Acres and price

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Guess it depends on how we define a "food" plot.

In a more traditional sense, will be less than 1% in cultivated "planted" plots.

But have about 10% of fresh clear-cuts (cut this past winter) that is now hundreds of acres of young ragweed --- and the deer seem to prefer that over anything I've ever purposefully "planted". That will become hundreds of acres of young greenbrier, blackberry, and honeysuckle this winter. Also have some mowed hay fields that always have a good bit of clover, yet don't look at them the same as the "totally for wildlife" FOOD plots. Then there are some fallow fields that get rotationally mowed, some parts every 2 or 3 years, some parts annually.

All in all, the deer where I'm doing most of my TN hunting seem to be very healthy, even with few traditional "food" plots and virtually no agricultural crops within 5 miles. I attribute this localized herd health to our having been "hammering" the does for many years, and keeping the deer population very healthily below what the habitat COULD support in the short term. As much of this habitat (lots of both recent select and clear cut) matures, the healthy carrying capacity will be significantly reduced. May need to install more "food" plots in the future.

In the meantime, my view is that cultivated "food" plots are highly over-rated and generally a poor use of my time and money (compared to just habitat manipulation in general). In terms of "pay back" for my time and money, nothing has compared to a brush mower and a chain saw for me.
 
We roughly have 6 acres of plots. Some this year on our farm we planted milo and beans. There is 1.5 acres of perennial clover on our farm and smaller fields on the lease (all joining).

I will break and plant probably 1-1.5 acres of annual stuff on our farm in those fields to go with the milo and clover for this winter.

Our other plots on the lease property is limited although with some dozer work it is fixing to be a little better. Mainly small 1/4 acre loading decks are planted. We do have two roads that we plant that are quite long (one near 400 yards I think the other is 200 yards).

We have a lot of clearcut, some 6 years old another was cut last year but won't be sprayed. They total near 400 acres.

It seems every year we find small areas within older pines where no pines were planted or died at a young age. We'll spray those areas, break them and plant small plots there. We do what we can with what we have.

They get hammered in late winter but unless an acorn failure like two years ago happens, our plots don't get totally destroyed. I think the amount of natural stuff helps. By March, most is gone though.

Next spring, we are going to plant lots of corn I hope. That should have late winter as it won't be harvested. Just left for the deer and probaby plant the milo also. I've read lots of good things on it for late winter.

Seems like I spend around $150 per acre on the plots. I buy my seed directly from the man who sells to all the seed places around here so my cost is lower than it would be if I went to the Co-op for example. The majority of that is fertilizer. WE haven't limed in two years but next spring will bring lots of back breaking work I'm sure. PH has been good last two years and my plots have been pretty darn good also.

Crossing fingers it stays that way.
 
I'll have about 3 acres out of 43(well, that's all I got!!), some corn, will put the majority in oats/wheat/barley. Need to get clover going again in a few spots. Gotta draw some deer in so the neighbors can shoot 'em! 3 mineral sites...rattlers in good health too.
 
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Once I get a stand of small grain, I just use ammonium nitrate to kick it in gear, equivalent to about 30-40 units/acre ($20-$30 worth of ammonia),,grain fairly thick, 2-3 bu./acre
 
Sounds like you need to fertilize more if you are only spending $150 on that much land.
 
Per acre. lol Man I wish I could spend $150 on everything.

We normally spend around $1000 on everything. At an average of 350lbs an acre for fertilizer, it don't take long to spend $150 per acre.

I did my figures last fall just for kicks. I averaged 7 bags of fertilizer on each field at $17 per which is $119. Usually around $30 on seed per acre (I think but that sounds about right)
 
We dont even have 20 acres total in food plots. you are always limited on leased land. but we have 30 fields all about 1/2 acre in size or a little larger spread out really well to at least provide for coverage and decent hunting. i would do more but we are restricted. Still i do love what we have been able to do!
 

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