Food Plot Update – Midwest Monster Farm

Quick update on what we’re up to at the Midwest Monster farm near Hinckley MN.

First, I’m proud to announce the arrival of a new family member at Midwest Monster. A brand new used Case IH 385 tractor! What a beauty with only 1085 hours on the clock and a nice loader. This little gem will be a real workhorse for us and I’m glad to have it at the farm after over a year spent looking for a good used tractor.

We’ve had an exceptionally dry spring relative to past years. Almost no rain over the past 3 weeks. As I stated on another thread, this year is mostly a year where I’ll be doing the same plan as last year.

I got started by turning the first dirt of the season on April 25, which is exceptionally early for us up in that area. The plot was too wet to plant at that point, so I had to leave it sit for a while.

The first planting of the year was on Friday, May 14 when I planted a cover crop of Spring Tritacale on the 3 acres that will later be my brassicas plot. If you’re not familiar with triticale, this grain is a cross between wheat and cereal rye. It has the protein of wheat, but the durability of rye. This is a bit of a science experiment, I have never grown spring triticale before, so we’ll see how it does. Normally, I cover crop with oats because they are cheap and easy to grow. We’ll see how the deer like this young triticale.

Next up will be soybeans. Once again, I will grow both the Real World and Eagle varieties of food plot soybeans.

Hope your plot efforts are going well.

Grouse

Where do you source your triticale? And do you sell it as pure seed, or as an addition to a seed mix? I’m already planning my planting strategy for next year, lol

castle-rock-clown wrote:

Where do you source your triticale? And do you sell it as pure seed, or as an addition to a seed mix? I’m already planning my planting strategy for next year, lol

It comes from one of my grain suppliers. Yes, I sell it as pure seed. I can get either spring or winter triticale.

We’ll see how it turns out. I got .5 inches of rain the day after I planted it, so the timing was ideal.

There’s almost no grain, prairie, conservation, or habitat seed I can’t get from one supplier or another. I do everything from CRP to prarie resto, and the latest is the pollinator/beekeeping blends.

Awesome, when is the best time of year to put in a “for spring seeding” order?

I can have most grain within a week, so it doesn’t take very long. I don’t think there’s quite enough demand yet that I’ll start to stock triticale, but I usually have oats in stock all spring/summer and then rye in stock late summer to fall.

CONGRATS on the new tractor!!!

Nice buy on the 385. Little work horse!!! I have a 50’s 311 that just doesn’t quit

Felt very lucky to find the 385 and I think I got a good price at 11k. It has a loader, tires are good, and 1085 hours which is barely broken in really.

She’s 43 HP, but I’m coming from an old Deere gas tractor, so 43 diesel HP is a totally different animal. Coming uphill with an 8 foot 3-point disc digging hard, the 385 doesn’t even change tones, she just keeps on trucking.

As usual with any used machine, there are a few things to address. It has a home-brewed weedburner exhaust which is nice in that I don’t have to sit with diesel smoke blowing in my face, but it’s kind of a farmer fix type job so that has to be redone.

Of course there are no maintainance logs, so every fluid and filter will need to be changed.

Not sure what others thing about this, but the hydro/trans fluid looks really clean, so I’m just going to change the filter on that. Hate to waste 9 gallons of hydro fluid on an unnecessary change is my thinking and on such a low hour machine, if it’s been done once that’s good enough.

Grouse

If it’s clear after running you should be good. Any cloudiness is probably water suspended in the fluid. That I would drain and change.

castle-rock-clown wrote:

If it’s clear after running you should be good. Any cloudiness is probably water suspended in the fluid. That I would drain and change.

X2 clear is clean

Agree on all the other filters and fluids. Peace of mind – same thing I do with all my trucks

Appreciate it, guys. The fluid looks really good, it would be nice to pull a pint sample.

I’m going to change the filter and cut the old one to see how dirty it is. Just based on the color of the fluid on the dipstick, I’d guesstimate it’s been changed fairly recently, but if the filter’s really clean inside, that should confirm it’s been well maintained.

Grouse