Food Plots Summer plots

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kevin mays

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
448
City & State/Province
knoxville
Finally got all my summer plots in. After several breakdown it was a never ending process but all done
Did 7 ac of corn
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Did 7ac of sunflower cow pea mix and it's all surrounded by corn
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The outer third of this field is all corn
Everything in the red boxes

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This was a farm I just recently purchased and it was a pasture that I'm converting to plots
I didnt want to disturb turkey nest and fawnsI but I still killed a fawn even waiting g til mid June
We also had a 4 week window that its been too wet to work ground
And I had a equipment breakdown
It's always something

But I have planted corn for 20 yrs this late w no problem
And I have planted a cowpea sunflower mix this late W lots of success .

Now that I have these plots established I will stay ahead and spray and no til farm
So then I'll be planting in may hopefully in 26

I saw a turkey on the nest today
And a buddy sent me a pic of a turkey on the nest
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I've planted corn for the last 5 yrs in late June to early July. It's great if you get rain and maturing right near the season opening. I'll cut a couple strips in it after it matures but I like leaving it tall. My problem the last couple yrs is the dang deer eat my corn as soon as it gets 4-5" tall. They destroyed my beans, cow peas, mung beans , and sunflowers (8 acres) I planted in May. They are hammering my corn right now ( 2 acres) and it's coming in great otherwise. I sprayed deer repellent on it today just trying to keep them out. My clover is the only thing holding up to the grazing .
 
TNTreeman said:
My problem the last couple yrs is the dang deer eat my corn as soon as it gets 4-5" tall. They destroyed my beans, cow peas, mung beans , and sunflowers (8 acres) I planted in May. They are hammering my corn right now ( 2 acres) and it's coming in great otherwise. I sprayed deer repellent on it today just trying to keep them out. My clover is the only thing holding up to the grazing .
Click to expand...
Same here. Crows are just as bad on corn. Our beans are basically destroyed. Clover is ok for now
 
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I plant a lot of corn around the 4th of July
Have for a long time
I planted 30ac on this farm July 5
If corn matures in August it seems to get smoked before hunting season

I want them to smoke my peas and sunflowers . I'll replant w a fall mix I use which consist of
Oats
Austrian winter peas
Clover
Then I'll take care of the plot and turn it into a clover plot
IMG_0254.webp
 
kevin mays said:
I plant a lot of corn around the 4th of July
Have for a long time
I planted 30ac on this farm July 5
If corn matures in August it seems to get smoked before hunting season

I want them to smoke my peas and sunflowers . I'll replant w a fall mix I use which consist of
Oats
Austrian winter peas
Clover
Then I'll take care of the plot and turn it into a clover plot
View attachment 284837
Click to expand...
Is that entire 30 acres for deer or will you flood some for the ducks? Looks great!!
 
Separate project
The 30 acres I have on the miss river I leave 35 acres of corn for deer ducks and turkeys.
I flood it in November . Deer hit it hard in October. While it's flooded and also when we drop our water. Same for turkeys.
Ducks have it obviously when flooded

The pics in my first and last post is for deer and turkey in east tn.
I have about 20ac in plots here on that farm
 
kevin mays said:
Separate project
The 30 acres I have on the miss river I leave 35 acres of corn for deer ducks and turkeys.
I flood it in November . Deer hit it hard in October. While it's flooded and also when we drop our water. Same for turkeys.
Ducks have it obviously when flooded

The pics in my first and last post is for deer and turkey in east tn.
I have about 20ac in plots here on that farm
Click to expand...

I sure wouldn't want that seed and fertilizer bill lol. But it's awesome of you to provide all of that for wildlife.
 
Sprayed my corn today. Everything still going good in east tn. Deer and turkey are wearing my corn out. Plenty to go around though. Everything is growing great considering the heat. Getting some timely showers over here. Not so lucky in west tn

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Knee high corn in 17 days
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I use a no til hay buster 77c w 7 inch spacing
The beans are just a field variety(I had left over from an ag planting on my west tn farm) mixed w cowpeas and sunflowers
I didn't use any pre emerge/ postemerge chemicals . I disc the ground . Let it sit a week then I disc again lightly.
I fertilized at a rate of 250lbs per acre w
6-24-24
For sunflowers I just threw in some perdovik

I didn't use any chemicals because I have a few places I may cut it under and do some fall plots on

The area below I was leaving open area to plant a fall plot
Oat/wheat/winter pea /clover mix
I drove the planter thru it trying to empty the hopper . Its less than 1acre
It has .75 acre of pure sunflowers to the left of it

It has about 4 acres of corn next to the tree lines surrounding the field like a fence . I do use a post merge on my corn just as you would for field corn It's also fully closed by hardwoods.
It has 3 acres of the bean cow pea sunflower mix
That plot is surrounded by corn
So the deer can't stand in the woods and see into the plot
They must walk thru all the corn to see the inner plots in full sight from stands.
Right beside the beans peas sunflower is a .75ac plot of sunflowers and the .75 ac fall plot I'll put in sept
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My corn is clean clean!
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7in seems to be ideal for beans in a forage plot then... one of these days I may take 4 or 5 acres back from one of my lessee farmers to plant beans...

They probably won't produce many pods for late season that close together???
 
megalomaniac said:
7in seems to be ideal for beans in a forage plot then... one of these days I may take 4 or 5 acres back from one of my lessee farmers to plant beans...

They probably won't produce many pods for late season that close together???
Click to expand...
In our experience they dont. We have a haybuster to and block every other row. For beans, corn and sunflowers and have a better outcome. We have tried blocking 2 for corn and sunflowers but it didn't seem to matter in our experiences. We will buy a corn planter at some point.
 

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