Food Plots The No-Till Farm Project (continued)

[DeerCamp]

Last year I shared where I had done several acres of dozer work on our farm here in Henderson County, including building a small drinking pond.

This included putting out 800# of fertilizer and 1500# of lime (by hand ) - and then planting Egyptian wheat around the plot for seclusion. It came up pretty well, but wasn't planted thick enough - lesson learned!

For fall forage I planted a 200# mix of:
Cereal Rye
Winter Wheat
Oats (plus a little clover, and a few turnips and radishes)

This was followed up by overseeding another 100# of rye a few weeks later, and a final 50# of Rye in Late October

Layering was key here, as it really created a very thick mass of food, in 3 separate growing stages. Overall, considering I started with bare, poor soil and did all of this by hand (and a 4 Wheeler) I was pretty happy with the results.


Early Muzzleloader season the wifey ended her 3 year antler drought (She's passed deer bigger than this, but this guy fed in front of her for 30 minutes and it was just the wrong place, wrong time for him )

Later on in early December (our best week each year) she finally tagged her 3.5yo buck. he was broken and scarred up from fight. Neat thing, the main beams almost touch in the front. In total, she saw 5 different shooters this year, but this was the only one that offered a clean shot. We had one deer on camera several times this year that would have been 135" - just never connected.

Fast forward to this spring, the clover really exploded (note, this picture was taken after the hunt and not in the plot) and all of the rye, wheat etc. came back strong. We've never had this many turkeys on the property before! This guy came in with 2 other gobblers straight to the decoys. I am not a good turkey caller at all, so chalk this one up to right place, right time. We had turkeys on camera pretty much every day this spring. Just because of declining numbers around here, I chose not to shoot any more turkeys.

The plot stayed green all through winter and then came back strong this spring. After Turkey season, the wheat and rye was 3-4 feet high.

This is where I got excited, and it's all part of our NO-TILL plan for the property. We've gone from bare, acidic clay to a very nice layer of (relatively weed free) biomass that I will be planting into this fall. I put out a new mix of sorghum 2 weeks ago as a barrier.

I threw out another 600# of fertilizer and 1200# of lime this past weekend - by hand, and then had the neighbor bush hog everything.

Man, I need a tractor.

Is it November yet!?

 

[DoubleRidge]

Great progress!....thanks for sharing.....it's very rewarding when you see the fruits of your labor.

 

[Popcorn]

Excellent ! I love it when a plan comes together!

 

[megalomaniac]

Actually, I don't think you need a tractor... sure, it would make life easier, but you have demonstrated that large farm equipment is not necessary to provide excellent wildlife benefits and hunting opportunities. Job well done!

 

[DeerCamp]

Actually, I don't think you need a tractor... sure, it would make life easier, but you have demonstrated that large farm equipment is not necessary to provide excellent wildlife benefits and hunting opportunities. Job well done!

Yeah, but my shoulder feels like I've been in a car crash. Ha.

Meant to share this picture yesterday showing how green everything was in April.

 

[DeerCamp]

Based on this fawns age - he/she was likely conceived Nov 17-23. Right on time!

 

[BSK]

Yeah, but my shoulder feels like I've been in a car crash. Ha.

For YEARS I put in a small number of food plots without much of any mechanical help. We "mowed" our plots with weed eaters, and spread lime, fertilizer and seed with hand-crank shoulder bag spreaders. And I'm talking thousands of pounds of lime and fertilizer. Your project is another example of how it can be done. backbreaking work for sure, but it can be done and can be productive.

Now once we got up to 4+ acres of food plots, mechanical help was critical. Just too big of any area to do by hand.

 

[Shanman]

Keep us updated on the progress, looking like you have done a great job.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I'm curious as to how you will plant a no-till crop under the bio-mass without a drill?

 

[DeerCamp]

I'm curious as to how you will plant a no-till crop under the bio-mass without a drill?

Depends on what you are broadcasting!

If it is something like cereal rye, that stuff will grow in the back of my truck when I spill some. I'd estimate last year my germination rate was 75-85% with this method. I just toss it out before a rain and run over it with a cultipacker the first time. There's plenty of cracks for the seeds to fall into. And its moist underneath them since it acts a bit like a mulch layer. On the overseeding, I just toss it out.

If its something like clover, those seeds are so small just tossing about before a rain is plenty.

I know that the germination rate is lower than drilling or traditional plus/disc/plant but there are benefits to the soil.

If you want to test it for yourself, get a bail of hay and drop a few seeds on it and water it - I think you'll be surprised at how well seeds will germinate.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

Depends on what you are broadcasting!

If it is something like cereal rye, that stuff will grow in the back of my truck when I spill some. I'd estimate last year my germination rate was 75-85% with this method. I just toss it out before a rain and run over it with a cultipacker the first time. There's plenty of cracks for the seeds to fall into. And its moist underneath them since it acts a bit like a mulch layer. On the overseeding, I just toss it out.

If its something like clover, those seeds are so small just tossing about before a rain is plenty.

I know that the germination rate is lower than drilling or traditional plus/disc/plant but there are benefits to the soil.

If you want to test it for yourself, get a bail of hay and drop a few seeds on it and water it - I think you'll be surprised at how well seeds will

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

Gotcha.. I was thinking along the lines of soybeans.

 

[BSK]

Gotcha.. I was thinking along the lines of soybeans.

From my experiences, large-seeded plants like soybeans and cowpeas, and to a lesser extent buckwheat, need to be covered with something to produce good germination rates. I've tried broadcasting all of those varieties onto bare ground (even turned ground) with very poor results. But get the seed on the ground, and cover it with a little mulch or soil, and you're good to go.

 

[DeerCamp]

Gotcha.. I was thinking along the lines of soybeans.

I was able to get corn to do ok by broadcasting and then dragging. But it was probably 50-60% germination.

A drill would be super helpful and in my opinion would complement the no-till stuff well.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I broadcast beans last year, worked great! Trying corn this year and so far it is sprouting up nice. I guess time will tell

 

[DeerCamp]

I broadcast beans last year, worked great! Trying corn this year and so far it is sprouting up nice. I guess time will tell

Good luck!

I was going to do corn this year, but then learned that the major ag fields next to me will be corn this year as well, so I'm going a mix of winter peas, oats, wheat, clover and turnips.... I think.

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I've tried turnips, they grew great but deer avoided them. And good grief did they stink! Whew

 

[DeerCamp]

I've tried turnips, they grew great but deer avoided them. And good grief did they stink! Whew

Same here!

The deer never would touch mine. Some were softball size.

Someone told me you might have to grow them for 2-3 years in a row to let the deer get used to them. I'm gonna roll the dice in one area and see what happens

 

[Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors]

I hear that it must get below freezing in order for them to get sweet. May be why they have good success up north but down here.

 

[BSK]

I hear that it must get below freezing in order for them to get sweet. May be why they have good success up north but down here.

Generally it only takes dropping below freezing, which causes the plants to mobilize sugars into the leaves, making them suddenly taste sweeter. But I've also seen situations where deer won't touch brassicas, no matter how many years in a row the landowner grew them. Same thing for just about any plant. Take Austrian Winter Peas for example. As long as the soil is predominantly clay/silt, they are absolutely candy to deer. Yet as soon as the soil contains a a significant level of sand, deer won't touch them.