Food plot

[kebo]

Yesterday I fixed up my food plot on the gas line where I deerhunt at. Two weeks ago I ran the cultivator through it a couple ofpasses to break it up. Friday evening I got the disc harrow on it and ran it through it a couple passes to work it over pretty good. Saturday morning I put the cultipacker on it to break up the bigger dirt clods and pack it down nice and firm. Then I got my little walk behind spreader and put out about 75 lbs of Pennington seed mix and then ran the cultipacker back over it.


I think next weekend I will get the spreader and top cast the remaining 25lbs of seed and then 2 bags of fertilizer, and that should do it. This plot will have 100lbs of seed on it, which is probably a bit much, but last year I put out one 50lb bag on it and it seemed to be pretty thin when it came up. I am sure the birds get some of the seed, so I put out some extra seed for them this year. Now just need some rain, which there's supposed to be a decent chance Monday & Tuesday.

 

[houser52]

Good looking ground you have there.
Hope you and I both get some rain. We're down about 8" for the year. I planted some peanuts back in the spring and they didn't even come up for the lack of rain.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm doing mine today. Forecast is for rain tonight, so I'm hoping they are right.

I split my food plot in half and plant two different mixes on each half. I've been doing this with different brands for years. I've found that they love the beans like lablab before it freezes, then sort of randomly pick through what's left during the rest of the season. I have yet to find something that holds them, or that they tear up after the beans freeze. Every time I see pics of a group of deer out eating in a food plot, I wonder what I'm doing wrong.

The only thing that I have found that really brings them in is Deer Cain Black Magic. It's an attractant that you pour over a 4 ft area that remains wet as long as possible. It smells kind of like a weird cool aid and the deer love it!!! They make trails going to it through the food plot and in all my pictures, that is where they are at. We discovered it late last year and never saw a legal buck during hunting season, but since then, we have pictures of several that now seem to hang out there.

 

[kebo]

Nice looking bucks Eddie! Have you tried planting rape? Supposedly that's one that the deer like better after a few frosts. Maybe try some clover too, if you haven't already?

Here's a pic of my food plot looking at it from the stand, towards the east. The gas line runs east-west, once the sun gets over the tree tops, it gets brutal trying to look that way. That morning there were about 8 deer that crossed the gas line, the last one was a small buck. I think he had procreation on his mind, so I let him take his chances with the ladies lol. That little thing in the food plot just behind the deer is an excluder fence. It helps you judge how much the deer are using the plot by excluding a small part so that the critters can't get to it.



Another pic showing how the morning sun and mist can make it hard to see them. You can also see the neighbors food plot just about 300 yds from mine.

 

[EddieWalker]

Is that from last year? Looks like they really like what you have there for them!!!

I have tried rape and a few different types of clover. The rape was totally ignored and the clover does nothing until late in winter and early spring. They seem to like it then, but it just takes too long to get going, and then the summer heat kills it.

I've seen them nibble on turnips after they freeze, which I believe is because the freeze changes the flavor and makes the leaves sweet. But they just eat a bite or two while walking through the field.

 

[Zerk]

Growing season lot different down there. I would have had in before labor day. We got frost any day. I heard some already had it. Plus to be ready by November gun season. Bow is open in wisconsin, but michigan 10/1

I have been doing clover, because I want something that keeps coming back. I have done some buckwheat. Grows any where, help soils.

I put away from my blind, with idea it attracts deer early in year, but is gone by hunting season. Don't want it competing with my bait.

Just starting out, but tired of time and money on baiting, more so time.

 

[kebo]

Yep, both pic's (I added another one) were from last year. That was the first year for that food plot. I used a Pennington mix that had wheat, oats, rape, peas, and some clover in it. I didn't get a chance to fertilize it last year, but will definitely do it next weekend. That should help it a lot, and hopefully we get a bit more rain this fall than we had last year.

 

[EddieWalker]

I fertilize and add lime in the spring. I don't think it does anything for several months and by then, the season is over. I plant twice a year to try and keep them around. I'm 90 percent sure it's a waste of time, but that ten percent chance that it might do something keeps me doing it

 

[Zerk]

Gives you an excuse to ride the tractor

 

[farmer2009]

Eddie. Have you tried winter wheat?

Around here that works well. Seams like all the "deer" mixes have wheat in them.

 

[jeff9366]

I think next weekend I will get the spreader and top cast the remaining 25lbs of seed and then 2 bags of fertilizer. Last year I put out one 50lb bag on it and it seemed to be pretty thin when it came up.

I would take soil samples and get a soil test. You may find the addition of one or two specific nutrients will double or triple your seed germination rate.

Where I live, Boron is deficient. You never know without a soil test.

 

[Zerk]

I bought a couple books on food plots, though I really haven't followed it. They do talk about getting soil tested, finding what grows best.

 

[PoorPlowboy]

I've got a 30 acre pasture and a few years ago I made over a dozen 1 acre foodplots with specific seed broadcast in each one to find out what they liked the most in my area. Bar none, they didn't touch anything else until the hard red winterwheat was grazed down. After that, they seemed to graze the two with plain oats and the Biologic chicory/rye mix about equally. The turnip, rape, milo, clover, radish, and the rest were untouched as long as they were presented with any of the first three.

The bossy "alpha" does would fight like crazy over the winterwheat plot and try to run everyone else out. The "beta" does would seem to gather at the oats and rye until the alphas would get their fill before sneaking their way back over to the wheat. The young bucks would follow the does whichever way they went, and the big boys never had food on their mind when they would stroll out.

 

[clemsonfor]

Eddie. Have you tried winter wheat?

Around here that works well. Seams like all the "deer" mixes have wheat in them.

cause wheat looks good and is cheap so its filler in the seed mixes. They do eat it as well.


Eddie, lime takes 6 month, fertilizer is much quicker than that. results can be seen in weeks!! just put it on a growing plot, where you put it is deep green and taller!

 

[EddieWalker]

I've tried winter wheat and think it looks real pretty out there, but I haven't seen anything that indicated the deer care for it. I know some guys in other areas of Texas swear by it, but I haven't had those results.

I've fertilized in the fall before and haven't noticed any difference in how my food plot grows compared to lime and fertilizing in the spring only. I have never tried fertilizing once the plants start to come up, and might give that a try this year.

To me, food plots are all about experimenting and trying new ideas!!!!

 

[coobie]

Had a few visitors in my food plot this past year 2014.Seen a few more this past spring 2015.They love the clover..

 

[farmer2009]

I've tried winter wheat and think it looks real pretty out there, but I haven't seen anything that indicated the deer care for it. I know some guys in other areas of Texas swear by it, but I haven't had those results. I've fertilized in the fall before and haven't noticed any difference in how my food plot grows compared to lime and fertilizing in the spring only. I have never tried fertilizing once the plants start to come up, and might give that a try this year. To me, food plots are all about experimenting and trying new ideas!!!!

Maybe it's the population around you. I have some very heavy hunting pressure around me. My land joins public land. I see very few deer and in 6 years I've seen one buck. This summer actually. I can't move during hunting season without seeing a hunter. Now small game and turkey I'm covered up in. Very little hunting pressure there.

 

[clemsonfor]

Had a few visitors in my food plot this past year 2014.Seen a few more this past spring 2015.They love the clover..

nice group of bachlor bucks

 

[kebo]

Thought I would post some updated pic's I took last Saturday of the same food plot I put in about three weeks ago. It's coming up nicely after all the floods we've had here in SC the last couple weeks. Here at my house in Lexington, I've had about 24" of rain over the last three weeks! In the upstate where my plot is it got about half of that over the same period.

Looking towards the east:


Washed out section from all the rain we've had:


Other end looking west:


And here's the money shot.


Last Sunday morning was the opening day of rifle season for the upstate on private land, so I sat in the condo from sun up until about 11:30am and saw 10 deer I think. I saw a 4pt early on, then mid morning I watched a spike cross the gas line (which is in the pic above) and then later on had a decent 6ptr cross at the same location as the spike did, only he was going in the opposite direction. He was a buck on a mission with his head down to the ground and walking at a very steady pace.

I'm taking off work this Friday, will be back there all day and Saturday too.