New to food plots...looking for suggestions

[ILBowHunter]

We're in the beginning stages of preparing a couple new food plots spread over several properties. Each plot will be around 1 - 1.5 acres. Area has heavy agriculture...plenty of corn and soybean crop during the year.

The goal is to provide late season food sources for after the crops come down, so the current plan is to plant these plots in a mix of cereal grains and brassicas later in the year.

However, what should we do with these plots over the summer? Plant clover now and then disc or overseed the brassicas and cereal grains in late summery? Or would waiting be better?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Hardwood11]

food plots

I would plant a mix of clover and chicory in one plot and then plant brassicas in the spring or in August on another plot.

The clover/chicory will be attractive all summer and early and it will be used even in November (depending on the weather).

The brassicas will become attractive in November/December.

I live in a heavy corn/soybean landscape and I also leave some corn and beans on my properties, the clover/chicory and Brassica provide a nice alternative. Fall planted oats would be another good choice.

 

[Sligh1]

In the highly productive corn and beans areas- I actually have the best luck LEAVING UP those 2 things. The efficient combines are in there during October and clean the fields out pretty good. Standing corn and beans is amazing come Dec & Jan- PERSONALLY, I'll take my standing corn/beans late season in Ag-country over anything. I've even been in areas where I can pay farmer to leave up an acre or 2- no work and reasonable price VS all the time, chemicals, fertilizer, seed, etc of doing myself.

I also like Alfalfa, winter rye, oats, winter peas, winter wheat. Lots of folks on here like Turnips, etc. I don't plant them but the dudes here have lots of luck.

If you are doing yourself, the ladder suggestions are going to be easiest. If you did have corn/bean equipment- you better plant small plots the exact same time the farmers do OR easier yet- just have them do it for you. BUT- doing yourself with small equip, my personal choice would be winter rye, winter wheat, winter peas, oats, turnips/brassicas (most folks I talk to take a year or 2 before the deer will even get a taste for turnips brassica), etc, etc. Clover is a great option BUT not the late season dynamite you were asking about.

 

[letemgrow]

If would go with beans, then seed in some rye and turnips later this summer.

 

[ILBowHunter]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Thought about broadcast seeding soybeans, but concerned that they would hammer those and there wouldn't be much left standing for a late season food source.

Sligh1...for your do it yourself small equipment suggestions, would you do anything with the plot now or wait until late summer to plant the winter rye, winter wheat, winter peas, oats, turnips/brassicas?

Thanks!

 

[Sligh1]

If you are going to plant oats, rye, ww, turnips, you could wait and work it up late summer. Ideally, if you could plant beans now, keep the round-up on them so there's no weeds- you'll have a prime planting spot come late summer. Even if they hammer them, oh well. So, yeah- I'd do beans now and then put one of those others in there late summer. have fun!

 

[ILBowHunter]

Any tips for broadcasting the beans? I just finished reading dbtree's RR corn and soybean thread....tons of great information but not much info on broadcasting. Do you attempt to maintain row spacing when broadcast seeding in order to leave room for coming back in with the rye & brassicas in late summer? How about planting an earlier maturing soybean and allowing the leaves to turn before going back in with the rye? Are seeding rates for broadcasting similar to drilling...200,000 seeds/acre range?

Appreciate the info!

 

[letemgrow]

If it calls to drill 50 pounds per acre, I would broadcast 75 pounds for instance.

 

[Sligh1]

I'd go really heavy, 200,000+. Anyway you could disk up soil or cultipack them in? From my experience beans do pretty good broadcasted, always nice to push them in with packing. I'd do this soon so you can make sure you get these May rains. If they aren't perfect, that's ok, at least you'll have a nice seed bed (weed free after round-up applications) for your late summer planting.

 

[dbltree]

Just disc, broadcast soybean seed, then cultipack or lightly disc to cover them. They can be 1-2" deep so no wories about covering them too deep.

The nice thing about soys is that you can overseed the standing soys with winter rye and forage radish in late August and just leave the soys standing...makes a great combination! :way:

 

[ILBowHunter]

Thanks for all the input fellas!

 

[ILBowHunter]

Update on our food plot project. We've been able to get 3 new plots planted over the last month.

2 plots were put into pasture ground that had to be sprayed with glyphosate, bottom plowed, and disked. These plots had enough access to get a 4 row planter into so we planted a combination of corn, beans, and clover. They've come in fairly well and we'll probably give the corn and beans another shot of glyphosate soon.

I believe the 3rd plot was previously planted in winter wheat. This plot was also sprayed with glyphosate and disked. We then broadcast strips of beans and clover. Checked on this plot today which is 3 weeks post planting and was suprised by the amount of growth. Not sure if this is remnants of the previous crop or it just looks like grass to me. Should we spray the bean strips with glyphosate and mow the clover strips, or maybe spray the whole plot with Select?

Would like to come back in August and replant parts of these plots in cereal grains. We're new to this and definately not farmers, so any feedback good or bad from the pictures would be appreciated.

 

[dbltree]

Should we spray the bean strips with glyphosate and mow the clover strips, or maybe spray the whole plot with Select?

Nice work on the plots, they look great! :way:

I think I would nuke the beans with gly and the clover with Select but it looks like all foxtail at this point so you use Select (clethodim) on all of it.

You could also get by with mowing the clover and using gly on the beans so it's kind of up to you...

 

[ILBowHunter]

Thanks dbltree!

Is that foxtail too much to leave up as a cover protection for the clover to development?

 

[dbltree]

Thanks dbltree!

Is that foxtail too much to leave up as a cover protection for the clover to development?

It will get extremely dense and form a mat that will suffucate the clover seedlings if you leave it go to long. It's not like oats or rye and it will just be a mess....either clip it or spray it nefore you regret it...

 

[ILBowHunter]

Update...

The good news is the plots came in very well after a 2nd shot of Gly for the RR corn and beans and a mix of Select & Butyrac for the clover:

The bad news is we received about 10" of rain in 36 hours which put one of the plots under 8' of water. The corn that was running with the water flow looks pretty good. Not sure how the beans and clover are going to respond...

Thanks for looking.

 

[Daver]

8 feet of water! Uggh!

I don't know how they will react to that, but you sure had things looking good before that.