Let’s talk Food Plots.....

[TIM B]

I know a bunch of guys have plots out.  What’s your favorite and plan to get them in the ground and growing good?

I have 3 small plots less than an acre each, and am adding another now.  My go-to plot has been spray and kill everything, disk up and broadcast 100lbs 13-13-13, broadcast 50lb wheat, then disk in lightly.  Then broadcast 3lb white clover and drive over it repeatedly until I think it has good seed/soil contact.  I also added 600lbs of lime to the plots early spring. 

This has been a good plot that lasts a couple 3 years and I’ll do them all over. 
I hope this helps someone and I hope someone can help me make it better.
Tim B

[kennym]

I planted 4 ish acres of beans on the lease I manage. Have had seven deer in a pic and beans have been three inches tall for two months. Not gonna make any winter food if the keep them ate down like this.

So I disced up a strip and put some brassicas mix in it
Hope the radishes, turnips and rape will make something but doubting it.

Just too many mouths there

[olddogrib]

Never tried one, but a relative said he'd had some luck with the "Thro & Gro" mix.  I'm semi-retired, got more time than ever before and figured what the heck. It says you can plant spring and fall, we'll see.   Not exactly as described....weed-killer, 400 lb. of lime (which I misread and put out 40...I'm still in denial I need glasses), 75 lb fertilizer, etc.  Did I mention I'm a lazy farmer.?  But I am glad I read the labels of the weed killer I was getting reading to use. The Round-up Extended recommends a 4-month wait before planting!  Went with Killz-all, which says 2 weeks, but I had to do it twice.  Stay tuned.

[kstout]

I've had good luck planting Rye. Seed is cheap, and the deer love it. My ground is sandy, and it is hard to get anything to grow, but the rye greens up nicely in the fall. I usually plant it about the first of September, just before predicted rain. It sprouts quickly, and starts to green up in a short time.  Stays green through the winter, into the spring, then grows tall with seed heads that the turkeys love to eat.

[ESP]

Oats and cereal rye  Have been productive around here.   Winter wheat is great in January.

[Zwickey-Fever]

I plant brassicas, turnips, white and crimson clovers. I plant the white clover in shaded areas and  I mow clover plots at least twice a year, helps them come in thicker. But one thing I have learned about attracting deer in the fall, corn is the best. I have a corn in a lot of my food plots and one of my food plots is entirely corn that I let standing all year. I noticed that deer like their privacy so all my food plots are secluded. I used to have water tanks in three of my plots but due to being hit with EHD pretty hard two years ago, I removed them. 

[GCook]

.

Just too many mouths there

That's a good problem to have.

[Basinboy]

I just disc’ed up two lanes that the timber company thinned this stand about a month ago. Planed soybeans and winter wheat yesterday.

[Zeebob]

I have perennial clover plots on our 40 acres that work pretty much year around.  I will spread  pasture wheat seed on all of them in late September and mow after I spread the seed.  The wheat and clover provide a lot of feed. 

In the spring the wheat really takes off…eventually it goes to seed, the turkeys love that. The wheat helps keep the weeds down in the clover too.

When I do a new clover plot, in the fall,  I plant wheat first, then over seed with clover and turnips.  I use the tractor to make sure the clover and turnips are packed into the soil.  I don’t see much clover until the following spring.  This system has worked great for me.

I’ve tried a number of perennial white clovers but Imperial Whitetail clover produces the most forage and lasts the longest for me.  In any case, the deer use our food plots year around..

[gregg dudley]

My summer plots were planted in sorghum, iron clay peas, sunflowers, and aeschynomene.  The peas were mowed down as soon as they sprouted and I never saw a sunflower make.  The sorghum and aeschynomene are doing very well. 

The aeschynomene in my test cage is 18 inches tall and getting nipped at the top.  The plants in the plots are an inch to three inches tall so I know they are getting browsed pretty hard.  I really like it because it can stand heavy moisture and heavy browse.

Picture was five days after planting.  I'm sure they were mowing down the emerging peas.

[degabe]

My Dad started planting wheat patches in the  early 60s and we are still planting the same areas.

[olddogrib]

First update.  Upside of Fred...my food plot got plenty of rare August rain last week.  I guessing it's rye grass in the mixture and was already sprouted this weekend when I fertilized, despite my best efforts to "dumb it up" as a farmer sewing in shade and under-liming it!  I guess a blind hog really can pick up an acorn every now and then....

[kennym]

Here is the edge of beans on lease where I disced and planted the brassica mix, the beans are still same height. They keep them mowed off and will be no beans for later so I made a 30’ wide strip of the other stuff .

[kennym]

Now here is my bean plot a mile from the lease . They are keeping them about 15” tall but putting on pods so may have something to eat later.

[kennym]

And finally the brassica plot is growing but the deer haven’t started eating it yet . Maybe after frost it will be more attractive...

[Mike Bolin]

I've got 4 plots on 80 acres, one that is a 1/4 acre, another is 1/3 acre and two micro plots. The "micro plots" were planted in places where the loggers parked their equipment when the property was logged 9 years back and they are basically oval shaped and no more than 50' by 75'.
I just started the 1/3 acre plot last fall with a clover mix and winter rye as a nurse crop and it looks really good. We had rain predicted for this coming week so I trimmed it to 6" to help keep the weeds at bay, but now the rain has been dropped from the forecast. The ground was still holding good moisture so I am thinking that the clover will be ok.
The 1/4 acre was in clover, but I'd been fighting smartweed for a couple of years and it finally won the battle. Killed the plot right after green up, disked it a couple of weeks later, then sprayed it again 2 weeks later. Replanted it in a brassica, oats and wheat mix right before a rain 2 weeks ago and it is doing well. Had extra seed from that planting, so I used it in the the two micro plots.
I've not had much experience with a brassicas other than turnips, so time will tell if the deer use them much. Being kind of new to brassicas, I added the grains because I know the deer will eat them. I did throw out a few turnips several years ago, but the deer took them to the ground when they got to be about 4" tall. Obviously the deer on the property hadn't read any of the articles telling them that they don't like turnips until after the first frost! There is also a 2 1/2 acre field that a neighbor mows for grass hay that gets some activity, but with the last cutting being around Labor Day there isn't a lot of nutrition left there going into the fall.