Plans for Foodplots

[Friend]

Have been planning a strategy for this year’s foodplots.

Still have two perennial clover foodplots and one new clover foodplot that are doing well.

What foodplots are you contemplating planting and what is your reasoning?

[kennym]

I have 3 clover plots and a 1.5 acre plot I am deciding whether to plant soybeans or bird resistant milo in.

Have milo cups for my no till planter now that a bud gave me...

[Zwickey-Fever]

I plant subterranean clover mix in all my shaded ares such as tractor paths and along crop fields. I plant white clover along with some chicory in some selected areas in my upper pasture. I mow those areas a few times a year, that's the secret, mowing. It comes back thicker and thicker. Deer just love the new growth. In early spring, I place fertilizer spikes, (20-30 pending the size of the tree), around outer drip line several selected white oak trees and come fall, the acorns are hanging off the trees in clusters. I call that one my poor mans food plot. But if nothing else works, I have several hundred acres of corn and soybeans planted. To me, the state of Iowa is one big food plot.

[TIM B]

This is what works for me.....

Late summer, early fall. Kill the plot area w roundup / glyfus. 
Spread pellet lime and fertilizer.  (I just guess - 1/3 -1/2 acre plots get 150# of lime and 150# 13-13-13)
Disk it up and broadcast wheat and clover. 

This gives you a nice wheat plot for the fall and winter. 

Now in FEB go frost seed more white clover. 

By turkey season it will be tall with wheat and thick with clover.  Wait till the end of June to mow the wheat off as this keeps the deer off it till the clover is really rocking. 
Works for me
Tim B

[bucknut]

I generally keep an acre or 2 in perennial clovers and chicory.  I also rotate in either wheat/oat/rye or turnip/radish in smaller plots.  Both have there place. In my experience the last 20 years or so the rye plots have action longer but the turnips are crazy action for about a week. I have tried others but these are what I have had the most luck with and they almost always produce a hardy crop.

[GCook]

Unfortunately our soil is very sandy.
Okay it's sand.  And it does not retain moisture well so that is a consideration in our current strategy. 
We have planted sunflowers and cow peas this spring.   We disced, fertilized and planted then the rains abandoned us.  Between the turkeys and the doves I'm not sure how many seeds stayed in the ground to be soaked by the rains this weekend but like all who plant in the end mother nature either sustains or crushes. 
The plan is to plant crops that will provide food for the animals but also provide good nutrients for the soil as we disc it back in and over the years hopefully will improve the soil.
That said we have a long way to go and although we have sent off soil samples and are following the recommendations I know that it will never be a great place to grow clover type crops.

[Friend]

This year's foodplot tentative plan:

Three Clover fields
Two Alfalfa
Two Forage Oats
Two Standing corn
Two Throw and Grow

One mile of beans will Border the East
One quarter mile of beans will border the North East
One quarter mile of corn will border the North West
The old deer farm borders the West
One quarter mile of beans will border the South

[ESP]

What barassaca’s ( spelling?)do you use for food plots? I have tried raipe but it did not work well.

[gregg dudley]

Just put three food plots in and they have the same makeup.  Aeschynomene (joint vetch), sunn hemp, alyce clover and cow peas.  That mixture is heavy on the Aeschynomene.  I also planted some millet and some sorghum along the border for a screening measure.  The smallest plot is about .4 acres and the largest is about .7 acres.  Should get some rain this week to kick start things. 

In Florida, these Summer plots can run you through bowseason and into October if everything works out right. 

[Mike Bolin]

I put in a 1/3 acre of a ladino/alsike clover mix with forage oats as a nurse crop last September. Frost seeded more of the clover mix in March. Also spent a few weekends in January opening up an additional 1/3 acre plot and I planted it in forage oats in April, just to get something growing to stay ahead of the weeds. I will mow the new oats and disc them under in late summer and plant a clover mix with a winter rye nurse crop.

Really trying to provide a nearly year round food source, or at least as close as I can! The forage oats I planted last fall were eaten down to the bare dirt by the end of January...looked like I ran my disc through the plot. I like winter rye as a nurse crop and it pretty much gives them something green almost year round. The only reason I used oats last fall and this spring is that I picked up a 100# of Plot Spike forage oats for less than $20 at the local TSC!

I don't mow the rye to release the clover until mid to late June. The tall winter rye with the clover seems to make a good spot for the fawns. I started to mow the rye on Memorial Day weekend a few years back and decided to walk the plot first. I found a set of fawns bedded together and another single fawn bedded about 15 yards from the twins!

[hunting badger]

Thanks for all the good information and ideas. I'm new to this, I live in Alaska but in order to extend my hunting season I bought 40 acres in northeastern Arkansas, I haven't done any food plots or vegetation manipulation yet other than to mow the areas I want to eventually make into food plots.

[John Cholin]

I'm using Whitetail Institute (WINA) products.  I have 1/3rd acre in WINA clover next to the house and a second 1/3rd acre that is planted in their No-Plow mix.  That's an annual that comes up quick.  In August I will disc that under and plant their Tall Tine Tubers mix.  that should provide good forage for late fall and into winter.  My back field, about 1/2 acre is planted in a WINA clover/chicory mix that is a perennial.  I only have 28 acres and most of that is cover.

The weather prediction is for soft dry weather next week when my oaks will be in flower.  Its time to get fertilizer spikes in the ground!

Stick a Big One,

JMC

[Tedd]

I have some of everything out. White clover, sunflowers, chickory, sunn hemp, Egyptian wheat, Fixation clover (fixation clover is a fast growing hybrid that gets 3' tall and fixes an extreme amount of nitrogen into the ground), 2 dozen Dunstan chestnut trees, white pines, 4 true American chestnut seedlings, maples, a couple dozen hybrid willow sticks, about 150-200 acorns that were just about to sprout and a couple hemlocks. Not much growing yet. Actually nothing growing yet. I have a lot of Egyptian Wheat out and it needs 65 degrees plus day and night. It has been so cold this spring. And now with all the wind it is dry. 
 Reasoning? I'm new at it. Just experimenting with seed and fertilizers and lime. I haven't done much with weed spray so I could have some problems. Mostly I just want cover anyhow. The Egyptian wheat is for cover and privacy and to be able to hide on the way to a stand. The willows are for cover, the chestnut trees will draw deer some day (I never saw anything daw deer as powerfully as a chestnut tree when it is dropping nuts). The sunn hemp should make cover and food, I don't know how they will react to the chicory and clover. I am surrounded by agriculture. I might be better to make cover and let the neighbors feed the deer at night?

[Tedd]

Other reasoning is to guide/funnel deer within traditional bow range using the cover plantings. I have never attempted it before. It's fun to try to figure out how to lay a trap. Who knows if it will work at all. It seems like these days I don't like to shoot at a deer beyond 18 yards. Last season I watched deer pass by too often at 25-40 yards.

[GCook]

A soil test is a good first step.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Im just trying to find a way to pay for one!  I got quoted 600 for 4 acres.   

[Wudstix]

Hunt Government property/military reservation that is pretty poor land, just hunt the oak tree areas.  Not much chance to Scout or even get in the same area routinely.  If I get drawn to hunt at all.