I am located in West Central IN and hunting on 40 acres of which is owned by a family friend. My primary goal for food plots is to attract whitetail to the land that I hunt. Surrounding properties have large agriculture fields which are not heavily hunted and seem to be holding most of the whitetail. Deer simply pass through my property or bed in the red circle area which is hilly and has a much more dense cover than the photo does justice. And the equipment! Plot #3 as numbered on the map below was planted for the first time last year in Evolved Shot Plot and also turnips. For a first year plot I was satisfied with my results seeing as how we had a huge drought last year. I planted in mid August and had a nice plot come early October. That said my plan for 2013-2014 is open for suggestion/debate/guidance but it is as follows: Plot #3: Soy Beans - they are being provided to me for free and my hope is that they will ease pressure off plot #2. After spraying/prior to mowing: After mowing: Plot #2: Cow Peas, sweet blue lupine, oats and buckwheat as suggested in the QDMA Quality Food Plot Book. I plan to attempt to protect this plot with Plot Saver and Milorganite as well as the Soy Beans in Plot #1 and surrounding fields of Corn and Soy Beans. This plot has a nice natural screen of trees that should make it an attractive feeding location. I plan to hunt over this plot come October. Prior to spraying and mowing: Post mowing, still need to spot spray: Plot #1: Also open for suggestions - but was thinking some sort of a clover mixture? Post spraying/Prior to mowing: After mowing: To this point I have sprayed all 3 plots and I have mowed them down. At this point I need to do a second spot spraying prior to the ground being tilled. Plan to do the tilling and planting sometime in the next 2 weeks. I've got several plans in place to attempt to eliminate or at least discourage over grazing in these plots.
May I suggest adding winter rye to your blend it will grow all season and provide some spring feed. Mix it with the oats and the others.
You can suggest as I love feedback and I will take that into consideration as I'm sure my local seed dealer has winter rye. Thanks!
Spent 4 hours tilling and planting the 3 plots on Saturday - these are the only photos I got before it started to get dark. The photos are of Plot #3 which ended up being soy beans and oats. I drove over the plot with my truck to get some good ground seed contact. Then I put the stakes in the ground and protected the majority with plot saver. I also put down Miloganite which should help keep the deer off the plot for a little while. In about 2 weeks I will put up a scarecrow on this plot. More photos to come next week.
Just got the seed down last Saturday and with moist soil and already a rain shower or two and I have some decent growth already! Pretty pumped!! Plot 1: Showing the least amount of growth at this point but also basically a test plot that is not that important to my overall management efforts. Plot 2: Showing the best growth of the 3. Plot 1: Was a little worried about the beans shattering with me driving over then after tilling and broadcasting to make sure I had good soil contact - looks like some beans are already coming up!
Alot of hard work. From experience I will tell you that the probability of a huge weed growth is eminent. On newly broken ground the weed seed is tremendous and by working it you just released a ton of it.I would have waited to plant after working it to let the new weed growth come back and then sprayed it and planted without reworking the soil. If your beans are RR then it's no big deal you can hit them with gly. As for the rest i wish you the best..
Thanks guys and Hoyt, the bean plot #1 was planted last year in a different seed combo the weeds didn't really come up real bad this spring, i fact it was in the best shape of all my plots! That is the plot that I planted the RR beans and oats, I will keep a close eye on it but I will be surprised if I have any issues. Your post is well taken though, I figured rather than wait it would be best to go ahead and get these in the ground as I was trying to assure that the soil would be moist and that I'd get some rain, that said, of the 3 plots I sprayed (yes a lot or work) plot #2 with the peas and blue lupine was probably the most difficult in terms of getting rid of all the weeds - weed comp. could be much higher in this plot than in the plot previously planted in barrcais and sprayed again this year. A lot of work, for sure! But I love it - food plots are awesome, I am as raw of a hunter and outdoorsmen as you will find and I make it work - anyone can do this if they do homework!!
Just an FYI to the new food plot guys........compact the soil after you seed......get the seed to make good contact with the soil. I used to work the earth then spread the seed and fert. Would get okay growth but then like with all seed it needs a little compaction to germinate/grow. I take my ATV or tractor and run over every sq inch that I can. I know it sounds crazy driving all that dirt down but if you do not use a cultipacker (sp) not all your seed will germinate. With clover packing the seed if very important for germination. Looks like you did a great job Syc.
Thanks Chris! I made the extra effort to make sure I had good soil/seed contact especially with the seed combo I was plating! Process - Spray, Wait, Mow, Till, Seed, Pack and Pray!
Quick question.... when looking at the aerial pic is north the top of the pic? Red circle bedding SE? How do you access this spot? If this is how its laid out I think those will be great spots to kill but you can only hunt over the plots on east winds if that's truly where they are bedding. I like plot #1 location, you can easily slip down the creek undetected and sit in that pinch point with a SW wind which is the predominant wind here. That will allow you to see them get out of bed and come to the plot or to get a drink. I also like the NW corner of where the #1 is on the pic along the ag field during SW winds to catch them coming from bed to ag. On east winds (if top of pic is N) I really like #1 or #2 bc bucks will usually bed with the wind at their back and exit their bed with the wind at their back allowing them to visually see everything out front but still have security from their nose of what's behind them.
Good questions, yes the top of the map is North. Red circle more dead east than anything else but from this photo, south east is correct. Part of the reason I established plots 1 and 2 this year are because plot 3 - the only one I planted last year created a bit or a wind issue and I was hunting the east side of that plot and it wasn't easy to get into undetected. Plots 1 and 2 should provide me better options with the wind. Granted a good chance with a south west wind my scent will be blowing across the food plot it will indeed miss the large majority of the bedding area. Late in the season the south west corner of this property is very active and I hunt it pretty hard. I walk the creek bed basically right into my #2 plot - great access and it's a pinch point plot so I am looking forward to seeing how active it is - also pretty sheltered with trees on all sides of it creating a very naturally safe feeding location was a primary goal for this season. I'm not positive that bucks are utilizing this area for bedding on an annual basis, I can tell you that they cruise this area daily though and that it provides natural funnles and thick cover with food near - I think more doe bed in this area thank bucks as it doesn't have much in the way of a canopy, but is very thick and I stay out if it.
Cool.....just making sure. I think a lot of people do not know that. My first year with clover (I always plant in Aug for a new bed) I did not do that.....very bad germination and I starting getting bummed out...then got back to my farming roots.......everything is compacted pretty much. If you do not use it you lose it.
Planted these puppies on July 27 and already looking great after just 2 full week. Plot #1 - still has the most work to do. But used a different seed combo and I didn't cover/pack the seed on this plot. Plot #2 Plot #3 That carcus was found on the edge of this plot. Guessing maybe the Yotes got to her.
I strongly disagree with compacting the soil but this is an age old debate that will never be settled. I'm in zero till so that's where I'm coming from. The only thing I till is my commercial pumpkins and thats going by by next year.
I have a farmer friend who would agree with you and told me that it probably wasn't a good idea. It was already done at that time - beans look pretty good at this point no matter what your stance is.
If a person wants to roll plots every year, many of the farm supply stores and even sutherlands, etc...carry water fillable rollers to pull behind an atv or lawn mower. I know guys that do it also, I don't know that it really hurts all that much, I just never had need to do it and kill time. Back when I was tilling plots, I just spread the seed and light disked or harrowed it in and never had a problem if the seed was fresh. The problems I've seen cause from packing generally are with warm season plots and the packed ground hindered growth after turning hot and dry. Cool season generally gets enough cool moist conditions to turn out okay. I have had problems with local stores selling last years seed and it had poor germ. When I looked at the date on the package and collared the managers about it, they always have a "meh" attitude like they didn't know (or care) that old seed was poor practice to sell.
Not much in the way of rain this past week, so plots not really taking off like I had hoped. I spend a lot of time making sure I can walk the creek bed into my stands - the creek does have some deeper spots that requires me to walk along the bank and avoid the deep holes - this picture shows a log taking me from the bank over the top of a deep hole, that vine helps me keep my ballance. Perfect example of why I like walking the creek into my stand the creek runs right by this food plot and I was lucky enough to get to watch 2 Toms and a Jake feeding on my Peas and Lupine in plot #2. And yes that is a Sycamore tree that I was hiding behind! Food plot phots from plot #2 Photos from plot #1, it is in dire need of assistance so I'm going to probably spend some time on it next week. And now some photos from plot #3. Beans coming in pretty good, going to have to spot seed with oats or winter rye by the end of August. And lastly one of several measures to keep the whitetail out of my food plots - the turkey didn't seem to be bothered by him, I am trying to move him each week. Just one of several measures I have tried to keep whitetail out of these plots until mid September.
