Food Plot Advice Needed

[SOILHunter489]

Hello,

Brand new to the forum here. I joined the QDMA forum right at the end of its time and didn't get to make but 1 or 2 posts before I logged back in only to find they had shut down. I am looking for some general advice on what direction to go for a food plot. I am going to try and upload a picture, but seem to be having some problems doing so at the moment. I am getting an error uploading but no reason as to why.

What I have pictured though is 80 acres of a property my family owns. In the middle is 10 acres of woods, then splitting that 10 acres is approximately 1.5 acres, under high lines that is not grown to an ag crop, just mowed in the summer.

The field to the north and south of the woods will be in the same crop each year, it was corn this year and will be rotated to soybeans next year, no winter wheat.

There is ample food supply from the ag fields, and a real good amount of coverage for the deer as well, to where they can feed without passers by. Houses aren't to close, surrounded by dense fence row, and nothing but gravel roads around.

What I am really wanting for the 1.5 acres is something to more or less keep the deer there, I suppose? Also interested in a late food source for when the fields are harvested, rut is over, and deer are back on the search for a food source. I don't mind to split it up either. What crops should I look at? Don't really want to do corn, could do beans, but maybe a pasture style mix with some clover? Alfalfa? Then spread some brassicas and oats in late summer for late food?

I will take soil tests to determine pH, P, & K levels, have access to a small sprayer, and have access to tractor and tillage equipment if need be.

I've also thought of planting some fruit trees throughout as well possibly? This is all brand new to me, that's why I am here!

I did get a start on it somewhat this year, took a hand sprayer, sprayed a small section, broadcasted some fertilizer, then threw out some Eco-Buster Tillage Radishes, figured it was worth a shot!

I want to get more serious about it for next year so figured planning starts now!

Thanks,

Kyle.

Photo Link: https://postimg.org/image/ct51xkagp/

 

[craSSh]

Maybe I missed it, but where is property located?

 

[Scott44]

First of all welcome! I have been doing the LC mix/rotation for the last 4-5 years and it has worked great for me. I've tweeked it some but I use the basic mix. I usually try to ring my plots with a 10-12' strip of clover and plant everything else inside. Here's Paul's rotation/mix.


Plant ALL in one plot in strips or blocks

Alice, Kopu II, Durana (or comparable) white clover 10% of plot, sow at 6#'s per acre with the rye combination in the fall or in the spring with oats and berseem clover. Correct Ph and P&K with soil tests

Brassicas in 45% of plot

Purple Top Turnips 3#
Dwarf Essex Rape 2#
GroundHog Forage radish 5#

Plant in mid to late July in most Midwest states, or 60-90 days before your first killing frost, Use 200#'s of 46-0-0 urea and 400#'s of 6-28-28 per acre. Follow the dead brassicas with oats and berseem or crimson clover in mid spring at 60#'s oats and 12-15#'s berseem clover and/or crimson and/or 50#'s of chickling vetch)

Cereal Grain combo in 45% of plot...we use 50# each rye, oats and peas along with radish and clover seed all planted in half of each feeding area

Winter rye 50-80#'s per acre (56#'s = a bushel)
Spring oats 50-120#'s per acre (32#'s = a bushel)
Frostmaster Winter Peas or 4010/6040 Forage peas 20-80#'s per acre

Red Clover 8-12#'s per acre or white clover at 6#'s per acre (or 20-40 pounds hairy vetch and 20-30#'s crimson clover on sandy soils)
Groundhog Forage Radish 5#'s per acre

Plant in late August to early September, if following well fertilized brassicas use 100 - 200#'s of urea, if starting a new plot add 400#'s of 6-28-28 but for best results soil test and add only what is necessary.

Rotate the brassicas and rye combo each year

 

[Triple C]

SH489...Welcome to the forum! You can't go wrong with the LC mix. I love it. It's simple and it works. Another option would be to plant the 1.5 acres in clover since you have so much ag around you. I have become a very big fan of white clover. Down here, it can pretty much provide forage year round and the deer love it.

 

[SOILHunter489]

Location would probably help! I am in Southern Illinois, about 30 miles North of Interstate 64. What kind of maintenance would I be looking at with the clover route? How many years can I usually get out of it? Yes, with all the ag fields the deer will have plenty of food sources, and decent water sources between the creek and the pond, but I am wanting something to keep them in the area. Could I broadcast brassica's/oats into the clover for late season food as well? Without causing any problems the following season? Sounds like the LC mix has a lot of followers, where can I find more info on this?

Thanks for the warm welcomes as well!

Kyle.

 

[Scott44]

Location would probably help! I am in Southern Illinois, about 30 miles North of Interstate 64. What kind of maintenance would I be looking at with the clover route? How many years can I usually get out of it? Yes, with all the ag fields the deer will have plenty of food sources, and decent water sources between the creek and the pond, but I am wanting something to keep them in the area. Could I broadcast brassica's/oats into the clover for late season food as well? Without causing any problems the following season? Sounds like the LC mix has a lot of followers, where can I find more info on this?

Thanks for the warm welcomes as well!

Kyle.

Here's a link to Outreach Outdoors and Dbltree's corner Lickcreek also, Paul went by different names on different forums. Paul had these threads going for many years so some of them are pretty long but well worth the info in them.
http://www.outreachoutdoors.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=19&sid=d6783cb00934f734d98094b54dbeb7da

In a nut shell work up an area in the spring and plant oats and an annual clover like crimson or berseem and till it under July/Aug time frame for your brassicas, somewhere around Labor day get your cereal grains in and you'll have a start to year round food plot because the rye in the cereal grains will come up next spring and be some of the first greens for the deer. The brassicas will feed the fall and winter, not sure how much snow you get but my deer dig down through the snow to get to the bulbs. Many have tweaked for there own needs but this is the basics of the rotation, by tweaking I mean playing with the seed amounts and different seeds. Also I've found it easier to get a clover plot established when planted in the fall with the clover is mixed into the cereal grain mix, you can mow the rye the next spring and it will release the clover. Good luck!

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

My favorite plots I have out right now is my RW soil beans that I over seed with brassica, turnip, radish mix in the late summer. I also mixed in a little rye and oats in the thinner area of beans.

If you have AG around you I would wait until the AG beans have begun growing in the spring before planting mine to help with browse early on. Late season after there is little AG left around, those beans and brassica mix will be like a magnet until they are gone. I also have a few cereal grain plots out as well but I know what standing beans will do come late season if they make it that long so they are my favorite plots.

Really it just comes down to how much maintenance you are willing to do. I find the bean/brassica rotation is very easy to maintain.

 

[Scott44]

Just a pic of my Dbltree/LC rotation plot clover strip on the bottom then brassicas then a alfalfa trip, sorghum mix and cereal grains in the back by the woods. The brassicas are kind of spotty so mid Aug I broadcast some rye and buckwheat into it not knowing if they would turn out so they look not the best.

 

[Smallplot]

Maintenance on a clover plot is going to be mowing for the most part. If grasses are problematic then spray with a grass selective herbicide like Clethodim. If the grass has been mowed and you can see bare soil under it, you have an option to go ahead and broadcast some white clover (like Ladino) now and next spring you should get soe good clover growth, just spray the grasses early next spring.