Me and a couple friends have decided that it would be good to put in a couple food plots this spring. The neighbors just planted corn across the road and all of our deer from last year now bed on his property. We need to find. Way to improve the food sources on our land. These are the three fields we have. What do you recommend planting, and what equipment do we need? Thanks for all of your help, Max Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Honestly...if accessible one way to go about it is lease agreement with a farmer. Could do a say 60-40 lease agreement. He leaves 40% of the crops up but only pays lease rate on 60 of it or vice versa. You wouldn't have to do a thing and could have crops in. What are the sizes of the three acreage wise?
He is a farmer and is not interested in letting people hunt his property. We have been asking politely for 3 years now Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
He means have the farmer plant it for you, and leave some of the crops on you Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah not talking asking the farmer to let you to hunt, I'm talking a crop lease agreement. Farmers do it all the time and honestly offer him a pretty low rate that way he's fine with leaving some standing as he'll get higher return on the rest.
Never thought about that. If that route doesn't pan out, what else should we do with our fields Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
The top two fields are about 175yards by 80 yards and the lowest is about 100 by 50 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
crp, for the middle one the other two you could plant beans with a hand spreader, you dont have to disk the ground that much. or plant half in switch grass and the other half in the foodplot of your choice, then you would have 3 different foodplot options to hunt over.
I would go with whitetail institute clover And eagle seed forage beans and rotate every 2 yrs. It's done wonders for us.
I would actually do the entire middle in switch...allows travel North or South depending on winds for the mature deer. Could plant amongst in groups or rows white pines for thermal cover and change of pace for the deer in there. Then the bottom and top field you have MANY options...MANY!
Should we try to get a small watering hole because we only have a creek running through the property. And I have read a couple of your posts on hinge cutting Ty, do you think we should try that? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
This is my opinion: You want to draw deer away from a food source and bedding area...however corn is a semi early crop for hunting season(at least around here). I'd try planting turnips, brassicas and oats for a food source they will come for once the corn is gone. Millet or chicory could be planted for a sort of cover crop in part of each field(though the millet may never get very high if the deer and turkeys hammer it during summer). Rape is another good late season crop and Kale can really get the deer hooked to. You can still put corn that would be left standing as well in part of the fields and rotate your crops(mainly the corn). I also would be sure to have areas of clover and plant that where the corn was when you rotate it out. You guys have a lot to work with there and many options. See what you have for soil quality and ph and figure out will produce best...maybe even just test yourself and plant the fields in 3-4 quadrants of different seed and see what does best.
What equipment do you have to start with? ATV's? I'll assume buying a tractor and attachments is out of the question? You can get by with an ATV sprayer and look into renting a small tractor and a no-till drill. The local Farm Service Agencies (FSA) generally rent no-till drills. All you need to do is roundup the fields (If they are suitable to plant and not all rocky and eroded or something) and then use the tractor and no-till drill to plant. As far as what to plant: I don't know where you are so that is going to impact planting dates and species to a certain extent. Is the surrounding area brush, I can't tell from the overhead. Safe to assume corn does well there, wherever you are since the neighbor plants it. Corn is expensive to plant and won't work well through a no-till drill. The grass is a good idea but I'd prefer food over bedding area if the fields are surrounded by brush there are other alternatives for bedding. I'd use the fields for food and bedding combo crops. Besides corn is hard to hunt if left standing. Let me know about the surrounding area and I'll put some thought into this today while I do other stuff.