Food Plots Mowing and planting schedule ?

[hammer33]

Been testing food plot vs grown up field in one place on the farm. So far I see far more bucks if I don't food plot the field and just mow some paths through the head high weeds. Right now its full of Iron weed, ragweed, blackberry briars, etc...
I want to mow spokes through it to create shooting lanes radiating out from the shooting tower.
Question is, When should it be mowed to allow regrowth for hunting season. Goal is to have high weeds for cover and strips with browse/forage to slow them down to snack as they pass through.

In the row cropped (soybeans this year) I usually hand broadcast winter wheat & oats into the standing beans at strategic locations. Last year with the drought the wheat didn't really start to do much until after hunting season. The year before the deer were hammering it early then ignoring it when it got too tall. What would be the ideal time to overseed to have good attraction in late October through December?

 

[BSK]

Mega will have an answer for you. he's been doing a lot of experimenting of late with natural forage areas mowed to produce regrowth peaking right during deer season.

If you plan to sow those shooting lanes with winter wheat for deer season, with MZ opening in early November, I wouldn't sow wheat until late September or early October, just before a rain. Wheat is at its most attractive deer early in its lifespan. I sow wheat into my plots for MZ season in early October, and it is just up and still very tender early to mid-November.

 

[bloodtrailing]

I would mow early August.

 

[hammer33]

Thanks! I have been relying on winter wheat and buck forage oats to do the heavy lifting, then mixing in some clover and turnips/raddish. The clover/turnips/raddish don't seem to do anything during deer season with the late planting but come on strong in early spring. Ill probably leave them out of the mix for the fields but will plant them in my experimental "worst dirt in TN" plot that I am attempting to rehab into something that doesnt resemble crushed bricks.

 

[BSK]

Thanks! I have been relying on winter wheat and buck forage oats to do the heavy lifting, then mixing in some clover and turnips/raddish. The clover/turnips/raddish don't seem to do anything during deer season with the late planting but come on strong in early spring. Ill probably leave them out of the mix for the fields but will plant them in my experimental "worst dirt in TN" plot that I am attempting to rehab into something that doesnt resemble crushed bricks.

I know all about crushed brick plot soil! Below is a picture of one of my new plots AFTER it had been tilled, but also after two hard rains that washed away what little silt there was near the surface and then it baked in the summer sun. Concrete hard. But the second picture is the exact same spot 3 years into throw-and-mow plantings of Buckwheat, Crimson Clover, and Wheat.

 

[hammer33]

I think I have about 10% more dirt mixed into my crushed brick than your picture ! Otherwise it looks the same.

 

[hammer33]

What is your recommendation for improving soil in the "brick yard" ?
I don't care about food plot in this spot as it abuts a good ag field, I just want to transform it from nearly useless to able to grow stuff.

 

[megalomaniac]

If you are wanting native browse primarily for cover, I'd bushhog late April/ early May (terrible for turkeys), then come back and bushhog the spokes in the regrowth as food/ travel lanes late July (in dry years) or as late as mid August (in wet summers).

Personally, this year I am bushhogging everything at the end of July, then putting my strips in with a 2nd bushhogging in early Sept. But I want the bulk of my natives in food this year, I have enough surrounding cover as all the elms dying has opened up a good bit of sunlight to the forest floor in the past 5 years.

 

[deerhunter10]

I have enough surrounding cover as all the elms dying has opened up a good bit of sunlight to the forest floor in the past 5 years.

Whats causing the elms to die? We dont have many but all of ours are looking good. We dont have an ash tree alive anywhere and haven't in 3 or 4 years.

 

[megalomaniac]

Whats causing the elms to die? We dont have many but all of ours are looking good. We dont have an ash tree alive anywhere and haven't in 3 or 4 years.

you are right, it was the ash that all died, not elms .

 

[hammer33]

Thanks Mega, Im going to gamble and wait until mid August to mow my spokes. Only ag fields and mature wood lots around so leaving that field in tall weeds puts it on the travel route for a lot of deer. During late October through Dec. young bucks check it out daily looking for girls. Every other year or so a mature buck will check it out during daylight.
Last year I mowed it in late July and overseeded a wheat/oat/clover mix in the strips. the drought kept it from doing much of anything until January.

 

[rifle02]

you are right, it was the ash that all died, not elms .

Darn, megalomaniac, The Elms all died in the '60s. How old are you?