Lazy Food Plots

[dogghr]

I hate to beat a dead horse but…. Just a few pics of my “sit back and let nature work” plots. Ground temps were slow coming up this year and the fields slow to green.
Wheat , RC, WC , and in the fall, brassica. These are all self reseeding with me only applying seed every 4 years. No gly burn down. Ph is maintained and 0-20-20 fert mixed w Boron/Borax every 4 years as needed.
Plot is 10 years old.
Weeds ?? Yes. No worries. Mow occasionally to control.
Food with the Wheat into late fall and it’s early green up in spring. Brassica for winter eatings. Clovers for good portion of year.
I just sit back and take naps.

This is the Buffalo Plot began 5 years ago with overseeding RC and WC and WR. I mow every 6 wks to allow the tractor to simulate rotational grazing and trampling of the once prevalent
Buffalo.
No other maintenance. Self surviving just as clover in your yard.
And no it’s not a copy of Dr Grants. Mine was done before he arose with the
idea.

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[lakngolf]

A few wheelies on the atv would simulate a good bull fight. I typically let my plots go to seed each year. Works well but I still scratch and plant in the fall, even though the best grazing is from perennials.

 

[SwampCat]

Do you get wheat to reseed? Wont be a wheat seed left on any wheat I have. Deer, coons, hogs, and a variety of birds eat it all. There will be more deer in my ripe wheat seed plots than in my green fall and winter plots. They are also a thermal hog hunting paradise.

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good dogghr. How often do you use cleth to take care of grasses?

 

[dogghr]

A few wheelies on the atv would simulate a good bull fight. I typically let my plots go to seed each year. Works well but I still scratch and plant in the fall, even though the best grazing is from perennials.

I’m afraid my wheelie days are over. Enough broken bones to last me for weather prediction I thin.


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[dogghr]

Do you get wheat to reseed? Wont be a wheat seed left on any wheat I have. Deer, coons, hogs, and a variety of birds eat it all. There will be more deer in my ripe wheat seed plots than in my green fall and winter plots. They are also a thermal hog hunting paradise.

By the time my seed heads form in the summer the deer are on more interesting forage. I’m sure they eat some but yes what you see is self reseeding WW. It seems to work well for 4-5 years then I broadcast grains and brassica again.
The brassica reseeding was discovered by mistake when one year I was not able to broadcast seed. It reestablished and I’ve allowed it to do so since.
These are multicultural plots and not a pristine field of monoculture. Each plant , including certain “weeds” contributing to the community above and below the soil. One has to be willing to accept ugly to allow these types of plots and even I sometimes cringe and want to micromanage.


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[dogghr]

Looking good dogghr. How often do you use cleth to take care of grasses?

These I show are technically annual plots so they never have seen Cleth. I have used gly when these were first established.
My so called perennial plots I used to spray Cleth yearly. Now just every 4-5 years, the last time using Imox. I really dont mind the grasses but some of the creeping weeds I dont like to let get too far along.
I am very diligent about ph tho and have applied lime twice in 13 years w ph at 6.5-7.
I do overseed the perennial plots w WR each fall and allow it to self eradicate the following summer.


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[Mennoniteman]

I like the simple low maintenance concept, but our deer will only graze sporadically anymore when our plots get that level of grasses.

 

[Drycreek]

Yeah, I wish I could do that too but as soon as my WW heads out well the hogs are in it destroying everything.

 

[SwampCat]

Yeah, I wish I could do that too but as soon as my WW heads out well the hogs are in it destroying everything.

Thermal time when the hogs get on the wheat heads

 

[dogghr]

I like the simple low maintenance concept, but our deer will only graze sporadically anymore when our plots get that level of grasses.

Perhaps , but the deer will feed on the clover and dandelions incessantly hidden in the grasses in one’s yard ,or require the golfer to wait for the deer to move which graze on the same in the fairways , or in the farmers cattle pastures with their thick fescue mixed with clovers.


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[George]

Are you calling me lazy?











G

 

[Triple C]

Confessions of another lazy food plotter here. Happened slowly over the past 10 years. In the early years, the excitement of owning and planting couldn't be resisted.

Now...It's on to letting all the plots go fallow over the summer. For the 1st time last fall, we didn't use any gly to burn down the plots before planting fall/winter mix. I'm amazed at the amount of perennial clover that is now established in all of the plots. Deer find it along with a number of delicious weeds that emerge during the summer.

Have gone from weekly habitat/foodplot projects at the farm to watching old Moe Norman golf swing videos on YouTube in preparation for hopefully becoming a decent golfer again as I approach retirement.

 

[dogghr]

Are you calling me lazy?

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G

Nice. Energy conservation and laziness are two different entities even if they do sometimes straddle a fine line.


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[dogghr]

Confessions of another lazy food plotter here. Happened slowly over the past 10 years. In the early years, the excitement of owning and planting couldn't be resisted.

Now...It's on to letting all the plots go fallow over the summer. For the 1st time last fall, we didn't use any gly to burn down the plots before planting fall/winter mix. I'm amazed at the amount of perennial clover that is now established in all of the plots. Deer find it along with a number of delicious weeds that emerge during the summer.

Have gone from weekly habitat/foodplot projects at the farm to watching old Moe Norman golf swing videos on YouTube in preparation for hopefully becoming a decent golfer again as I approach retirement.

The only thing improving my golf game is moving up to the senior tees!!


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[dogghr]

On a side note but yet conjunction with deer plots that have multiple attractions… my FIL , who is recovering from half his foot being amputated the last few months, went out in snow and ice this morning and shot his gobbler opening day in a fescue/ clover field.
So very happy for him.

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[KSQ2]

I sincerely wish we could just let our plots go and reseed every fall, but without any spray, the Johnson grass would simply take over everything.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Perhaps , but the deer will feed on the clover and dandelions incessantly hidden in the grasses in one’s yard ,or require the golfer to wait for the deer to move which graze on the same in the fairways , or in the farmers cattle pastures with their thick fescue mixed with clovers.


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That's absolutely right, deer will definitely graze fallow mixed species food plots, however, each of the 3 three different geographical areas I grow deer plots in have other food sources in the neighborhood that I'm competing with. My experience has shown me that it takes year-round higher quality plots that present a greater attraction to win the competition over other food sources. It takes a top quality ladino plot to keep the herd showing up when the acorns start dropping.

 

[KSQ2]

That's absolutely right, deer will definitely graze fallow mixed species food plots, however, each of the 3 three different geographical areas I grow deer plots in have other food sources in the neighborhood that I'm competing with. My experience has shown me that it takes year-round higher quality plots that present a greater attraction to win the competition over other food sources. It takes a top quality ladino plot to keep the herd showing up when the acorns start dropping.

I love a mixture of alice, ladino, and medium red clover, but we always go heavier on the ladino.

 

[SwampCat]

That's absolutely right, deer will definitely graze fallow mixed species food plots, however, each of the 3 three different geographical areas I grow deer plots in have other food sources in the neighborhood that I'm competing with. My experience has shown me that it takes year-round higher quality plots that present a greater attraction to win the competition over other food sources. It takes a top quality ladino plot to keep the herd showing up when the acorns start dropping.

I agree. Where I live, no deer is going to starve to death without food plots. However, the more easy to attain - or higher quality - food that food plotters in my area provide - the more deer will stay on your property, longer. I have not found a desirable cool season plant that does not require annual seeding, and provides biomass in sufficient quality and quantity to attract numbers of deer during the fall hunting season. My clover doesnt typically come on until mid to late winter. I have not found a cool season grass that deer favor that will reseed itself on my property. I get a minor amount of reseeding from brassicas - but deer at my place largely ignore them.

My biggest food plot, at 8 acres, gets eaten to the ground during late fall and winter. But, I have simplified my food plotting techniques years ago to where I seed wheat into existing durana clover plots. I dont spray and I dont fertilize. I will usually bush hog once a summer, and then again in the fall after planting wheat - and that is it - for deer. Deer are easy. Now duck and doves - that is a whole different story, where production of seed is the goal.

If I was just concerned about deer, I would have enough to hunt if I never planted a seed. But, I like lots of deer - and the more high quality food I provide, the more deer I have, and the better that food competes with native vegetation. But that still doesnt mean we have to spend all our time and effort planting and maintaining our food plots.