Catching up on Food Plots
We’ve been down at the farm quite a bit recently. It’s time to get caught up with y’all.
We’re chugging along getting the food plots in order. We have a target of 32 1/4-acre plots to get done. 24 are mowed. 21 are tilled. 11 are fertilized. I’ll be letting you know more as the project progresses.
So what are we planting? Click on pics for links
What I decided to do was order a bunch of Buck-on-the-Bag seed mixes from Amazon and
https://www.sportsmansguide.com
, taking advantage of big sales in May. I’ve divvied up 8 acres of the 40 acres of hayfield and broken larger piece into 1/4 acre plots. I’m planting a different seed mix in each plot to see what works and what doesn’t. This is not supposed to be a comprehensive review of food plot mixes. I also know I can do better and cheaper in the long run by sourcing the seed myself. However, before I can do that, I need to know what works on my property with my deer. This is also not supposed to be a expert How-To on food plots. I have planted food plots before, but this is really jumping into the deep end. I’ll document the process as best as I can for y’all, but I don’t want to encourage you to follow me off any cliffs. However, stay tuned. We’ll see how this goes.
What did I pick? I focused on a mix of clover mixes and brassicas and cereal grains. Once the clover is established, I may get up to 5 years out of those plots. The brassicas (turnips, radishes, etc.) are annual. I’ll probably till them up next year and plant clover. There are also cereal grain (mostly rye) mixes. I’m throwing those down in areas where roto-tilling is out of the question. Some of these will stay green all winter and be around until next summer.
Why did I pick these? Well, first off, they were on sale. Second, they contained the sort of stuff I’m interested in planting. I was looking for stuff that would grow in my clay soil, stuff that didn’t require a seed drill. I wanted to be able to scatter this stuff on top of the ground, run over it with a harrow and be done with it.
Fertilizing:
I’d had the soil tested a while back. There were not any major deficiencies. I’m also not about to dump the kind of fertilizer they recommend on the seed bags– I’d go broke. Instead, I found some 40 pound bags of 12-12-12 at Rural King for under $15. I’m allocating one bag per 1/4 acre plot as a starter.
This will act like a starter fertilizer. Long term, I’m going to be working towards sustainable plots that don’t require a lot of inputs to keep them going. More on that later. Let’s concentrate on getting all this seed on the ground.
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