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Post by Freeborn on Jul 15, 2017 19:54:10 GMT -6
I ordered 25 lbs of the mix i posted above, throw and pray. Might keep some and try a small area next spring. When are you planting? Are you seeding into beans and corn? |
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Post by biglakebass on Jul 15, 2017 21:36:22 GMT -6
Not sure when.
Yes in my corn and beans.
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Post by smallchunk on Jul 15, 2017 22:54:34 GMT -6
I just overseeded my beans and corn with a 5 lb radish, 3 lb ppt and 2 lb der mix per acre. I also have Winfred brassica coming Monday. I intend to over seed two more bean plots on another property and have a failed bean plot at my grandmas that I will work up in a week or two and seed. For whatever reason, I can get seed on worked ground up and running faster than just broadcasting and hoping for rain!
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Post by smsmith on Jul 16, 2017 7:24:05 GMT -6
I think just planning them to late, never really did much for me Ya, they need quite awhile to grow bulbs. |
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Post by wildfire123 on Jul 16, 2017 17:47:12 GMT -6
My gfr is coated, larger than a bb. Most of the brassicas seed is the size of fly shit. When planting 5 different types of brassicas, I mix them together, and use 2 lbs/acre, spreading them in my solo spreader, setting the opening centered of the line of the O. When using gfr, set the spreader on the line of 1, using 3 lbs/acre.Too little is better than to heavy. I use corn starter fertilizer plus micro nutrients, 400 lbs/acre. May be too expensive for some, but you get out what you sow.
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Post by sd51555 on Jul 16, 2017 22:01:36 GMT -6
My gfr is coated, larger than a bb. Most of the brassicas seed is the size of fly shit. When planting 5 different types of brassicas, I mix them together, and use 2 lbs/acre, spreading them in my solo spreader, setting the opening centered of the line of the O. When using gfr, set the spreader on the line of 1, using 3 lbs/acre.Too little is better than to heavy. I use corn starter fertilizer plus micro nutrients, 400 lbs/acre. May be too expensive for some, but you get out what you sow.You're preaching to the choir here. It's easier to grow more food with fertility on the ground I have than to open up more ground. Cost per ton. |
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Post by smsmith on Jul 17, 2017 9:11:16 GMT -6
My gfr is coated, larger than a bb. Most of the brassicas seed is the size of fly shit. When planting 5 different types of brassicas, I mix them together, and use 2 lbs/acre, spreading them in my solo spreader, setting the opening centered of the line of the O. When using gfr, set the spreader on the line of 1, using 3 lbs/acre.Too little is better than to heavy. I use corn starter fertilizer plus micro nutrients, 400 lbs/acre. May be too expensive for some, but you get out what you sow.Ultimately, what do any of us "get out" of food plots? I'd get just as much out of maintaining the same acreage in a state of early succession as I do in food plots. I'm not farming, I'm trying to keep deer around my place a higher percentage of time than they spend on the neighbors' places. My plots likely make up 5-10% (absolute max) of what the deer around here eat on an annual basis. I'll get nice, attractive, productive plots with much less fertilizer than you are using....and I won't be acidifying the soil, thus requiring additional tons of lime. |
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Post by sd51555 on Jul 17, 2017 12:16:06 GMT -6
My gfr is coated, larger than a bb. Most of the brassicas seed is the size of fly shit. When planting 5 different types of brassicas, I mix them together, and use 2 lbs/acre, spreading them in my solo spreader, setting the opening centered of the line of the O. When using gfr, set the spreader on the line of 1, using 3 lbs/acre.Too little is better than to heavy. I use corn starter fertilizer plus micro nutrients, 400 lbs/acre. May be too expensive for some, but you get out what you sow.Ultimately, what do any of us "get out" of food plots? I'd get just as much out of maintaining the same acreage in a state of early succession as I do in food plots. I'm not farming, I'm trying to keep deer around my place a higher percentage of time than they spend on the neighbors' places. My plots likely make up 5-10% (absolute max) of what the deer around here eat on an annual basis. I'll get nice, attractive, productive plots with much less fertilizer than you are using....and I won't be acidifying the soil, thus requiring additional tons of lime.There is that, and that sucks. I'd die happy if I never had to shower myself in lime dust again. I'm curious (mostly just curious) to see how my soil tests change over the next couple years to see how my fertilizer application did to raise levels, and then how the soil draws (if it draws) them down over time. I don't think it'll be too bad given they're grazed and not harvested off. I won't lie, plots are mostly for me. For the fun of it (This is the closest I'll ever get to being a farmer in my lifetime), pictures, seeing deer on stand, and knowing I may help buy the deer 2-4 weeks of quality forage before they hit the slim period of winter. Regen has been shit on everything I've touched, except the one spot I don't want it. I can't keep the shit down to protect the sunlight for my bur oaks. |
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Post by biglakebass on Jul 17, 2017 14:21:14 GMT -6
I am with SD. In my previous life I was a farmer, and this is my way to remember the good old days.  I would like to think I am adding value to wildlife. I have the only standing food through winter for a very long ways in any directions. I firmly believe what I am doing is having a positive impact at some points during the year. |
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Post by nhmountains on Jul 18, 2017 4:37:10 GMT -6
I try to make any of the changes on my land positive ones for habitat. Brassicas are a must on my land if I'm going to see deer in November. I did spread two bags of urea last year right during a heavy rain storm and believe that helped make the turnips larger than I've had before. I still haven't done my soil tests yet but, wouldn't have had time to spread any like this year anyways.
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Post by wildfire123 on Jul 18, 2017 9:26:32 GMT -6
If you only want to see deer, use no fertilizer and just plant. If you really want to feed thru the winter, then treat the soil to give the maximum amount!!!!! You only get out of the FOOD PLOTS what you put in. If you call it a see plot, that is what you will get!!
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Post by smsmith on Jul 18, 2017 11:29:29 GMT -6
90% of a deer's diet is native browse...even farm country deer. Plot all you want if it makes you feel good(I enjoy it too), but if you think a few acres of plots is impacting a deer's diet I think you're kidding yourselves.
Using your reasoning Jerry...you should be able to quantify an increase in body weight, an increase in antler size, and increased fawn survival. Got that data handy?
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Post by Freeborn on Jul 18, 2017 12:48:28 GMT -6
I don't really know how much the deer's diet counts on my food plots or my neighbors farm fields diet but it does make me feel good. I guess that and the hobby factor are enough for me to be happy with my efforts.
I do think food sources help segment the deer as I do believe doe groups associate with food plots.
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Post by biglakebass on Jul 18, 2017 13:33:59 GMT -6
I feel good about it. Thats all that matters. I may suck at it, but it still makes me feel good. |
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Post by sd51555 on Jul 18, 2017 13:58:08 GMT -6
90% of a deer's diet is native browse...even farm country deer. Plot all you want if it makes you feel good(I enjoy it too), but if you think a few acres of plots is impacting a deer's diet I think you're kidding yourselves.? In the absence of plots, I'd say you're spot on. Where I would disagree is where you have a different forage from what's normally out there. Deer do eat countless numbers of different plants. Whether there is a thousand acres of corn or one, it's still just corn, a single piece of the puzzle. Google says the average deer eats 7 lbs of food a day. The reason I think the right plots make up a bigger portion of a deer's diet is the math. The max above ground biomass from a brassica blend is around 5000 lbs. let's assume your best food plot can yield 50% of what an ag setting could. One acre of your best brassica that gets wiped clean by Halloween had to go somewhere. This is our perennial problem in 172. 2500 lbs divided by 7 lbs/day/deer would equate to 30 days of food for 12 deer if they ate that exclusively. For years I was anti-clover because I never saw it used in southern MN. But up north, in Sept/Oct our clover gets scalped to the dirt. I think what you end up seeing is some forages go unused, like my clover from green up to Labor Day. I assume the deer are eating browse and forbs over a buffet style demolition like we see in the fall. But as the browse hardens off, appetites shift, plots get wiped out, then its back to browse-dominant eating come Nov 1st. |
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