valley somewhere. Thanks for the suggestion though. Have a great day.

I can't remember that one. I fear that I have said that many times! My list keep getting longer of dumb things I have done. If I think of that one specifically, I will come back here and drop a link. Have a great day and thanks for the comment.

No, I bet you are right. I know that deer love it and you can plant them in the late summer for a quick green up in the early/mid fall. Good luck.

I don't put them out because the laws in Iowa regarding mineral sites would require me to dig up the dirt and replace the spot with fresh dirt before I could legally hunt near those sites. So, as a result, I have limited experience on how much effect minerals make on antler growth and doe lactation/fawn health. I am sure it has some effect, I just don't know how much. Have a great day.

I do some of that, but I prefer broadcasting a brassica blend (like the Winter-Greens) into my soybeans and will try the same in my sorghum. This creates more tonnage of forage than cereal grains in the same role. I have been using this approach since 2002 and it has worked really well over the years. The only advantage of the cereal grains in this role is that they (fall rye, for example) will green up nicely the next spring and provide spring forage while the brassicas won't - generally. I always end up overseeding a few areas with fall rye anyway. I think I did about 5 acres last year, for example. But it is more of fall back strategy if my other plantings don't work out due to weather (usually drought). You can plant the annual rye later in the year and still get something than you can the brassicas. Good luck.

I planted the stuff I got for free from the local Pheasants Forever chapter. It was RoundUp ready and I think 90 day maturity. That is all I remember.

Just whatever I can get for free from the local conservation groups or buy cheap at the local co-op. They are ag beans and not forage beans. Good luck.

Yes. For sure.

I may try some but I like being able to drill or broadcast their Winter-Greens brassica blend into the beans in late July/early August to dramatically increase total tonnage of the plot before fall and winter. This two layer system has worked really well for me in the past.

I do same thing right now into the power plant, it works great , give it a try

@@toddshippee7162I’m curious, does the power plant continue to draw deer in late season? I’m going back and forth between power plant and soybeans. I was going to broadcast oats and brassicas into the beans come fall, the plot is 2 acres, maybe I’ll do half and half and see which performs better!

Yes it does draw into fall as the sorghum is bird resistant, meaning it’s higher in tannins until later in the season when they where out, similar to red oak acorns, the beans and cowpeas and sun hemp are very good summer food and the sorghum carries through winter. Broadcasting into it with oats , brassicas are an option that’s works. Or simply till some of it and plant whitetail institute winter peas which are as attractive or more attractive than soybeans for a secondary crop. The power plant blend is really good for soil so putting crops in behind it is a great option

They did good and the deer definitely ate them so we are going to add pumpkins to the edges of several more fields. Good luck.

I have seen that tool. It is also interesting that they will eat it all winter whereas they stop eating clover after a few hard freezes. I think the alfalfa stands up better even after hard cold snaps. Have a great day, Jim.

I am using a lot of their products. What am supposed to do, say I am planting something else?

It will be interesting to see what they do here. Have a great day.