I shreded my standing corn #$!^%* Now what!

Corn doesn't have a lot of protein in it, so I'm not sure what you meant when you said it's part of your "winter over protein provision". Corn is a good source of carbohydrates for deer, but it's not a good, overall winter food source for them, especially up north.

You have too many deer, if they wiped out a 4 acre corn field AND have kept a nearby 5 acre bean field knee high. You don't need more food plot acres, you need more bullets.

We see this a lot on the forums, but you're approaching wildlife food plots like a farmer, with monocultures of corn and soybeans. Swat1018 gave you the best advice, by far. Knowing that you'll be rotating these right back into beans next year, (making the same mistake again) it doesn't really matter a whole lot what you do this fall. If you get to the point where you want to improve wildlife habitat, versus strictly improving your odds of hunting success, there are lots of ways to get there that are FAR more effective than what you're currently doing. Heck, they even cost less and take less time, you just have to adjust your methods and your expectations.
He doesn't have a monoculture of corn and beans. He said he has PTT, kale and diakon raddish, plus a lot of CRP, and is thinking of adding small grain, plus whatever else he hasn't mentioned like browse. A pretty good variation IMO. And they're shooting deer as fast as they can, other than poaching, which might be his next option.
 
Rye is the best for keeping other weeds down, it works in a couple of ways, first chemically the rye gives off a chemical it manufactures to reduce competion, secondly, most weeds need sunlight to sprout, which is why most can survive being buried until someone comes and brings them to the surface, BUT most crops only need warmth, not direct sunlight to sprout, so the rye gets so tall and thick so fast that it blocks out the weeds and they still think they are buried. Which is why reducing tillage is critical. Oats and wheat do the same but arent as good as rye.

Next, what do you have for equipment? Youd be surprised how well equipment will work for something its not designed for in a "food plot" situation. Remember that your not going for all out production.

From what I understand of your situation, heres what I would do, since you've already shredded, I would do your disking, or if you have a plow that would be even better then follow with a disk, then ASAP sow 60lbs/acre of oats along with a pound of PTT and radishes or if you can get some forage collards that would be good too, then about 2 weeks later, sow a bushel of rye and a bushel of wheat per acre . I would skip the burndown because you probably wont need it this time of year. Then next spring depending on what equipment you have, your best bet would be to go in and plant your beans in the standing rye/wheat, then if you have some kind of roller or cultipacker, pull it over the field and then do a burndown in case you didn't kill all the rye/wheat by rolling it. The rye/wheat will act like a mulch and keep a huge majority of the weeds from ever sprouting and will help retain moisture. Then next fall sow some oats/PTT/Radish into the standing beans, the brassicas will act like little storage containers for the N produced by the bean crop and then release it for the corn crop. Or you could keep with a LC rotation. I use corn because its something that the deer use for both food and cover, mine seem to like the corn more than my beans despite what everyone says, next year I'm going to do more interplanting corn/beans. What I just described is pretty much my plans, but my deer density is MUCH lower than yours is. I'm also going to plant a small patch of clovers just to mix things up and give them more options. One thing I'm going to try and do is to plant things the deer CANT find easily around here, trying to bring more deer around, the majority says that's a no-go but my thought is, it might just work. If your surrounded by nothing but salad, youll go out of your way to find a steak.

Everyones suggestion of more natural browse is a good one, I would assume that SE Missouri has quite a bit of hardwood trees etc. "Here" on the prairie its not as easy, not many trees and the ones that are here are mostly cedars, unless you get near a river or creek.

Like everyone said, read the LC threads, I know I came here with similar ideas as you and after reading them I really had my eyes opened.
Just some thoughts from a "professional" farmer whos trying to be a food plotter lol
 
Well folks ....Mother Nature has intervened with Hurricane Harvey ....my shredded corn has a strip of CRP ground between it and the creek that meanders along my bottoms ...the Mother Nature part is that the current forecast is for the Harvey storm carryover ccoming at us could COULD dump Heavy rains in a short time ...my creek flashes easy but also goes down quick also ...BUT ...the corn debris floated by a stream burst will destroy all my beans,PTT,Kale,Radishes not to mention all the forbes and bushes we have put in ...so to anchor the debris I disc it heavily today getting high percentage debris covered so it wont act like a harrow tearing up my plots/fields down stream ...went ahead and threw 100/100 # cereal rye and oats then cultipacted it all in ....we shall see but honestly it got down to out of time on my part ...like making a living ...(I professionally carve pistol grips) ...I am way behind o grips plus I will start serious corn cutting in less than 10 days

You guys have been great ...I appreciate all of your thoughts and ideas ...I started this thread to get quick turn around ideas knowing my time (available waking hours) is in the "out house" from now to almost CHRISTmas ...so at the start of the thread I just gave an outline of the immediate problem and the bits of surrounding ground

We have 240AC with 60AC in CRP and CP33 and one other where we tripled up the forbes and planted wildlife friendly sneaking in Green Briar,Blackberry and other "natural looking" plantings to an inspector of CRP grounds ..we have converted once cultivated row crop ground of hill and low ground in to a tree based CRP type program planting the varieties suited to the soil (7000 trees I think.. my nephew is our tree guy) ....additionally we set aside two 10 AC hills once cultivated and planted Pine trees .. we do TSI (timber stand improvements) on 20 AC of hardwoods timber every 3rd year ....we hinge cut 2 opposing .75 AC corners after each TSI ...we now have 8... 3/4 AC hinge cuts throughout our hardwood timbers ...we do a prescribed timber burn every 5 years ..we have done 2 now with our hardwoods plan wise divided into 4 sections we have 2 to go then start over ....the timber burns are what finally sent our deer herd over the top ...cannot believe the browse ...along with the hinge cuts ...we do not hunt the hinge cuts ever... we do not hunt the the timber burns the year of and year after the burn ...we have a creek running along a portion of our property that can get dry occasionally so we put in 3 wildlife ponds throughout our timber ground (it was a Mo Conservation share program) ...when the Gman showed me the 3 spots he "recommended" ...smack dab on hill tops ...I thought he had lost his mind ...in 15 years I have never seen any of the ponds UNABLE to service wildlife ...HOW do a few little rains throughout the year keep a 10' deep pond fairly full???? ...we buy mostly our trees,shrubs etc from the state nursery but some shrubs,vines n bushes good for wildlife they run out of quickly then we go to the open market ...the money we make from the TSI sales go to the plantings ....the CRP income goes to the farm operating expenses and the share conservation program on the timber burn is about break even when you hire enough guys to watch/manage and man the 3 or 4 conservation department burn trailers (single axle flat beds with gas engine,high pressure water pump with spray booms with a long hose wand and of course water tank, gas leaf blowers and rakes)we will have at the burn site

This quick description is from a 20 year plan my step brother and I put together when we went together to buy the "Hunt"in place" 16 years ago ...it is not a perfect plan ...some stuff just doesn't work ...like having a war plan ..soon as the shoot'n starts ...most of the plan is subject to change ...adapt and improvise ...it's a life time of growing ...not a 100 yard dash

Be safe everybody in all that you do... and play nicely with your fellow man ...you just might need him/her some day!

Bear
 
I'm headed to NEMO Thursday after work for my fall planting. Doesn't look like they are forcasting the rain to get to us. 20% chance Monday, which would be perfect by me.

I think your plan is solid, you may never go back to corn!
 
I'm headed to NEMO Thursday after work for my fall planting. Doesn't look like they are forcasting the rain to get to us. 20% chance Monday, which would be perfect by me.

I think your plan is solid, you may never go back to corn!
Good luck on you planting ...actually I enjoy planting and watching the results

Bear
 
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