Is the juice worth the squeeze

[FarmerD]

And you'll wonder why, in Georgia I don't use all MRC? MRC, in my experience, puts lots of tons of growth on, grows tall, big leaves and is great for a farmer that wants to bale it for cattle. My deer love the leaves and do eat some of the stems, but not like white clover. My deer view my white clover as all leaf and eat it all, so, I hedge my bets, to keep food on the table, in my annual plots, for as long as possible.

 

[SwampCat]

You might mix some clovers and see what you have left after a year or two and then go with what does best. Durana is the only clover I have had make it all summer - and then only on the bottomland plots. I have not yet had a clover make it all summer in the upland plots.

 

[FarmerD]

Thanks! I'm doing good with Durana and also Advantage Ladino is performing well for me too. 50% of my plots are perennial clover right now and I have had years where my Durana has been brown and crispy, in the heat of the summer, but those plots are now in their 10th+ season.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Clover is the workhorse of food plots and 100% clover would be ok by me, but soybeans are king when it comes to growing antlers, a worthwhile goal for the ambitious to shoot for.

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

My thoughts on the value of clover is that it really depends on where you are. In Northern Michigan I don’t get more than 5 months out of clover, and it does nothing to help my hunting because I don’t do much bow hunting.
Even if clover provided a food source in the winter here, it wouldn’t be doing much good. Deer need carbohydrates to keep them going in the winter.
I love clover, but due to my location I tend to plant more turnips than clover


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[Buck268]

I do love planting food plots and seeing all the animals benefit from them. I think I've gone to far and want to watch and film more than shoot any more thus the doe problem. When I started my lease and plots, after the 1st year I could see the difference in all the animals.
I started like may using BOB and 1 acre plot. The next year 2 acres, again with BOB. Here's where it gets bad; 3rd year buy another tractor so I don't wear out my main lawn tractor planted 3 acres. 4th year I buy a 6ft grain drill and a 2 row planter and planted 5 acres. Now I'm up to about 10 acres. The biggest surprise in success that I've had has been corn. Corn generally is difficult to obtain success with but, has been good for me. I credit this to the planter having a fertilizer box and spraying gly once the corn reaches about 6-8 inches high.
Another unexpected success was with PPT, did a spray, throw and mow and had turnips the size of soft balls.

Now here's the best thing I've done thus far; Egyptian wheat. I have a private driveway that runs alongside one of my fields that gets constant use. I planted a 12 ft strip of Egyptian wheat along the driveway and it grew 10-14 ft tall and thick as dog hair. The bucks would come out any time of the day now and stay in the plot.

My original Imperial whitetail clover patch is about 1/2 acre and has been going strong for about 8 years with only 1 supplemental frost seeding. When I started this plot, I put in winter wheat and come back in March and seeded with the imperial clover. Came back a few months later and the WW was about 3 ft tall. When I mowed the WW, there was the prettiest patch of clover you'd ever want to see.
Here's my list of things planted: corn, beans, cowpeas, turnips, radishes, millet, winter wheat, Egyptian wheat, sunflowers, power plant, fusion, whitetail imperial clover, medium red clover, white clover.

 

[Buck268]

Here's my toys

 

[Gator]

View attachment 14918 Here's my toys

Love that little planter.

 

[dogghr]

I do love planting food plots and seeing all the animals benefit from them. I think I've gone to far and want to watch and film more than shoot any more thus the doe problem. When I started my lease and plots, after the 1st year I could see the difference in all the animals.
I started like may using BOB and 1 acre plot. The next year 2 acres, again with BOB. Here's where it gets bad; 3rd year buy another tractor so I don't wear out my main lawn tractor planted 3 acres. 4th year I buy a 6ft grain drill and a 2 row planter and planted 5 acres. Now I'm up to about 10 acres. The biggest surprise in success that I've had has been corn. Corn generally is difficult to obtain success with but, has been good for me. I credit this to the planter having a fertilizer box and spraying gly once the corn reaches about 6-8 inches high.
Another unexpected success was with PPT, did a spray, throw and mow and had turnips the size of soft balls.

Now here's the best thing I've done thus far; Egyptian wheat. I have a private driveway that runs alongside one of my fields that gets constant use. I planted a 12 ft strip of Egyptian wheat along the driveway and it grew 10-14 ft tall and thick as dog hair. The bucks would come out any time of the day now and stay in the plot.

My original Imperial whitetail clover patch is about 1/2 acre and has been going strong for about 8 years with only 1 supplemental frost seeding. When I started this plot, I put in winter wheat and come back in March and seeded with the imperial clover. Came back a few months later and the WW was about 3 ft tall. When I mowed the WW, there was the prettiest patch of clover you'd ever want to see.
Here's my list of things planted: corn, beans, cowpeas, turnips, radishes, millet, winter wheat, Egyptian wheat, sunflowers, power plant, fusion, whitetail imperial clover, medium red clover, white clover.

Sounds like you have managed well. I like your planting choices. How did sunflowers do considering dpsm population? Personally I have progressed to managing combo of perennial clover/alfalfa/ chicory and couple plots of fall late summer planted brassica/grain/clover for the winter and worked really hard at improving browse for late winter. I have adjacent farm acres of corn, so it would do me no good to plant such.
Now the million dollar question, what do you Buck think? Continue with your plantings, or reduce your annual efforts? Great thread.

 

[Mennoniteman]

View attachment 14918 View attachment 14919 View attachment 14920 Here's my toys

With that nice equipment I predict that you will be planting at least a little something beyond clover and chicory.

 

[Buck268]

Corn, Egyptian wheat, PPT

 

[Buck268]

Here's my beans that didn't make it past this point before they got devoured.

 

[Buck268]

Sounds like you have managed well. I like your planting choices. How did sunflowers do considering dpsm population? Personally I have progressed to managing combo of perennial clover/alfalfa/ chicory and couple plots of fall late summer planted brassica/grain/clover for the winter and worked really hard at improving browse for late winter. I have adjacent farm acres of corn, so it would do me no good to plant such.
Now the million dollar question, what do you Buck think? Continue with your plantings, or reduce your annual efforts? Great thread.

The 1st year I planted sunflowers, they did great. The 2nd year the deer figured it out and haven't been able to grow them since.

 

[Chainsaw]

Nice corn and love those large turnips. Beans are funny to grow here in Northern New York. If planted too early they frost kill and if planted just a week or two too late and they don't get large enough to shade the ground before summer. When our soil gets dry in the summer and if the field has not canopied by then it is game over for those beans. Get a few rains in a row and maybe they could make it.
Conversely here assuming the field is 4 acres or more, plant them at exactly the right time and get out the way;those same fields that couldn't even shade the soil do grow five foot bean plants when timing and moisture is right with or without browsing.

 

[Buck268]

You can see some of my activities on Facebook under White Oak Outdoors, this will be the page picture when you hit the right page.