I completely agree with yall about the smell being a special part about it….But if you want to smell the really sweet stuff then stick your nose off in some of this…..That the same smell but a little stouter…….Its of a “release” of organic nutrients, compounds, microorganisms,……releasing it burns it……burning it too much creates a deficit in the cycle organic matter…..long term deficits eventually go to zero and then you’re just smelling the ground up rock in your fields with a small annual release of any minor amount of humus that might have been built...."soil" is a combination of the ground up rock in the deep sublayers of the earth combined with the decayed organic matter from the plant life above.....without the organic component you only have ground up rock and only half of the recipe for "soil"....one of the reasons that base soil is different from place to place is because the base rock in the sublayers is a different type of rock

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with some tractor time…..but too many people just go burn diesel fuel with little understanding about to the impacts of their “management decisions”……That’s what they are no matter how little…..Simply “mowing” in and of itself is a management tool and decision that can have vastly different impacts just depending on the timing and frequency of it being applied…..Plowing and turning soil just for the sake of “liking it” comes at a cost…..Too many people stick their chest out though and never give anything any true thought…..they only look to what grandpappy taught them and how to reaffirm it to themselves…..

A lot of human psychology at play…..Heck, for sure think about how grandpappy taught you but give the other ideas their due thought as well. It doesn’t hurt a thing to broaden your base of knowledge about ALL of it. You can still manage however you see fit…..You might just have more information to draw off of when making decisions....There's lots of tools out there and ways of using them

Your elevator stops on the 13th floor.

Its not really an elevator and it rarely stops anywhere for long……I’d say its more like a subway train running on a loop…..It just goes round and round…..Its designed that way. If we lost on the last lap….we’ll pick you back up the next time around.




All aboard!!!!!

I had couple questions sent to me through PM’s…..I asked the folks if it was ok to answer publicly on the thread so that everyone could read along and in case others had the same questions….The OP will remain anonymous as long as they wish to…….

Question: I am sending you this private message to get your opinion about my situation. I have a small hunting tract (34 acres) I purchased this year in southeast AL. It is all thick/overgrown/untouched woods and some wetter ground surrounded by agricultural fields. I was going to make 3-4 small 0.1-0.25 acre food plots. I have cleared the areas with my chainsaw, sprayed glyphosate, used a lawn rake to try to get some of the leafs up. My specific question is since there still exists a layer of leaves from years and years of accumulation/breakdown, would you use a an ATV disc just to break through that layer so my seed will actually contact some dirt? Or, would you broadcast over the existing ground coverage? I’m leaning towards the former. The only equipment I have is a 4-wheeler and some hand tools, so either way I would probably need to buy an atv disc or cultipacker (for latter option). It sounds like you have been working your land for a long time and I’m just beginning my journey.

Thank you in advance for your time,


Answer: .......Basically what you have is just a build up of carbon on the soil surface. Let me explain a little bit about long term management of that litter and it’ll answer your question in the process……As we go from one rotation to the next to the next…..summer crop to winter crop back to summer…..and so on…..What you want to have happen from one rotation to the next is to put your dying crop to the ground and have it breakdown and just get about decomposed when its ready to rotate to the next crop….Its biomass management….We can talk more about the finer details of this in another post so as not to get too long winded. With things like carbon/nitrogen set up in the right proportion as well as a vibrant microbial community…..etc…..it’ll manage itself and not be much an issue for you once things are in a proper balance……What you’re shooting for though is for a brief few week period to have that fluffy soft potting soil on the soil surface exposed a little to broadcast your seed onto…..Instead of the soil surface being covered over with a heavy layer of duff like you have in your scenario.

So yes I would take a drag or disk or whatever you have available and use it to just scratch up and flip around the surface debris to get us to that point I just talked about. You’re not trying to “disk it all in”…..you just want to help get the duff decomposed on out of the way while kicking up a little soil in the process…..This will also mean giving it little a shot of N to mix with the carbon you’re about to put into play….That’ll help get it broken on down a little faster and more importantly it’ll prevent from tying up the N that you want for you’re little seedling about to emerge.

You should have a good reserve of organic N in the soil in your particular situation since its probably prime topsoil under that leaf litter.....but a small rate of 50 lbs/ac wouldn’t hurt just to nudge it along. Use your best judgement….The more leaf litter that’s built up….the more N you need and the more you’ll need to churn it up a little….If it’s a thin layer…small amount of N and just scratch it up……

You can throw your cereal grains out before you do this or you can churn it up first….broadcast them and then run back over it with another pass or so….any clovers or brassicas just surface broadcast at the end

Second Question:


This is one of the more common questions lots of people ask……

Question: I'm trying to avoid spraying the whole fields. What has been your experience with planting and not spraying first?


Answer….It can be done a couple of ways. For anyone just starting out this process I would suggest just to go ahead and spray so that this variable doesn’t screw you up on your first runs….As you become more comfortable and start seeing the whole picture better then that’s when I’d try and take the step to cut out spraying if you choose to do so.

That being said…..when you do get ready…..Being able to plant without spraying with depend on a couple of things…..

1) It will require you to be patient when fall rolls around and not run out and plant too early. You need to hold off just a little bit and rotate your fall cycle with the natural cycle that occur. Depending on your location north to south that will be mid to late Sept through October or even later if you choose....you can plant into November and many farmers do wait to plant cover crops…..I’d rather be a week late than a week early but you plant when moisture is coming once your within that planting window…..Waiting until the natural time to cycle allows all the summer stuff time to fully run its course and start dying….If you jump in there too early your gonna be fighting fully grown plants with fully established root systems…..Hard for lil seedling to compete with that. If you wait though..... the summer vegetations life cycle will be over and it will be taking its final breaths as new life emerges....your seedlings


2) The species of plants growing in your field is gonna play a big role in this as well. If all you have is annual summer broadleafs and the like….Those things run an annual cycle that grows a new plant from seed each year….it produces offspring at the end….dies... and new growth comes back from seed the next year…..All of those are finished at the end of summer beginning of fall….. ….If thoe plants make up the majority of your species composition then you'll likely be fine to plant without spraying if you just wait and plant at the right time.....Some of the plants that WILL be likely to give you issues are nutsedge, bahai grass, Bermuda……Those have been the ones I’ve dealt with but there’s likely others…..You'll see which plants try to bounce back in your particular situation once you do it a time or to...ITs likely to be your grass species or whatever the hell nutsedge is considered....i forget.... The more of these species that are present though…..the more you’ll want to spray ……If its just a small smattering of them then you can get by without it if you can live without things being pristine clean. As you manage for better soil long term these type plants won’t be so abundant.

Like I said in the beginning though…..if your just starting out then make it easier on yourself and go ahead and spray ahead of time and just eliminate the possibility of this being an issue for you in the beginning.....Concentrate on recognizing some of the other important variable first like soil surface condition and biomass management

CNC's has got not clue what the plot and soil conditions are on someone else's property he's never stepped foot on. What is going on here is someone posting a bunch of wild ass bullchit to feed their need to carry on some sort of self righteous opinion.

If anyone wants to ask these type questions in the forum please do. There are plenty of other people on here that can give real-world guidance. Literally 100's of AL Deer members on here do plots every fall with minimal equipment. They just don't feel the need to post paragraph upon paragraph of useless dribble about it. Because it isn't that complicated. You put enough seed and fertilizer on it and it will grow.

You like Guns n' Roses Goatkiller???.........

More folks probably would if they didn't feel like they had to arm themselves with a shank first

Well.....is that it Goatkiller? What the hell was that anyway? You done pulled the cork on a jug of fighting likker?? You know your getting low onnammo when you gotta resort to chunking molatov cocktails and shagging ass

I like your new title CNC.

Hell yes. Awsome.

Kiss my ass......

......and Outback didn't "nail it".....Not cornhole.....The correct answer was "porch stand"

I love that you are trying new techniques, we are alway experimenting and it keeps it fun and interesting. Keep up the good work and report back !

Thanks Whild Bill…….I read about this thing called a sanctuary one time and gave it a try…..That ended up working out pretty good for me.

The way I look at it and the reason I keep an open mind about everything from food plotting to deer behavior is because I believe that no matter how much knowledge man acquires about nature and our world while we’re here…..we’ll only have scratched the surface of what’s truly there…..We’re not able to fully understand the complexities of nature any more than we are able to fully understand God…..and its because they are one in the same. To ever think we have it all figured out is arrogant and foolish. It’s the reason I hate the word “expert”…….It’s almost laughable to say such when our true knowledge of nature is so small and minute. We should carry ourselves instead with an open mind and the humbleness that we don’t really know anything at all…..To me anyone who thinks they’ve become an “expert” on nature is only showing that they don’t really know nature at all.

Whoa!!

Have you been taking English classes Bill?? Not one misspelled word in that post.

I’m gonna make one more brief comment and then put in behind me and let fate and God handle sorting the good fruits from the rotten.

I’ve had to spend the last 10 years with a knife drawn at all times ready to fend off any and every kind of attack and insult possible trying to tear me down internally and discredit anything I say or do. I don’t even think most people really know me because I’ve been so on guard and ready to cut and slash at people just to be able to speak….I hate that it went that way because I’ve rarely ever been able to just be me. Just the version that was ready to cut a mf if I have to!I Endulge me her for a moment. Let me say a little more about the past because it will lead into what I hope we see in the future.

I joined QDMA years ago and got involved in going to some of their fields days and events….I supported them and always looked at them as the one organization or entity amongst the bigger hunting community that was dedicated to bringing the science of deer and deer management to the public. I rolled my eyes a little at all the BS gimmicky products and shows everyone was doing but I was ok with that stuff because I thought there was still someone providing us with the raw truth….the scientific truth without the sales pitches and products.

Then suddenly I started seeing QDMA on Big and J commercials promoting of all things…..OF ALL THINGS!!....the magic bag of powder you dump on the ground that big bucks suddenly start sprouting from. But the worst part was that they attached a biologist to it using the word “science” to subtly manipulate the consumers. I made a pretty good stink on the old forum letting them know how wrong it was because science is supposed to pursue truth and avoid having money manipulate the direction it takes…..…...

It wasn’t too long after that when the no-till methods started really snowballing and more folks were talking about holistic approaches like using cattle to mob graze, etc….when suddenly QDMA just pulled the plug on the whole forum nearly overnight…..and not just any forum either. The old QDMA forum was full of all kind of great people from professional deer managers…biologists….consultants……arborists… you name it…..They were giving honest, real world advice to hunters all over the country on a daily basis. It was the best resource out there on any media platform to actually help educate and teach the science of “deer” to the public…..and they yanked it out from under them in the middle of the night …. It was obvious what was going on and it stung me pretty hard when I realized that they were $elling out science and the truth.

A little later when the T&M technique started getting picked up, modified, and rebranded I’ll admit I was hoping one of them would at least give me a subtle tip of the hat and wink for me as well as the others who spent years helping to get the torch lit…..But they didn’t….and it felt like slap in the face. I guess I was just being naïve as to how the world works. Still I was happy and took pride to see deer managers like Grant Woods pick it up and run with it …. ….But the more I watched the more I realized that yes, it was the truth…..but kinda sorta still selling stuff. At that point I lost all faith in anyone actually being a source to educate the public with the science and it soured my attitude. My problem though has never been with any individual…..but rather with the process….…I never did any of it because I wanted to be “the inventor of T&M or to be the man. I kept on coming back because when I tried to show the results of some of my first experiments with sincere happiness that it had worked…… I was met by harsh a-holes telling me that what I had done was stupid, wrong, and I was a fool . I’m still here 10 years later because of my stubbornness and persistence and because the harsh comments only made it get worse....….until it finally just became about principle with a little F-you to go with it.

So why does all of the stuff about science and truth bother me ?? Because how do we expect the hunting public to be able to properly manage the deer herds if there isn’t anyone educating them with facts and truth. We bitch and bitch about the state managing for us and making this choice or that choice as our hunting resource continues to dwindle……. But what else are we to expect if the hunters have very little clue about all of the different management tools and options being practiced today and the true impacts of each. How can we expect them to manage the natural resource…..aka nature……if they’re nearly as disconnected from her as the rest of society…..most just dont realize it.

What could Alabama look like if it had a resource like what the QDMA once was but have it on a state level that moved them forward into a new era of land management and hunting…..A forum that educated the hunters, landowners, outfitters, etc on how to manage early successional plant communities for maximum wildlife production……or how to raise cattle and deer together……the social dynamics of a deer herd……Assessing understory vegetation and carrying capacity…..and so on…..and so on

Now you wanna talk about something that would benefit EVERYONE…… then take a look at your state map for a moment and check out the area to the south of Montgomery. See the light colored area from about Union Springs nearly to Selma where there’s no dark green?? That whole area is some of the best soil in the state capable of producing some of the most productive high, quality deer populations….It already producers some of our best bucks but the vast majority of the acreage as you can see is in huge open cattle pastures that robs the area of what it could be.

Just hypothetically think about this for moment…..what if we could wave a magic wand across that area and change it to what that area would look like if the cattle were being mob grazed instead of raised the traditional way? If all of that area void of dark green suddenly became highly productive deer habitat while still keeping the cattle production….Imagine how much that one area alone would improve the resource and increase the potential $$$ of hunting revenue for the state and the associated “industry” chain?

Now keep scrolling around and look on a broader scale at how much of our state is in fragmented pastures and such…..Its everywhere…..Marshall co where I’m from is nothing but fragmented pasture land…..Don’t get me wrong….I don’t think the whole state or blackbelt is gonna suddenly start managing holistically with their cattle next year or that all of it ever will be…..but what if mob grazing and other holistic management practices started taking root on this property and on that one…..and another….and another…..All the while the ideas and the results being shared and spread and more folks became educated on how to manage land for multiple uses that benefited cattle and wildlife and hunters …Maybe we dont change the whole state but maybe instead of continuing to fragment the landscape and lose wildlife habitat….we start reconnecting some of the dots and trend the other way. Maybe there’s new ideas and methods that spring up using these same concepts as more folks begin using them.

What might our landscape look like 10 years from now…..50 years from now? When one of those big cattle farmers below Montgomery looks over and sees his neighbor using some new management practice and he likes what he sees……Where is he gonna go to learn about it?? When the deer manager or forester hears about it and wants to try running a few cattle through a couple stands to test it out….where will he go to get advice? When folks see the improvements and increased productivity to the soil that results from these practices and want to improve theirs....….who will teach them about it? After all the soil is probably our most underappreciated resource. Soil is the foundation of life and where the true wealth of our land is held Who will inspire and help that first wave to take the plunge? Hmmm……..

I know I would like nothing better than to spend the next ten years helping to transition us in that direction and be able to lay down my prison shank for a while….. I’m just scarred up and tired boss. ….Some will read this and think it’s a good idea but will never happen……some will read it and laugh thinking that I’m nuts and its absurd………but I think its very real……I know the power of one straw and I believe it can start a revolution.