This is the first year that Ive ever been able to plant a food plot, and I would like some advice please. In my small town rural area that I live in, there is plenty of corn, soy beans and enough woods for acorns too. Now I have about a 8 acre field that has never ever been planted before, and is nothin more than a hay field surrounded 100% by woods on all sides. But if you walk 70-80 yards through those woods, you have all the corn and soy beans a deer can eat. So I am thinking of putting two different plots in this field, turnips and clover. Is this a bad idea, or good idea? Some advice is very much appreciated!
You mention this as being a hay field. Is it CURRENTLY a hay field? I'm assuming there haven't been any amendments to the soil lately (lime and fertilizer)?If so, it should be burned (heat and chemical if possible), although plowing then spraying would also work. You want to get a soil test done asap, and if you're planning on planting for this season, soil prep SHOULD have already been done (liming 6 months or more in advance is best). My suggestion? Break that soil up (plow, let it sit a few weeks, and come back and spray). Start amending the soil as per the instructions from your soil test. Meanwhile, try getting something hardy established (buckwheat or oats) that can help for building the soil and eventually be tilled under for green manure. You can plant oats with your clover in the fall, but Buckwheat is a good summer soil establishing plant (LOVES warm soil temps). Brassicas and Clover are a great combination, and often follow each other in the planting rotation since clover fixated Nitrogen in the soil, and Brassicas NEED lots of Nitrogen. However, as I mentioned, these both do well in soils that have already been prepped to an extent.
Soil test is my next step. It's not cut as hay. The only thing that is done to it is me on a brush hog mowing it down.
Once you take care of the prep work that Matt was talking about and get the soil up to the proper pH I would think about what you want for the spring/summer yield and then what you want for the fall yield. Combination plots are best because you are making more things available to satisfy different palates. Pick 2-3 for each yield and you will do fine. Oat/wheat combo, turnips, clover, and chicory. Since you are in MO and spring is really already underway, by the time you get it prepped and planted an oat/wheat combo for spring and summer might be a good idea since deer like the tender young growth and you won't need much growing time before it becomes useful and then plant clover, chicory, and turnips for the fall. Just my opinion for your situation and location.
