Watering Food Plots?

[VA Turkey]

It's getting really dry around here... not as bad as some of you guys, but still getting pretty bad.

All of my plots lay along a creek bottom with a pretty good stream of water flowing nearby. I have a gas powered water pump that can run 4 sprinklers pretty easy. The water in the creek is a mountain stream and it's is pretty cold. My main concern is dumping that cold water right on my plots. Would it hurt or "shock" the plants? Is there any other advice about what time of day I should do it or any other help out there?

Thanks!

 

[BSK]

Would it shock the plants? No.

 

[HOOK]

Yes....it would be a shock wondering where all that nice water came from!!!

 

[JohnnyDollar]

I would water the plots, farmers irrigate their land all the time.

 

[156p&y]

If you do water them make sure you use a lot of water. If you use too little it will only bring the roots to the surface and cause your plants to dry out really fast unless you continue to water them consistently.

I really need to show you guys pics of our farm. I promise it will make you feel pretty good about your place. We are loosing leaves already it's so dry. 3 out of 5 ponds are dried out and we had to pull a cow out that got stuck in the mud of one pond that is nearly dry. The other farm hand actually caught a 3 lb catfish with a STICK today!! We've been feeding cattle over 900 gallons of water a day and have noticed deer drinking from the troughs. It's really bad here. We actually cleared out horse trails today b/c our trees are literally loosing limbs and falling down.
That may sound exagerated but trust me it's not. You can go 2 miles north, west, east or south and it is twice as green than here.

 

[Tater]

I pulled water from a creek with a 16000 GPH pump I dug 2 ditches with a single bottom plow in my soybean plot and let the water soak into the ground. I think it helped keep what little rain we did get up closer to the surface.

 

[Soybean Man]

Our irrigation water comes from about 160 feet down and is very cold. In rice where we water all year, we will have the top paddy stunted from cold water shock. Where we water soybeans for short periods, we see no stunting or yellowing. If you have access, use it to your full potential. Just make sure your sprinkler tips are large enough to handle any trash that may be sucked up through the pump. May want to have a couple of inline strainers.

 

[BSK]

Thanks for the info Soybean Man. Very interesting about the rice in standing cold water.

 

[BSK]

I hear you 156p&y. My place hasn't had rain since around the 4th of July, and the trees are losing their leaves.

The worst part is, I seen no changes in our current weather pattern any time in the near future.

 

[BSK]

Although this severe drought does make the point I've been trying to get across to hunters/managers concerning food plots and native browse. I always tell hunters/managers to manage for both food plots and native annual forbs (broadleaf summer weeds). Native weeds are much more drought tolerant than agriculture plants. Right now, there is absolutely nothing alive in my food plots. Just dead brown grass and bare concrete-hard dirt. But my managed weed fields are doing great and showing little sign of drought damage, and the deer are absolutely pounding the ragweed and polk.

 

[Soybean Man]

BSK,
How tall is your ragweed? I have giant ragweed that is 8 feet tall. I have not noticed any browsing, but it is located far from my deer habitat. Do you recommend mowing it to promote new growth?

 

[156p&y]

Just dead brown grass and bare concrete-hard dirt. But my managed weed fields are doing great and showing little sign of drought damage, and the deer are absolutely pounding the ragweed and polk.

Yep very true the deer are all up and down our powerlines. We try to bush hogg them once every 2 years to promote good growth, but we can't get to a lot of them b/c we'd flip the tractor. The deer are running and bedding parallel to them right now and tearing up the place.
Does this native browse hold moisture better? I'm just wondering how much water the deer are actually drinking right now.

 

[ol 'rube]

there is no water in these creeks

 

[Food Plot 101]

that's a fact