Food Plots Well... how much did you get?

[DoubleRidge]

well heck! I'll have make a plan for our firebreaks(6acres). As you mature and very limited help, time appears to be running out. Terminate(gly), attack the grass with cleth, or wait to try frost seeding??? With only 1 tractor it will mean this old fart will have to change equipment out many times and this just kills my back and hips!! Sore as heck this morning from crawling and butt scooting replacing hydraulics underneath a dump trailer by myself. With no rain in the forecast I'm having a hard time making a plan. Just hope a tropical system comes this way.

wildlifefarmer....you and I are in the same boat.....I've got a half dozen small plots that need spraying with clethodim....three larger plots that need glysophate that hadn't been planted yet...400lb cereal rye in basement waiting.....and ONE tractor....bush hogged pasture at house yesterday after work....dropping bush hog to put sprayer on this afternoon to spray plots at house....then gotta haul equipment to the other property to spray the other plots.....then rock rake going on to do driveway rock work.... rewarding work...but it's exhausting only having one tractor.

 

[muddyboots]

Tell me about it. I use three pieces of equipment: tractor with bushhog and switch to tiller after mowing, UTV with broadcast seeder attached, and ATV switching between sprayer and chain harrow for covering seed. Even doing just that by myself kills me.

Quick connect. Worth its weight in gold.

 

[wildlifefarmer]

wildlifefarmer....you and I are in the same boat.....I've got a half dozen small plots that need spraying with clethodim....three larger plots that need glysophate that hadn't been planted yet...400lb cereal rye in basement waiting.....and ONE tractor....bush hogged pasture at house yesterday after work....dropping bush hog to put sprayer on this afternoon to spray plots at house....then gotta haul equipment to the other property to spray the other plots.....then rock rake going on to do driveway rock work.... rewarding work...but it's exhausting only having one tractor.

Right or wrong I'll do something with what I have

 

[wildlifefarmer]

Quick connect. Worth its weight in gold.

I agree but I still have to get on n off the tractor to hook up hoses and PTO along with any jacks. Pain in butt do old fart

 

[BSK]

Quick connect. Worth its weight in gold.

I question whether the quick connect would handle the pounding and stress our tiller places on the whole three-point system.

 

[buckaroo]

Disc is the best tool for plots IMOP

 

[BSK]

Disc is the best tool for plots IMOP

Only problem is a disk won't break my soils. Just chatters over the surface.

 

[tellico4x4]

I question whether the quick connect would handle the pounding and stress our tiller places on the whole three-point system.

Had a Kubota quick connect on 54hp tractor & bent it. Had a JD one on a 30hp tractor & had to chain implements on to make them stay. Put a set of Pats Quick Hitch on 34hp Kubota two years ago & love them!. They handle a 7' cultipacker on our rough place with no prob. $200 at Rural King

 

[wildlifefarmer]

Only problem is a disk won't break my soils. Just chatters over the surface.

Like wise! We do have hard hard ground in our area even if it rains. With this drought then very little rain, you could create a rap song with the clinging of the disks bouncing on top. Someone needs to come do a rain dance for us!! Any takers?

 

[BSK]

Like wise! We do have hard hard ground in our area even if it rains. With this drought then very little rain, you could create a rap song with the clinging of the disks bouncing on top.

Actually destroyed a brand new double-gang disk in less than 24 hours. With the gangs turned at their maximum angle, the hard ground put so much pressure on the plates that the axles stretched over an inch. Now the plates just flop around.

 

[Shooter77]

Actually destroyed a brand new double-gang disk in less than 24 hours. With the gangs turned at their maximum angle, the hard ground put so much pressure on the plates that the axles stretched over an inch. Now the plates just flop around.

So what your really are saying is, not matter if it's a truck, atv or farm implement, you can find a way to destroy it?...

 

[muddyboots]

I question whether the quick connect would handle the pounding and stress our tiller places on the whole three-point system.

I have had no problems but our soil prolly not as rocky as urs.

 

[BSK]

So what your really are saying is, not matter if it's a truck, atv or farm implement, you can find a way to destroy it?...

Yes sir!

 

[BSK]

I have had no problems but our soil prolly not as rocky as urs.

We actually have a quick-connect but I'm afraid to try it. I think it would work fine with implements like a bushhog. But the tiller on hard, rocky ground is a different story. Our old tiller actually bounced around and tried to walk into the back of the tractor with such force that we would have to replace the lower 3-point hitch pins every season. The forward pressure would bend them pretty severely. The new tiller - a much heavier-duty model - has a stronger hitch attachment style hence we haven't had to replace anything. But being heavier and stronger, it pushes in towards the tractor even harder than the original.

 

[buckaroo]

We actually have a quick-connect but I'm afraid to try it. I think it would work fine with implements like a bushhog. But the tiller on hard, rocky ground is a different story. Our old tiller actually bounced around and tried to walk into the back of the tractor with such force that we would have to replace the lower 3-point hitch pins every season. The forward pressure would bend them pretty severely. The new tiller - a much heavier-duty model - has a stronger hitch attachment style hence we haven't had to replace anything. But being heavier and stronger, it pushes in towards the tractor even harder than the original.

You think a big tractor and subsoiler could work it loose?

 

[BSK]

You think a big tractor and subsoiler could work it loose?

Subsoiler? Not a chance. The deeper you go, the bigger the rock. At the surface, cobblestones. 6 inches down, grapefruit sized rocks. Below that, watermelon sized rocks and big slabs of solid chert-rock 6" thick and the size of a small table. And we've turned some of these plots to powder in spring, yet after a summer of dry conditions, the soil is back to be concrete again. What it really needs is lots of green manure turned into the soil to become humus. Our oldest plots have this and aren't too bad. Our newest plots, just bulldozed out a year ago, are brutally hard.

 

[megalomaniac]

Subsoiler? Not a chance. The deeper you go, the bigger the rock. At the surface, cobblestones. 6 inches down, grapefruit sized rocks. Below that, watermelon sized rocks and big slabs of solid chert-rock 6" thick and the size of a small table. And we've turned some of these plots to powder in spring, yet after a summer of dry conditions, the soil is back to be concrete again. What it really needs is lots of green manure turned into the soil to become humus. Our oldest plots have this and aren't too bad. Our newest plots, just bulldozed out a year ago, are brutally hard.

It's amazing how much topsoil you can produce in just a few years. My newest plot is only 2 years old. Bulldozed out the spot, never tilled it, just broadcast rye grass, turnips, and clover. 1000lbs pelletized lime and a couple bags triple 13. Rye grass did well, turnips and clover not so much.

The following spring, I nuked the thick stand of ryegrass with gly, then drilled in sorgham, millet, and buckwheat. Added another 1000lbs lime and 2 more bags of fertilizer. It did great, tons of biomass and not much weed competition.

Last fall I bushhogg3d the summer plot and drilled cereal rye, clover, and radishes plus another 100lbs fertilizer. They did great considering the browse pressure. Annual clover is still growing strong and has made it all the way through to this fall due to the thick layer of mulch/ topsoil I've produced retaining moisture. A few weeds ( mostly marestail) here and there. No need for herbicides, just clipped the marestail just above the clover, then drilled straight through the annual clover with wheat, radishes, and more clover. Another 1000lbs lime, no fertilizer yet.

They fellow that dozed in the plot came back out last week to push out another .2ac to increase the size of the plot and he was amazed at how well its done.

It's not an overnight process, but it certainly doesn't take a decade to build a nice layer of topsoil/ mulch.

Keep planting the new plots in the summer... it will pay off much faster than if you just plant fall plots.

 

[megalomaniac]

Oh, and if you are really wanting to increase biomass faster than anything, I'd highly recommend annual ryegrass in the fall. Sure, it's terrible for deer, but even smaller plots cannot be grazed down faster than it grows, and as such will produce more biomass from a fall/ winter planting than just about anything else in poor soils. You are foregoing the hunting now to improve your soils faster for the increased plot production in just a couple years instead of 4 or 5 years.

 

[BSK]

Great advice Mega. Thanks!

 

[Gravey]

Picked up seed Monday with plans to drill it in this weekend but the 14 day forecast has zero rain so we're gonna wait.