October 2017
Welcome to another edition of the back 40. We also post this on the website private forum area. For those of you new to the G.R.O Program, we welcome you.
I started G.R.O after seeing much misinformation in the wildlife industry. I do everything in my power to educate all of you to the best of my abilities. The purpose of the newsletter program and O’Brion Educational Series is to teach you all the basics to help tilt the table, in your favor, to achieve success. What no one should say to me is your seed is no good. We have the freshest seed on the market and we do not offer low germ seed nor remix old seed with new. Most companies in the wildlife industry do that. We also do not buy rejected seed or seed with higher than average weed seed counts.
We have decided to make a few changes to the GRO Program to protect ourselves. Recently we have seen people leave the GRO team to start their own wildlife ventures. We want to help people and help change the industry but we do not want to hand everything to other companies. We are going to focus planting experimental seeds at the experimental plot locations as well as the new GRO experimental farm.
To be fair to everyone, we have created a 3 tier G.R.O program membership. I have attached the new program levels.
Bronze Level- Cost is Free
You receive the monthly newsletter
You receive access to monthly program member only specials.
Silver Level- Cost is $20 per year.
You receive the monthly newsletters.
You receive access to monthly program member specials.
You receive 10% off your online or dealer purchases.
You receive access to the O’Brion Educational Series online seminars on Facebook
You receive VIP invites to Grandpa Ray Fest
Gold Level- Cost is $20 per year and you must have made $250 in G.R.O purchases in 2017
You receive the monthly newsletters
You receive access to the monthly program member specials
You receive 10% off your online or dealer purchases
You receive access to the O’Brion Educational Series online seminars on Facebook
You receive access to the Elite G.R.O “Gold” Program member only mixes
You receive Grandpa Ray Fest VIP invites
You receive your choice of hat or shirt
Memberships will run from Jan 1, 2018-December 31,2018. We will be sending a renewal sheet to all of you. For those who have recently paid their memberships, we will pro-rate it. Example, if you paid for a yearly membership on June 1,2017, you will be invoiced for only 6 months at the end of 2017. If you paid for a membership on September 1,2017, you will be invoiced for 1/3 of a year or $7 to cover all of 2018. This will make it easier to keep track of which memberships are due as well as for accounting purposes to determine who receives Gold Level benefits for the following year.
For those of you interested in having me visit your properties, look at the calender. If your in Kentucky and Ohio, either the last week in January or the middle of March would be times to commit as I will be doing both the Louisville Deer and Turkey Expo and the Ohio Deer Show. I will remind you all on here next month for any areas I have people scheduled in so we help save everyone on the mileage charges. I know I’ll be doing seminars in Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and Georgia in 2017. I am at my best for all of you when I am out on properties. Seeing things many over look is where I shine. I look at slope, soil texture and structure, travel corridors, surrounding properties and other factors that will affect what you should plant. I help you map out a 2-3 year plan for plot rotation.
Calender
January 12-14 Minnesota Monster Buck Classic
January 26-28 Louisville KY Deer and Turkey Expo
February 10, 2018 Grandpa Ray Fest, Fall River WI
March 16-18 Ohio Deer Show
April 6-8 Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo
Humics
Humics are the most overlooked soil amendment. We use liquid humics in the 4-15-12 seed starter and the 9-4-9 Micro Pak. We use dry humics in the humic booster product. For those who have used any of these products, you know the results. The costs are minimum and the returns immense.
Humic Booster contains calcium, which helps stimulate root growth and biological activity, and improves nutrient uptake. It contains sulfur, which is necessary for plant protein formation. Sulfur can increase crop yields and quality, and result in large returns to producers. Humic Booster improves soil structure. The humics in humic booster can help build organic matter and reduce soil compaction.
Humic Booster improves nutrient uptake. Humics also help with a plants uptake of soil nutrients, especially phosphorus, iron, zinc and boron. Humics can also increase soil cation exchange capacity to improve nutrient-holding capacity and reduce leaching. Humic Booster is easily incorporated. Humic booster can be broadcasted alone or mixed with your recommended dry fertilizers.
Key Factors to Holding Deer on Your Property
By: Jason Wenzel
I have been involved in various conversations regarding what goals people have with their property. I am always curious where holding deer on the property ALL YEAR is on their list of goals. I years ago never really considered this. I was always focused on this question: “What can I do to see more deer during hunting season?” The key word in that question is “season”. I managed my property for the season and not the year. Luckily, I could meet people along the way and was able to have a different mentality towards how I managed my property.
There are 3 key factors to holding deer on your property all year. The factors are: food, cover, and water. I could go into depth regarding all three of these factors, but that’s for another article.
Let’s begin with food. As many of you know, deer like to browse. Are there native food sources for deer to browse on? Yes. However, how long do these sources stay at a nutritional level that is beneficial to the deer and what happens when these native sources die off? These are “temporary” food sources that will be beneficial for small window of time. Time to think about the “big picture”. Is your property surrounded by agricultural fields? If so, what is planted in these fields? You ask yourself these questions because why would you want to plant on your property with what your property is surrounded by? Soybeans and corn are a common crop planted by farmers. Both for the most part of harvested in the Fall. When you assess your property, think about what you can plant that will essentially feed the deer in phases. For example: A food source for Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. If you able to meet the nutritional food source needs for all times of year, the more likely you are going to hold deer on your property and pull deer from other properties who don’t have this type of management plan implemented.
The second factor is cover. I also like to say a “bedding” place with this factor. Deer like to be in areas where there is adequate cover. Examples can include: Timber, swamps, or a bedding product that you planted. Such as our Perma Blend. Having a cover area on your property not only make the deer feel more comfortable, it will hold them on your property. A lot of people may refer to these areas as the “deer sanctuary” on their property. Areas you don’t want to disturb.
The third factor is water. Like us, deer need to consume water for survival. If you have the above factors on your property; but no water, are the above factors going to be as effective? If the deer must leave your property for water, my answer would be no. There are various options for you to have an accessible water source on your property. You can utilize a natural water source already established on your property or create your own. A common question asked is, what about the winter months when the water freezes? (For those of us in the northern half of the US) Believe it or not, deer can get water consumption out of the plants they are consuming during these months. Therefore, it is crucial for you to have nutritional food sources available to the deer.
If you can implement all these factors on your property, you will be able to hold deer all year which is great for the health of the herd. This also allows for the potential for bucks to grow many inches of antler. If the buck does not have to travel far to meet these three factors, they are not expending too much energy which allows for better antler growth.
Lastly, herd management is a key component for herd health. If there are too many deer on your property and as a result consuming more food than what’s available, they will move onto the next food source.
Proper Pond Design & Synthetic Liner Installation
By: Creekbottom Land Management
Most deer breeders and hunters alike typically think that all you need to make a watering hole for their animals is an excavator and an area to dig a hole in the ground. However, this is not the case when creating a healthy water source. The aquatic midge that causes EHD thrives in water sources that are shallow, have a degraded water quality, and have a soft and organic bank to breed in and around. The main rule of thumb when creating a pond, lake, or water source is that the more water you have the easier it is to manage. Why you ask? The simple answer is that when a water body increases in size and depth the heating and cooling potential dramatically decreases.
The easy way to think about temperature of water compared to water body size is of a swimming pool. As summer progresses along you may begin thinking that the weather is nice and warm so it should be time for a swim. However, as you jump into that pool in May you get shocked with a very cool sensation rushing over to you as the water has not heated up to the same temperature as the air around you. Now on the flip side you may go on that same day and play in a puddle which may be exhibiting equal if not higher temperatures than that of the air. Making sure to keep the comparison of water temperature to water body size and depth will help you realize why those shallow puddles you may have created could be a midge fly threshold.
A properly designed water hole/wildlife pond should have steep slopes, but keeping in mind that a deer should still be able to walk in and out of the pond rather easily to avoid stress on the animal. A 3 to 1 slope is typically a safe bet to not only give the deer an easy access in and out of the pond, but also be able to establish beneficial aquatic plants. In addition to the slope making sure the pond reaches a proper depth is very important. To help with management of the pond a depth of 4+ feet should be achieved. This would make the pond 24 feet in diameter. To increase the depth, you will either make a larger diameter pond or increase your end slope in areas of the pond. In summary the deeper and steeper you make the pond the easier it is to manage.
Now that you understand the design of the pond you must now look at how the pond will hold water, and how to reduce the amount of muck/soil that the midge can breed in. In many areas across the Midwest it can be hard to find a spring to maintain your water level. In those cases, a synthetic liner can be your savior. Not only will the synthetic liner help maintain water, but it will also eliminate the loose muck/sediment that the midge needs to breed and reproduce. Typically, a material that is 24 mil or greater is sufficient in holding water meanwhile being strong enough to prevent rips/tears from deer hooves. Furthermore, unlike the typical bentonite clay that people have used to hold water in their ponds/waterholes, the synthetic liner does not leak as easy, and leaks are much easier to locate and repair.
The Catch-22 to this idea is that having a full functioning ecosystem is still key in maintaining superior water quality. To achieve this goal a layer of sand is recommended to be placed on top of the liner. This will help become the planting substrate for your beneficial aquatic plants. The sand will also help to cushion the liner and create a substance in which wildlife can walk freely on with reduced or non-existent slipping. The last item the sand will help with is in prevention of UV rays hitting the liner which would breakdown the plastic of the liner.
Program Member Specials
Prepay In October and receive 10% off your order in addition to your program member discount.
Prepay in November and receive 9% off your order in addition to your program member discount.
Prepay in December and receive 8% off your order in addition to your program member discount.
We are reminding you that we only have 8 pallets of G.R.O. soybeans and once they are gone, they are gone.
October Special
Any orders over $100 you will receive a free 4.5 lb bag of Fortress. Fortress is the GRO screening blend.
New Addition to the GRO TEAM
We want to welcome Dan Roehl to the GRO management team. He will be in charge of new dealer recruitments as well as marketing. Dan has a long history of success in business and he will be an asset to us all. Watch for future contributions on here from Dan.
GRO hours of operation:
Monday through Friday 8 am-5pm CST. Saturdays by appointment.
John O’Brion 608-235-0628
Jason Wenzel 608-807-6389