landowner asked us to plant spring food plots

[Drycreek3189]

Tuned in. I am in same boat. Little experience and all the makings in front of me. Been reading for days and as of right now im leaning towards cow peas and sunflowers.

I have hogs..alot.

When the sunflowers get ripe, the hogs will find and destroy it IMO. I used to plant a product called Power Plant from Whitetail Institute. It was a great product, somewhat expensive, that had soybeans, lab lab, sorghum, and sunflowers. The deer loved it, and they got lots of good browsing out of it until the sunflowers and sorghum ripened. The hogs would then wallow it down and utterly destroy the whole plot. That's what prompted me to go to cowpeas as my spring plots. BTW Whitetail Institute has replaced the sorghum with sunn hemp, ostensibly because it's a better deer food, but I gotta wonder if they didn't get too many complaints from us in the south about the %<€!|{£¥ hogs.

Edit: If anyone has an invasive weed or grass problem, you can go with RR soybeans for a couple years and pretty well rid yourself of anything in your plot except beans. They are expensive, but the ability to spray with gly when your beans are 8/10" high, and kill everything but beans, outweighs the cost factor IMO, at least for a year or two. This is a pic of RR beans in summer.

[Drycreek3189]

Same beans in winter. Bean pods galore !

[Kmart49]

Cowpeas and milo is the direction I would lean.

[Kdog]

Drycreek - that is one heck of a food plot there!

[Adthomps]

I am the ITR for Tecomate here in Texas. We have a product called Hornmaker Extreme. It's a mix of sunn hemp, peas, and beans. Excellent summer plot especially on smaller acerage The sunn hemp is a very fast grower so it provides cover and structure for the peas and beans to get established. Because of the aggressive growth of the sunn hemp it has a much better survival rate with heavy browse in the early stages. If your not sold on the sunn hemp the old standard is LabLab. Extremely good summer plot mix. We also have LabLab Plus that add cowpeas and milo to the mix. If you have any questions on this shoot me a pm I can get you a pretty good deal on this and other products we offer

[Big pig]

I am the ITR for Tecomate here in Texas. We have a product called Hornmaker Extreme. It's a mix of sunn hemp, peas, and beans. Excellent summer plot especially on smaller acerage The sunn hemp is a very fast grower so it provides cover and structure for the peas and beans to get established. Because of the aggressive growth of the sunn hemp it has a much better survival rate with heavy browse in the early stages. If your not sold on the sunn hemp the old standard is LabLab. Extremely good summer plot mix. We also have LabLab Plus that add cowpeas and milo to the mix. If you have any questions on this shoot me a pm I can get you a pretty good deal on this and other products we offer

I have a hog proof plot. Deer tend to not utilize the fall food plots once green up starts. I plan on letting most of it head out. Elbow rye, wheat and oats On a portion of it I am considering a summer plot. Will your mixes grow if I use the poison and thatch method like I did very successfully with the fall planting?

Thanks

BP .

[Hooverfb]

One thing folks overlook is chicory.

[Adthomps]

I have a hog proof plot. Deer tend to not utilize the fall food plots once green up starts. I plan on letting most of it head out. Elbow rye, wheat and oats On a portion of it I am considering a summer plot. Will your mixes grow if I use the poison and thatch method like I did very successfully with the fall planting?

Thanks

BP .

Yes that planting method is just fine for our mixes. That is a great planting technique if done right that is often overlooked

[Son of a Blitch]

Iron and Clay Cowpeas. Be sure and use a browse enclosure so you can move monitor the actual growth.

That's my game plan for one of my fields.

[Vermin93]

According to this seed seller, this seems like an obvious choice.

http://www.seedranch.com/LabLab-Food...FQiEfgodOJ4Grg

THE " MAGIC BEAN " OF DEER FOOD PLOTS

1Lb - Plants 2000 Sq Ft.

The No. 1 " Management Plot"

Most Nutritious & Preferred Plant We've Tested
Proven to Add 20-40 inches and pounds to Mature Bucks
Unsurpassed Antler-Growing Phosphorus
Drought, Insect and Disease Resistant
Fast Growing / Tremendous Production
Grows Anywhere Soybeans & Cow-peas are Grown

[PSE-Madman]

that stuff aint cheap..

[Homer75]

I hear several people talking about soybeans but, don't you want to drill it deeper than what the OP has equipment?

[panhandlehunter]

I hear several people talking about soybeans but, don't you want to drill it deeper than what the OP has equipment?

I plant Laredo soybeans and just lightly disc them in.