00:00:02
Speaker 1: mm hmm,
00:00:03
Speaker 1: opinions expressed on Agri Talk do not necessarily reflect the views of farm dribble. Broadcasting affiliate stations or sponsors outdoors on the farm is brought to you by base camp leasing. Turn your hunt herbal farmland into a growing income stream through our hunting rights lease program. Learn more at base camp leasing dot com.
00:00:23
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: We love our land and we treated right?
00:00:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: All right. Welcome back to outdoors on the farm, right here on Agritalk. It is time to bring in our regular guest. We’ve got JT Kreager ceo of base camp leasing. Jt
00:00:42
Speaker 2: Welcome back to outdoors on the farm man.
00:00:45
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks Chip. I appreciate it. Always have fun with this talk.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, this is, I look forward to this every month. No doubt about that buddy.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: Tom James is the national sales manager for base camp country real estate.
00:01:02
Speaker 2: Tom welcome back to outdoors on the farm.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: Hello guys, how are you
00:01:08
Speaker 2: real fine tom. The last time we talked, I just kind of assumed that you were with base camp placing in base camp country, real estate and base camp leasing are same company, but
00:01:19
Speaker 2: the real estate side of it. I, I guess I’d missed that before. Tell us about that.
00:01:25
Speaker 1: Sure. Well, um, as you know, the leasing division has been around for 22 years, a very successful model and our owner Steve Manning back in 2018 tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, we’re considering opening up a listing and selling division of base camp. Would you be interested in joining the team and
00:01:44
Speaker 1: We’ve been off and running since 2019 were now in nine states,
00:01:49
Speaker 1: uh, and expanding as we speak, we are specializing in recreational rural hunting land, uh timberland investment properties, but anything that has a nice
00:01:59
Speaker 1: rule twist to it and land as you know, is in high demand right now. So we’re helping connect sellers and buyers.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: It certainly is in high demand. Uh good, good stuff tom good stuff guys. It’s one of my favorite times of the year, of course, spring of the year. And and today we finally got some sun shining
00:02:19
Speaker 2: and I’ve been watching turkeys around the bunker all morning. Jt
00:02:25
Speaker 2: I’m out of my head excited to get out there this weekend, man.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. I know you’re gonna be taking a young man out this weekend and that sounds like,
00:02:37
Speaker 1: you know, a great opportunity to get a new hunter exposed and have some good fun.
00:02:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, here’s what I like about about turkey hunting for an inexperienced hunter, uh, for a first timer getting out in the field with a, with a gun in their hand,
00:02:57
Speaker 2: um, you know, when we go hunting, safety is always top priority, it’s got,
00:03:03
Speaker 2: but
00:03:04
Speaker 2: when you’ve got that first timer out there,
00:03:07
Speaker 2: Making sure that you’ve got them in that safe environment. It’s probably that the number one priority harvesting an animal, getting a shot is below the the uh safety first side of things. # one
00:03:23
Speaker 2: it builds confidence. It builds confidence in that hunter
00:03:26
Speaker 2: knowing that they can go out and do it safely.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: Um
00:03:30
Speaker 2: And as a mentor in this case J. D.
00:03:34
Speaker 2: Knowing knowing that we’re in a safe environment and
00:03:39
Speaker 2: uh being able to manage the situation
00:03:43
Speaker 2: as you can during turkey season with with a new hunter. I think that is so important.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: It is
00:03:49
Speaker 1: it is I mean the fundamentals right? That’s what you’re talking about. The fundamentals of running and safety is the number one priority for everyone.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: I’ve had the privilege to take out
00:04:00
Speaker 1: my kids but also uh kids of friends of mine and some cousins and it was some of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: Right. Right. Another thing that I like about turkey hunting with a first timer
00:04:14
Speaker 2: is you can communicate fairly
00:04:18
Speaker 2: easily when you’re out there turkey hunting it you’re going to be hunting in a blind. In most cases there’s sometimes there’s that allows for a little bit of movement that allows for some whispering in the in the blind so you can build the confidence in that hunter, you can get in and the mentor
00:04:36
Speaker 2: um you’ve got more control over the situation, it’s a better opportunity to manage what is happening.
00:04:42
Speaker 2: Um And that communication with that first time guy out there jt
00:04:47
Speaker 2: in your experiences I’m sure that you’re well with me and the first time hunters
00:04:52
Speaker 2: it’s always you’ve got to have that conversation going all the time so that they’ve got the confidence that what they’re doing is the right thing.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: That’s that’s absolutely true and you know talking to him a little bit ahead of time
00:05:04
Speaker 1: about what to expect and what the turkey might do and how to make the shot and all those kind of things is also really helpful as well. So now it’s been
00:05:14
Speaker 1: I’ve had some great experiences turkey hunting with some kids and it was a lot of fun.
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Yeah I
00:05:22
Speaker 1: know I know tom has done the same thing and you know a lot of us uh it’s a lot of fun to take out the young hunters and get them exposed and hopefully have some success and some fun and uh you know
00:05:34
Speaker 1: introduce them to the outdoors.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:05:37
Speaker 2: Yeah and and Turkey hunting is thrilling. You get out if you’re within 200 yards of a goblin tom
00:05:45
Speaker 2: it it’ll it’ll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: You
00:05:51
Speaker 2: get that that excitement level going in that first time hunter you you want to get the shakes. You want to get that excitement level up when you’re out there. It’s part of the process and and getting through it. So and when you’re out there turkey hunting because of
00:06:08
Speaker 2: it is it is as much and um you know the sounds of turkey hunting are as much a part of it as the sights and and everything so it’s pretty cool. I know this, I know this, I’ll wrap up this the the young first time hunters
00:06:24
Speaker 2: part of this with with this my daughter in law
00:06:28
Speaker 2: is the first generation hunter in her family.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: Um and she absolutely loves being out in the timber at sunrise
00:06:39
Speaker 2: a lot of times by herself now,
00:06:42
Speaker 2: but being out in the timber at summarize, she talks about how cool it is to listen to the world waking up around her and believe me, I just love talking about that. I mean that’s what it’s all about, right
00:06:52
Speaker 1: tom
00:06:54
Speaker 1: you got it, I won’t add too much of it and to say that
00:06:58
Speaker 1: I’ve got two daughters that are in their late twenties now and those were some of their earlier experiences in the hunting general where the warmer spring days and and you said it chip if if the the gobblers are vocal
00:07:12
Speaker 1: and you’ve got one minute within a decent hearing distance, it makes all the difference in the world and you’ll have them hooked,
00:07:18
Speaker 2: yep, yep. Exactly. Tom let’s talk about getting the food plots ready. What do we need to be doing right now?
00:07:26
Speaker 1: Well it’s not too late to do soil samples, although ideally you you’ve got those done um a month or so in advance, but we’re, you know, we get some mid april here um I I see some guys that are already breaking ground in some situations, but normally
00:07:42
Speaker 1: we’re looking at mid May for us here in Central indiana when we really get serious about planting. So we’ve got a few weeks yet
00:07:48
Speaker 1: soil samples that way we know what we’re looking at for lyme and fertilizer needs, if any.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: Um and by the way, the prices are outrageous right now for for materials fertilizers. So um I’m actually looking at an alternate alternative this year into a calcium based liquid fertilizer
00:08:03
Speaker 1: and and just applying exactly what I need and no more.
00:08:06
Speaker 1: Um but soil samples are important, obviously understanding what crops you’re gonna plant and um really
00:08:12
Speaker 1: pre pre we call it burned down. You know, we get out in advance a week or two and and glyphosate, which is roundup is a is a safe herbicide to burn your fields down. And and that way, if you can time that out a couple of weeks before you’re ready to plant, you’ve got your fertilizer situation settled, you’re going to have all the
00:08:31
Speaker 1: competitive weeds and annual grasses that have emerged killed down, ready to plant, whether you’re drilling or conventionally Diskin and planting. You’ll be good to go here when it’s mid May.
00:08:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking about burned down it guys, it’s not too late to do some of the controlled burns or prescribed burns on some of the the grass is out there, is it?
00:08:52
Speaker 1: No uh well things are beginning to green. So you’re right up against like the, I would call it the back end of the window of opportunity. Um but honestly any time from
00:09:03
Speaker 1: some guys will actually be burning warm season grasses back in february and early March.
00:09:08
Speaker 1: I tend to want to wait a little bit too right where right before things green up because you can actually get some side beneficial control of some cool season grasses that are trying to pop up in there before the warm season grasses emerge. So you can actually do some injury and setback to them which is beneficial for you.
00:09:24
Speaker 1: But yeah, someone an old timer told me years and years ago if you can time your prescribed burns the time that the sugar maple buds on the trees in your area are swelling but haven’t begun to emerge leaves yet. That’s for,
00:09:38
Speaker 1: that’s just a beautiful, like a natural indicator of a prime time to burn.
00:09:42
Speaker 2: Love it. Absolutely love it. And once it starts to green up your birth, your controlled burn area,
00:09:48
Speaker 2: make sure that you get out there and and do some management on the
00:09:52
Speaker 2: the grasses and you know the weeds that are coming up to and make it as good as you possibly can guys. Good news on that. I had to controlled burns this year and not a single call to the fire department,
00:10:07
Speaker 1: yep,
00:10:07
Speaker 2: yep. Absolutely.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 2: Good stuff tom
00:10:12
Speaker 2: J. T. I was wondering when, when um
00:10:15
Speaker 2: when you’ve got outdoorsman enquiring about leasing hunting ground, Does a pond ever come up? You know a farm pond and some pan fishing?
00:10:24
Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely. Um You know that’s the discretion of the landowner.
00:10:29
Speaker 1: Um But the opportunity to fish, you know they’ve got a couple ponds or they’ve got a creek or something like that
00:10:36
Speaker 1: uh that’s available if they agree. And so yeah the hunters can come in there and
00:10:42
Speaker 1: catch some fish in the spring,
00:10:44
Speaker 2: man. I tell you what right now
00:10:47
Speaker 2: hooking them a minnow through the tail, putting it under a float and dropping it out there. Uh Doing a little bit of crappie fishing. I’m
00:10:55
Speaker 2: this is the time, get out there and start exploring and take those first timers out there.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: You guys fish don’t you?
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Absolutely. 100%. Yes sir, we’ve got a small pond in the middle of our property and it’s it’s loaded with bluegill bass and catfish awesome,
00:11:15
Speaker 2: yep, don’t be afraid to take some panfish out. Those populations have got to be managed as well, you get them overpopulated and you can’t even get a potato chip sized filet off of those bluegill if you’ve got too many in there. So keep it managed, keep taking some fish out of those ponds. Uh Just do it right.
00:11:36
Speaker 2: Do do do it exactly, don’t
00:11:40
Speaker 2: don’t just take everything out but do it right manage those populations guys, good conversation today, I really appreciate
00:11:47
Speaker 1: it. Thank you. Thank
00:11:49
Speaker 2: you. You bet that’s Jt Kreager ceo of base camp leasing and tom James tom James
00:11:57
Speaker 2: national sales manager for Base Camp Country Real Estate.