Food Plots Crimson Clover

DoubleRidge

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Checking on a few food plots today and spot spraying some thistle before it blooms....was very pleased to see the crimson clover doing good from last year's fall blend.
 

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DoubleRidge

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Yeah....the picture attached is of a plot we spread a fall blend on last year....don't remember what percent of the blend was crimson? But plot was previously just pasture grass and weeds...didn't do anything but spray....spread co-op blend....and mow....it greened up with wheat and oats last fall but wasn't sure if any of the clover did anything?....until this spring and I now see the blooms.....now we have a hen nesting in edge of plot so I'm leaving it alone until I know she's done.
 

JCDEERMAN

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The crimson is out in full right now. Ours is just over knee height. Boy is it pretty. Cereal rye is over our heads. We sprayed all of our fields Saturday. In two weeks we will drill a mixture of soybeans, sorghum and sunflowers. Sure hope we got good coverage with the sprayer - that rye was THICK and TALL. Exactly what we wanted though - for as much green manure as possible to put back into the soil.
 

BSK

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The crimson is out in full right now. Ours is just over knee height. Boy is it pretty. Cereal rye is over our heads. We sprayed all of our fields Saturday. In two weeks we will drill a mixture of soybeans, sorghum and sunflowers. Sure hope we got good coverage with the sprayer - that rye was THICK and TALL. Exactly what we wanted though - for as much green manure as possible to put back into the soil.
VERY hard to beat cereal rye for silage incorporation into the soil. If I had been planting my new plots in fall, that's what I would have planted. But since they're being planted for summer, I went with buckwheat.
 

BSK

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That's what my plots looked like, but also lots of seeded out wheat too. But part of that is because I've been planting crimson clover in my plots for over 20 years. Lots of seed built up in the seed bank.
 

BSK

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Turkeys do! But I think it's more for the insects they attract than the actual plant
When crimson clover first germinates, turkey eat the snot out of it. They eat the mature plants too but not with the vigor of the young, just out of the ground plants.

Deer eat crimson, but it isn't as preferred as some of the other varieties. I use crimson so much because it will grow in my nasty soils! Many others will not.
 

TheLBLman

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Deer eat crimson, but it isn't as preferred as some of the other varieties. I use crimson so much because it will grow in my nasty soils! Many others will not.
x 2
I also like crimson because it is relatively "cheap" 🙂

Deer may not "like" crimson as much as ladino & other varieties,
BUT when crimson is the only clover around, they certainly do "like" it!

It's just hard to beat the Co-Op "value" of self-blending some cheap winter wheat, crimson, and brassicas.
 

CATCHDAWG

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Bradley co. TN
When crimson clover first germinates, turkey eat the snot out of it. They eat the mature plants too but not with the vigor of the young, just out of the ground plants.

Deer eat crimson, but it isn't as preferred as some of the other varieties. I use crimson so much because it will grow in my nasty soils! Many others will not.
Have you tried any berseem clovers? Some of my soil is pretty crappy but berseem grows well and the deer love it.
 

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