Landsculpting?

[USAFpj]

Guys, I'm an absolute newb to scaping and cultivating land for food plots. How do you guys 'even up' slight rolling hill land to where its best suited for a plot, without ruining your top soil? Do you scrape it, and stack it off to the side as your last step?

If I look at a cross section of (1) acre that I'm interested in working on, there's plenty of year around water, but one side is approx. 3ft higher than the other. Can this be cultivated as is, or is the goal to always have the flattest plot as possible, which means pulling the soil from the high side to place into the low side?

Thanks for the education.

 

[s219]

3 feet over 1 acre is not a lot of slope unless it's all happening in a smaller area. Depends on what you are planting and harvesting, but for most things a slight slope wouldn't bother me at all. I wouldn't cut into a hill unless there was a specific reason the plot needed to be flat (or flatter).

 

[jeff9366]

3 feet over 1 acre is not a lot of slope unless it's all happening in a smaller area. Depends on what you are planting and harvesting, but for most things a slight slope wouldn't bother me at all. I wouldn't cut into a hill unless there was a specific reason the plot needed to be flat (or flatter).

^ ^ ^ I agree. ^ ^ ^​

Food plot seed mixes are eager germinators. If some dirt shows, you roll the seed in and have reasonable rain thereafter, germination is likely to be good.

If you mess with that slope without the time to follow through completely grading you are likely to create erosion channels.

Perhaps the three most common tractor implements used for food plot creation are Disc Harrows (or) PTO-powered Rototillers and Cultipackers to roll the seed in.

Few experienced food plotters would prepare food plot land like a revenue generating field.

 

[skipperbrown]

You really need earth moving equipment to efficiently reshape land. Unless you want to spend a lot of money and/or time, use the land you have to its best potential. If it's too steep in one place, don't disturb the soil, just plant around it. Really, the deer don't mind walking around a bad section.

 

[USAFpj]

Hello, Craig! It's been a while, huh??

I'll post up a pic of the land when I return, but that 3ft difference in elevation is over a 50y wide run, and it continues lengthwise of approximately 100y. That's where I got my acre:laughing:

I have access to all of those implements to include a JD350 crawler. I'd rather not reshape the land, but I'm all ears.

 

[nyone]

Dont bother trying to make it flat. Your going to remove topsoil you need to properly grow. Deer dont care its not flat, plants dont care its not flat, only you care.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Unless you want a tennis court there, it's fine.

 

[USAFpj]

Unless you want a tennis court there, it's fine.

:laughing::laughing: