Keystone Krops

[Mennoniteman]

Do you plan to do anything else after mowing to prep for another fall t&m?

I'm not planning on doing anything else at this point, the weeds are in control and I don't use any kind of amendments on this plot since the focus is to only grow clover and rye, and these two grow well together without lime or fertilizer. I'm actually thinking of postponing the mowing until the third month of August and only doing one mowing right after seeding my fall rye. This is my poor man's plot, a distance away from my other plots with no equipment on site, so working here takes extra effort, and I think I have the work on it whittled down to a spring herbicide application and a fall throw n mow. This 1 acre plot is one of my experiments, to see how nice of a food plot i can grow with the least amount of effort possible, which seems to be that spring spraying and a fall T&M. If I can replicate my early success for multiple years in a row I will write an article about it here on the site and share my minimalist plot experiences with others.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Have you ever been driving through the woods and a deadfall had the road closed like happened to me 5 minutes ago? In times like this having a Milwaukee chainsaw in the back pays for itself.

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[Mennoniteman]

Here's a short video clip of the results of a "Chainsaw Massacre" wildlife habitat improvement project look, about 5 years after the cutting date.

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good MM...!

 

[BenAllgood]

Here's a short video clip of the results of a "Chainsaw Massacre" wildlife habitat improvement project look, about 5 years after the cutting date.

Looks great

 

[Mennoniteman]

I like fall planting rye into my clover plots for winter food, but then the question arises, what to do with this rye in the spring? This picture shows fall planted rye in a clover plot the following first week of August. I just let the rye mature and expire and now I'm mowing the plot. I have pictures of turkeys, doves, and deer eating the rye seed heads, and by this time there were no seed heads left, and the straw is great fertilizer for the clover.

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[Triple C]

Have you ever been driving through the woods and a deadfall had the road closed like happened to me 5 minutes ago? In times like this having a Milwaukee chainsaw in the back pays for itself.

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How do you like the Milwaukee saw? Starting to add Milwaukee stuff to my battery powered tools.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I like fall planting rye into my clover plots for winter food, but then the question arises, what to do with this rye in the spring? This picture shows fall planted rye in a clover plot the following first week of August. I just let the rye mature and expire and now I'm mowing the plot. I have pictures of turkeys, doves, and deer eating the rye seed heads, and by this time there were no seed heads left, and the straw is great fertilizer for the clover.

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That is a sweet looking rig you got there! When you zap your rye with a rotary mower, do the seed heads shatter? I mowed my rye last weekend with a walk behind billy goat brush hog, and none of my rye heads shattered. They were still completely in tact and mowed off. Not a huge deal. I just followed up and topseeded a bucket of winter wheat and spring wheat.

 

[badgerfowl]

I'm planning on mowing some of my game bird mix around Labor Day. Will probably throw some WR and any leftover oats down first and mow over the top. Puts seed heads down on the ground and maybe the WR/Oats will grow.

When you put WR on clover, do you cut it before hand or does it eventually come through when the clover goes dormant due to cold. What is the timing of your WR overseeding into existing clover?

 

[Mennoniteman]

How do you like the Milwaukee saw? Starting to add Milwaukee stuff to my battery powered tools.

Milwaukee is about the best there is in cordless tools. You really need their blower and their string trimmer, the two most important pieces i have. I use the blower to clear the driveway, sweep the shop, clean out the tractor cab, clean off the mower, the porch, the dog, everything.

 

[Mennoniteman]

That is a sweet looking rig you got there! When you zap your rye with a rotary mower, do the seed heads shatter? I mowed my rye last weekend with a walk behind billy goat brush hog, and none of my rye heads shattered. They were still completely in tact and mowed off. Not a huge deal. I just followed up and topseeded a bucket of winter wheat and spring wheat.

The seed heads apparently were a little bit green, when dead ripe they shatter if the wildlife didn't clean them off. Reseeding from mowed seed heads is rather sporadic, varying from great to nonexistent, I think there many different dynamics at work causing this.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I'm planning on mowing some of my game bird mix around Labor Day. Will probably throw some WR and any leftover oats down first and mow over the top. Puts seed heads down on the ground and maybe the WR/Oats will grow.

When you put WR on clover, do you cut it before hand or does it eventually come through when the clover goes dormant due to cold. What is the timing of your WR overseeding into existing clover?

A thick thatch is the most common reason for overseeding failure, and not enough sunlight is the second. I find that a throw-n-mow into clover right around Labor Day is usually money in the bank for establishing winter rye. I just go to the local feed mill and buy "bin run" rye grain and broadcast at least 200 lb per acre, then mow relatively short. Don't do this if you are concerned about weed seeds, but the way i figure is whatever weeds i get along with the rye should be easier to get rid of than what's already been growing on my property.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I'm planning on mowing some of my game bird mix around Labor Day. Will probably throw some WR and any leftover oats down first and mow over the top. Puts seed heads down on the ground and maybe the WR/Oats will grow.

When you put WR on clover, do you cut it before hand or does it eventually come through when the clover goes dormant due to cold. What is the timing of your WR overseeding into existing clover?

I've had a hell of a time getting anything to come through my clover, even after mowing. The few times I tried it, I went around ten weeks before frost (July 15th) and my clover had been a few years old already. It was so damn thick, the seed hung up in the spaghetti of the clover stems. It kept raining, and that clover just roared back and canopied.

This year I think will go better in the plot I throwed and mowed. That's a first year stand planted last fall. It was thin enough thanks to the drought that I reached the soil easily. Laying the rye down gave me some thatch, but didn't distribute for chit.

 

[badgerfowl]

I've had a hell of a time getting anything to come through my clover, even after mowing. The few times I tried it, I went around ten weeks before frost (July 15th) and my clover had been a few years old already. It was so damn thick, the seed hung up in the spaghetti of the clover stems. It kept raining, and that clover just roared back and canopied.

This year I think will go better in the plot I throwed and mowed. That's a first year stand planted last fall. It was thin enough thanks to the drought that I reached the soil easily. Laying the rye down gave me some thatch, but didn't distribute for chit.

I’ve never tried over seeding into existing clover. The game bird mix is pretty thick but I think cutting it should kill it but who knows. No experience with this stuff. I’ve got plenty of food if it doesn’t work.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I’ve never tried over seeding into existing clover. The game bird mix is pretty thick but I think cutting it should kill it but who knows. No experience with this stuff. I’ve got plenty of food if it doesn’t work.

You're hedging your bet by only doing some. I'd say let'er rip and see what happens. If stuff has seed heads, it shouldn't regrow. It may not die right away, but shouldn't come back. I like the idea of leaving some though too. One year i had volunteer sorghums and millets from some spring camera surveying i did with bird seed. By late november, the entire plants of those grains were eaten. I just wish I knew which ones they were.

I've got jap millet across my entire system this year. i'm hoping I make it to seed heads and duff with it. Really need some fiber to cover the ground after all the dirt moving. If they eat the whole plant, that'd be ok too. I wouldn't mind all that being turned into deer pellets.

 

[DocHolladay]

You're hedging your bet by only doing some. I'd say let'er rip and see what happens. If stuff has seed heads, it shouldn't regrow. It may not die right away, but shouldn't come back. I like the idea of leaving some though too. One year i had volunteer sorghums and millets from some spring camera surveying i did with bird seed. By late november, the entire plants of those grains were eaten. I just wish I knew which ones they were.

I've got jap millet across my entire system this year. i'm hoping I make it to seed heads and duff with it. Really need some fiber to cover the ground after all the dirt moving. If they eat the whole plant, that'd be ok too. I wouldn't mind all that being turned into deer pellets.

This plot was Walmart bird seed. The sunflowers were eaten before they got started good. That told me, I needed more sunflower in the mix. You can see ragweed, milkweed, and partridge pea in there too. I didn’t worry about that, as the deer and birds used it for food too.

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[badgerfowl]

You're hedging your bet by only doing some. I'd say let'er rip and see what happens. If stuff has seed heads, it shouldn't regrow. It may not die right away, but shouldn't come back. I like the idea of leaving some though too. One year i had volunteer sorghums and millets from some spring camera surveying i did with bird seed. By late november, the entire plants of those grains were eaten. I just wish I knew which ones they were.

I've got jap millet across my entire system this year. i'm hoping I make it to seed heads and duff with it. Really need some fiber to cover the ground after all the dirt moving. If they eat the whole plant, that'd be ok too. I wouldn't mind all that being turned into deer pellets.

I think next year I’m just going to try and buy some millet from Welter, 3-5 lbs and ring most of our field with it to create a softer edge and add the EW where I need it most. Then I could leave it all winter. I kind of closed the field in too much with it this year. Which is why I want to cut 1/2 to 2/3 of it.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I think next year I’m just going to try and buy some millet from Welter, 3-5 lbs and ring most of our field with it to create a softer edge and add the EW where I need it most. Then I could leave it all winter. I kind of closed the field in too much with it this year. Which is why I want to cut 1/2 to 2/3 of it.

I like that idea of creating a soft edge,, I've been planning to plant pearl millet for an edge around our fields for several years.

 

[Mennoniteman]

This clover plot has been giving me fits ever since I cleared the trees and limed and fertilized as per soil tests two years ago, so this is now the third summer for this plot. It had poor sandy soil, so I planted a buckwheat, annual ryegrass and clover mix to start. The annual ryegrass was a desperation measure to get something growing before the nutrients all washed away ,since this sandy plot has a slight slope
Ever since then, I have been trying to get rid of the ryegrass clumps that popped up everywhere, and seemed to be very chemical resistant. When I cleared the land in June that summer was just turning hot, and it was almost too late to get anything growing but on the other hand I couldn't afford to let it in bare dirt all summer for fear of loosing more nutrients, so all in all it was a tough start,, and then nothing that I did in the next two years seemed to turn out right, and grass was constantly on the verge of overrunning the clover. Downpours right after spraying, multiple droughts right after mowing, me living too far away and being too busy elsewhere, you name it, nothing was working well.
So about month ago I decided to really get serious with this foodplot grass problem and switch things up with a different herbicide, and now things have finally started going my way. First, I mowed everything short, left it grow for one week, then hit it with the maximum rate of AMS, crop oil, and clethodim. This seemingly invincible grass turned totally brown and melted to almost nothing in two weeks, and, while there's still a few bare spots left over from dead grass clumps, the clover looks magazine cover picture perfect from the edgeofthefield. .
The moral of this story is, after a foodplot failure knocks you down, get up and try one more time!

 

[Mennoniteman]

To celebrate Labor Day I helped a friend set up a new Redneck Hunting Blind. Easy setup if you have a machine or a block and tackle to set it up. We used a block and tackle with three pulleys 14' high on a big tree because the site was inaccessible for a skidloader. A very nice, long-lasting, maintenance free blind for the money, IMO the window system could be a little better.