Kahout Road

We lease the Kahout Road field from local resident Werner Klee. It is at the end of a county road bordered by the South Fork of the Chehalis River and timber land. I often joke that it is like a petting zoo. It is common to see deer, elk, porcupine, raccoon and coyote. If you picked up the field and shook it all manner of wildlife would drop out.

We have consistently suffered substantial damage in this field, and have had to make careful crop choices based on the dining preferences of elk and deer.

The first year we farmed here we watched our corn disappear over night, and witnessed the methodical munching of each heart out of the center of thousands of heads of lettuce.

A year later after moving the lettuce and corn I was marveling at how quickly the crew had harvested a crop of peas only to later find that it was not the crew but rather a herd of elk that had reduced a once lush field of green to spent vines and hoof prints.


We now use this field for a rotation of broccoli, celery, beans, and onions. The elk seem to leave these crops alone-go figure. We have also been fortunate in that Nil, who often plants corn across the river from this field has used his fields for barley and wheat for the past couple years. The corn is such a favorite that the herd could easily wipe out this field just marching across from the timber to get to it.

We also use a combination of carefully placed mylar ribbon and fuse line to discourage t he elk from entering the field. Though nothing, and I mean nothing, will stop a herd of elk from doing exactly as it pleases, they are agitated by the flash and movement of mylar ribbon. Fuse line is a series of fire crackers which we weave into a slow burning rope. The line burns at rate of about one foot per hour then lights the fuse of the fire cracker and they go off periodically. We make these up to pop at dusk and dawn and carefully place them in areas where the elk enter this field. I believe this is an effective deterrent if done consistently and conscientiously.



Apart from a few hoof prints we have never had any damage in the alliums (onions, leeks, and shallots) though it makes me uncomfortable just writing about it.

Beans too seem to escape damage, with the exception of the soy beans which we actually plant as a decoy. Deer love to nibble these from the top down, and in my experience if you provide them with an ample supply of edamame, they will leave the other varieties of beans alone.


This picture you may remember from an earlier post as Patrick gets his first go 'round on the seeder tractor.







A few weeks later they have formed a nice stand of beans.