Pucknut

Welcome! My experience is it never hurts to have a few decoys out - how many is only limited by your ability to get them to your spot. As far as calling, it is best to be quiet unless you are competent, especially late season. I only scout places I can get to so that that be a start point. Always follow good hunting etiquette. Good luck with your season.

Its not fossil hunting, but a trip to the Museum of Natural History in NY makes a good father/daughter trip. They have a very good fossil exhibit and a few good local pizza joints to walk to.

In my home town we would drain draw our 50 acre lake every other year by a couple feet from November to February as a way to control undesireable vegetation. The idea being that some of these plants wouldn't tolerate freezing temperatures

Whenever I fly out of Atlantic City I hope to have a chance to get a view of Absecon Bay. Doesn’t always work out but this year flying out and last year flying in i was able to take a few pictures.

Taylor Ham lol. The Picillili serves a mean pork roll. I don’t attend many of these meeting, but things fell into place this time. Hammonton is a great place for Italian specialties too.

Great explanation of the benefits!

Will you be coming to the meeting in Hammonton? Yes the date makes it especially difficult for the soybean growers using the radish. That’s why we specifically wanted to demonstrate flying the seed on. It costs more, but we were still able to match the NRCS rate. The farmers I worked really seemed to enjoy having a cup of coffee while 50 acres were seeded too. Good luck fishing!

For the past two years I have been involved in administering a grant promoting the use of multi-species cover crop mixtures. I thought I would share some of what I learned in case in would be useful to someone here. The goal was to provide a free sample of the NRCS multi-species mixture to interested farmers in the Pinelands portions of Burlington and Camden Counties. There was about $40,000.00 in funding and this paid to seed about 550 acres with the cover crop seed mixture and in some cases paid to have it flown onto the fields. For the purposes of the grant we mimicked the USDA- NRCS program, but someone not wanting to be involved with NRCS would still benefit both as a cover crop and for game. The mixture we applied was comprised of cereal rye (46 lb), annual rye (9 lbs), crimson clover (8 lbs), red clover (2 lbs) and tillage radish (4lbs). This mixture was applied at about 69 pounds per acre. I purchased the seed from the farmer's usual provider and I found it cost anywhere between $.80 per pound and $.61 per pound. This came to $55 and $42 in seed cost per acre respectively. Just for the reference the NRCS program pays about $76.00 per acre flat fee for this program. NRCS requires this type seeding to be performed before September 15th so we had to fly the seed onto some standing crops of soybean and corn to provide a good sample. I had never seen seeding by airplane before so that was interesting too. Flight costs were about $25 acre with a minimum of 10 acres. I attached a some photos of Fall growth and some this Spring before the cover crop was terminated and couple other Fall photos. I don't understand all of the benefits, but mixtures like this are supposed to reduce soil compaction, reduce topsoil loss through erosion, suppress weeds and increase organic material. In following up with the farmers involved I was told that fertilizer costs also dropped.

Maybe just a Baby Ruth!

Great looking plants! Do you crop this ground or just is a food plot?

Bones, great looking project! Thinking of doing exactly this to my 870 so I hope you don't mind a couple questions . Is the Brakleen best for cleaning before painting or are there other options? I'm assuming the paint is like a Rustoleum, but what kind of sealer are you using? Thanks, Bob

Russ 11 - I haven't for the past two years but for the prior several years I purchased seedlings through the NJ State Forestry for school arbor days. I believe they were $25 per 100. They were about 4-6 inches tall and came in tubes with some soil. Hopefully the link below will get you there. You might also want to check for local native plant suppliers. I have purchased seedlings from Pinelands Nursery in Columbus Burlington County, but you'd have to call (609)291-9486. Good luck, Bob http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/forest/nj_forest_nursery.htm

Agree with Swampy. Attacking farmers will get sportsmen no where. Most of the farmers I come in contact with are very concerned with the ecosystems that surround the land they work. NJ Fish and Wildlife is holding a deer management workshop at the Rutgers Eco-complex in Burlington County on Monday so maybe something useful will be discussed there. My instructions were to RVSP to Wildlife management at 609-292-6685. Not sure if this event is open to the general public.