Food Plots Sowing cattle pasture

[Jowens]

I've got about 25 acres or so of open hillsides that cattle graze on. We bush hog the hills every fall to knock down the bigger stuff growing.

I've though about frost seeding 5 acres or so of some type of clover and trying it. It will be for deer, turkey and cattle benefit. I'm a little worried the competition around the clover will overtake it and smother it out unless the animals keep it grazed. I can spray it, but I would like it to be low maintenance in the long run.

Any ideas or suggestions on this? Other options to plant? Thoughts on the clover for this dual purpose (cattle and wildlife)?

Thanks

 

[JMcB]

ttt

 

[tellico4x4]

PH needs to be in good shape to get decent stand of clover.

 

[Hunter 257W]

We always did this every February in our pastures. Ours are mostly fescue pastures so they had to be grazed down pretty low to give the clover a chance to grow. We have 35 acres that we did. We ran a disk over it cutting as much as it would cut to expose some dirt then walked it all with a hand seeder. You can't expect a big change doing this once though. Doing it every year for years though will gradually get you a decent amount of clover in your pastures.

However, my observation has been that if you have many cows using a pasture the deer won't use the same area much at all. I guess that depends on the area and surrounding cover so your experience may vary.

 

[Doskil]

Try it and see what happens.

Try different types of clover like Alsike and Ladino and see which does better.

Clover can compete with fescue once established.