Food Plots Not happy but it was my first try at a plot

[Stalkhunter]

I can say this very little activity in this weed bed lol.i seeded it but not to happy with it. The feeder has nothing in it, I have a yote and dog problem. Did not want fawns killed or turkey babies

 

[BSK]

Just remember deer can wipe out a small plot in short order, just after the plants germinate. For summer, I plant a mixture of soybeans, cowpeas, and buckwheat, and it doesn't take long for the plots to be only buckwheat. The deer come along and pick out the young soybean and cowpea plants before they can put on much growth.

 

[Ski]

Don't be discouraged if deer don't use your summer plot. You don't want them to. There's plenty natural food available during summer so it's the one time of year you can plant soil building crops without worry of deer destroying it. In fact I'd prefer a deer never step foot in my plots during summer. I want everything grown to die right where it grew, which fertilizes the fall plot when it actually matters.

 

[BSK]

Don't be discouraged if deer don't use your summer plot. You don't want them to. There's plenty natural food available during summer so it's the one time of year you can plant soil building crops without worry of deer destroying it. In fact I'd prefer a deer never step foot in my plots during summer. I want everything grown to die right where it grew, which fertilizes the fall plot when it actually matters.

You can actually use that as a measure of how much natural forage you have available in summer. If top-choice food plot plants are going uneaten in your summer plots, you have more than enough summer browse. If those same plants are vanishing very quickly from your plots in early summer, you have run out of high-quality summer browse.

 

[Griswold]

Over seed that with twice what you think you need in September with winter wheat and carry on

 

[bloodtrailing]

What did you plant?

 

[Popcorn]

All of my non-clover plots look like that or worse. Keep that mowed high and then kill it Late august or early September. This thatch will protect your winter crop some !

 

[BSK]

I'm starting to see the results of diminishing natural summer food sources. We cut timber in 2021 and all of the new regrowth took pressure off my summer plots for the next few years. I would see little use of the plots until late summer, when natural growth started to toughen up and become woody.

However, now 5 years out from timber removal, the regrowth has grown beyond the food stage and has transitioned into primarily thick woody cover habitat. And it shows in the food plots. They are getting hammered much earlier than previous years. Deer are tearing up the Buckwheat in late June, long before they had in previous years, when Buckwheat usage didn't peak until mid-August.

 

[Ski]

I'm starting to see the results of diminishing natural summer food sources. We cut timber in 2021 and all of the new regrowth took pressure off my summer plots for the next few years. I would see little use of the plots until late summer, when natural growth started to toughen up and become woody.

However, now 5 years out from timber removal, the regrowth has grown beyond the food stage and has transitioned into primarily thick woody cover habitat. And it shows in the food plots. They are getting hammered much earlier than previous years. Deer are tearing up the Buckwheat in late June, long before they had in previous years, when Buckwheat usage didn't peak until mid-August.

Grant Woods used to talk about harvesting timber in a pie pattern. If I recall the intention was to create an environment where there was always a rotation of staged habitat with big timber next to adolescent timber next to thicket next to fresh cut regen growth. By the time the harvest schedule made it through a cycle, the cycle would be ready again. It kept a property in a perpetual state of having every stage of growth. I'm certain the theory doesn't always mirror reality but the concept is intriguing.

 

[kevin mays]

You can do the same approach with your plots. You don't want all your planting at the same stage . So diverse habitat and staggered plantings is huge.
But sometimes we don't have that option because of acreage , time , and money
But it will keep deer and turkeys safe and fed which keeps them there

 

[Wonderland]

I did a cool season burn back in early February on 60 acres of timber, and that has taken all the pressure off my plots. I hardly get a picture from a plot even though there is ladino clover, buckwheat, and soybeans mixed in all plots, and I'm in an area of high deer density. Buckwheat has been flowering for the last couple of weeks, and that's normally when the deer hammer it here, and still no use. I highly recommend a good late winter prescribed fire through your timber to take pressure off your plots.

 

[BSK]

Grant Woods used to talk about harvesting timber in a pie pattern. If I recall the intention was to create an environment where there was always a rotation of staged habitat with big timber next to adolescent timber next to thicket next to fresh cut regen growth. By the time the harvest schedule made it through a cycle, the cycle would be ready again. It kept a property in a perpetual state of having every stage of growth. I'm certain the theory doesn't always mirror reality but the concept is intriguing.

He better have talked about it, considering I designed and flagged out those patterns for his clients! That was tedious work...

I used to follow a similar system for my place, but the pie sections turned out to be not big enough to make a huge difference. They certainly did help substantially, but it wasn't until we did a BIG cut (110 of 500 total acres) that we saw massive benefits. But I still intentionally broke that total acreage into a bunch of smaller sections (7 to be exact, largest being 20 acres).

 

[BSK]

You can do the same approach with your plots. You don't want all your planting at the same stage . So diverse habitat and staggered plantings is huge.

Don't "clean the food plot table," another Grant-ism.

But sometimes we don't have that option because of acreage , time , and money
But it will keep deer and turkeys safe and fed which keeps them there

I would love to do that, but time and weather generally don't allow me to be that specific.

 

[BSK]

The one Buckwheat food plot (closest to "civilization") that isn't getting hammered. It's about mid-thigh high:

 

[kevin mays]

I would love to do that, but time and weather generally don't allow me to be that specific.

Exactly me
When I get a window to go after it I try to clear my to do's

 

[BSK]

Exactly me
When I get a window to go after it I try to clear my to do's

I'm usually planting by the rain. I see a good rain coming, EVERYTHING gets planted, mowed, and sprayed! Hopefully, in a 48-hour period.

 

[kevin mays]

I just did that on 30acres of corn on a farm I have in west tn.
Had a great chance forecasted . Got 4.5 inches in 12 hrs.
Made a lot more work. It usually works out but this yr it's not been my best years.
Win some
Lose some

 

[Popcorn]

I'm usually planting by the rain. I see a good rain coming, EVERYTHING gets planted, mowed, and sprayed! Hopefully, in a 48-hour period.

Agreed. We live and die by the weather.
All of my summer "soil building" plots have been hammered and have nothing left but the grasses in the blends although my newly established clover is doing well.
I'm actually torn about a replant in existing Sudan sorghum & Egyptian wheat where all peas, beans, sun hemp, buckwheat and annual clover is gone!

 

[BSK]

Agreed. We live and die by the weather.
All of my summer "soil building" plots have been hammered and have nothing left but the grasses in the blends although my newly established clover is doing well.
I'm actually torn about a replant in existing Sudan sorghum & Egyptian wheat where all peas, beans, sun hemp, buckwheat and annual clover is gone!

Knowing how effective you are food plotting, and how many acres of food plots you have, you must have one heck of a deer density!

 

[redblood]

Dont feel bad, its a learning curve and im a slow learner. On a side note, one if the most attractive fall plots i have ever had was a failed crop in a plot that i planted too early. Native browse came up in the field after some heavy mid September rain and deer destroyed the new green native browse that followed

 

[Popcorn]

Knowing how effective you are food plotting, and how many acres of food plots you have, you must have one heck of a deer density!

It can be problematic if not down right annoying!
I have threatened to implement an earn a buck system but our guys already take more doe than most.

 

[Gunpowder]

First time I saw this title I read it as "Not Happy but it was first try as a PILOT" and I thought, "Dude you're alive, be happy"

 

[deerhunter10]

I'm usually planting by the rain. I see a good rain coming, EVERYTHING gets planted, mowed, and sprayed! Hopefully, in a 48-hour period.

The last several falls have been ridiculously annoying. We generally are sprayed sitting on ready. But then trusting the forecast is another story.

 

[BSK]

The last several falls have been ridiculously annoying. We generally are sprayed sitting on ready. But then trusting the forecast is another story.

That's why I make my own forecasts. Luckily, haven't been burned in a couple of years.

 

[deerhunter10]

That's why I make my own forecasts. Luckily, haven't been burned in a couple of years.

We haven't been burned in some time. When we planted early, September late August we got burned a lot.