Food Plots Summer food plot quandary

[BSK]

I would be curious to hear other's suggestions. I'm in a quandary about what to do for summer plots. And a big part of the problem is 1) the unique situation of my property, and 2) the fact I'm not sure how much time, energy and money I want to spend on my summer plots.

By "the unique situation of my property" I mean the fact my place is a big island of ridge-and-hollow hardwoods surrounded by vast agricultural bottomlands. Because of this situation, I have few deer that live on my property in summer. Last year, cameras running on all my food plots found only 4 bucks using the property during June through August, two yearlings, a 2 1/2-year-old and a 3 1/2-year-old. My habitat (and food plots) don't really feed many of the deer I have to hunt in fall. Once the acorns begin to fall in September, and most importantly, the neighboring farmers harvest their summer crops, all the deer from the bottomlands flood into my place. Last year I had 52 unique bucks using the property from September to mid-January, including 12 bucks 3 1/2 or older. Because of this massive seasonal shift of deer, my fall/winter food plots are far, FAR more important than summer plots. In fact, for many years I didn't even bother planting summer plots. I just let the plots go fallow in the summer. I would then use spray/broadcast/ mow techniques to plant my fall plots in August or September. In addition, my lack of real agricultural equipment meant that the broadcast and mow planting technique was all I had to work with, and large-seeded plants like cowpeas and soybeans don't germinate well with that practice.

However, now I have the acreage and equipment to grow soybeans if I want. I experimented with them last year and they did well. And the low summer deer density did not eat them to the ground as soon as they came up. In fact, I still had a pretty good stand when I turned them under for fall planting in mid-August. But that's the question: should I go to the trouble and expense of planting RR soybeans when I really don't have that many deer to feed in summer, especially knowing I need to turn my plots under earlier than most to make sure I have a great stand of fall food sources before the transient deer start arriving in mid-September? And I REALLY need a good stand of fall plants up and doing well because I can have as many as 80+ deer feeding on those plots (in a bad acorn year) from mid-October to mid-November.

So here's my specific question. What should I plant in these plots for the summer? I will plant at the beginning of May and probably turn them under for fall planting some time from mid-August to early September. About half of my plots are newly bulldozed and have hard compacted rocky/cherty poor-quality soil. The other half have been turned for 4-5 years and have decent soil down to about 5 inches. I really need some organic matter in the new plots. The old ones are doing great in that respect (many years of broadcast and mow built up some decent soil).

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Like yours, our existing plots have fairly good soil, now that we've worked them for close to 20 years. We're somewhat in the same predicament on what to plant on newly created plots. However, we are in a totally different situation to you, as we will be the only place for miles and miles that will have ag crops. We have the acreage for soybeans and I've already ordered them, but seeing how poor our fall crops did last year in our new plots, definitely need lime and fertilizer. Everything came up green about 3", then just turned yellow. Ran out of nutrients. We would have already put the lime down, but we are having the dozer delivered tomorrow and we'll have it for a month. Creating that road system, then hopefully getting about another 8-10 acres of new plots created, THEN liming all of it at once in April sometime (mainly for the fall crop). Thinking about the summer fields being in buckwheat to get some organic matter and hope for the best. Putting soybeans in my basement for next year.

For yours, that does seem tough due to the lack of bucks. How many acres are we talking? What we plan on doing is on our smaller plots (1 acre or less) going full throttle on perennial clovers and committing to it. Will provide food year-round, especially to the deer coming out of winter (especially does for fawning - keeping them healthy).

Another option would be to let it grow up and continue your process of spray, throw and mow.

Also consider a shorter variety of sorghum. You'll have big seed heads waist high and will provide cover for fawns. In the fall, you may be able to spray it, then broadcast your fall crop. Those seed heads will be picked clean in the fall/winter giving them a bunch of energy. And the fall crop underneath.

I'll be interested in what others suggest

 

[BSK]

How many acres are we talking?

4.5 acres of new poor-soil plots; 3.5 acres of existing decent-soil plots. Acreage is broken into 9 separate plots. Smallest 1/4 acre; largest 1.5 acres. All but one plot are ridge-top dry-soil plots.

 

[megalomaniac]

Knowing where you are, and all the ag close by.....in a way you are very fortunate.

Summer plots will only benefit the few resident does and their offspring. I doubt many bachelor buck groups will be outcompeted by a territorial doe with twins in the summer plots, so don't expect to see any bachelor groups on your place. Sucks if you ever wanted to velvet hunt, but at least the bucks you kill in the fall are bucks someone else is feeding the rest of the year.

The only reason to spend the money and time planting summer crops is if they improve your soil and improve your fall plantings when it counts. If you don't get much weed competition (esp hard to kill weeds) growing in the summer established plots, I wouldn't waste the money on summer plots. If you do have a lot of weed competition, it would def be worth it to plant an easily terminated summer crop (buckwheat, sorgham, millet).

On the newly dozed plots, you NEED as much organic matter on the newly exposed soil as possible and as fast as possible to benefit your fall plots (increased nutrients, decrease soil compaction, decrease water runoff, etc) these I would certainly plant with a crop that produces as much biomass as possible (mix of sorgham, buckwheat, millet). All easy to terminate, and MUCH cheaper than beans. But again, you aren't feeding the deer in the summer, who cares if the deer don't eat them.

Another plus of a summer crop is it sort of let's you 'take the pulse' of your ground. Summer crop doesn't grow? Good chance the fall plot isn't going to do well either. Figure out what nutrients you are lacking and get them in the dirt before you plant next fall.

Figure around $90 per acre for seed and modest fertilize (not counting gas, time, and wear and tear on equipment as additional cost per acre). I think at least planting the new plots is worth that input cost for the improvement in soil quality and getting them up to speed with the existing plots is well worth it. But don't waste money on beans in your particular situation. (Or it wouldn't hurt to throw some generic $19 per bag soybeans in the mix with the others just for fun... but not the high dollar RR beans)

 

[Popcorn]

Summertime plant soil building blends, throw in some legumes to help provide nitrogen to the other plants. Multi specie blends / bio-diversity is the way to go. The summer crop should provide the nutrients for the fall crop after a couple years. I would never plow a food plot again!

Spend your money on creating bedding, cover and native browse near those big row crop lands with a stand tree in mind.

 

[BigDave12]

I fully concur with Mega. The idea of focusing on soil improvement is critical for those new areas and will pay big dividends years to come for the fall plots in those same areas. Sorghum, buckwheat, and millet are great suggestions for providing such nutrients. Lime and proper fertilizer will be just as critical. Of course clover speaks for itself and should be added to any plots you plan to keep around - annual or perennial.

In fact, after about year 2, you should see marked improvements in the soil quality. So much so, that you will find you can delay the summer plating in these areas by a couple months and actually plant certain fall plot mixtures with the sorghum at the same time. With good soil quality, the seeds you plant (and proper spacing of things like sorghum) will mature at different times allowing for staggered food plot usage by the deer. Slightly later planting of sorghum will lead to the deer rushing to eat the seed heads when they ripen. Sorghum would need to be spread out a little to allow light down into the seed bed (for the other seeds you mix in) as it grows. Sorghum can actually do pretty well with limited rainfall so delaying planting by about a month shouldn't hurt you too badly. Shortly after that, any fall grass seeds you included will begin to mature (winter rye, wheat, or oats) which will lead to an easily digestible food source for the deer as their palate changes for the fall/winter. Any brassicas mixed in will start showing up and ripening the colder it gets which will definitely assist them during the colder months.

We did this for years out in Dickson County and it worked pretty well. This was also a solid technique that is used in the land management aspect of hunting preserves. On occasion (rain and weed dependent) we would have to slightly overseed in the fall to freshen up some of the seeds that may have been slightly choked out. But, it's amazing what the mixtures like that will do and how well they will sustain themselves once the soil is right. The only reason we stopped doing it is because we lived too far away to keep investing like that in a place we didn't own. So, over time we just transitioned to letting them grow up (with mowing in late May and again just before fall planting) for fawning and turkey hatching cover during spring and summer and then stuck to traditional fall plots later.

Let us know what you end up doing and how it works out! Good luck!

 

[jetwrnch]

I don't think it will matter much if we can't get seed or fertilizer.

 

[Bucket]

I'm with Popcorn - focus on soil building during the summer. If it feeds wildlife that's a bonus. Future savings on lime/fertilizer will pay for it down the road.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Given your situation I wouldn't invest the money in beans....I agree with others in that the focus should be more on building quality soil.... especially on the new plots...our situation is similar with two of our newer plots and we plan to do a blend of buckwheat, sorghum, millet and might mix in some sunflower....and with the cost being so high I doubt we will be doing much fertilizer....going to focus on building organic material.....later in the summer we will sow fall blend into the standing summer blend and terminate or just bush hog.....the plots may not be picture perfect food plots....but they will feed a variety of wildlife and we will generate organic material for soil building....we did something similar last year and it worked out ok....we just keep making adjustments each year trying to improve the process.

 

[BSK]

All FANTASTIC advice. Thanks so much. Sounds like a sorghum, millet, buckwheat blend is in order. And per DoubleRidge's advice, I may throw in a little sunflower. Soil-building is my primary concern. My fall plots are very heavy on crimson clover, so I hope a couple of years of that will help with nitrogen fixing. In fact, with the army worn fiasco last fall, most of my new plots ended up being primarily crimson clover plots.

 

[BSK]

Summer plots will only benefit the few resident does and their offspring. I doubt many bachelor buck groups will be outcompeted by a territorial doe with twins in the summer plots, so don't expect to see any bachelor groups on your place. Sucks if you ever wanted to velvet hunt, but at least the bucks you kill in the fall are bucks someone else is feeding the rest of the year.

When people ask how I grow such big bucks on my place, I tell them I don't. My neighboring farmers grow them for me! And that's literally the truth.

 

[BSK]

Spend your money on creating bedding, cover and native browse near those big row crop lands with a stand tree in mind.

With the 100 acres of timber I had cut down to 10" DBH last winter, split across seven locations, bedding cover is not going to be a problem! In fact, I didn't have to spend a dime and made considerable income. The only thing I'll have to spend money on is keeping some of that area in long-term bedding cover.

 

[BSK]

I don't think it will matter much if we can't get seed or fertilizer.

I tell you what, after the trouble I had finding certain seeds last year, I have every Co-op within a 10-county area on speed dial! last year I had to go all the way to Columbia, TN to get some seed.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Along the same lines.....I would like to hear others opinions or methods on developing a blend...like on the blend being discussed in this thread.... buckwheat, sorghum, millet, sunflower....what percentage of each would you recommend?

I ask because last year on several plots we went with straight buckwheat and we were VERY impressed with it's ability to suppress weeds....and we don't want to lose that suppression of weeds....but we want to add more diversity and organic material...also I'm reading there are benefits to having different types or sizes of root systems.....makes sense.

Just not seeing allot of information on developing a blend... percentage of each type seed, etc..... appreciate any input.

 

[Popcorn]

Y'all really should include sun hemp! It is a legume and has an expansive root system mining the soil and leaving organic matter

Dr Grant woods likes multi specie blends where you can get them into the soil. As many as 8,9, 11 different species makes for a real jungle of both soil building and food.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Y'all really should include sun hemp! It is a legume and has an expansive root system mining the soil and leaving organic matter

Dr Grant woods likes multi specie blends where you can get them into the soil. As many as 8,9, 11 different species makes for a real jungle of both soil building and food.

Interesting....after reading the nrcs comments below on sunn hemp (as a single cover crop) I see why you recommend it as an addition to the blend:

"As a cover crop, sunn hemp can produce 5,000-6,000 pounds of biomass per acre in southern climates in 60-90 days. It also can produce 120- 140 pounds of nitrogen in the same amount of time. It provides the benefits of a cover crop such as erosion control, soil improvement, plus resistance to root- knot nematode"

Then....

"Sunn hemp is not an invasive weed. In fact, it smothers out 99.9 % of all weeds. The sunn hemp will not flower and go to seed until the days start getting shorter and there is not enough time for those seeds to mature in our area after flowering"

So...with sunn hemp added to the blend of buckwheat, sorghum, millet and sunflower....is there a recommendation for a percentage of each seed type? Should they be equal amounts? or should the more dominate plant types be reduced? Or is it just a personal preference?....in some cases I would imagine cost would play a part in developing a blend.

 

[BSK]

DoubleRidge, the old method of deciding on seeding rates in mixtures is, when planting two species, take each species' suggested planting rate as a single species crop and cut it by one third. When mixing 3 species, cut their single species seeding rate by half. When planting 4 or more species, cut the seeding rate by two-thirds. And then throw in the complicating factor of planting technique. Recommend seeding rates are for seed drilled in. Broadcasting seed often sees a recommendation of increasing the seeding rate by 50%.

Of course, those are just generic rules-of-thumb. Some species tend to dominate even at lower seeding rates. I think some trial-and-error would be required to fine-tune a mixture rate for a specific mixture. For example, Buckwheat alone has a recommended seeding rate of 60 lbs/acre. I plant Buckwheat in my fall plots in a mixture with crimson clover, wheat and Austrian Winter Peas. So I should cut the Buckwheat by two-thirds, or down to 20 lbs. And because I'm surface broadcasting, that should be increased by 50%, which brings the seeding rate back to 30 lbs/acre. However, at 30 lbs/acre, Buckwheat will be extremely thick for a mixture. Trail-and-error has caused me to decrease the seeding rate for my fall mixture back down to 20 lbs/acre, and even at that low rate, it's a lot of Buckwheat! See the 2 pictures below. Those are my plots at 20 lbs/acre of Buckwheat.

 

[BSK]

Dr Grant woods likes multi specie blends where you can get them into the soil. As many as 8,9, 11 different species makes for a real jungle of both soil building and food.

Yes he is! Back when we were working on the BioLogic brand of mixtures, the number of different species in those mixtures was crazy.

 

[BSK]

Sunn Hemp. Interesting idea. Here's a video from QDMA (now NDA) about their experiences with the plant in food plots. Very interesting. I may try it.

sun hemp - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[DoubleRidge]

DoubleRidge, the old method of deciding on seeding rates in mixtures is, when planting two species, take each species' suggested planting rate as a single species crop and cut it by one third. When mixing 3 species, cut their single species seeding rate by half. When planting 4 or more species, cut the seeding rate by two-thirds. And then throw in the complicating factor of planting technique. Recommend seeding rates are for seed drilled in. Broadcasting seed often sees a recommendation of increasing the seeding rate by 50%.

Of course, those are just generic rules-of-thumb. Some species tend to dominate even at lower seeding rates. I think some trial-and-error would be required to fine-tune a mixture rate for a specific mixture. For example, Buckwheat alone has a recommended seeding rate of 60 lbs/acre. I plant Buckwheat in my fall plots in a mixture with crimson clover, wheat and Austrian Winter Peas. So I should cut the Buckwheat by two-thirds, or down to 20 lbs. And because I'm surface broadcasting, that should be increased by 50%, which brings the seeding rate back to 30 lbs/acre. However, at 30 lbs/acre, Buckwheat will be extremely thick for a mixture. Trail-and-error has caused me to decrease the seeding rate for my fall mixture back down to 20 lbs/acre, and even at that low rate, it's a lot of Buckwheat! See the 2 pictures below. Those are my plots at 20 lbs/acre of Buckwheat.

Very interesting...thank you!...appreciate the information....and those plots look great!