Alabama Farmers Federation President's Conference

Last weekend Lisa and I attended the Alabama Farmers Federation County President's Conference in Sandestin, Florida.  It rained every day but it was a welcomed site and to a group of farmers and I'm sure all the others at the resort wanting to play golf got tired of hearing the farmers say,"Thank GOD for the rain".

We enjoyed watching the fireworks one night on the beach in the rain.  They were sponsored by the Mississippi BAR Association also meeting at the Hilton.  It was a good show!

Rain, Rain, Thank GOD for the Rain

I went over to Bowden Grove today with a forester/timber buyer to look at thinning 75 acres of pines.  While over there at the corn field I emptied 3" of rain out of the rain guage.  About 90% of our Round-up Ready yellow field corn is going to make.  The deer are already enjoying it.  Last week when I was over there it was 95 degrees at 12 noon and there were two deer in the corn.  They are eating the silks and some are eating the corn.  The picture below is an example.

The Sawtooth Oaks are loaded.  The tree at the kudzu patch has acorns on it for the first time.  It will be one more feeding area this fall.

(Below)This corn plant is white field corn.  It is the stranges looking plant I have ever seen.  It looks as if the leaves have been eaten off all the way to the top and then the tassel topped.  I dont know what could have eaten the leaves this way and not pulled the plant over........Mystery Plant? 

Tomatoes grown on Dewberry Lands



Tomatoes did well.  They were grown on black plastic.



                                                                         

There are many tomatoes on the vines.



The hardest part about growing these plants has been
keeping them from falling over.



Cornfield

The 1.5 inches of rain we got last week helped this field.  We will make some corn here if we can get another rain our two.  A quarter of a mile away down at the Kudzu patch it only rained a half inch. That corn looks bad.  I don't know if we will make any white field corn this year.  It makes me wonder if I should plant everything in grass and buy corn to feed  the animals?

The deer are enjoying the Kudzu.  This picture just doesn't do this justice.  They have completely devoured this spot as well as many others around this cornfield.  There is not many kudzu leaves left here, just vines.

Visitors from Haiti

Yesterday Felicia and I had visitors to our property from Haiti.  There were two young men that we had met through SIFAT that had forestry backgrounds and were interested in what Southern Forest Management was all about.

They enjoyed looking at our longleaf pines and how we get them started as far as site prep and prescribed fire to control competition.  They said that most of the wood in their country was made into charcoal.  They talked about how they made it.

They looked at Yellow-root that I pulled up to show them.  They had talked about plants in Haiti that were used for medicines and I told them of some of the uses of this plant.  One of these young men has a degree in biodiversity and the other a degree in agroforestry.  They were impressed at how we manage our forest to keep the water clean.

They had fun, made lots of pictures to take back to Haiti.  They said it is hotter here than in Haiti, it was a hot day, about 100 degrees.

Auburn, Dean of Forestry

Yesterday, I went to Auburn to attend a Natural Resource Outreach Committee.  It was very productive.  We decided to make a forestry awards banquet a new thing where the top forestry awards will be presented.  This was a very good move on the part of the committee.  Awards such as Tree Farmer of the Year, W. Kelley Mosley Awards, Helene Mosley Awards and others will be awarded.  Also a plaque or wall of winners will be made and displayed in the forestry building at Auburn University.  This banquet will be in February and will be a nice event.

I was able to meet and talk to Dr. Shepard, the new Dean of the School of Forestry, Auburn University.  He met with the committee and was instrumental in helping make this awards banquet a reality.  Dr. Shepard was Mississippi State’s loss and a great gain for Auburn University.  I was impressed with what he plans to do at Auburn.

Tomorrow, fertilize round-up corn and possible cut more downed trees up on property.

Storm Damage

The last two Saturdays we went to Cullman County to help remove downed trees, and to our surprise we got to do it again over to the Bowden Grove property where we went to check roads for dead trees and found on the corner of the fourty where we planted longleaf and there were huge hardwoods on the ground where the winds came across the cut-over.  I only had a tank of gas not knowing we were going to have so many trees down so I just cleared the road to get through.  We had several large trees down in the SMZ.  I hate to see these 16"+ diameter trees on the ground. 

Road going into 40

Tree Damage