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Thread: swamp work

  1. #181
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    Quote Originally Posted by ajwf662 View Post
    Rice is tricky when growing as a food plot instead of crop. It makes blank head that can get you all excited but if you go run your fingers through it, they're empty. Two things, one you mentioned - it needs fertilizer and two, you have to check for disease and bugs. Rice actually doesn't need flood to grow, the flood is more for weed and pest control (it does need water, but not constant water). Weeds mixed in isn't bad, the whole "dirty rice" thing is a big movement among duck people in MS Delta but the bugs (stink bugs, aphids, and rice borers) are what can kill you, it can take some high-dollar chemical to get those.

    The other thing about rice is timing. You don't have to plant it as early as the farmers because you're not going to try for a second crop but you have to plant it early enough that it is blooming in the hottest part of summer.

    I've always told people, sure - strow some out but the average wildlife plot would make more seed with more manageable inputs growing weeds than growing rice. But if you're a rice farmer, plant and I'll talk you into growing a few weeds to go with your rice!
    Quote Originally Posted by ajwf662 View Post
    in an agriculture situation, rice certainly out produces. But in a food plot where rice might not get the fertilizer it needs or pesticide it needs to fully produce, lots of weeds will produce more - smartweeds and barnyard grass and foxtail comes to mind. Sprangle top - more seed but tiny tiny and panic grass. You could probably get spike rush to grow out there too. You'll get some different types of sedge to grow out there if it stays damp. You can grow a LOT of duck food without planting anything. Maybe think of it like weeds as the buffet but planted food as the ice cream...

    The other benefit to growing weeds is you can cut you some pockets or holes or lanes if it gets too tall but you can't do that with planted stuff our you'll be baiting.

    The other thing that is a great benefit that we haven't talked about to rice (and milo) is all the structure it provides to bugs/invertebrates once it is flooded. if weeds are the buffet and planted food the ice cream then invertebrates are the eggs and bacon!
    Quote Originally Posted by ajwf662 View Post
    totally possible. But then you can't manipulate any holes or lanes if they made seed so be careful there. Cultivating weeds for ducks is called "moist soil management" and there's tons of resources on the old Google. The biggest problem for most people is sesbania/coffee weed will need to be treated young so grass and other weeds can get established.

    Depending on the size of your place you could rotate with millet. Divide your place into thirds. Plant one section, let it volunteer/grow weeds next two years. Year two, plant the middle section, year three, plant the last section. You might get good enough at growing weeds you don't have to supplement with millet but it would give you time for a learning curve. And growing weeds is a good back up to army worms or bad rain timing.
    Lot's of good info in these posts!

  2. #182
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    This year, after research, I ordered some hybrid rice seed from RiceTec. The price was nearly 300$ per bag, but with better stalk strength, disease resistant, and harvest yields almost double of the Rex variety. I figured since I am planting such a small area, the higher yield per acre would increase food, and my success. I began much earlier, and saw the rain forecast in early May as a good opportunity to put the seed out. I drained, sprayed weeds, disced where needed, and broadcast the seed into mud. Unfortunately the amount of rain was much more than I expected. We received close to 12inches that week- and more than my drain could keep up with.

    I returned 2 weeks later to find most of the seed was washed out, and the drain completely stopped up. Learning lesson #513, make sure your drains are clear (and stay clear) of old rice stubble. So I lost much of my seed the first go-around. I plan to put a v-shape hogwire fence infront of the drain to help prevent this next year. Along with burning what's left of my old crop.

    After cleaning the drain, I redisced, and put out a mix of Rex rice and Jap millet. For whatever reason weeds were extra thick this year. I must have sprayed 3 times, and eventually just let it go. My top section of hybrid rice did not wash out. As instructed, I added nitrogen to it at 1 month old (tiller stage) and it exploded with growth. My results this season is 1/3 hybrid rice, 1/3 jap millet, and 1/3 weeds. I sulked much of the summer, and kicked my self for the costly mistakes. But, to my surprise, the 'weeds' ended up being lots of good stuff; foxtail, barnyard, smart weed, and spragletop. This is the first time I've seen any of this growing down there, so my guess is the discing helped promote whatever was in the dirt.

    Here are some pics. I've also documented all of my sucess and failures over the last few years. Anyone else that wants to try this, send me a PM and I will email it to you.
    Last edited by YoungBuckTX; 09-15-2018 at 01:29 PM.

  3. #183
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    Last edited by YoungBuckTX; 09-15-2018 at 01:43 PM.

  4. #184
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  5. #185
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    Favorite thread on this site.

  6. #186
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    Nice work

  7. #187
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    Looks good Tx.....real good. Don't cut corners on nitrogen and rice........amd it looks like you didn't.

    Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Catdaddy; 09-15-2018 at 03:30 PM.

  8. #188
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    This is a fine job ole boy!!!!!!

    Is the dirt dry/sandy enough for chufa?

    Might be a 19' idea..
    Natural Born Killer Prostaff - Killing Tomorrow's Trophies Today...

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  9. #189
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    Good work Swamp. It takes time and errors to learn it. But you are learning quickly and progress looks great.

  10. #190
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    Great thread, nice work

  11. #191
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    Fine job !
    “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” - Thomas Jefferson

  12. #192
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    Rex was developed in Arkansas but Louisiana has started using it a lot and the LSU Rice Experiment Station has done some trials with it. If you haven't checked out the LSU Rice Handbook on the Rice Experiment Station website, you really really should.

    If you're broadcasting rice into mud, see what you can find from Louisiana about "water-seeding". They will put 3-6" water across their fields, soak the seed in a tank until it JUST begins to sprout, use a crop duster to fly the seed across the field, drop the water fast, and then the seed "pegs" into the ground. You don't want to do the water across the fields and fly the seed on part, but it might be useful to do the soak and peg part since you're not drilling it in. And if I remember correctly, Rex can be water seeded - but talk to your RiceTec rep before taking my word on that (I could probably dig out a phone number for one if you haven't worked with one already, shoot me at PM if you need).

    Edited: Oh... now I see that you used Rex last year but a hybrid this year... didn't catch that earlier... in ag situations, most folks won't water seed a hybrid because it is EXPENSIVE as JUNK, as you found out... well, maybe for a year you don't want to afford a hybrid, keep that in info in your pocket
    Last edited by ajwf662; 09-19-2018 at 12:05 PM.

  13. #193
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    oh also, GREAT JOB!!!! That field is looking RIGHT!

  14. #194
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    Looks Great Phillip!

  15. #195
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    It looks like TX just broadcasted his seed on wet ground. I can see the seed all around that cobra.

  16. #196
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    Quote Originally Posted by YoungBuckTX View Post
    But, to my surprise, the 'weeds' ended up being lots of good stuff; foxtail, barnyard, smart weed, and spragletop. This is the first time I've seen any of this growing down there, so my guess is the discing helped promote whatever was in the dirt.

    Yep, discing encourages these! The seed of these guys can be hanging out in your soil for a LLOONNGGGGG time, just waiting on the right conditions. Disturbance like discing creates those right conditions! If you want to get into the biology of it - these plants are early successional plants. Early successional plants propagate through seed production so their strategy is to overproduce seed until they're choked out - that overproduction of seed is what makes them good duck food! After they're choked out through succession, somehow the seeds know that disturbance set back succession and it is their time to shine, so they'll come up and produce like crazy. If you don't disturb for a few years, they'll slowly thin out and later successional plants like baccharus bush or broom sedge or... something else will start to take over until you set back succession again.

    Also, something you said earlier about the stalks staying standing... that is partly good but partly bad... the thing about rice seed, millet, wild seed - all those seeds rot really slowly, so you don't have to worry about the food rotting away before the ducks get here. But you do have to worry about making sure your field shows open water... either by flooding above the standing rice stalks (which you then risk water being too deep for the ducks to feed on seeds at the bottom) or by mowing pockets (which you can't do in planted crops or you will be baiting). So you are going to need SOME natural fall-over... It sounds like you got a crappy (read: a good thing!) enough stand of rice mixed with natural foods that you'll be fine with natural fall-over this year.

  17. #197
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    I cleared more dirt to plant this summer, and installed another drain. Rice is just beginning to head out now.

    20190727_133925.jpg
    Last edited by YoungBuckTX; 08-22-2019 at 07:43 AM.

  18. #198
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    That looks great! Have you killed/seen more birds because of your effort?
    "Think A Guy Like Me Worries About Percentages?" Tin Cup

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  19. #199
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    I've enjoyed following this thread the last couple of years. We are going to start a similar project in a couple weeks just to drop the water level some for this year. How much trouble have you had with the beavers since you added the elbow and raised the water over the intake?

  20. #200
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    Nov 2001
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    is that all rice?
    Ugh. Stupid people piss me off.

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