American Roots Outdoors w/ Alex Rutledge
Join Alex Rutledge along with Co-Host Wayne Lach & Mike "Redbone" Crase as we cover a variety of topics from Deer Hunting, Turkey Hunting, Fishing and today's top headlines...... all while Sharing our Faith! We will also have Special Guest appearances from some of the Hunting Industry's biggest names and Country Music Stars you all love!
American Roots Outdoors w/ Alex Rutledge
Winter Wildlife Management
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This week we wrap up 2023 discussing steps you can make on your property for Winter Wildlife Management.
From Feed, to Shelter and Burning we cover a multitude of topics to help protect your current wildlife and attract even more! We also touch base on programs available for you to utilize that will help achieve your goal even faster.
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Hey, speaking of um helping your deer out with cold and that, one thing that I would I would encourage people to do is if uh make sure you uh get out there and do some hedge cutting and put along your uh especially your borders or your food plots and that, knock some brush down, and not only will you help give windbreaks to your uh deer, but it also gives cover to your rabbits, your turkey, and for some of us who have some uh quail and rough grouse, you know, populations starting to you know pop up a little bit here and there.
SPEAKER_04No rough grouse, no rough grouse on me, but no quail either.
SPEAKER_03But it also camel boots on my feet, bowing my hand. Walking in the early dawn to climb the room.
SPEAKER_04Redbone, what would you say if I could tell you that you could kill a buck on a certain day?
SPEAKER_05I would say you're crazy. There's no way to predict how the bucks are gonna move.
SPEAKER_04Well, you're wrong. There's a new camera out called Wise Eye Technologies. These guys can predict the actual deer movement, exact time that a deer is gonna come through. Really? Wise eye technologies. This camera has five megapixel pictures, has a GPS system built inside, and it's an experience using this camera. It collects data and tells you the movement, wind direction, everything. On a camera. On a camera. Wiseitechnologies.com.
SPEAKER_05And how do I find out more information about these guys?
SPEAKER_04You go to wiseysmartcam.com. I'm using them. You should too. Make your hunt easier. Use wiseye. Wiseye presents. Welcome to American Roots Outdoors. We are in the studio. And we wish everybody a belated Merry Christmas. And those of you that we did wish a Merry Christmas earlier, uh, we're sorry we missed some of you. So, do you have a good Christmas, Redbone? Wayne?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I uh uh we had a good Christmas. Uh we were all healthy enough to wake up in the morning and not not uh be running to the bathroom or or hacking all over our presents. So that was the first time in a week and a half our family was well enough to do that. And uh the kids had uh good Christmas. They enjoyed all their presents, no fighting, and that was a win-win for every parent.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we had a good we had a good quiet Christmas at our house because uh our adult kids were working and things like that. So uh we're waiting as we record this on Tuesday. We're actually not going to do Christmas until Thursday. But Miss Nina and I enjoyed a day. My oldest son came in for a while. We had a fish fry for Christmas. Oh, it was good. What kind of fish did you cook? Catfish. Catfish? Yeah, cooked catfish, had a big old bunch of catfish, cooked them up, and they were fantastic. It was so good that I actually got up this morning and had more catfish for breakfast. I love catfish, leftover catfish for breakfast in the morning.
SPEAKER_07I have not tried that.
SPEAKER_04Have you have you ever had barbecue sauce with your fish? Uh yes, I have. I love it. I love it that way. Yeah, I do. So, we had a good Christmas. Uh, Lyndon and I decided not to spend a bunch of money on gifts because you know, we're blessed. We got everything we want. Look, he's showing a picture here. Look. Oh man. That looks good. That looks good. We're gonna have to go to Country Cottage when we're done here. I'll buy lunch. They're closed today. Oh, they're closed today. Where can we eat at?
SPEAKER_05I don't know. We got my outfit. Mexican.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna eat Mexican. They got more fish. But anyway, we we we decided not to buy, spend a bunch of money on presents. We bought a few gifts for each other, but what I did enjoy was our Christmas dinner. Linda made an old big country smoked ham, uh, homemade turkey gravy, and had some uh ham gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, uh, rose.
SPEAKER_07We did turkey, turkey on our end.
SPEAKER_04You had turkey. Yeah, we had turkey. You had fish. We had ham.
SPEAKER_05But I do miss uh did she make any red-eye gravy out of that ham? She did make red-eye gravy. Nothing better than red-eye gravy. Oh man, sop of the biscuit up in that red-eye gravy.
SPEAKER_07Okay, I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh I have no idea what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_05That brings back the best memories of going to my grandpa and grandma Crace's house. My grandma county can make the best red-eye gravy in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I tell you what, those homemade rows, she I I cheated. I gotta admit, I cheated. I went in there and grabbed some of them homemade rows and started dipping in gravy before we ever had lunch.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04Got me a piece of cured ham that smoked ham. Hey, our Oklahoma Joe shorted out and it wouldn't work. So we were gonna smoke that ham, but we done it in the oven. She did. But uh anyway, we hope you all had a great Christmas and uh it's all about Jesus, you know. So moving on here, our topic is uh winter wildlife management. We're talking about the things that we do to help our critters through the winter months. And uh we're gonna talk on that, but we're gonna talk about the segment too, but we're gonna talk about NFL football and high school basketball right now, girls and boys basketball. And uh bring us up to date what's going on in the old arts, Redbone.
SPEAKER_05Uh well, I mean, holiday tournaments all this week. And again, we're recording on Tuesday, and they're just getting started today and tomorrow, and most all the area teams play somewhere, so good luck to all of them. You got the big tournament at Kabul, and uh Thayer Bobcat boys are playing in the uh Ronnie Brogdon Bad Boy Classic at Highland. Uh most area teams are playing, the boys' teams are playing in the Kabul holiday tournament. I'm gonna miss being up there for that because Thayer's now playing down Highland. Uh but you got the uh the Mountain Grove Girls Tournament. There's uh the pink and white in Springfield, Thayer Lady Bobcats, West Plains Ladies Visors, among the teams playing up there. And uh the blue and white tournament in Springfield and Willow Springs, West Plains, and a bunch of the area schools being it. So, yeah, everybody's playing somewhere for the holidays.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Liberty plays tonight at six o'clock out there. Yeah, they're the Liberty. They're number three seeds. In the Cool tournament, yeah. Yeah, Cool tournament. They're number three seed. I don't know who they're playing yet. I talked to Kevin Putt uh on our way here over the phone, and he was telling me who they play. And I think they're uh three and two right now. So uh moving on to college football. Mizzou plays Ohio, huh? On New Year's Day. New Year's Day. What do you think of that, Wayne?
SPEAKER_07I'm gonna, you know I'm gonna enjoy that game. I'm gonna enjoy that game. Go buckeyes. He lives in Missouri.
SPEAKER_04You just lost all your Missouri followers.
SPEAKER_05Wayne's microphone's just been turned off permanently for the remainder of the show.
SPEAKER_04I won't turn it back on. Now, high school girls basketball. Yep. Who's the hot teams right now?
SPEAKER_05Uh Mama Spring Lady Bears. Period.
SPEAKER_07I say that that that's been the hot one for a minute they're good teams throughout the region.
SPEAKER_05And their coach? Uh oh, they're coach? Yeah, Coach Small, he's a good one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. What's the record?
SPEAKER_05Oh, let's see. Now I believe they are like uh 16 and 2, maybe.
SPEAKER_0416-2.
SPEAKER_05Something like that. Ranked number one, defending state champions, ranked number one. The Liberty girls aren't bad. Liberty Girls aren't bad. They're Lady Bobcat girls aren't bad. They lost, they lost to the Mammoth Girls uh in the Mammoth Spring tournament by three points. So that was a good showing. Yeah, for the Lady Bobcat.
SPEAKER_06Good showing.
SPEAKER_05A lot of good teams, but it's you know in Missouri because football doesn't or basketball doesn't start till so late. Really kind of hard to get a get an angle on everybody right now. Yeah. People just haven't played enough games.
SPEAKER_04Let's move to NFL real quick, but I gotta hear your prediction. Is Mizzou gonna beat Ohio?
SPEAKER_05No. And I'm a I'm not gonna say that. I'm a Missoula fan, but I don't think they've gotten to that level yet.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_07And I would agree with that I would agree. I would agree with that. Mizzou's a great team. They're a good team, but they're not there.
SPEAKER_05They're just not there as far as playing in that kind of a game. I mean, that's a huge.
SPEAKER_07But that's why they play the game. You never know. There's an upset.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, we've seen a lot of upsets here recently in NFL. And that being said, before we go to a break, uh the Chiefs, man, they just ain't got it going on. They're not the explosive team that they've been in in years past. Uh the receiver, the wide receivers are not running good routes, the line's not protecting homes. Holmes' the only really playmaker they really got, you know. Uh it really, you know. Disappoint. Disappointment. The morale, I think the morale is terrible, the internal morale.
SPEAKER_05It it looks that way. And people on the national scene are starting to talk about that. And I've been talking about it, and Alex, you guys know for six weeks. It just doesn't look right on the sidelines. There, there is a cancer in that locker room somewhere until they weed it out. It's not ever going to change.
SPEAKER_07And Alex and I were talking in the driveway the other day that uh to my opinion was that there nobody fears them anymore. That fear factor is gone.
SPEAKER_04It's gone.
SPEAKER_07It's just like we're gonna play Kansas City, and they everybody now knows they're beatable.
SPEAKER_05Well, because the wide receivers can be you you can play a zone and they don't go to the empty spots. You can play a man-to-man, they can't get open. But it's and it's the youth of the wide receiver core.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Mazoo secondary gives them too much room. They do. Every team they play gets a short dump pass on them and they get their first downs. You know? The offensive coordinator reminded me, I'm not saying any names, of some other coordinators I know. They run like 10 running plays in uh first of the game. The furthest yardage they have is two or three yards. Why do you keep running running plays?
SPEAKER_05Well, because you want it to work and and they need it to work to open up. But it's not in the second year. You don't run 10 plays. Well, no, no, wait a minute. You know, Pacheco went for 175 here three weeks or so ago, and and then last week, Clyde Edwards Hilaire in the uh, you know, had a pretty good day.
SPEAKER_04It didn't happen against the Raiders.
SPEAKER_05No, it didn't happen against the Raiders, and but the Raiders put up 63. And and to the to the credit of the Chiefs defense, you want to talk about the defense, the defense only gave up six points yesterday against the Raiders. Well, his receiver didn't come back to the ball. Just stood there and waited for the third guy stepped in front. You gotta help you. And that's the thing, the young receivers don't know how to help.
SPEAKER_07And they tell the mounts talk about that all the time. When that mistake is made, that's the first thing they point to is that a veteran receiver knows to return to the quarterback.
SPEAKER_04Well, what about Kelsey dropping the ball all these games? You know, I think here's what I think. I'm just gonna say it like it is I think the internal morale is terrible. I think money could could have possibly runt some of the players. And Kelsey's one of them. Well, Kelsey. Taylor Swift, I'll say it right now. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan. I don't care for her morals and what she stands for. I'll say it. You know, and and I think she's affected him.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, uh I think the fact that he's a year older. I mean, the man's what, 37 now, trying to play as the number one receiver, yeah. That that never works. He's old, he's slow. I think he's hurt, but he won't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. We gotta go to a break, everybody. We come back, we're talking about winter wildlife management. And now we got that off our chest, talking about the sports.
SPEAKER_07Hey, my Steelers won.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Steelers finally won one. They blew out the bank.
SPEAKER_07Same record as the bank as the as the Chiefs now.
SPEAKER_04Cleveland Browns are better than the Chiefs. We're gonna go to a break. We'll talk to you when we get back. Don't go away, we'll be back with more right after this.
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, this is Michael Wating with Bone Collector, and you're listening to my buddy Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors, man.
SPEAKER_03Hutting off the farm, wishing on some love. I've been on a big boy for a while. I can load him in the back of my truck. We can take it to a holler.
SPEAKER_04Hey, Redbone, did you hear about that new deer feed? What new deer feed?
SPEAKER_00Hey, Buck Grits, boys, you ain't heard of that yet? Buggritz! Buggrits.com.
SPEAKER_04Oh, tell us about it. What makes it better than any other deer feed?
SPEAKER_00Well, Buck Grits has got the protein a deer needs, it's got the fat a deer needs, it's got the amino acids, it's got the energy, it's got it all, brother. Gonna bring them back after the rut and it's gonna put a rack on their head.
SPEAKER_04And it's gonna help the lactate and dough, I assume too, after they have the ponds.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Keep the ponds going and get them for the next crop.
SPEAKER_04Well, where can I get buck grits?
SPEAKER_00Buckgrits.com. You can get a sample, you can order it directly from the website, and we're coming to a retailer near you.
SPEAKER_04If you want to help the deer hurt, use buck grits.
SPEAKER_03A growl's a cream of a big old hill.
SPEAKER_04Hereafter, come on here. Hornity presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors. We are in the studio, and our subject matter is winter wildlife management. We all know here in southern Missouri, there wasn't many acorns in my county, my area, and um from what I'm hearing, a lot of people didn't have much of an acorn crop this year. So we're gonna talk about things that you can do to help your wildlife survive through this winter. And one of the first things I want to talk about is monitoring your wildlife year-round. And that's why I run the wise eyes year-round. I'm running 13 cameras, and I can tell, you know, when the bucks are starting to shed, you can keep track of the turkey numbers on your property, the predators, and I'm getting a lot of predators right now on my cameras. What about you guys?
SPEAKER_07No, not surprisingly, not for me. I had them all in uh October, November, but nothing in December. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I was out sitting by the fire pit, uh, I don't know what night it was over the weekend. The coyotes were absolutely tearing it up. Yeah. And again, last night I went out, uh, well, actually it was uh night before last, Christmas Eve. Went out, uh, we had a couple friends over and went out to walk them to the car, and and uh coyotes were just tearing it up again. And uh, yeah, so I got lots of predators at our place.
SPEAKER_04Lots of predators. Well, my wise eyes are showing fox, bobcats, uh, a lot of coyots. I'm seeing a lot of coyotes. And uh right now we want to encourage all of our listeners to get into predator hunting and to trapping. You know, we gotta help these turkey numbers. We finally got turkeys coming back here in my county, Shannon County, and I'm here in Howe County and Oregon County. We finally had some good hatches. And uh there's more people trapping and predator hunting.
SPEAKER_07And that's good. That's good. You know, I was gonna say that my predator, I if you now that I'm thinking about it here for a minute while we're talking about this, my predators stopped showing up on my camera when I stopped uh filling my mock scrapes. Now, where the correlation is in that, but like we were joking around for the last few weeks that I'm good at building mock scrapes for predators because I got the coyotes and foxes. We're coming to them every night. But literally, when I stop putting refilling those, all my predator pictures have gone. And I don't where the know where the correlation is on that. Uh and it's I'd love to talk to a biologist just to find out.
SPEAKER_04Urine attracts predators.
SPEAKER_07Sure.
SPEAKER_05Oh, it does.
SPEAKER_07It does.
SPEAKER_05Well, they're they're looking for anything.
SPEAKER_07But I've never, this is the first year I've ever had that happen where they were hitting every mock scrape like that and just pounding them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, who knows? The urine that you're using may have had predator juice. All right, moving along here. Trail cameras is a uh uh must-have if you want to take care of your properties. Again, you can monitor all wildlife with your wise eye data cams. And uh again, I encourage you to run them year-round. Uh, if you're like me and you really care about the wildlife, do you want to have a substantial amount of turkeys and deer, uh, squirrels, rabbits, uh it's a must-have. And what I want to resort to now is talking about how we help them through the winter, and that's with food plots, you know. And I planted eagle seed food plots this year, and Wayne let his come back. He didn't plant this year, but his clover came back and everything.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I just overseed it this year because I had a good return.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I treated mine with soil pro. Soil pro is a great product to make your food plots burst and makes it more nutri nutrius, nutritious for the deer. They love the flavor of it. And soil pro we treat the food plots, but my problem right now is I have so many deer, they've eaten my food plots down to like putting greens, red bone.
SPEAKER_05Well, and that that that can be an issue, but uh, you know, we we use the eagle seed products, which are designed and engineered to come back from being eaten down. I mean, that's one of the beauties of the eagle seed product. Isn't like the eagle seed uh forage beans, I mean the deer can eat them down when they come out, they come right back.
SPEAKER_07And and twice and twice full too, because the stems, the stems are designed to split. When they nip on it, they'll split and you'll get twice as much uh um yield out of it that you normally wouldn't.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and that and that's why I I think that you know if people are gonna plant food plots, use the eagle seed products that are designed for food plots because they are engineered for food plot.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So let's say your food plots are eaten. This is where we bring in butt grits, and we're tagging, plugging our partners uh, you know, feeding butt grits where it's legal. We don't encourage anybody to break the law, uh follow the rules. And uh we have mineral sites. Uh our deer are really healthy. The butt grits being 10 to 12% fat, amino acids, helps our digestive system, and six sixteen percent protein. You know, so sixteen percent protein creates a healthier deer herd. You know, I feed them every morning, every evening in my yard. And you've seen them, Wayne, Redbone, how healthy they are.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah. I mean, that's one thing I do love about them. We've been talking about it for years, is um you know, if you look at before we started feeding them, a lot of your dough pictures and that, especially this time of year, you could see the ribs. Oh, they're gonna be able to do that. You can see that you can see the hip bones. Uh, now this year, I mean, even after the rut, they're doing great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So buck grits, if you don't uh haven't tried it, go to www.buckgrits.com. They will send you a free five-pound sample to you if you'll email them or contact them.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and one of the beauties to to feeding a supplement like that to help keep your deer extra healthy, is if there does get to be a time in the winter, say we have an ice storm or we have a huge snowfall, they can withstand that period of time without eating. Whereas if your deer are if they're weak, and then you know we get a 10-inch snow or we get an ice storm along the way and there's no food available for three, four, five, ten days, they're gonna be in real trouble. But if they start out extra healthy, they can manage to make it through those natural disasters.
SPEAKER_07Well, when your your backstraps have an inch and a half of fat layer on it, that that's a good sign. You're you got a healthy and it's a good sign you got a healthy herd. You know, so and that's gonna help, you know, it not only is you know snow and ice, let's just talk temperatures. We get a uh a week of you know, minus 15, minus 20 degrees. If you don't have some fat on them, dear, they're in trouble. You're gonna be finding a lot of bones this spring.
SPEAKER_04I had a neighbor friend of mine tell me he he uh shot one a yearling uh with his crossbow here a couple weeks ago on Mark Twain National Forest, and there's no acorns out there. He goes, Alex, it was pitiful. I go, What do you mean, pitiful? He goes, there was not an you couldn't see no fat on this deer. You think you were skinning a gray squirrel. Wow. He said it was that bad. So, you know, we encourage you to feed where it's legal. And here's some tips on feeding. You do not want to feed on the ground at the same spot every time. So that's you want to have a feeder. Wayne made me a uh above-ground feeder. And Wayne, share with them how you make those feeders.
SPEAKER_07I I just basically it's I used for me it's just a lot of scrap two by fours and uh two by sixes. Put a metal roof on it, V-shaped roof, and uh took a barrel, uh plastic barrel. Plastic barrel. It was an olive barrels. Uh I brought a bunch of them back, you know, when I moved down here. I cut it in half, put some drain holes in the bottom of it. You gotta have drain holes. Biggest mistake people make is no big enough, not big enough drain holes. Yeah. Uh, because if the water sets in there, it gets mold, and once it gets mold, not good for anything, and they're gonna stop coming to it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So, but putting a roof and stuff on it. You can sit off the ground and you don't spread diseases if a deer is sick. Right.
SPEAKER_07Or a turkey. And uh oh my gosh, I'm drawing a blank. The guy that fixes our tractors. But um Corey? Corey. Yeah, he actually put pins on his so he can pick it up with his tractor. You know, the the three-point hitch it and move it to different spots. Now, ours, I designed them. They're beveled at the bottom, so you can just drag them with the tractor. But yeah, he put the pins on his uh to spin it. But I know we got to go to break, and when we return, we're gonna talk more about uh taking care of your uh herd and not only your deer, but uh other animals on your property. We'll be right back. Don't go away.
SPEAKER_02Hey y'all, it's Tyler Floor, and you're hanging with me and my good buddy, Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors.
SPEAKER_03And my old pair of Hunts and Boots passed on down, planted deep in the ground, around your park, so you never gotta worry.
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, it's food plot planting time here in the Ozarks and all across the country. What are you planting this year, Wayne?
SPEAKER_07I'm gonna be putting some smorgasboard in with a whole lot of clover.
SPEAKER_05Wait, put some extra clover in it. What? Mortgage board? What is smortgage board?
SPEAKER_07Man, it is a variety of annuals and perennials that'll get you through fall time, wintertime, and all the way into spring. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_04You want to plant healthier food plots to track all kinds of game? Go to www.eagelseed.com. It's a smorgasbord. You know, we all get tired of certain things. The smorgasge board has everything. Your deer will love it. Eagleseed.com. American Roots. Eagle Seed presents Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors. We've been talking about winter wildlife management. Muzzloding season is going on right now in a lot of states. And again, Wayne, Redbone, I've not seen a target buck show up on my cameras. And some of the bucks are dropping antlers, so I've not went to the field yet to even hunt. Didn't even take my bow out this year. And usually I'm in the woods a lot. You know that. You know, the the that's one thing about the wise eyes. Guys, there's no guesswork. They don't lie. Wise eye doesn't lie. It shows you proof if they're there and they tell you the best times to be there. It can actually spoil you to where you're not guessing, you know. And uh I took some hunters this year, and every hunter that we took, except for one, he had to leave one on uh after day one, uh, shot their deer, if you figure the hours in the stand in less than 20 hours using the wise eye dot acts.
SPEAKER_07So you know, I do want to point one thing out. You were talking about the dropping of the antlers. If you're out muzzle loader hunting right now and you're getting ready to pull that trigger and you go and you're thinking to yourself, that is the biggest dough seen on my property. Odds are it's probably not a dough. You know, pull out I I this is what I tell everybody pull out your binoculars, take a quick look at their head, see if they've got a couple little nubs, you know, bare spots up there, because you uh you could be shooting a potential trophy buck thinking it's a doe. Take them, take a quick minute, either use your scope. I now my muzzle loader, I don't use scopes on my muzzle loader, yeah, but uh pull out those binoculars real quick, make sure you're not shooting a buck.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, here's and here's my question. And I've never thought to ask anybody from Missouri Department of Conservation or anybody else, because we we talk about, you know, bucks and does, bucks and does. But the actual season is antlered and antlerless. But if you have already filled your antler tags and you go out with a muzzle loader and you shoot what you think is an antlerless deer, but it is a buck that has already dropped his horns, does it still count as an antlered deer?
SPEAKER_04It will.
SPEAKER_05Because if it is, or not. It will not be.
SPEAKER_04It counts as a doe. And I just a good question, though. At first I was rolling my eyes thinking, where's he going with this? Now that's why they don't worry about that. Yeah, that's why even though you killed the buck, it's an antlerless deer.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So I just never asked an MDC official. It just never came up in a conversation. Yeah, visible antlers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So Well, you could reverse that. What if you shoot if you shoot a doe that has antlers? Can you say, oh, I'm filling my doe tag? No. No new antler, right. That's right. That's why they never worded fucking doe. That's right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, it identified as kind of like this world today. Yeah. Some people. Is that a man or a woman?
SPEAKER_07Hey, speaking of um helping your deer out with cold and that, one thing that I would I would encourage people to do is if uh make sure you uh get out there and do some hedge cutting and put along your uh especially your borders or your food plots and that, knock some brush down, and not only will you help give windbreaks to your uh deer, but it also gives cover to your rabbits, your turkey, and for some of us who have some uh quail and rough grouse, you know, populations starting to, you know, pop up a little bit here and there. No rough grouse on the bones on here, no rough grouse on me, but no quail either. But it also helps with the predators by giving them a place to get away from a predator if a predator is coming after them. Do some hedge cutting, knock those trees down, put some brush piles out for them because it's in the winter time, they need it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05I was gonna say, I actually do have uh some quail on my five acres. I hear them. Uh and I have got rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, you know, for a long time there were no rabbits. Every night, if I pull in my driveway at dark, rabbits just start shooting everywhere out of my yard. I mean, just zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom. And it keeps my dogs barking all night long.
SPEAKER_04All night long. All night long. Yeah. So any rabbit hunters out there that want to go kill some rabbits, bring the hotel, brave the beagles. He wants to go hunt with you.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. You'd love it, wouldn't you? Oh, I love rabbit hunting in front of a dog. Yeah. There's nothing more fun than doing that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yeah. I wish I wish my black lab that Alex, you know, he knew when before she passed away last year. Uh well, actually, it was this year, but she was a fantastic rabbit dog. Rabbit and uh um pheasant was her her big thing that she loved. But uh as she got older, when she was younger, she was a great duck.
SPEAKER_05Again, the beagle and Alex have done this. When they when they can go through that brush and and jump those rabbits out and bring them, and one that'll bring that rabbit right back around to you.
SPEAKER_07Oh, don't you love it?
SPEAKER_04I've never hunted with beagles. Oh, you'd be hooked. You'd be hooked. You'd have beagles. The thing is, I just hate to feed them all year long to hunt them for two months a year. You know, that's that's the sad thing. And you can't let them run loose when you got deer in your yard. I had some I I sold my pair of beagles to Stan Smith and Eminence, and uh one of them's name was Harry, and the other one's name was Elry. And uh Harry, they all ran good, but he said Harry got to run in deer, so he got sold and got rid of him. But he kept Elry. He said Elry's probably the best beagle he's had in his life. So he's really turned on fast, covers the track, picks up, loses. Uh but anyway, we're getting off the subject matter, but still rabbit hunting, wildlife management. The hedgerows was a great tip.
SPEAKER_05Well, help with all of that.
SPEAKER_04Yes. And so here's another thing I want to add to the hedgerows. When you lay those hedgerows bears along the edge of those food plots, you can also create entrance and exit routes for these deer. Makes it more easier. You know, you can also do the same thing in the woods, playing trees down to make deer come a certain route. And bedding areas for your turkeys. Yeah. Nesting. Nesting. Nesting, not bedding.
SPEAKER_05Where am I today? Nesting areas for your turkeys.
SPEAKER_04Nesting. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07But anyway, uh if you're cutting the tree down, you're cutting down their bedding area.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Their roosting area, yeah. Yeah. So food plots is crucial. Uh I'm going to go back in next pretty weather after. We may have snow this week.
SPEAKER_07Oh, I hope so.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that means a lot of nitrogen on the food plots. Then warm weather will come. I tell you what I'm going to do is I'm going to go take me some more soil pro and I'm going to go in and top dress all my food plots to give them a boost during the warm weather, and it continues to grow in this warm weather. And some of the food sources come back for them, hopefully, between the next snow or whatever we have.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, a lot of the grass has greened up just in the last three weeks. We had this relatively warm weather and the grass is growing again.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So the Soil Pro creates more protein in the in the food plots. You know, keep your healthy your food plots healthy, guys. Again, our subject matter is winter wildlife management. We want to obey and follow all the rules and regulations in your state. And these are the things that we do. And uh right now, and I touched on it earlier, uh, I have a feeding station in my backyard where I feed deer year-round. And our deer are really healthy. I do have a yearling farm that's got a swollen hoof, like she's got something in her foot hoof, but she's there every morning, every evening to eat, and she's getting healthier, and uh the feed's helping her.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, so you gotta help these critters out. Again, there's no acorns here in southern Missouri, uh in Shannon County, and I'm asking you to do your part. But again, uh focus on the things that we touched on. You don't not want diseases to spread, so don't feed in the same place every time. Have a feeder of some type. And again, uh butt grits is what you want to feed. You know, sixteen percent protein, twelve percent fat.
SPEAKER_07Right, and you know what else time of year? This is where approach fast approaching, because I'm scheduled for it in we're talking four weeks from yesterday, is burning. Control burns. Control burns, because I'm doing mine the third week of January, is when I'm supposed to be scheduled, you know, weather permitting and humidity permitting, but uh that's when I'm scheduled to burn mine. I'm I'm taking out uh what are we doing? 22 acres. So uh, you know, keep that in mind. That's that's coming. That's gonna help your herd, that's gonna help your wildlife and help your property.
SPEAKER_05So when it gets to if you live around a birch tree area late in January and the skies get all smoky and soot get all over your car, it's because Wayne Watt is burning off 22 acres.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna go to a break. We come back, segment four. Don't go away, we'll be right back with more American Roots Outdoors right after this.
SPEAKER_07Thanks, Redbone.
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SPEAKER_04And man, we have covered some great topics and shared some great tips with you if you're into winter wildlife management. And again, we want to emphasize follow the rules and regulations within your state and your county so you don't break the laws. And some, you know, a lot of biologists are not for feeding wildlife. You know why? Uh from my studies, my research is a lot of them think deer will become turkeys become dependent on humans to survive. And there is truth in that if you feed too much. That's why I do not keep them on full feed. I just dump a five-gallon bucket in the morning and evening, just enough to help them, you know. So if you're feeding tons and tons of feed, they're going to depend on that. And say something happens you can't get back there to feed for a week or so. You're going to lose some wildlife. You know. You do not want to keep them on full feed.
SPEAKER_07I agree. I agree. You know, you were talking about uh Red Bone, you mentioned some great tips and that that we've been doing, you know, during the show and that. We shared some great tips too. Uh well, unfortunately, during commercial break. So none of you all, none of y'all heard got to hear it, but let's let's touch on that real quick.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, real quick. Well, when you just talk about prescribed burning. And and and a lot of people may not even know about prescribed burning. So, Wayne, I mean, you get with Forestry Department or whoever, whatever the agency is in your area or in your state, and they schedule to come out and help you with a burn.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, they'll come out and they'll put together a burn plan. Now, and here in Missouri, you have to take a burn class for your property. Once you get that burn class done, a agent will come out, they'll survey your the area you want to do, they'll measure it out, and they'll calculate how much it is, what and they'll put together a plan of this is what we suggest, how you divide up your property. It's called equip. Okay. And then uh the other nice thing about MDC here also is that they if you don't have the equipment, they have the equipment to loan you, no charge. Uh they have the uh the burn cans, the the mats, the brooms, the blowers. They got everything you can think that you would need to get to be prepared for your burn. All you need to bring is just bodies.
SPEAKER_04I want to say this too. Something I do on every burn is uh you can do this if if the town lets it happen. Uh I uh give a donation to our local fire department for them to come out and it gives them training how to control fires. So I contribute money to them every year that I do burns. They come out and set with me and I feed them, order pizza or whatever. Yep. And uh man, they come out there and help keep it under control. So and also MDC pays you to do these controlled burns, Redbone. Did you know that?
SPEAKER_05I did know that, yes.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's an under underutilized thing, I think. Most uh landowners, for whatever reason they may have, uh of not getting involved with like government programs and that. This is one program I think is really important for your property because it will help increase the property value. It helps increase the the habitat for your wildlife. There's no to me, out of all the research I've done, and Alex knows I've been checking this out for a few years now. I do not see one downside of getting involved with MDC to get you where your property needs to be. Especially like for me, I came into property, you know, 65 acres that have not that has not been touched.
SPEAKER_05It was totally undeveloped.
SPEAKER_07Right, totally undeveloped. And so I was starting from 12. It was just a cutover. It was it was it was some bad property, great for coverage as far as the you know, um uh for deer and stuff like that when I first got it. But to have somebody come in with the training and the knowledge to come in and say, here's your property, and I gave them full run of my property. I said, I hear I want you to put together a five-year plan for me. You do whatever you think needs to be done in my property. They took my property, they divided it into four sections, and each year they have had um uh something for me to do each year to improve my property. So I'm in year three of a five-year plan, and by the time I'm done, my property value and my property quality will be well above what it would have been had I not used them.
SPEAKER_04Hey, tell them about uh them paying you to plant pine trees and also uh flowers. Talk about that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you get a um, well, see, we put in I think right now we're up to about 600 pine trees that we put in on our property, but not just pine, I shouldn't say pine trees, we six hundred trees. So we put in pine, we put in um two different kinds of oak trees, and I want to say it's a fir tree, was the other one. But um native trees. Native trees. They gotta be native trees, and you get it from the Missouri nursery. Um that's the best place to get it because it's pennies on the dollar that you're paying for these trees. You're getting them as saplings. You go in, you put them in. I know I have what I call our little tree farm where I have an area sectioned off my property where I just plant these saplings, you know, just row after row, and then when they get to a certain height, then I'll just dig them up and then replant them. So this way that they're they have a better chance of surviving. But they say a 40% survival rate is pretty good for you. My survival rate's about 80% because I let because I let them get big enough before I transplant and move them to a spot where I want them. So, but yeah, you get paid a dollar a tree. So if you're putting in 300 trees, you get you're getting $300, but it'll that tree only cost you like 19 cents.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_07So the return is really good on it. So there's there's that benefit too. I mean, and you're improving your property again, and maybe not for you, but for your future generations. Like for my kids, that's that's you know, lumber. Sure. That's property that they can select cut, not clear cut, that they can select cut and you know help them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think what we've learned from this today, uh, all of us, all of our listeners, is you know, the things that we do to help the wildlife survive and things that we're doing for the future of our wildlife. You know, so planning for the future. Uh to be a good steward, uh it's good to dedicate just your weekends if you can. Uh we're we're working on our properties year round. I know I am. You know, whether it's cutting uh downfall, uh uh clearing areas, uh doing controlled burns, feeding the wildlife, uh running the trail cameras year-round, uh, you know, fertilizing your food plots with soil, not fertilizing, but living micronisms with soil pro to treat your food plots to make them healthier food plots. That's what it's all about. You know, I think we've had a very good show. And we've got a bonus segment coming up right after this. Uh if you're a podcast listener, we're gonna talk about our goals for 2024.
SPEAKER_05That doesn't hardly seem possible, does it? We're talking about going into 2024.
SPEAKER_07It's amazing.
SPEAKER_04And we got a winner, we got to pick a winner for the year.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and uh I with Christmas and us being sick last uh week, I did not get a let a chance to write down all the names. We will have it next week. We'll pull a winner. But um, I do before we close out the show, I do want to give a shout out to Abby Ward, who is the MDC coordinator for us in our our area. Uh, she's out on maternity leave, and she still is calling me and following up with how's your pollination uh program you know working for you? And are you ready for your burn? And she's on maternity leave and she's still following. This is the this girl is dedicated to making sure that uh the landowners are taken care of. So thank you, Abby.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Thank you, MDC. Thank you to all the organizations that help our wildlife. Again, it's all about being a good steward. And again, obey your rules and regulations in your state and your county. Uh, we've all got to be good stewards. And always remember when your roots run deep and strong, there's no reason to fear the wind.
SPEAKER_05And happy new year.
SPEAKER_03Happy New Year. Happy New Year. So you never gotta worry what the wind might do. American Roots.
SPEAKER_05Thank you for joining us for today's American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Rutledge. You can find us on Facebook. Look us up on the World Wide Web at American RootsOutdoors.com. We'll be back again next week on this great radio station. Hey deer hunters, are you looking for an easy-to-use product to help enhance your food plots and enhance the health of your overall deer herd? You need to check out Soil Pro Outdoors. They are the Soil Health Experts. They developed a revolutionary and groundbreaking approach to taking food plots to the next level. It's easy to use, can be applied with something as simple as a handheld spray, enhance antler size, the health of your herd, and the health of your soil. Soil pro outdoors help produce the highest quality forage possible. All natural approach to improving soil health. Find them on Facebook at Soil Pro Outdoors. Soil Pro Outdoors, the Soil Health Expert.
SPEAKER_03What we do from a whipper wheel to a null owl suit. Sitting still till it's time to shoot. American roots. Take it to a holler. Take it to a feel. A crown's a creak of a big old hill. Year after year.
SPEAKER_04Buck Grits presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors podcast bonus segment. The title of our subject matter today has been Winter Wildlife Management. If you just now joining this, we're going to talk about goals that we have here at American Roots within the business, but also within our properties, etc. And I'm going to let you kick it off, Wayne.
SPEAKER_07Two of them anyway. And then uh get down. I'm going to try a couple new products that uh Eagle Seed has coming out and uh see what I would like to put up some more border uh plannings. Uh something for hike. Right. Not just food, but I want to put up our border, right, to make them feel maybe a little bit more comfortable uh with some of the food plots. Now, although on mine they're surrounded by woods all the way around, there is no road. You can't see any of my food plots from the road. Uh, but I I'm just gonna try something new uh and just see what it does. I'm I'm always I like tinkering, and and I'm gonna do that this year. I'm gonna I'm gonna do two food plots with uh height border uh plantings with plants that'll grow that eight to ten feet tall. And then I'm gonna do two of my food plots and leave them alone, plant the same thing in all four of them as far as you know, eagle seed stuff. Clovers, especially clover. Right, clover and that. But I want to see, does it does it make a difference? Because I'm gonna put the border on the two plots right now that I'm getting the the least amount of pictures on and see if that maybe makes them come in a little bit more than you can.
SPEAKER_04I got their pictures coming on the eagle seed food plots right now.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well, I was gonna ask Wayne, and and it was kind of my idea to talk about goals. Have you got any hunting goals for the new year?
SPEAKER_07As far for me.
SPEAKER_05Or fishing goal, or just your your goals for outdoors life.
SPEAKER_07I would say I've got three. One, I I do want to shoot a a decent buck um off my property next year. This year just did not have anything worth pulling, even unclicking the safety off or taking the bow off the hanger. Uh that's goal number one. Goal number two is to have my son for the first time be with me when I shoot a deer. Uh this year I was able to take my new daughter that we're adopting, and she was able to film me shoot a doe, which I would like to have her maybe on the show next week, um, trying to get that permission done. But um Have her come on and talk about her experience, but I would like to get my my daughter out and involved more. I mean, that those are my uh my three goals. My son, my daughter, and for me to get a good buck. I'm not gonna touch turkey my property. We've finally got a population coming back every turk after three years of absence. I'm gonna I I love hunting the state land. Uh there's some great state property around here that uh talk about where it's at. No, no, no. But there's some great, I mean, I'm saying Missouri, in and of itself, their management of their state property for turkeys uh has been good. Now the population in and of itself. I was joking about saying where it was at but the the the population of Turkey in Missouri has gone down. We talked about that for a while.
SPEAKER_05Probably had a couple years, but it's still better than most of the yeah, it's still better than most places.
SPEAKER_07And the uh the fact that it's easy accessible easily accessible, I think is a huge, a huge thing for Missouri. In Ohio, we had state property, we had lots of turkey, but the access is nowhere near like what Missouri has of ease of access. And that's a great thing for people that just can't maybe get out and walk, they're older. You don't have to go far to have uh an area where you can get to. There's there's state parks all around. So I would sugg I would I would encourage everybody to take advantage of it.
SPEAKER_04In DC lands, get your kid Mark Twain. Yeah, yeah. Exercise is good, you'll live longer. What are your goals, Redbone?
SPEAKER_05My goals, I I have a couple. And and you know, I've I've worked in morning radio for my entire adult life. Uh so uh when you get up at 3:30 in the morning, get to work by 4 30, yeah, you have an early exit to your day, but you're wore out, don't do anything else. So now that I'm retired, I can say, okay, I can do some other things. So I have a goal this year of to go fishing at least one day every week somewhere, whether it be farm ponds, the river, the creek.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'm gonna take you on the current river.
SPEAKER_05I would love to go one day on the current river.
SPEAKER_04Oh that's $500.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So I won't be going to the current river, but I'll be able to do that.
SPEAKER_04You're charging me for radio, so I've got to charge you to take you.
SPEAKER_05But but that is a goal. Me and Wade trade out. We trade out each other's services. But that is a goal to go fishing at least one day every week during fishing season. Save up your money. I'm not gonna go out there when it's 12 degrees go fishing, but you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_04Save up your money, Red Bow. Nina, you listening, help him say.
SPEAKER_05I've I have I have mentioned this many, many times. I don't, I am not a turkey hunter. I have killed turkeys. My goal is to call in and kill your own turkey. Yeah. I've never I've I've actually called turkeys for somebody else to kill, and I've had other people call turkeys in for me to shoot, but I've never done it for myself.
SPEAKER_02It'll ruin you.
SPEAKER_05And I'm gonna make that happen here in year in year number 63 of my life. I'm gonna make that happen this spring.
SPEAKER_07And now you got all the more and now you got all you got all the mornings now available because you are retired.
SPEAKER_04It goes to catch a huge smallmouth, a huge largemouth, and kill a big couple of big gobblers. Yeah, I think that's cool.
SPEAKER_05I've done the large before. I just want to do the quality. I just want to get out there and do it again.
SPEAKER_04You end up buying your river boat. Nina, save up the money for the jet boat. Oh, we're already. See it coming. He's gonna be hooked. We're already looking at it. He will.
SPEAKER_05She'd rather me do that than buy the Corvettes I've been looking at.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I wanted to own a Corvette my entire life.
SPEAKER_04Well, I've been looking at it. I've got a buddy, I gotta take you, I'm gonna mention his name, Danny Melton at Mountain Grove. Got a collection of vets and 56, 55s, uh, 57 Chevy station wagons, hard uh two-door post bell airs. You've got to go look at his vets. I'll show you a video after we're done here. But my goals for 2024.
SPEAKER_05And I would like to get a Boone and Crockett buck. I would like to get one in the books.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna put mine in the books. I've I've gross killed some, but not bragging, but I I've not registered enough.
SPEAKER_05I've got one, I've got one, but he's not registered yet.
SPEAKER_04I would like to get my name in the book. Yeah, yeah. So my goal is possibly to launch our American Roots Turkey Calls into a much larger dealer base. Um I've been having uh conversation with someone that knows management and sales, and we're talking about helping him run that category of our business. And uh this guy has been in the outdoor industry for many years, and he said, Oh man, your product line, we could take this thing and get you into a lottery dealers, and I'd like to see that grow. Uh the thing is, you know, we're understaffed here. Really, we are at American Roots for the radio sales and all that. We are on eight AMFM networks, five stations. If I had somebody out selling those ads, we could cover uh raise a lot more money that we could do a lot more things with.
SPEAKER_05And we could actually expand into more markets.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. I do see a down a downside of that though, of getting our turkey calls out there. It's gonna hurt the population even more. The turkey population. The turkey population. It's gonna hurt the turkey population even more.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, all of our marriages all across the country.
SPEAKER_04And marriages don't get mad at me, women. And and men don't get mad at me because some of you women love the turkey honey. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_07Funny you say that because every time when I would take a new guy out, you know, uh who wanted to try turkey hunting, I would my when I picked him up at you know three o'clock in the morning, I would say, I'll drive, I'll come pick you up. The wife was usually up because they were having coffee together, and uh before I walked out the door, I always looked at her and said, I'm gonna apologize now. And she'd be like, For a while, I'd be like, You'll understand when we get back. And sure enough, as soon as we got back, all you heard was, we gotta go to the store. We gotta get turkey calls, I gotta get a turkey vest, I gotta get a neck, a new shot. Because as soon as those new hunters hear that gobble, they're hooked.
SPEAKER_04They are when they get him in there close and they can't move and he gets around him and he can't move to shoot him and he's mad. That's right. It makes him want to go back from more.
SPEAKER_07That's why I always apologize to the spouses beforehand.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Guys, thank you so much for listening all across this great world we live in. Thank you to all the partners that we've had to help us air these shows. Uh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you to our creator above. And Wayne Redbone, thank you for everything that you do to help American Roots be successful in their networks.
SPEAKER_07Uh and thank you to our listeners. Our listeners, that's what I meant. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04You know, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our listeners. And uh remember the reason for Christmas. Here it is, Christmas, New Year's is coming up, and we wish you all a blessed, blessed 2024. Follow us, continue to follow us. We're gonna grow. We're bringing new content, new ideas, new things to you. Bless you and always remember.
SPEAKER_05When your roots run deep and strong, there is no reason to fear the wind.
SPEAKER_03MO bear on boots, passed on down, plenty deep in the ground, around your heart. So you never gotta worry what the wind might do, American roots.