This is the first year I am going to try and plant a food plot and need suggestions. I am wanting a year long food plot seed mixture.
The soil is very high in clay, i am surrounded by farmland, and i have a group of 6 deer visiting my mineral lick on a daily basis. I am looking for a food plot to pull the deer onto my property while also giving them good nutrition.
What is being planted around you? Corn or beans? I would think the main food plot can be planted in strips of brassica and strips of grains like rye /wheat/oats and some forage radish added in. I also like some strips or a small section of a good white ladino clover blend. This will give you a very diverse food plot. For the smaller kill plots, I like white clover in a few, and maybe grains and radishes in a few. That works the best for us up here.
These are very important questions. The answers should dictate what you plant more than anything else. Have you tested the soil? Not just a ph test, but a complete analysis of the soil. That should be step 1. Just because you have clay soil doesn't necessarily mean clover would be the best fit. A lot of clay is acidic, in which case clover will not produce nearly as much tonnage as it would if the ph is 6.5 or higher. Clover is a great summer/early fall plot.....depending on your location, most clover will start to go dormant when it gets cold. Don't misunderstand....I love love love clover, but it doesn't last long enough into the year in most parts of the country to be a great late season plot. There are a ton of options that would pull deer off of the grain fields....cereal grains, brassicas, other legumes, etc.....getting your soil tested and considering deer density and agriculture will help narrow down what type of forage will benefit you the most
