Working on some plots now, good info and great looking plot. Dan when you do a plot like this do you spray it with roundup or something prior to turning/discing it? We are just starting some fall plots and have had some moderate success in the past I'm just curious if when you say spraying do you spray round up or something as one of your first steps? We have had trouble in the past with weeds and I'm looking for a better approach to controlling or limiting them. We are not planting til mid August so we plan on bushhogging & liming tomorrow,(1 ton/acre as recommended by the farm coop based on the soil), then going back and spraying round-up in about a week, then discing/planting around the 13th of August. The plots will be mainly oats, wheat/rye, and winter peas. But in all honesty I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Yes and no to spraying them with Round-up. The only reason I say no is because I'm doing a new plot this weekend that we just decided to do and it will be pointless to spray it at this point. Normally, I would spray it in the spring when the weeds are shorter, or spray it at least 2 weeks before turning it over. The plot in this blog I sprayed 2 weeks beforehand and then we weed whacked it and raked it off the day we disced it up. We raked it to remove the excess plant material so it would be much easier to disc. The new one this weekend we will just whack and rake. Then disc and lime and probably wait 2 weeks to plant it when we start getting some rain. One newer plot seed I am going to try is Trophy Radishes. Kyle posted about them a few days ago and they looked very interesting to me. I'm going to plant 1/2 acre of them in a stand alone plot on the edge of a field and another 1/2-1 acre of them with our bigger 6 acre plots. They have a 30 day maturity rate and look to produce very large green tops as well as huge radishes that grow mostly out of the ground. If they grow like it looks they may, they will blow turnips away. Hope that helps a little bit. Getting ready to head to the cabin here in a few minutes for 3 days of plot work. If you have any other questions or ideas, I'll answer them Sunday.
I have one spot picked out and contemplating another. A bit smaller scale though. My first will be about about 60'x90' may be able to go a little bigger but, not much. Nice article by the way.
Dan - the blog was a good read and I have always thought about a kill plot like you described but, never had private land to do it on. Here is my questions. In looking at your map, looks like you had a natural point for the deer to move through anyway. Way take the chance of screwing it up when they would naturally come to you if you had a stand in that area?
Great question. The bucks do use that as a natural edge, but they also move north out of the bedding area to the field north of the cabin more often than this way. To hunt that area is very difficult because of how thick it is and how our property lays. Entrance and exits would be extremely difficult to do undetected. With this kill plot, the idea is to increase the chances that they come this way to the fields by providing a good food source and its much easier to get in and out of this area undetected.
Good stuff Dan ! That plot looks like a great staging areas for the bucks during shooting light before they head out to the big fields. Great set up !
This would be a perfect size for a kill plot, no real need to go bigger. I finished another plot this weekend that is 15'x 200'. This is actually a snowmobile trail in the winter and no one goes in there in the summer and fall and the deer cross it and use it as if it were their own natural trail. Unfortunately, I didn't take the camera out this morning to take a picture because of the rain.
Mine is one one sid eof our ATV trail. Deer use our trail all year long. It is packed down so hard you don't see any sign of them being there untill a hard rain fall. They travel a ditch that is covered on both sides by cedar trees it looks like a deer tunnel in this thing from the front of the property to this trail. They stay on it for a little ways then back into a thick cover area. I put out corn last year in this spot and I couldn't keep enough of it out and it was my first stand location ever and was busted opening day due to lack of experience. This should work out great to hold them there for a few minutes at least long enough o get a good shot.
