Food Plots

[northmn]

I just brought home a new disc that fits my tractor I have been plowing snow with all winter and am still plowing snow with. Kind of like getting a new gun because I plant food plots on my acreage as a hobby also. The biggest food plot is my hay field in which I plant grasses and clover which double as hay for the neighbors beef cattle. Being a wooded area where fields make up only a small percentage of the land area I have also made clearings and enlarged trails and plant clover. The Mn deer hunters assoc has a food plot package that is a little more reasonable than some of the commercial stuff. While I cannot claim the outstanding success that one sees advertised for the commercial seeds, it has been an enjoyable pass time that benefits not only deer but ruffed grouse. Also put out mineral blocks in the spring. Just touching base with others that may do so or be interested.

Northmn

[northmn]

Deer go nuts over the rape (politly called canola) but I have had problems planting enough so that there is enough left to attract them in Sept bow season.
I think the disc will help as I never really could lay in a properly tilled area. Due to the density of woods my small plots in the woods probably total maybe 3/4 acre but the trails really add to them. For an annual I was told the most bang for the buck in my area was rye grain, planted late July. Still have never seen all those giant bucks congegrate like on the ads for the commercial stuff.

Northmn

[leadeye]

Do you guys find that canola works as an all purpose feed? I am working on plots to do double duty for deer and turkeys. Still going the ATV route, would like to find a tractor but my ground is really hilly.:-D

[northmn]

For the long term I like clovers. Rape is an annual and has to be planted every year. Clovers last about 3 yeas for me and permit a kind of rotation so that I do not have to spend much per year on seeding. Rape makes a real good "cover" crop the first year when mixed with clover. Another good crop is alfalfa where it thrives. One advantage of some of the commercial mixes is that they are just that, mixes. They are designed to have different clovers or products that attract the game at different times of the year and produce at different times. I plant to benefit the animals also, not just as an attractant. I have found that the local farm supplies have developed some local mixes that thrive in their region and are knowledgeable about what they attract. The brand name mixes are excellent, but a little spendy. As to equipment, once a plot is worked up the ATC stuff likely works OK, but 3 point tractor equipment permits work in tighter areas. In some of the smaller areas a rotor tiller like the Troy isn't all bad. My tractor has a loader and blade, which helps remove all that beautiful white s---- we have been getting this winter.

Northmn

[357maximum]

I help run 19.8 total acres of various food plots on the family hunting grounds and here at my place. Ladino Clover works time and again and is our constant companion. We also plant some of the comercial stuff like biologic and such but as pointed out it is normally used as a first year cover crop, or when someone simply gets a bug up ther behind and plants one of the small clearings in the woods. Personally I like ladino clover and the asst brassaca's (sp). We do not shoot many deer in the plots themselves, but we do a pretty dern good job cutting them off between the bedroom and dining room .[smilie=1:


I wanted to plant our new 6 acre open spot (f2 tornado= one jacked up oak woods) to food plot, but I was outvoted and it will become bedding..as that required less work I guess:roll:...ma nature is already well underway with the pickies / pokies and ouchies in fact.

I am trying a mix of root/tuber veggies this year on my place in a new rip I have made along with my 2 ladino patches .....wish me luck competing the the corn soybean desert that surrounds me eh.

[leadeye]

I will have to try the crabapples, they grow like weeds around th Indy area, but have not seen them down south where I hunt. My ground is mostly cut over forest that is coming back. We even have a few grouse there as well.:-D

[ihuntbuck]

i am suprised nobody mentioned chickory or if they did i missed it...lol my clover chickory plot is awesome once the frost kills it the chickory turns sweet and the deer love it it took them a year to figure it out but the second year they absolutely mowed a knee high acre food plot down to nothing from mid october to mid november. needless to say my freezer is stuffed full of venison this year.....

[northmn]

When I first planted the Rape, I thought it was a joke as the deer didn't seen to come near it. Then it was gone almost overnight. I think I would have to plant 3-4 acres of solid Rape to have an attraction for bow season. I remember a humorist in either F&S or Outdoor Life one time wrote about deer becoming addicted to tobacco. It would not grow up here anyway, but a friend had a horse that would rip off a shirt pocket if it smelled cigarettes. Another good annual I have heard of is late planted oats. Lots of farmers use it for a cover crop to make hay for the first years seeding.

Northmn

[waksupi]

Horses do like tobacco. Whenever I was shoeing a fidgity one, I would put a pinch of snoose in it's lip, and it would stand very well.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

The Brocalli Farmers up in northern Maine have a Moose Problem as they love to eat Brocallie (Unlike me)


I think that I will plant a Food plot that Both I and the Deer/Moose like to eat.

Corn is good, so is Pumpkins, Asparrigas is very good and I do like Rudabeggars.

This year its Tomatos, Peppers, Beans, Peas and more!


I am expanding to a 144 bucket grid thats a Gross Garden


Last year I started what I call the Bucket Garden. Just take 55 gal poly barrels (free) and cut them in half. Get some free manure from a farm and top them off with some free compost from your local dump. mix in a bag of lime in each bucket

This conserves water and make weeding easy. Cover with plastic to germanate and extend your season.

I need to drive a well point and put in a garden shed/pump house. anyone want to help?


Actually make shooting woodchucks easy as they stand out on top of the buckets


I would not mind trying a couple buckets of Tobacco. Anybody have any seeds?

Also need to get some Grape vines and Hopps roots. (Will trade Blueberry plants!)


http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa282/Newenglandcharters/bucket081.jpg

[northmn]

Interesting ideas. Saw one similar where the people used treated lumber to make plots. It would take a lot of them to make and acre. Another little trick I want to try this year is to fertilize a few oak trees. Some claim the increase in acorns will bring them in.

Northmn

[TC66]

Bottom line guys. Call the guys at this company and they will go over everything with you in regards to their products and when to plant and so on. Been using them for 2 years and my plots are awesome. Deer all over in them. Took 4 deer in 3 weeks this past season.

http://www.productsforwildlifemanagement.com/wildlife-seed-trees-plants.asp

Tom

[richbug]

I am going to try Rape and Alsike clover. I got a 50# bag of Rape seed at the local feed store for $10. More than I needed, but couldn't argue on the price. Last years seed so he couldn't sell it legally...

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

Anybody have any Asparagass Seed? I can not seem to find it anywhere this year.

Trade you some authentic Maine Fiddlehead roots for some Assparagas Roots.


http://www.frenchgardening.com/p/TAasp.jpg











And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.

[schutzen]

Around here Austrailian Peas and White Clover are the food plots that seem to work best.

[TCLouis]

NEWENGLANDCHARTERS

Are you talking fiddlehead fern roots? I will look and see if I have any asparagus seeds still down there. I do not like the flavor of mine as well as some of the "wild" varieties I have eaten. Seems when they breed for size they forget flavor. Not unlike commercial blueberries vs wild.

[northmn]

Rape is an annual and makes a good cover crop the first year for clover. Alsike is OK but a mixture of other clovers is also recommended. Fishhawk is correct in that larger plots need mowing after being established. I am going to try to increase the attraction of a hay field I rent out on my place for that reason.

Northmn

[badgeredd]

I'm going to try a patch of turnips this coming week. The local seed company guys said the deer love the turnips after a freeze, and will dig them out all winter or until they are all gone. Worth a try in my book.

Edd

[fishhawk]

Well to bring back a old thread trying to get some idea about adding in sugar beets into the food plot along with the turnips and rape. Seams the deer have the plot eaten to the ground around the end of Oct. and wonder if sugar beets would last a little later into the season? Any one in the north country have any info. on using the sugar beets? steve k

[runfiverun]

they like the sugar beets after they get a freeze on them.
before then they are super bitter.
one of our favorite tricks out here is to get someone to bite into a "sugar" beeet.
then tell them they need to cook it to get the good flavor from them. :lol:

[twotoescharlie]

It has been about 35 years since I deer hunted, I was wondering what is the difference between putting out food plots and baiting. I know baiting is not legal.

TTC

[fishhawk]

Well depends where you are as to weather baiting is legal or not

[41mag]

I use a variety of things during the year on our small place. I put in several types of clover which seem to have had some reoccurring growth. For the spring and summer plot I put in around 150-200# of Iron and Clay peas on a 4 acre plot, then I also put in Austrian winter peas for the fall starting around mid Sept.

Sometimes they let the get up to actually putting out the peas before they mow them down but other times they munch them as fast as they come up. Right now I have it planted with the iron and clay mixed with sun flower. The hopes were the peas would use the sunflower to climb but it is looking like one of the years they are eating it as fast as it grows.

No worries I have another 150 pounds to put out just in case and can easily sew them in with the sunflowers in a month or so.

I can't argue with the results as my daughter and grandson reap the benefits of the deer, and I work the hogs over. We were up there this weekend and I bumped 6 does out of it on Saturday morning and another three this morning.

I also supplement the plot with two battery feeders throwing 20% protein as well. One on each end of the pasture. I only have them throwing about a pound and a half or so per setting but it keeps the deer in the area and they have the plot to use as well. With them both being 250 pound feeders it last a while before having to refill.

[TXGunNut]

It's a terminology thing-where legal, of course. Food plots improve habitat for multiple species and we get to see more of several species of healthier critters when we spend time in the woods. It's also healthier than feeders. If we talk about improving habitat instead of food plots we get less grief from the bunnyhuggers, and I like watching rabbits whiule waiting to fill the freezer.
Here in TX clover gets them thru the summer but they are crunching acorns by the time hunting season rolls around.

[pilot]

It has been about 35 years since I deer hunted, I was wondering what is the difference between putting out food plots and baiting. I know baiting is not legal.

TTC

I planted two hundred trees last week that produce things deer love, like White Swamp Oak that produce big sweet acorns and Mulberry trees. Do you think that is baiting? Food plots are the same, you plant something the deer like. Baiting is spreading actual food products for deer in a place you can then shoot them. Probably grown far away from where you spread them.