Last minute food plot

[Fetz]

I'm in central IL. Farmers almanac says first frost will be in about 30 days. I have a .5ac section of pasture that I'd like to turn into a food plot. I have never done a food plot before but I have a tractor, sprayer, and flail mower and my local seed supplier has winter wheat for $22/50lb. There's rain in the forecast this weekend (in 5 days). If I spray gly today, then broadcast and mow/roll before it rains, do I have any chance of success?

I like to say prior preparation prevents poor performance but I usually don't listen to my own advice.

 

[Drycreek]

You might be cutting it pretty close with just five days but I would mix 2 to 2.5 oz. per gallon if that’s all the time you have.

 

[Native Hunter]

Winter Wheat grows and germinates fast, and a light frost on it is not a deal killer. We are only talking a half acre, and you have everything you need. Even though you should have done it earlier, I would go ahead and do it.

PS - Even though I do nearly all my plots spray/throw/mow these days, I would consider just disking up this one up and forgetting the spraying in order to gain a little extra time. I'm sure I will get the self righteous sermon about the horrors on the soil of disking for saying this, but who cares

Good luck

 

[KSQ2]

Winter wheat and winter rye are pretty much as fool proof as it comes for fall/winter plots. I will also give you a great spot next year to work with, if you decide to venture into that wonderful/frustrating world of regenerative plotting.

 

[T-Max]

Winter Wheat grows and germinates fast, and a light frost on it is not a deal killer. We are only talking a half acre, and you have everything you need. Even though you should have done it earlier, I would go ahead and do it.

PS - Even though I do nearly all my plots spray/throw/mow these days, I would consider just disking up this one up and forgetting the spraying in order to gain a little extra time. I'm sure I will get the self righteous sermon about the horrors on the soil of disking for saying this, but who cares

Good luck

 

[yoderjac]

I'm in central IL. Farmers almanac says first frost will be in about 30 days. I have a .5ac section of pasture that I'd like to turn into a food plot. I have never done a food plot before but I have a tractor, sprayer, and flail mower and my local seed supplier has winter wheat for $22/50lb. There's rain in the forecast this weekend (in 5 days). If I spray gly today, then broadcast and mow/roll before it rains, do I have any chance of success?

I like to say prior preparation prevents poor performance but I usually don't listen to my own advice.

It depends on how you define success. If you mean will WR grow and will deer use it, you should have success. Just keep in mind that when converting a pasture to a food plot your primary objective for the long run is to eliminate the grasses. This is a good time of year to spray to kill grasses. Be sure to calibrate your sprayer and use 2 qt/ac of gly for burn down. Just keep in mind that it may take a couple of years to get rid of the grasses.

I would suggest looking for Winter Rye instead of Winter Wheat. Winter rye has a chemical impact on weeds as well as taking up resources that the grasses would otherwise use. It has low fertility requirements. You did not mention pH. I'd test and apply lime if needed as well, but WR will also grow in low pH soils. I would ignore any fertilizer recommendations on the soil test.

You did not mention the size of the plot, but I'd shoot for around 100 lbs of WR per acre.

Best of luck!

 

[Fetz]

It depends on how you define success. If you mean will WR grow and will deer use it, you should have success. Just keep in mind that when converting a pasture to a food plot your primary objective for the long run is to eliminate the grasses. This is a good time of year to spray to kill grasses. Be sure to calibrate your sprayer and use 2 qt/ac of gly for burn down. Just keep in mind that it may take a couple of years to get rid of the grasses.

I would suggest looking for Winter Rye instead of Winter Wheat. Winter rye has a chemical impact on weeds as well as taking up resources that the grasses would otherwise use. It has low fertility requirements. You did not mention pH. I'd test and apply lime if needed as well, but WR will also grow in low pH soils. I would ignore any fertilizer recommendations on the soil test.

You did not mention the size of the plot, but I'd shoot for around 100 lbs of WR per acre.

Best of luck!

Well the best part about having low expectations is they are easily exceeded. I'll be happy if I can just draw some deer in during the gun season. I sprayed this evening with some minor hiccups.

I tried to calibrate my sprayer in accordance with this youtube video:

and came out with 20gal/ac. I think there must have been a little too much estimation in my calculations because I came up short and had to refill the tank. Overall I put 4qt down, guess I'd rather put down too much than too little.

I got 50lb winter wheat and 3lb of turnips. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Worst case I wasted $50 and a couple hours of my time. 70% chance of rain now on Sunday and Monday (4-5 days). I'll keep you guys updated thanks for the advice!

 

[g squared 23]

Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Well the best part about having low expectations is they are easily exceeded. I'll be happy if I can just draw some deer in during the gun season. I sprayed this evening with some minor hiccups.

I tried to calibrate my sprayer in accordance with this youtube video:

and came out with 20gal/ac. I think there must have been a little too much estimation in my calculations because I came up short and had to refill the tank. Overall I put 4qt down, guess I'd rather put down too much than too little.

I got 50lb winter wheat and 3lb of turnips. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Worst case I wasted $50 and a couple hours of my time. 70% chance of rain now on Sunday and Monday (4-5 days). I'll keep you guys updated thanks for the advice!

I add a 10% overlap factor to the 1/128 ac calibration method. I have a foamer that I use to mark the end of the boom, but even with that, short of a high end gps controlled tractor, we never drive exactly where we want to. So, I presume I'll need 10% additional fluid. It does not impact the amount of gly. I use 2qt/ac of gly for typical burndown.

I would caution against the "More is better" approach to spraying herbicide. I would do the best you can following the label for the recommended amount for the weeds you are trying to kill. There are cases with some particular noxious weeds where higher rates are recommended, but the general total burn down rate is 2 qt/ac.

Best of luck on your plant. Let us know how it works out.

Here are some hints for the future. Both WW and Brassica are N seeking crops. It is a good practice to mix legumes that fix N from the air into the soil with N seeking crops.

A good balance is 100 lbs/ac of WR, 10 lbs/ac of Crimson Clover (or whatever annual clover works well in your area) and about 2 lbs of PTT or 4 lbs of GHR. Not all brassica is the same. There are a lot more PTT seeds per pound than GHR. If the brassica component gets too high, they tend to shade out other crops.

Just thoughts for the future...

 

[Fetz]

I add a 10% overlap factor to the 1/128 ac calibration method. I have a foamer that I use to mark the end of the boom, but even with that, short of a high end gps controlled tractor, we never drive exactly where we want to. So, I presume I'll need 10% additional fluid. It does not impact the amount of gly. I use 2qt/ac of gly for typical burndown.

I would caution against the "More is better" approach to spraying herbicide. I would do the best you can following the label for the recommended amount for the weeds you are trying to kill. There are cases with some particular noxious weeds where higher rates are recommended, but the general total burn down rate is 2 qt/ac.

Best of luck on your plant. Let us know how it works out.

Here are some hints for the future. Both WW and Brassica are N seeking crops. It is a good practice to mix legumes that fix N from the air into the soil with N seeking crops.

A good balance is 100 lbs/ac of WR, 10 lbs/ac of Crimson Clover (or whatever annual clover works well in your area) and about 2 lbs of PTT or 4 lbs of GHR. Not all brassica is the same. There are a lot more PTT seeds per pound than GHR. If the brassica component gets too high, they tend to shade out other crops.

Just thoughts for the future...

I suspect it was mostly due to excessive overlap, and also I need to tinker with the supply hose in the sprayer because it was losing prime once the tank got to ~4 gal. Not ideal when I only wanted to spray 10 gal in the first place.

I will look around for some annual clover the next couple days and maybe reduce the amount of turnips I put down. Again I was going with a "more is better" attitude with the seeding rate, expecting less than ideal germination rates.

 

[yoderjac]

I suspect it was mostly due to excessive overlap, and also I need to tinker with the supply hose in the sprayer because it was losing prime once the tank got to ~4 gal. Not ideal when I only wanted to spray 10 gal in the first place.

I will look around for some annual clover the next couple days and maybe reduce the amount of turnips I put down. Again I was going with a "more is better" attitude with the seeding rate, expecting less than ideal germination rates.

Yes, finding the right seeding rates with T&M can take some time. Differences in soil type and condition as well as thatch levels can all affect germination rates in addition to cultipacking or not and the big one...rain. I think this is one some folks struggle with T&M. With traditional tillage, you destroy OM and need to add high cost commercial fertilizer, but germination rates seem to be more consistent than with T&M.

I'm not sure where you are located. I'm in zone 7A in VA. I like Crimson Clover as and annual in my mixes. Here crimson clover acts as a reseeding annual clover. It may not do that further north. I like it because it has very low fertility requirements. I'll get some growth in the fall, but the other crops get more attention from deer in the fall. It really shines the following spring. Just as the WR in the mix starts to become rank and unattractive to deer, the CC comes on strong. It provides food and covers my soils in the spring until I'm ready to plant for summer. If I decide not to do a summer plant, I just let the field go in the summer. The crimson wears out, but a good mix of summer weeds come on as the WR matures and produces seed heads. Then, the following fall, those WR seed heads allow me to reduce the amount of WR I broadcast.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Fetz]

I'm in zone 6A. Some quick googling says I might be pushing the limits for crimson clover.

 

[yoderjac]

You can probably grow it but it may not act as a reseeding annual, just an annual. I know some folks up north use Berseem as an annual clover.

 

[Fetz]

My local Rural King has this clover mix. Says it's 90% medium red clover and 10% white dutch clover. Rain chances looking real good on Sunday and Monday now so I'm sticking to planting Saturday afternoon.

 

[yoderjac]

I use medium some times. It is a good clover. It is called a Short-Lived perennial rather than an annual. If I don't want to plant the next year, I'll often use medium red rather than crimson. I can get about 2 years out of medium red. White Dutch is a perennial clover. If you plan to plant the field next year, it won't add much, but it won't hurt anything.

Great luck!

 

[Fetz]

Update: I broadcasted and mowed on Saturday. We've gotten 3 inches of rain since then. The duff seemed a bit thick but hopefully the rain packed it down and got those seeds nice and moist.

.5ac
50lb no-name wheat
5lb pasture booster clover (which was actually only 50% PLS)
and 1lb no-name turnips.


An at home pH test measured at 7-7.5 with little nitrogen in the soil. P and K are good. I'll see how it does without any other inputs. I've certainly taken bigger risk in life.

 

[yoderjac]

You will be fine! Rain cures all!

 

[Mennoniteman]

Well the best part about having low expectations is they are easily exceeded. I'll be happy if I can just draw some deer in during the gun season. I sprayed this evening with some minor hiccups.

I tried to calibrate my sprayer in accordance with this youtube video:

and came out with 20gal/ac. I think there must have been a little too much estimation in my calculations because I came up short and had to refill the tank. Overall I put 4qt down, guess I'd rather put down too much than too little.

I got 50lb winter wheat and 3lb of turnips. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Worst case I wasted $50 and a couple hours of my time. 70% chance of rain now on Sunday and Monday (4-5 days). I'll keep you guys updated thanks for the advice!

I've used quite a few different models of crop sprayers, and, driving at around 3.5-4 mph, as a general rule of thumb they all usually use 25-30 gallons per acre. Contrary to what one would think, turning pressures up or down out of normal pressure ranges only makes a small difference, not a big difference, because a spray nozzle orifice will use a specific amount of water which is defined more by the specific diameter hole than by water pressure. I've never had a sprayer that would do good coverage with 20 gallons per acre.

 

[yoderjac]

I've used quite a few different models of crop sprayers, and, driving at around 3.5-4 mph, as a general rule of thumb they all usually use 25-30 gallons per acre. Contrary to what one would think, turning pressures up or down out of normal pressure ranges only makes a small difference, not a big difference, because a spray nozzle orifice will use a specific amount of water which is defined more by the specific diameter hole than by water pressure. I've never had a sprayer that would do good coverage with 20 gallons per acre.

That is interesting. I've got a 55 gal Fimco boom sprayer. I use the 128th acre method to calibrate and then add 10% for overlap. I'm using a geared tractor, so I don't go by mph. I go by gear at full throttle. In my Kioti, I typically use Medium 4 (it has 3 ranges with 4 gears per range). I get 10 gal/ac output. I've never had a coverage issue with it except for missed spots if my the sun degrades my foam trail by the time I make the next pass and I don't drive straight.

 

[Fetz]

About 20 days in, the plot is looking quite patchy, but it looks like the herbicide did its job. For my very first food plot ever I'll take it as a small victory. I guess next time I should just up the seeding rate?