This past Sunday with the pending rain, Ben and I decided not to hit the local 3D shoot and get started on my food plot. Ben met me with his ATV and single plow and I had my ATV and discs. He'd plow and I'd follow behind discing up the newly plowed earth. This was working very well until the ground got saturated and dirt started to stick. So with that, we called it a night. Plans were to meet tonight and really tear it up. Uncontrollable things kept Ben from making it but I swung by after worked and put a couple hours in discing the ground. Short Video of Rob Disc'n the Food Plot It's now set to lime this weekend. Plans are to lime both Ben's and I's and disc in the lime in both. It should make mine ready to plant. Now, what to plant? I'm hoping Matt (Rick James) as well as many others will chime in with suggestions. I've had really good success in the past with clovers so I know part of it will be in clovers. I am open for suggestions.
For what to plant, are you wanting an early season plot/late season plot/both? Awesome looking spot you have there Rob. If you are liming close to planting, try to use powdered lime instead of pelletized, unless you already have a good ph. Lime can often take months to take affect, but it looks like you have everything needed to work it in the soil. I like clover a lot, and I mixed alfalfa in the clover plot this year. As far as late season, some oats, ryes, or winter wheats can tolerate less fertile soil. Brassicas would be awesome bordering the wheat closer to the treeline. Brassicas would be useful even if it was a long narrow strip. They produce A LOT of forage per acre. Good luck to you, nice pics and video. I agree with you, clover is nice. Below is some clover I planted last spring, starting to come up good this year. I overseeded in late winter as well. Patchy in spots, but it should fill in like it did last year once the warm weather gets here. They're already using it pretty good because clover is the first thing to green up around here. For a multi-season plot, I have heard a lot of good things about wheat/rye mixed with clover, planted in spring. Good luck to you, awesome spot you have
If you're looking for something basic that will automatically attract deer and provide ample nutrition I'd go for the aforementioned mix of clover and alf-alfa. Then again, you can go strictly with clover and you will see great results as well. One positive about just having clover or alf-alfa without brassicas is that they can be sprayed with both Slay and Arrest to rid the plot of grasses and broadleaf leaves. If you're looking for something for the summer that will provide excellent forage with loads of tonnage as well as great cover you may want to look at Whitetail Institute's Power Plant. It has sunflowers, beans, lablab etc. and can easily grow up to 6 feet in height. The great thing about this stuff is that come fall you can brush-hog rows in it and plant something for the fall/winter and the remaining Power Plant provides great cover all adding up to an excellent hunting plot. The picture is of one of our smaller clover plots. During the late spring and summer months deer usually eat this one down nearly to the dirt (its only about .2 of an acre.
Clovers are good but for my area if I plant them in spring, by July they are toast...actually crunch when you walk on them. They do usually come back in the fall...usually. I have planted 6-8 plots a year for about 10 yrs. I gave up on spring planting about 3 yrs ago. Too time consuming with weed control and usually dries out and dies 'cause of dry conditions. I have planted just about every product offered by Whitetail Inst. and Biologic with mediocre success in getting the deer around here to hit them very hard. The last few years I have had better success with deer hitting the plots when I have just gone to a local farm seed store and bought winter oats and Austrian winter peas. If either of those are not available I substitute with wheat and some other type of winter peas. Sept. peas are also hit pretty hard around here but I haven't tried them as of yet (I hope this Sept.). These products are available by the bushel and are waaay cheaper than the "hunting" products. One thing that I firmly believe is that deer in your/my area may NOT like what deer in another region prefer. If I try another commercial product, it will probably be something by "Antler King"? At least I think that's the name. The one good thing about clover is IF you can get it established it will come back for a few years. It looks like your plot is getting off to a good start. Are you planning on waiting a few weeks for some weeds to sprout and then hit with roundup? I have found if you start with a clean slate you will benifit in the end. Good luck. It will be fun and it will be a learning experience. You may have to experiment with some different things before you find what you like.
Looking good buddy. Sorry I had to ditch out tonight. We'll get 'er limed up this weekend. bowanaj, we will be using the powered stuff for the reason that you stated. Here is my little improvised one bottom plow behind the four wheeler. Here is the results about halfway through plowing my plot with it.
Thanks guys, this is what the plot looked like in 06. And in 07 the clovers came back nicely. I tried some late brassicas and Buckwheat but they really didn't take off. The weather was dry in 07 and the weeds took over. I did nothing with it in 08 and this year I intend it look like it did in 06 only better and bigger with more than just clovers. Oddly though, this past season (08) the damn chickory (I believe, bladed broad leaves?) came back strong but I really didn't see the deer utilizing it. The deer did pound it in 06 and I had great success with it.
That pic with the deer in it...are those wildflowers in the background and if so did you plant? Around here the DOT actually plants big long beds of wildflowers in the medians and on the sides of major highways And they wonder why so many deer are getting hit We always see deer in those "flower" beds munching down. I have been tempted to plant lots of wildflowers except I don't think they'll last beyond the first good frost.
Well if your clover is plot did decent for the past few years, your PH is probably still pretty decent, and the little extra "push" you will give it with the liming will help. If you are planning on clover again, hit it with some low/zero part N fertilizer before planting, and wait for a little moisture in the ground, and try to time it just before some rain (looks like we will have plenty of that over the next few weeks). If it were me, I would go ahead and plant the clover, leave a strip around the exterior (or re-disc later), and plant winter wheat/and oats, or a brassica for the mid-late season. Turnips would be great for late-late season after a few frosts, but you're always done by then anyways :D.
Hey Rob, I like that little strip you bush-hogged/cut leading to the plot. Thats a good idea Ben, very cool looks like that works well.
I love that little plow. It's not like I am a farmer by any means, but between my home food plot, Rob's and one small one at the cabin, I have turned up more than 3 acres this spring.
Directly behind the deer is Buckwheat. They pound buckwheat. Behind it then is just a wild field of weeds and whatevers. Usually it's 2/3' high but my landowner likes to mow it, I ask him not to as they like the cover, he likes to see the field for rifle. How do you tell a landowner to leave his land alone? LOL
Deer are lazy, path of least resistance and they use/used it alot. See here: Deer wore a path down the field, Video of Doe behing Shot in Plot Last Year Notice the Chicory is the only thing left.
I've thought about doing that before to some old hay and tall fescue grass that borders one of my areas (in hopes of "making them" access the field where I want them to). Have you had success setting up on them like this in the past? I'm going to give it a try, looks like a deer highway in your pics. Very cool
I planted about 2 acres of clover a couple of weeks ago and mixed in some chickory with it. Around here the deer love the chickory and it tolorates the dry weather better than clover will. When it warms up a bit I will be planting some corn, a bag of Antler King Red Zone (a mix of beans, peas, buckwheat and lab lab I believe) some more beans and some milo. My deer and turkeys are gonna have a smorgasboard. I'll let them show me what they like best and plant more of that next year.
