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Starting a Fall Food Plot - Need Help

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    Starting a Fall Food Plot - Need Help

    I have a question on the best/most effective way to start a fall food plot. We are planning on planting a 5-acre field in Menard County, TX with the following:
    Wheat
    Oats
    Rye
    Winter peas
    Purple top turnips
    Yellow/White sweetclover

    We have taken a soil sample and it shows that we need around 200lbs/acre of high phosphorus fertilizer. We received around 500lbs of oats for free from Tractor Supply from a friend and are going to be purchasing the other seeds listed above from Turner Seed.
    We are planning on planting during early/mid September. We have a 65hp tractor, but we haven't purchased an implement yet because I wasn't sure what we should buy. What kind of preparation do we need to do before planting (i.e. mowing, spraying, etc.)? Should we mow the field as low as possible, spread fertilizer, disk, broadcast seed and then use a drag? Should we use a grain drill or disc and broadcast? If we decide to use a grain drill, do we have to find a way to disc fertilizer in the soil? I apologize for all of the questions, I just want to make sure that we are doing this correctly. If possible, I would like to be able to do everything in one weekend. Please let me know your thoughts and the steps we should take to do this right.

    #2
    Tagged for info.

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      #3
      it all depends !! What are your goals here, how much of each are u going to plant. Different seeds (plants require different plantings depths and seed amounts). And I am not familiar with the soils in your counties. I would love to have a good grain drill but it's a lot of money to me because I would have to buy a bigger tractor than the one I have now.
      Someone who knows your area will chime in I am sure.
      Last edited by deer farmer; 07-13-2015, 05:09 PM. Reason: spelling

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        #4
        Our goals are to eventually have around 15 acres total of fall food plots on our place to help provide quality nutrition during the fall/winter, but we wanted to start with a 5 acre field in the middle of our property this year. We want to help provide something that will help attract, hold and also provide quality nutrition for those post-rut bucks. Our soils are pretty sandy, here is a picture of the soil report:

        I’m not sure how much of each I’m going to plant, still trying to get everyone’s thoughts. We were given 500lbs of oats for free, so I would like to add these other seeds and make a similar to a mix that Turner Seed sells for fall food plots. Our soils are pretty sandy. What are your thoughts about an implement like the Frontier food plot equipment that is an all-in-one?

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          #5
          I'll throw my 2 cents in:

          Generally the all-in-one food plot implements are somewhat junky. It takes a long time to plant that much acreage with one too. You are much better off buying a good used grain drill or a row planter with no-till coulters IMO. They are much cheaper than a no-till drill

          In general you don't have to worry about weeds as much in the fall as in the spring/summer.... so you may choose not to spray (I like to spray both spring and fall). You really don't even have to disk if you have sandy soil.....just use the grain drill as a no-till. Spray, mow it short, plant, pray for rain.

          I like your mixes....it provides much more variety than a monoculture. One thing I would add to your mix or even plant separately is a good perennial white clover like Durana. It acts like a reseeding annual in Texas because of the summer heat......but it will come back every fall and is a great high protein forage base for the deer until late spring/early summer.

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            #6
            I've got sandy soil in east tx....did my first food plot last year in two places. Planted wheat, peas, turnips, clover and something else. Both plots were glyed, and on one of them I raked the ground with the rakes on my box blade. The other, got lazy and just slung out the seeds. Oddly enough, the plot where I did nothing but sling seed turned out the best. I think I over seeded the turnips..

            This year, I'm not gonna gly, just gonna mow and throw out wheat and turnips. I may disk a bit just for grins and see what happens. The wheat is cheap and the turnips do well, so we will see what happens this year.

            Edit: my peas did not do squat last year and the plot seemed to bring the deer in for a quick graze. The deer did not hammer my plots. I'm hoping the wheat and turnips keep coming back year after year, but still gonna throw some seed out and see what happens.

            2nd edit: last year I slung seed by hand, just seemed easier than the junk speaker my buddy bought. I may buy the spreader that mounts to the fourwheeler. A three point for the tractor is too expensive. Who knows, I may do by hand again...it does not take that long for a couple acres
            Last edited by Shinesintx; 07-13-2015, 08:57 PM.

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              #7
              You asked many questions and already received some good feedback... Let me add some thoughts. Be careful about early to mid september. We have pushed out fall planting back to late September or very early October. An early September rain could cause a quick green up then burn out when sun comes back out for weeks.

              Regarding no till, on a plot in my place (two acres) I established decent clovers in prior year. So last fall I cut it and seeded oats and more clover on top then rain a drag over it. I also fertilized it with triple 13. The results were great and this fall all I will do is cut it and try to remove most if the cuttings by rake?

              And all that hard work the deer turn their noses up until sometimes in January and hit it hard until around March 23rd. IMO the big plots just don't pull deer in the fall like we want to believe. Don't get me wrong, I like the deer in my place in Narch and I think they come through into Spring healthier. On another plot we disced last year and planted peas and oats we saw more deer.

              Click image for larger version

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              This photo is from April 5th and is of the oats and clover field planted without discing.. Game cameras indicated deer stopped hitting clovers on March 23rd. So this has several days (and lots of rain) without grazing. The picture does not do justice to size of the plot.
              Last edited by Anvilheadtexas; 07-13-2015, 10:08 PM. Reason: Misspelling

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                #8
                Like Anvil said, the deer just don't hit it like we expect in some parts. I had decent growth, the deer didn't seem that interested. Gonna a try again this year and see what happens.

                When I hunted in Bronte between San Angelo and Abilene, the deer went nuts over the wheat. East Tx, not so much

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                  #9
                  You have gotten some good feedback so far. However, I have hunted a few places in Menard and I have never seen a field that wasn't covered in rocks. Do you have a pasture that has already been cleared of rocks, or at least the major ones that will destroy your equipment? Once I know that, I can try to help about how to plant.

                  We have really sandy soil on our place, and oats and wheat do great there. I would follow Unclefish's advice and get some White clover out there, or at least some Crimson clover, which will come on strong during Feb-April. From my perspective, I would not spend the money on the winter peas. They look good, but in my experience they are not worth the money. I planted turnips the last 2 years and they are very easy to get going by simply broadcasting on top of the ground.

                  Lastly, I agree with the others about moving your planting date back a little. Planting mid September can be tricky, especially for your first go-around. I am like you and try to do my whole planting in 1 weekend, and I specifically have moved mine back to the last weekend in September or first of October due to more abundant soil moisture and slightly cooler temps.

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                    #10
                    try Buckforage oats. I usually mix in some Turner fall wildlife blend

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                      #11
                      Here is what I am doing in the sandy soil of Anderson County. Early Sept I will spray, Mid sept I will till, throw lime, fertilizer, cow peas, oats. Then I will till again. Then broadcast clover, chicory (maybe), and wheat. Then pack it. Then pray for rain.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by huntmaster View Post
                        try Buckforage oats. I usually mix in some Turner fall wildlife blend
                        X2 on this. They seem to eat these Oats better last year, than the generic Oats I planted the year before.

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                          #13
                          Here is a picture of the field we want to plant this fall:

                          I have walked the field and it doesn't have many rocks at all. I like the idea of using a used grain drill or a row planter. Would I just spread fertilizer on top of the soil?

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                            #14
                            There are some areas that are very rocky on our place, but the previous land owner did some clearing where some of the best soils are on the property, which is where we are trying to plant this fall.

                            I like the idea of using Durana clover. I really appreciate everyone's thoughts.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by bgleaton View Post
                              There are some areas that are very rocky on our place, but the previous land owner did some clearing where some of the best soils are on the property, which is where we are trying to plant this fall.

                              I like the idea of using Durana clover. I really appreciate everyone's thoughts.
                              Based on my experience with my grain drill and looking at your pictures, unless you are using a no-till drill, which you may not have enough tractor for if its larger than 6ft or so, you will probably need to disk the ground lightly to break the crust. Disking will help to incorporate your P&K into the soil as well, since they take longer to work down to the rooting zone based on my reading. It looks like you have a pretty good stand of grass, so terminating it by spraying a few weeks before you want to plant would be my recommendation.
                              If I was in your shoes, with this being your first food plot, I would spray a few weeks before, then come back and mow and disk lightly, broadcast your larger seed and then drag or disk lightly again to cover and follow that up with broadcasting of your small seeds like clover. You could broadcast everything at once, but clover won't broadcast very well in combo with oats or wheat and it needs to be buried at about 1/4 inch, so it can be tricky to not get too deep when covering the oats.

                              Remember, take good notes and it doesn't have to be perfect. The deer don't care and each year you will learn more, sometimes a lot more.

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