Food plots

minerals, IMO only work well in places deer don't have access to things naturally
and there seasonal more than not

I am lucky have deer in my yard daily, and a few thousand area's of forested land surrounding my place, nearest AG lands are several miles away!
but do have about a combination of a 100 acres of food plots around my place! on local gun clubs lands and some on mine!

have tired about every mineral block there is, for kicks, and stuck camera's over them, minus being able to just look out a window or sit on deck and see things
and 90% of the blocks, minerals I have put out HERE, get ignored and just erode as rains do so! there basically useless IMO< as attracting or pulling a deer to them!

BUT I have placed some in other locations and had good luck with SOME things,
which I again have come to believe it has to do with what the area there in provides or doesn't!
so there very hit and more miss than anything IMO
I wouldn;t consider them a LURE to use for hunting deer in any way shape or form based on my experiences with them!
best time of yr IMO to use them would be spring time to add something to nursing females and MAYBE for growing antlers but wouldn;t consider it a BIG help either way!
 
I've been planting food plots for several years and do pretty much like everyone else. I bushhog wait two weeks, spray with roundup (generic glysophate is way cheaper and the same thing by the way) wait a week and then disk. I do have a question. Do you guys see any value in turning before disking? I don't have a turning plow but thinking of getting one.
By the way I have a 6 year old Kuboda 38 hp that meets my needs. I keep up a mostly wooded 100 acre trac and plant about 10 - 12 acres While new cost is an investment mine will sell today for about what I paid for it.
 
I've been planting food plots for several years and do pretty much like everyone else. I bushhog wait two weeks, spray with roundup (generic glysophate is way cheaper and the same thing by the way) wait a week and then disk. I do have a question. Do you guys see any value in turning before disking? I don't have a turning plow but thinking of getting one.
By the way I have a 6 year old Kuboda 38 hp that meets my needs. I keep up a mostly wooded 100 acre trac and plant about 10 - 12 acres While new cost is an investment mine will sell today for about what I paid for Your
 
I've been planting food plots for several years and do pretty much like everyone else. I bushhog wait two weeks, spray with roundup (generic glysophate is way cheaper and the same thing by the way) wait a week and then disk. I do have a question. Do you guys see any value in turning before disking? I don't have a turning plow but thinking of getting one.
By the way I have a 6 year old Kuboda 38 hp that meets my needs. I keep up a mostly wooded 100 acre trac and plant about 10 - 12 acres While new cost is an investment mine will sell today for about what I paid for it.
I seen NO reason to turn over soil with a plow for most of your food plot seeds
all you will do IMO< is turn up old seeds in the soil, and possible turn good top soil down to a lower depth, doing more harm than good, not to mention the possible loss of top soil from rains before things build back a solid base!
99% of all the major food plot seeds do not require a site to be plowed, most seeds just need a few inches at most of un compacted soil to grow well
going deeper just isn;t worth the doing so IMO! wasting time fuel and doing more harm than good!

I think a decent disc is about as deep soil turning over tool as one needs for food plotting, plows are almost a thing of the past in most places, due to they are not really needed anymore!

and yes I fully agree a tractor is pretty much like an investment any more, with current prices climbing so fast,
a well taken care of machine will hold its value a LONG time! possibly even be worth more than one paid for it

its a crazy time were living in!
 
I live in Northwest Alabama and I Bush hog wait 1week spray, disc when dead, then plant a 3 way blend of oats, wheat, and rye. I usually add extra rye. 300lbs of 13-13-13 per acre then I cut it very lightly with a disc. I also try to lime about every 5-7yrs. Always works for me .I did in the beginning took soil samples which you need as a baseline as to where to start so you know what kind of soil you are working with.
 

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Anyone doing a fall food plot this year? If so, what are you planting? Also, if you use roundup, how far in advance of planting do you start killing back the weeds? Just wondering if I start too soon, will they start growing back before I start seeding. I was thinking about just doing cereal rye again and probably seeding around the end of Sept, beginning of Oct.
For those of you who grow food be sure to understand that 99.99% of the population doesn't understand how to grow food so when the food supply collapses it's your farms that millions of starving people will be attacking. Farming was able to emerge 9000 years ago only after the year long (high investment cost) in the crop was able to be martially defended. The truth is there won't be any farming because there are too few people who know how to grow food, a lost art, and they will be swamped by starving people. We gave the female empathic brain the right to vote and now we die. End of story.
 
Do a soil test it will give ask for ph level some areas require lime to get it to a more neutral level. I chisel and plow after a rain in September. That usually takes care of weeds. I wait until another rain. Allow a few days for the upper soul to firm up and dry some. Don't want to get stuck in bottom areas. I then combine oats and wheat and use a grain drill. On the smaller two acre plots I will work the area as stated get a feed tub and get arrow leaf clover and inoculate then mix in oats and wheat with the clover and use a spin hopper to spread and use a smaller eight foot disc with a pipe drag attached. I lengthen the top link so the back discs are in the soil with the drag packing the soil. With enough moisture the seeds will germinate it take about a couple of weeks to come up. I wait until the plants are up are couple of inch's watch the weather and get the fertilizer down. I use about 100 pounds in the the acre the seeding rate is about 80 lbs to the acre. It take a couple of months t for the plants to fork. Around Feb. I then use the fields for grazing my cattle. The down side is I have all the neighboring properties with their shooting boxes all around my fields. They benefit from my work.
 
Anyone doing a fall food plot this year? If so, what are you planting? Also, if you use roundup, how far in advance of planting do you start killing back the weeds? Just wondering if I start too soon, will they start growing back before I start seeding. I was thinking about just doing cereal rye again and probably seeding around the end of Sept, beginning of Oct.
5 to 7 days, rye, winter wheat and oats. Winter peas but the pound those down pretty fast….
 
If you want to pull in deer late season,
Go to your local feed store, ask who does small acreage disking and hire them to break it up.
Get your soil test and plant winter wheat in early Oct. Apply fertilize according to the soil test recommendations a couple weeks after it comes up.
The same feed store Probly has a wildlife mix that works well in your area, but from past experience, wheat is hard to beat.
 
Agree roundup 7-10 days before you plant and plant something the neighbors don't have, we are seeing good much needed rain here in Texas. I'm sure what ever you plant will do well.
 
Anyone doing a fall food plot this year? If so, what are you planting? Also, if you use roundup, how far in advance of planting do you start killing back the weeds? Just wondering if I start too soon, will they start growing back before I start seeding. I was thinking about just doing cereal rye again and probably seeding around the end of Sept, beginning of Oct.
I start spraying in May and try to keep up with it through the summer, but got behind this year. Just me, a 4 gal sprayer, and a 500-600 yard walk from the parking spot. Would be easier with an ATV and 25 gal boom sprayer. That way I could stay on top of it through the summer.

Got my brassicas on the ground right before rain in late July. I broadcast seed, spray plot start, and pray the predicted rain comes through for me. I will follow up with nitrogen this weekend or next and broadcast out cereal rye and or winter wheat in other plots and also to fill in bare spots.

I also broadcasted some clover a couple weeks back, going to see tomorrow how everything is looking.

Easiest things to get to grow that are worth it for a good plot IMHO are cereal/winter/annual rye and brassicas, also winter wheat. Clover is a nice small seed but I'm planning on that more for the spring, but may have gotten it down early enough that I could get appreciable growth this fall yet. Assuming your soil is in good shape, just broadcast those seeds before 1/2 inch of rain and your good to go. I'm up in PA so plan on first frost being late October here meaning I shot for brassicas 8-10 weeks prior and cereal grains in September with rain in the forecast being the most important dictator of when I'm putting seed out.

Hope that helps. Good luck, it's rewarding to see deer hammer your plots.
 

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