I apologize for the internet vent session, but here it goes. Over the course of march and early april I busted my tail clearing out an acre and a half food plot to plant some imperial whitetail clover in. For this to happen I cleared roughly 20-30 hedge and locust trees from the area, did a controlled burn, harrowed the seedbed, applied recommended fertilizer and lyme, seeded the area, and cultipacked the plot. we had rain a day later. 4 days after that I had clover starting to peek through the soil. Last friday southeast Kansas got roughly 4 inches of rain, so needless to say things got muddy, but my clover stand was about an inch tall and I was excited to see some accelerated growth after the new precipiation. 3 days after the rain, with the ground still muddy and soft I went to check my plot for growth, and while working my way the half mile south on our ranch I noticed the neighbors cattle were out in our creek bottom. I didnt think anything of the 12 heffers and 11 calves until I realized they had been in my clover plot....AND THEY TORE IT TO PIECES!!! 92 hoofs stomped all over my clover in muddy conditions, they left huge ruts, and into those ruts they squahsed my clover. There are few areas that havent been trampled to death. I'd guess 90% of the 1.5 acres is trashed. according to the whitetail institute it's about 2 weeks past the ideal time to plant clover in my geographic location. So, it looks like I'll be maintaining my seedbed and applying roundup as need this summer with intentions of doing a fall planting of some sort. Disappointed is an understatment.
You don't have to live and die by the "recomended" planting times. I would talk to the neighbor first about paying for the damage and making sure the fence is fixed. Then work it up and replant with any rain at all you will be in good shape.
Agree with gutone4me, you get it back in as quick as you can...not sure how it is where you are but here it's back to being a little crispier in the air and we are actually not planting our clover till this coming saturday or possibly the following one.
