Drought and Survival
- Thread starter dogghr
- Start date
dogghr
Well-Known Member
This thread didn’t go exactly the direction I wanted. My point… how to manage monsoon or drought years? If one doesn’t prepare ahead w soil/moisture management then either rain extremes can be detrimental.
Minor or no soil disturbance w perpetual ground cover developes a sponge that both retains and sheds moisture extremes promoting plant growth In less than ideal times.
Rotational plantings with no ornminimal till maximizes benefits. I beseech you to view the numerous off the wall info on the internet showing the results of such farming whether it be for livestock or a deer food plot.
Here on this poor shallow soil , poor drainage and moisture retention , south slopes sun baked hill side I share woth you exhibit 1&2. Both intentionally planted w no tillage and natures choices of plantings included.
Your choice. Plan for failure and weather can be circumvented to a large degree.
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Minor or no soil disturbance w perpetual ground cover developes a sponge that both retains and sheds moisture extremes promoting plant growth In less than ideal times.
Rotational plantings with no ornminimal till maximizes benefits. I beseech you to view the numerous off the wall info on the internet showing the results of such farming whether it be for livestock or a deer food plot.
Here on this poor shallow soil , poor drainage and moisture retention , south slopes sun baked hill side I share woth you exhibit 1&2. Both intentionally planted w no tillage and natures choices of plantings included.
Your choice. Plan for failure and weather can be circumvented to a large degree.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
I've had to learn that lesson the hard way a number of times. Last year I lost spring seedings to rain and flood, and then the driest period ever set in. I had a rye/clover/alfalfa/vetch plot that I put in the summer before last year, and another similar plot the year before that. Those made it through and you couldn't tell there was a drought.
This spring, it's been monsoon season again. Most of my plots went into this spring covered in lots of residue and perennial cover. They're doing much better.
I'm with ya all the way on this.
This spring, it's been monsoon season again. Most of my plots went into this spring covered in lots of residue and perennial cover. They're doing much better.
I'm with ya all the way on this.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Paul Knox preached for years the value of winter rye with clover, and how this combo turned the soil into a sponge. I truly wish for many reasons, he was still around, but especially to see how much he would have loved the movement toward regenerative plotting. Some of our plots did go dormant last year, but they survived and awoke with the mid fall rains and flourished, even though the rains weren’t really adequate.
I think us food plotters sometimes make things harder for ourselves. Over my 45 years of planting food plots for deer, I have gone balls to the wall planting a wide variety of both cool season and warm season plants - brassicas, alfalfa, corn, beans, peas, all kinds of clover, milo, sunflowers, wheat, rye, oats - and more. I would mow, spray, fertilize - and had some fantastic looking plots. Now I have durana clover plots with wheat seeded into them each fall. I dont spray unless the plots are over come with johnson grass or honey locust. I dont mow except for right before fall wheat planting. I dont fertilize my deer plots. I cant tell one difference in the use of my plots by deer. My clover actually persists longer in our 100 degree heat if it is shaded by some weeds. I have been doing this for years.
Now, my duck and dove plots are a totally different story. You have to produce seed. Deer plots are so easy a caveman can do it compared to dove and duck.
Now, my duck and dove plots are a totally different story. You have to produce seed. Deer plots are so easy a caveman can do it compared to dove and duck.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
We’re missing a really good one right now, we’re actually under a flood warning, but I think that’s because it’s raining good just north of us. We’re so close to the line of the storms, we could actually get some pretty good precipitation, but according to radar it’s not looking good. We’re not hurting bad yet, but it has been almost 3 weeks without a rain and these temps and wind are sucking the ground dry fast.
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Wind and sun can sure dry things up quick. Hope you get some moisture soon.
Kurt
Active Member
Small town southeast of Denver about an hour. This is our second year of drought. All the prairie stock tanks are dry and the grasslands are grazed to a pool table height. Ugly here right now.
Hoping central KS gets enough rain to keep the trees alive. Can supplement in a few weeks to try to help them too. I'll be interested to see if tubes or cages win in a drought.
Hoping central KS gets enough rain to keep the trees alive. Can supplement in a few weeks to try to help them too. I'll be interested to see if tubes or cages win in a drought.
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Was at the Massey this afternoon doing a little spraying. Trees are doing okay, so subsoil moisture must be hanging in there. Top soil is rough right now though. I’m not sure the spraying is going to do any good. Gonna need a good rain asap. It’s definitely concerning, because whereas last year the rains stopped the beginning of July, this year they stopped the beginning of June. I doubt I’m going to water trees and just let the chips fall where they will, we leave a week from today for SW CO.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Shaping up to be another 2011 for us. I lost at least half of my white oaks that year, maybe more. We’ve already had a couple weeks of near 100* temps in June and over 100* heat indexes. We still have three months of heat to look forward to. That and 20 mph winds have all the ponds drying up and the browse burning up. Didn’t hurt my buckwheat though because the hogs have eaten it all, and I mean ALL. They pulled it up by the roots and ate seeds, stalk and roots ! I’ve never seen that in my life….
Shaping up to be another 2011 for us. I lost at least half of my white oaks that year, maybe more. We’ve already had a couple weeks of near 100* temps in June and over 100* heat indexes. We still have three months of heat to look forward to. That and 20 mph winds have all the ponds drying up and the browse burning up. Didn’t hurt my buckwheat though because the hogs have eaten it all, and I mean ALL. They pulled it up by the roots and ate seeds, stalk and roots ! I’ve never seen that in my life….
I lost 50% of my mature oak in 2011. Hope we dont see that again
