Food Plots Rocks

[diamond hunter]

Besides hard labor and child slave labor ect,how do I get 291 million baseball sized and smaller rocks out of a 2 acre field?

 

[DoubleRidge]

For loose rocks, sticks and roots I've used a 3pt landscape rake before. But once it becomes full of trash it will become like a blade and you'll be dragging topsoil...so do small areas at a time.
Also...I don't own one but you may be able to rent a harley rake which can be effective at collecting rocks without moving as much top soil.

 

[deerhunter10]

If you have that much rock stop working it up and start no tilling it. If there's that many on top there double or triple the amount below it. They make rock rakes and attachments for tractors and skid steers. Could try a harley rake if you can get your hands on one.

 

[diamond hunter]

Im thinking some kids and some money.

 

[BSK]

I've almost given up fighting my rock fields. I suspect I will attempt a full no-till no-drill planting sequence next year.

 

[Omega]

I've almost given up fighting my rock fields. I suspect I will attempt a full no-till no-drill planting sequence next year.

I was the same way, I had an area between two hills widened by a bulldozer, turned out great, until heavy rains turned it into a rock field.

Originally it looked like this

Opened up, after a heavy down pour all those rocks started surfacing.

Frustrated, I just broadcast seed corn and it filled in rather nicely.

Now, since I use it as a range too, I just lay down grass seed. I use the box blade to level it out some now and then, and remove some of the larger rocks, which keep showing up no matter how many I remove.

 

[BSK]

That little valley strip food plot looks great Omega! I've got one just like it. 10-15 yards wide and 150 yards long. My only "bottomland" food plot.

 

[BSK]

Every planting technique has its positives and negatives. But after dealing with summer and fall droughts the last two years, Popcorn and Mega have convinced me to stick with the no-till method (and for my fields, that also mean no-drill because the ground is too hard and rocky for a drill). The no-till method won't produce as productive of a plot as one that has been tilled and gets adequate rain throughout the growing season, but how often do we get adequate rain through any growing season these days? Very rarely. To have some type of plot growing in fall, I'm going to stick with the throw-and-mow no-till methodology, even though that reduces the plots' productivity in those years when we get a lot of fall rain (the minority).

Spring/summer = beans and Sorghum
Fall = Crimson Clover, wheat, Buckwheat

 

[wildlifefarmer]

Corn this year drilled with 2 row nt drill into mature crimson clover. Now cc is coming back In between the rows.

 

[BSK]

What an awesome plot wildlifefarmer! What I wouldn't give for actual soil instead of the chert/rock fields I have on these ridgetops.

 

[wildlifefarmer]

What an awesome plot wildlifefarmer! What I wouldn't give for actual soil instead of the chert/rock fields I have on these ridgetops.

That's been 10 years in the making of the soil. No lime added in the past two years just fertilizing. Only time it did not do well was during last summer's (1 yr ago) drought. But it is all about timing. Mother Nature can be cruel. I'm just glad I don't farm for a living!!

 

[hammer33]

What an awesome plot wildlifefarmer! What I wouldn't give for actual soil instead of the chert/rock fields I have on these ridgetops.

Have you looked into biochar? Saw a podcast where they were talking about how the Incas ? transformed poor soil into super fertile soil using biochar. I figure they used some form of prescribed fire on the fields regularly to create the carbon.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I've picked rocks out of some fields for 15 years and still have more.

 

[Biggun4214]

When I was a kid we picked up tons of what my Dad called sheep skull rocks from a field every year. It looked like a small rock fence around the field. When I said something about all the rocks we moved he told me that his brothers had been picking up rocks since he was a kid.
I think all we were doing was stimulating the rocks into reproduction mode.

 

[BSK]

I think many assume I'm exaggerating when I talk about the rock in my plots. My ridge-top plots are nothing but chert rock. That is why the ridges exist. They are solid chert. The below picture was taken in the middle of one of my newer plots. And unbelievably, that plot has been tilled 6-inches deep twice before that picture was taken. Problem is, the small amount of clay "soil" that exists (holds the chert together as concrete) just settles back down around the chert the first hard rain and you're back with a rock field. After all the work of getting a tractor and sturdy tiller to till these plots, I've finally decided that's not the way to go. I'm going back to broadcast seeding and mowing as a planting technique. I'm more limited on seed choices, and germination/growth not as good as a tilled field, but when things get dry, the "throw-and-mow" plots survive while the tilled plots do not, and we have far too many dry spells in summer/fall.

 

[Popcorn]

I think many assume I'm exaggerating when I talk about the rock in my plots. My ridge-top plots are nothing but chert rock. That is why the ridges exist. They are solid chert. The below picture was taken in the middle of one of my newer plots. And unbelievably, that plot has been tilled 6-inches deep twice before that picture was taken. Problem is, the small amount of clay "soil" that exists (holds the chert together as concrete) just settles back down around the chert the first hard rain and you're back with a rock field. After all the work of getting a tractor and sturdy tiller to till these plots, I've finally decided that's not the way to go. I'm going back to broadcast seeding and mowing as a planting technique. I'm more limited on seed choices, and germination/growth not as good as a tilled field, but when things get dry, the "throw-and-mow" plots survive while the tilled plots do not, and we have far too many dry spells in summer/fall.

That picture makes me have a strong urge to plant turnips, radishes, crimson clover and wheat!

On another thought, the biochar comment reminded me, For many years growing up in Putnam county down near the lake we had limestone with very little soil. My grandfather would pile wood slabs and woodland debris all year to eventually burn it down to ash and charcoal for our tobacco plant bed and he always had great plants from those beds.

 

[megalomaniac]

Growing up on the farm, you PRAYED it didn't rain during hay season. When i was 14yo, the dry days I ran the haybine in the mornings and the baler in the afternoon.

On days it rained and we couldnt make hay, I walked the fields with a pickaxe picking up rocks and pitching them into the bucket of the front end loader as my papaw drove the tractor behind me. That's probably the main reason why I changed my mind about being a farmer after I grew up. Borderline child abuse.

 

[BSK]

That picture makes me have a strong urge to plant turnips, radishes, crimson clover and wheat!

On another thought, the biochar comment reminded me, For many years growing up in Putnam county down near the lake we had limestone with very little soil. My grandfather would pile wood slabs and woodland debris all year to eventually burn it down to ash and charcoal for our tobacco plant bed and he always had great plants from those beds.

Lots and lots of crimson clover and wheat! Sadly, the deer aren't as fond of turnips on my place as other areas. I've used them quite a bit, but their draw to deer is quite short-lived (a brief period after the first hard freeze).

When we first started playing with food plots 25 years ago, we turned a fresh log-loading deck into a plot. The logger had piled up the wood trash in a big pile at one end of the plot and then burned it. To this day, that spot in the plot is still the best soil. Everything grows better in that spot.

 

[buckaroo]

Lots and lots of crimson clover and wheat! Sadly, the deer aren't as fond of turnips on my place as other areas. I've used them quite a bit, but their draw to deer is quite short-lived (a brief period after the first hard freeze).

When we first started playing with food plots 25 years ago, we turned a fresh log-loading deck into a plot. The logger had piled up the wood trash in a big pile at one end of the plot and then burned it. To this day, that spot in the plot is still the best soil. Everything grows better in that spot.

In our area when they trim trees I'm always stopping the guys and offering places to dump the mulch and they are glad to, Last year I used my tractor and spread about 20 dumptruck loads of half rotten mulch on rocky fields and it worked great

 

[Bucket]

In our area when they trim trees I'm always stopping the guys and offering places to dump the mulch and they are glad to, Last year I used my tractor and spread about 20 dumptruck loads of half rotten mulch on rocky fields and it worked great

Great idea!

 

[BSK]

In our area when they trim trees I'm always stopping the guys and offering places to dump the mulch and they are glad to, Last year I used my tractor and spread about 20 dumptruck loads of half rotten mulch on rocky fields and it worked great

That IS an awesome idea!

 

[wildlifefarmer]

I wanted to give y'all an update about the drilled corn through mature CC. If you look back in this post you will see the corn and now you can see the CC after the hard freeze and snow.

 

[ADR]

I wanted to give y'all an update about the drilled corn through mature CC. If you look back in this post you will see the corn and now you can see the CC after the hard freeze and snow.

Looks amazing. I am curious though. When you NT planted corn, what prep did you do with the clover? Mow? Spray? Nothing?
I ask because it looks like you got good germination/emergence/establishment of corn.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I wanted to give y'all an update about the drilled corn through mature CC. If you look back in this post you will see the corn and now you can see the CC after the hard freeze and snow.

That looks really good. We have plans to do the same for screening along roads on field edges. The plan is to drill corn 15 yards wide or so paralleling the road and establish perennial clover underneath in these areas. You should be able to plant corn there every year with that abundant supply of nitrogen.

Just ordered my clover from the co-op and will be frost seeding it into these areas some time in February. Will drill corn late spring/early summer into it

 

[BSK]

Here's my crimson clover plots that I did not plant! I simply mowed my crimson clover plots from last fall/winter/spring once they had bloomed and died. I then mowed them again in early August and the thickest crimson clover plots I've EVER produced simply sprouted from all the natural seed on the ground (and under thatch from mowing). Once sunlight got to the ground after mowing in early August, the crimson clover seed just germinated on its own even though it had been lying on the ground and under thatch since mid-May. Now maybe I just got lucky. Maybe this occurred due to unique conditions. I have no idea. But I'm going to try it again this year and see if I can recreate the same success. If the crimson clover again germinates well, I will broadcast wheat into these plots in late September (like I did this year).

 

[wildlifefarmer]

Looks amazing. I am curious though. When you NT planted corn, what prep did you do with the clover? Mow? Spray? Nothing?
I ask because it looks like you got good germination/emergence/establishment of corn.

The CC heads will turn brown in mid to late May. Drill directly through the clover I'll even leave the existing corn stalks standing. Fertilize now with base fertilizer. Once the corn germinates spray with glyphosate and put down nitrogen. One problem you'll encounter will be with rogue corn that was sill on the stalks if the deer n turkeys don't hurry up an eat it