Episode #157 Frost Seeding Clover - Soil Builder - Switchgrass

Published: 2023-02-19
Episode page
Duration: 69 min

In this episode

access-discipline

• Terry says maintaining strict access discipline, as demonstrated on the Ohio farm they walked that day, can completely change a property’s hunting success. 38:34

bedding

• Is there a suggested acre ratio of bedding to food, or does the focus shift between bedding and food depending on the property? 57:34

buck-management

• Don expects new habitat and acreage will let him carry more bucks into older age classes without them being killed, though not necessarily more total deer. 67:37

clover

• Don killed his thinning clover strips with glyphosate and redrilled them with a Genesis drill last fall. 22:31
• Because drought stunted the new stand, Don overseeded his clover with a blower right before this trip and expects a strong stand once it warms up. 23:05
• Don explains different clover varieties can coexist and be frost seeded together, unlike alfalfa, which releases a toxin preventing new alfalfa plants. 27:07

clover-maintenance

• Terry recommends mowing and frost seeding as the best clover maintenance method, saying people jump to chemicals too quickly. 27:41

crp

• What can be done to enhance certain areas within a large CRP planting to draw bucks to bed closer to stand sites? 53:55

deer-feed

• Don strongly warns against feeding deer any product with animal byproducts, noting that practice caused mad cow disease in cattle. 50:05

events

• Terry predicts the industry will move away from trade shows toward specialized training events held through the distributor network. 7:11

feed-tags

• Terry compares hidden animal byproducts in feed to how inoculant seed coatings were once used to cheapen product while making it look appealing. 51:48

firearms

• Terry says Joe Chambers makes one of the best 1911 pistols ever made. 4:34

frost-seeding

• Terry announces this episode will devote a segment to frost seeding, calling it the hottest listener question right now. 1:45
• Don recommends frost seeding clover later in winter or early spring while freeze-thaw is still occurring, rather than too early. 20:21
• Don warns not to wait too long to frost seed, since once the ground firms up and stops sticking to boots, the window closes. 20:51
• Duane Hopkins recommends a boot test for planting conditions: if the heel sinks until mud coats only the side, it’s too soft to plant. 21:26
• Don recommends mowing cereal grain cover every three to four weeks so newly frost-seeded clover can eventually dominate the stand. 24:28
• Terry recommends letting a fall blend green up in spring for deer forage, then terminating it and starting fresh with clover rather than frost seeding over it. 24:53
• Don says clover germinates as early as many weeds, but one or two good mowings will let clover dominate the stand. 26:09
• Terry relays Duane’s advice to read the weather rather than the calendar when deciding to frost seed, ensuring conditions are truly right. 28:53

giveaway

• After discovering Lester’s Feet Foundation, Hardcore Hammers ran a giveaway for five winners among podcast listeners who signed up for their newsletter. 10:23

gun-project

• Terry plans to build an AR-platform truck gun chambered in .300 Blackout so he can shoot suppressed subsonic ammo quietly. 16:10
• Terry shows off the new Vortex AMG UH-1 Gen 2 holographic sight he’s chosen as the optic for his truck gun build. 16:25

gunmaker

• Don visited custom gunmaker Joe Chambers in Nebraska, whose firearms have appeared on Guns and Ammo covers and been made for celebrities. 4:19
• Terry plans to do business with Joe Chambers for a custom firearm piece he’s in the market for. 5:21

home-range

• If you kill a mature deer, will another mature buck move into that home range if it has great habitat, and can hunters use this to their advantage? 34:42

hospitality

• Don says Joe Chambers and his wife Heidi rolled out the red carpet for him during his visit, gifting him a T-shirt and hat. 5:11
• Don received a package of deer jerky from a young man in Salina and calls it some of the best he’s ever had. 15:05

joke

• Don jokes that a fan at the Salina event compared him to Joe Biden, since neither of them makes sense when they open their mouths. 30:43 (light moment)

master-classes

• Terry plans a major project on his own property this year and intends to bring back a trailer full of product, including Miscanthus, from the upcoming master classes. 65:47

mature-bucks

• Terry argues the belief that a property can only hold one mature buck is a misconception; multiple mature bucks can coexist without excess intrusion. 36:53
• Don says his own property proves multiple mature bucks coexist; he’s repeatedly seen several together during the rut, sometimes yards apart. 37:33
• Don says it’s misinformation to think killing a mature buck creates a vacuum that another buck magically fills. 38:06

minerals

• Bronson Strickland explained at Salina that overloading a mineral mix with one nutrient like salt limits how much a deer will consume, restricting other micronutrients. 44:40
• Is there a company that analyzes the exact mineral makeup of deer antlers to determine what’s lacking and formulate a targeted mineral product? 39:51

nutricrave-corn

• Don says their corn tests at 12-13% protein straight from the field, cutting costs versus formulating feed from lower-protein corn. 52:38
• Would the new nutrient-dense corn work as a standalone year-round nutrition program, or should it be mixed with Maximizer feed, and will it be added to Maximizer Plus? 45:52

politics

• Don contrasts the lack of federal aid to the Ohio derailment region with billions of dollars sent to Ukraine. 32:07
• Don claims Joe Biden lacks the mental capacity to run the country. 33:56

property-access

• Terry says the Ohio dealer’s farm he toured today has the best access and layout of any property he’s visited this year. 12:34
• Terry says the Ohio dealer’s property is the closest to Higgins Three he’s seen this year for access quality. 12:58

property-acquisition

• Don announces the survey is complete on a new property he’s acquiring next to his own and expects his property to be twice as good within three years. 66:10

property-management

• Terry plans to keep adapting access and maximizing food from small areas on his farm as rising deer numbers increase food demand. 67:53

property-visit

• Terry toured a large beef cattle feedlot operation run by the Ohio dealer’s family after finishing their property walkthrough. 14:11

salina-event

• Bronson Strickland gave two presentations at the Salina event: a morning session on nutrition and an afternoon session on genetics and culling. 6:19
• Don describes the Phillips Seed Farm event in Salina as first-class, with about a dozen vendors and a fantastic catered lunch. 6:45
• Don says roughly 250-300 serious land managers attended the Salina event, sitting through all four presentations without leaving early. 8:19
• Don recounts that a former consulting client traveled nearly 700 miles from Wisconsin to attend his Salina event. 61:02

seminar

• Terry notes Don just finished a seminar in Kansas with Bronson Strickland and Wes Delks before joining the podcast. 0:50
• Don recalls doing a seminar for the Ohio family last summer and predicts they’ll be excited to see Terry’s new plan. 13:20
• Don announces he’ll give a seminar in Henderson, Tennessee on Friday, March 3rd. 64:34

soil-charge

• Terry says the new Soil Charge soil builder product can also be frost seeded into a prepared seedbed or ahead of a soybean field. 28:03
• Don cautions that Soil Charge must go into a prepared seedbed, not be broadcast randomly, or plant competition will hurt the stand. 28:19

speaking-tour

• Don spoke to roughly 250 people near Winona, Minnesota, taking audience questions for two hours after his presentation. 2:30
• Despite the snowstorm, 250-300 people still attended Don’s Nebraska event. 3:53

testimonials

• Terry finds it especially humbling when listeners say the podcast helped them become better fathers, husbands, or Christians. 62:57

train-derailment

• Don claims federal officials didn’t respond to the Ohio train derailment until after Trump announced he would visit the area. 31:53
• Terry says the news isn’t reporting on livestock dying near the train derailment site. 32:53

travel

• Don is five days into a multi-state speaking and consulting trip, checking into a motel in Salina, Kansas the night of the podcast. 1:01
• Don witnessed two semi trucks wreck and block both lanes of I-80 while driving through a blizzard in Iowa. 3:26

tree-stands

• Don plans to add four new tree stands this fall in locations on his property never hunted before. 67:12

truck

• Don expects to pick up his truck from Chris Yates on Monday since a snowstorm delayed it. 17:38

wes-delks

• Wes Delks told Terry by text that he couldn’t believe he got to share the stage with Don and Bronson Strickland, showing his humility. 9:08
• Wes Delks closed his Salina presentation with a short scripture testimony and prayer for the crowd; Don calls him an ‘iron sharpens iron’ influence. 9:42

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (management) 40:39
• unnamed buck (history) 54:34

Listener questions

Question: If you kill a mature deer, will another mature buck move into that home range if it has great habitat, and can hunters use this to their advantage? 34:42 — asked by Chad Jordan

• Answer: Don says no - hunters must grow their own mature bucks rather than expect an outside deer to move in after one is killed. 34:58
• Answer: Don reiterates that the idea of a new buck magically filling a killed buck’s spot is misinformation. 38:06

Question: Is there a company that analyzes the exact mineral makeup of deer antlers to determine what’s lacking and formulate a targeted mineral product? 39:51 — asked by Mike Eggros

• Answer: Don says nutritionists ground up and analyzed antler composition, and that data was used to formulate Maximizer Mineral. 42:36

Question: Would the new nutrient-dense corn work as a standalone year-round nutrition program, or should it be mixed with Maximizer feed, and will it be added to Maximizer Plus? 45:52 — asked by Alex Graham

• Answer: Don recommends mixing NutriCrave corn with Maximizer concentrate pellets at 200 pounds per ton for a much better feed. 46:29

Question: What can be done to enhance certain areas within a large CRP planting to draw bucks to bed closer to stand sites? 53:55 — asked by Bruce Lovelace

• Answer: Don recommends scattering pockets of Miscanthus rhizomes in target areas before drilling the CRP seed, since bucks like to bed at the base of the clumps. 55:39

Question: Is there a suggested acre ratio of bedding to food, or does the focus shift between bedding and food depending on the property? 57:34 — asked by Jacob Schulte

• Answer: Don says there’s no magic ratio; the plan is based on whatever is in short supply on the surrounding landscape. 58:26

Don joined from a motel in Salina, Kansas, five days into a multi-state speaking trip, having just finished a seminar there with Bronson Strickland and Wes Delks. He recapped stops in Winona, Minnesota and a snowstorm-hit Nebraska event, plus visiting custom gunmaker Joe Chambers, before both discussed Terry’s tour of a well-laid-out Ohio dealer property. The main segment covered frost seeding clover: timing it to freeze-thaw conditions, mowing cereal grains every few weeks so clover dominates, and Duane Hopkins’ boot-sink test for readiness. They also addressed the misconception that killing a mature buck opens a vacancy for another, with Don citing his own property as evidence multiple mature bucks coexist. Bronson Strickland’s mineral-mix nutrition points and Don’s warning against animal byproducts in deer feed were discussed. Listener questions covered antler mineral analysis behind Maximizer Mineral, mixing NutriCrave corn with Maximizer concentrate, and using Miscanthus rhizome pockets to draw bedding within CRP plantings.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.