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cj, it does get in your blood, doesn't it. I expect South Texas is a lot like South Georgia, except y'all don't get as much rain as we do. You should check with your extension agent, but I expect one of the best crops you can plant for birds, deer, hogs, etc. is milo, or grain sorghunm as we call it here. It tends to be much more drought tolerant than corn. It will go dormant and wait for a rain, where corn will just dry up. Browntop millet is another favorite here for doves, quail, etc. The extension agent can tell you what perenniels you can plant. We have a lot of serecial lespedeza, which is fairly good for birds. You have already discovered that you don't necessarily have to break the bank for equipment. You need a disc harrow, but you don't need a very big one for that 8N. You ought to be able to pick one up for $350 or so used, or a little more for one of the new ones at Tractor Supply or somewhere similar. A good (again, small) spring-tooth cultivator, or what most people here call a general purpose cultivator is also a good tool for pulling roots out where you have cut brush with the mower, or getting a seedbed ready to plant. You can plant with a cone-style fertilizer spreader, then harrow it in lightly. That works fairly well, but if you get fairly serious about food plots, you'll want some kind of planter, such as a covington or JD-71 units. Your 8N will handle one-row or two-row setups of either kind of planter if the lift works. I imagine one of your big problems, as here in South Georgia, is just keeping the brush from encroaching and taking over. From what I read, mesquite and cedar are the problems out there. I'm having a heck of a time keeping the Japanese Privet and Kudzu from taking over. Along with the other implements I mentioned, a good sprayer, probably about a 55 gallon model, helps a lot in keeping that brush under control. If you look around, you can find all the implements I mentioned in good used condition for a fraction of what they will cost new. You already know that, though. I'll shut up and let somebody else chime in. Good luck.
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