Funny, that was the plan, but..... I was going to go up and prep the 8 acre field with the tractor last Wednesday, as the co op sprayed it off a couple weeks before, but we had 2" of rain a few days before and there was standing water everywhere. Then, I was going to prep the plot this Wednesday, but we got 1.5" of rain at home here and the radar showed it raining harder at the cabin 1 hour away. Unless it dries enough by this weekend, it probably won't get planted at all this year as I won't have any more time to work on it.
Maybe the neighbors are adding something beneficial. I don't put much weight in what's happening during the summer months anyway. If you have been successful in the past and are only lacking one food plot this year, I would think no big deal. The biggest positive is you get to see the deer reaction to not having that food plot of beans or whatever you normally do. I would take note and you may be suprised. Hell you are hunting the "booner meca", so no worries.
Forgot to add, last year we planted that field with a rape and turnip mix and the deer hammered it into late January, but the snow then became too deep for them. Luckily, the neighbors logged an 80 that joins our land and the deer had great food for the rest of the long winter.
Doesn't matter. We're going to SD with the kids next week Wednesday for a vacation and then I'll start harvesting the last of the sweet corn, then the squash and then the pumpkins. My time is shot until mid October.
The neighbors are not. We have the only food around there. The other fields that are close to use this year are all corn for silage. Sometimes they have a clover grass mix, but not this year. Lol......we're far from the boomer Mecca of buffalo county. Our land is in clay swamp land.
" " This year food plots establishment first Clover and rye seed in.. It might payoff better to get the deer to transition through you property moving to and from the farmlands. Make it inviting and get them to like the cover around your property away from farm equipment and noises. Cut down the patchy brush create new and protected food supply for them to ventures into year round.. Make this your kill zones... Offer minerals in the moisture will assist in the mineral deposits entering the ground.
^This. That website changed my whole thought process on food plotting as far as thinking about soil health
Really?! Well that's I didn't realize feeders were totally illegal in any state. How silly... Well work with what you can then. I'd tile that darn wet field first time it got dry enough.
I'm sorry, I don't know. I don't lay it in the construction business and have never had it done personally. I only have a couple small spots that I threaten to have tiled every year until it dries out enough to plant and then I put it off another year.
I was just reading something from the Univeristy of Iowa or some publication there and it said about $500 per acre. Honestly, I don't know how well it would work in the heavy clay in this field.
Yeah I've heard anywhere from $400 - $1000/acre depending on the field, connections, mains, etc, etc... I've heard of guys back filling partially with gravel to increase percolation rates in heavy soils. One has to wonder at what point is spending dough on deer getting absurd though, lol. I guess if a person did a little at a time it wouldn't be so bad. My luck I'd spend $10K on it and have a drought for the next decade.
Exactly, it's just deer. We could just not rent out our other fields and use them instead, but the location of this one is better than those.
I hear ya...tell you what as a last ditch effort I'd wager some money on some white clover and crimson or berseem clover and seed the living crap out of it just broadcast over the top as is and see what happens. I'd try a portion of the field out of spite if nothing else. Won't help a lot under a lot of snow but if it takes it could make for shorter food-less periods at least. It might also fill in really well next year and be the only thing there once again.
Not in that area. Eventually, we'll probably just farm those two fields ourself, let half stand and harvest the other half to pay for some of the planting.
