NWTF

NWTF stands for National Wild Turkey Federation.  This federation offers many great things. One thing that I like about the Turkey Federation is that I can sign up to win a hunt in Kansas with all expenses paid. There are lots of huge turkeys in Kansas so I would really like to go.  The thing I like the most about the Wild Turkey Federation is that they have a Conservation Seed Program.  This allows you to buy seed for a much cheaper price than anywhere else.  A 50 pound bag of Roundup ready corn is 250 dollars but the Coservation Seed Program sells the same corn for 15 dollars a bag.  This is a huge difference and it saves us a lot of money.  This corn can not be harvested because it is only allowed to be planted for wildlife. The seed program also offers soybeans, milo, and wheat for 6 dollars a bag.  Last, they offer two and a half gallons of Roundup for $45. The National Wild Turkey Federation is a great thing to be a member of because you can save yourself a lot of money.

Dove Field

Each year, my dad and I plant a dove field.  My dad has been doing this for about 15 years now and I have helped him for about 10 years.  This dove field is located at my farm in Reevesville, South Carolina.  Planting a dove field and succeeding is a tough task.  Most dove fields have corn and sunflowers planted in them and this is also what we plant.  Sunflowers cause the biggest challenge, unlike corn.  Corn is easy to plant because you can buy it Roundup ready.  Roundup is a nonselective herbicide.  This means that we can plant the corn, spray Roundup, kill all the weeds, and not the corn.  On the other hand, sunflowers are not Roundup ready.  Having no weeds allows the crops to grow much better and produce more seed.  Not only are sunflowers not Roundup ready, but the deer love to eat them.  Because of this, my dad and I had to build an 8 foot fence around our 15 acre dove field.  This project took my dad and I about 3 years.  It was hard work but it keeps the deer out of the field.  In the spring, we plant almost the whole field in sunflowers and the rest in corn.  To plant the sunflowers, we have to get the field smooth and ready to plant.  Next, we have to spray a pre-emergent herbicide named Spartan.  This herbicide keeps broadleaf weeds from growing for up to 30 days and allows the sunflowers to get a head start on the weeds. Just after we spray this, we must have rain to activate it.  Once it rains, we plant the sunflowers.  Once the Spartan begins to wear off, weeds begin to grow.  The next step is to spray Cadre on the weeds while they are small.  The most common weed that we fight is pigweed and it is very tough. Recently, the pigweed has almost become immune to the Cadre so we have had to come up with another idea.  My dad found a hooded sprayer.  This four row sprayer has 30 inch hoods on it. These hoods have sides all around them and this keeps the chemical off the plants but kills the weeds inside the rows.  Because of the hoods, we can spray Roundup.  We just got this sprayer and we will use it this spring and I hope it works.  The sunflowers eventually grow too tall for the tractor to fit over them without knocking them over.  Once this happens, we hope that the sunflowers have a jump start on the weeds so that they can continue to grow.  Finally, in August, when the sunflowers have produced seed, we spray Gramoxone, killing everything.  By the time everything dies out, dove season is just about to begin.  This dove season, we killed over 400 doves in our field.  Planting a dove field is hard work but it makes my dad and I feel very good to kill our limit in a great field that we planted.