Spring Farm Update

April 18, 2011 by Marshall Springer

Hello everyone from Buffalo Butte Ranch.  As I sit here writing our "spring" blog installment I look out the window and it looks more like winter than spring.  A late season snow has the ground covered with 5" of wet snow.  The moisture is always welcome in this part of the country but is a bit of a shock to wake up to snow after temps in the 70's a short time ago. It's sure to be gone in a day and the white will be replaced with bright green. This part of the state has had relatively mild winter compared to the north eastern part of the state.  They are still in the melting/flooding mode up there.

Field Work

Dillon and I have been busy with field work the last two weeks.  The spring wheat acres were planted and fertilizer applied literally only hours before the moisture hit which makes it much easier to sit back and watch it snow.  We want to get the food plots disced under or burnt off  so they will be dry for the replanting next month.  This too was accomplished before the snow.

Equally as important is to eliminate the cover early to prevent the hens from nesting in it.  With the 500+ acres of nesting CRP now fully matured, it is the perfect habitat for the hens to start the cycle all over again.  We are seeing fewer and fewer hens out and about each week so that tells us they are in the process of laying eggs.  With the temps in the 30's this relapse of winter shouldn't have much affect on their efforts as they probably haven't started incubating the eggs yet. The next project will be to plant corn followed by the food plots.

Lodge

The lodge has been fairly quiet the last few months.  We had group of gals spend a weekend get together a while back.  Guys I think they can have as much fun as you without shooting anything, but on second thought I think some shots were taken.

Spring Hunting

Last Saturday was the opening of spring turkey season in South Dakota and we had a few hunters for that event.  The weather was great and turkeys were taken both archery and shotgun.

Mid May starts our prairie dog hunting season.  This year our season filled up fast and we quit taken bookings some time ago.  Prairie dog shooting has become very popular over the past few years and keeps the lodge full from mid May through mid July. View some of the past years prairie dog photos.

NRA Show 

We have booth space reserved at the NRA show in Pittsburgh PA. The show is at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from April 29-May 1.  If anyone is in the area be sure to stop and say hello.

Posted In: Lodge/Farm News, Pheasant Hunting, SD Pheasant Outlook