2012 Food Plot. A work in progress (Picture Heavy)

"Looks like a turkey dusting spot to me."

That makes sense, I thought it looked kinda small for a deer.

 

14 day update. We have only had one rain since I planted. We sure could use some more moisture. I was really getting worried because I checked them over the weekend and was less than impressed w. my germination rate. Being a rookie, I'm really not sure how long it should take before they start to sprout, but I had some that had sprouted nicely, but other than that, nothing. I checked this evening and it's a 180 degree turn for the better. There are tons of little sprouts coming up. Probably 10 to one of the plants that are already up. I feel a lot better now, just need some more rain and I will hit the field with round up in a couple weeks so the weeds don't get ahead of the beans. Here's some picture of the progress.

Some of the fresh sprouts.


Some of the more mature ones.

 

Looking good. My birthday is this Saturday, and it always rains on my birthday, so get ready. Did you get any of that rain last night? I thought it cam from the north. I'm in STL.

 

I heard its supposed to be cold and rainy on Thursday so that should be good for your plot.

 

We still need rain, but I am getting some pretty good growth. The field is starting to fill out and it looks like its about time to hit it with roundup to knock down the competition. These pictures are from my phone, I also took some w. my new DSLR and will post them when I get a chance to get them uploaded. I need to get up a couple exclusion cages out because I know the deer are out picking them off.

I picked up some more plot seed for the areas I didn't plant the soybeans. I was hoping for a tall forage Sorgum, or I had been looking at Egyptian Wheat, but I couldn't find any local and didn't really want to pay shipping. I ended up buying what they call Spring Mix. It has short grain sorgum(I think this is Milo), German Millet, sunflowers, buckwheat and some more soybeans. I am hoping this will grow tall enough to make a decent screen. Next year I plan on getting my order in for Egyptian Wheat for my screens. I also picked up a couple pounds of purple top turnips and am thinking about getting a couple pounds of sugar beats to plant w. the same mix I used last year for my fall turnip plot.

 

Looking good.... we need rain here in OH to! My plots are hurting bad

 

I was able to get out and spray the plot with roundup this morning. I sprayed at a rate of 16 fl oz. per acre. Hopefully that will knock back any of the weeds and grasses that have came up in the plot and allow the beans to get up and canopy. We are still in desperate need of rain, but we do have some in the forecast for Sunday, so I'm hoping!

Even without the rain, the beans have made a fairly significant jump.

 

Missouri is really hurting for some rain this summer. I keep looking at the forecast and hoping to see a storm or two, but its been nothing but sunshine. good luck with the beans!

 

Tell me about it. Dry as a bone. At least it isn't blazing hot. If you really like nice weather and no rain, Missouri has done it's job this year. My clover plot is doing just fine up in Worth Co.

 

We've got 3/10's of an inch in the forecast for tomorrow. I'm really hoping the weatherman has it right.

 

We finally got some much needed rain last night. Not sure how much, but it seemed like a pretty good amount.

 

Actually had to wear a raincoat to class today in Columbia, had a pretty steady rain all morning.

 

Looks like the beans are starting to get browsed a bit. I found a couple places like this while I was checking out the field today. I need to get a couple exclusion cages out pretty soon.

 

Yea they're def getting nibbled on! Hope they can survive for season

 

Looks great! I cant wait till im able to plant a few food plots.

 

I finally got my tiller fixed last week and was able to get out and till and plant my field edges and around my future tower blind(hopefully get that completed this summer). I planted a product called spring mix which contains 29% WGF Grain Sorghum, 29% German Millet, 14% Peredovic Sunflower, 9.4% S55 Forage Sorghum, 9.25% Loredo Haybeans, and 4.5% Buckwheat. I didn't have enough of this do everything, so I ended up planting the rest in Vita-Rack Booming Beans which contains Trailing Soybeans, Forage Soybeans, Nugget Peas and Cowpeas. It will be interesting to see whether deer prefer this mix, or the traditional grain soybeans in the rest of the plot. I still have about a half acre that I will be planting in a fall mix of brassicas, forage oats, and some other stuff. I am also planning on adding some purple top turnips and sugar beats to the mix. I think the sugar beats could be dynomite. The deer cleared them out of our garden this spring, the only thing they touched.

Here's some pictures of my progress yesterday.






The soybeans are making good progress.

 

We got a nice heavy rain Wednesday night, and I decided to sneak over Thursday evening with my camera. Here's a couple shots I took of a young buck enjoying the fruits of my labor.

I think I'll name him Blackie

 

Got over and took a few new pictures. The beans are really starting to fill in and canopy. I need to get in and spot spray some roundup to kill a few areas of weeds. The field edge plots are starting to sprout up too. We've had a fair amount of rain in the last week, plus some warm temps, so they should really start shooting up.











Here's the Spring Mix coming in.


Here's the VitaRack Boomin' Beans

 

My next project will be a fully enclosed tower blind, and I'm going over the top on this. It's going to be 12' X 12' and roughly 20' to the roof. It's going to be dual purpose, and will also serve as a sorta mini cabin where we can camp out during the off season, plus since it will be fully enclosed, the lower area will serve as a storage shed.

I plan on cleaning up around the front of these old grain bins, and building the blind right in front of them.


We had some pretty nasty hail back in May, and we just got the new roof on the house, so I now have 42 - 14'6" sheets and 21 - 21'5" pieces of metal, plus a bunch of trim to use on the project. Plus several other projects. I got the metal all moved into my shed today.

 

Those food plots are looking great. Did you get your exclusion cages out?