Next Years Plan

[Bush_84]

Hello all. Probably gonna get long winded as I go. So forgive me. I’m just looking for some insight and thoughts on my plan for next year. I’m still fairly new to food plots.

To start out I’m west of Alexandria. So we are a big time ag area. So nothing I will do can compete with those fields. I hunt my dads ~40 acre property and my back yard. I have 8 acres and am surrounded by corn every year with soybeans/corn in every direction past that field. I have a patch of woods that has does and fawns coming through in the summer and a handful of bucks during the rut consistently come through. I have two food plots at my house that are ~1/3rd acre each. I’ve done brassica and have had two issues. First is weeds in one plot and attention is another. I have head sized turnips are arm sized radish that are untouched. At my dads he has a field that is due for corn this next year. He has finally bought in for a food plot. We have a low area that is about 1 acre where we plan on putting a food plot. I have a bow stand overlooking it.

So that’s the background on the property. Now for some plans at my house. One of my plots struggles with weeds significantly more than the other. So I’m going to try some roundup ready plants to get over the hump. I’ve read of some planting soybeans and corn together in food plots. Half of the border of this plot is shrubs and trees. The third side is sparse trees and shrubs. The other side is wide open. So I’d plant corn on this side as a screen maybe 3-5 rows thick. Then the rest would be corn and soybeans mixed. I don’t have a cultipacker or drill. I do have a rototiller and lawn roller. So the plan would be to till, broadcast seed, lightly till in, then roll over with my lawn roller. My other plot was actually pretty weed free. So I was going to do turnips and radish again but probably hold off on the kale. I was thinking of adding in some peas/beans as a possible attractant. Maybe some wheat too.

Then at my dads I was thinking of initially putting it all in brassica/beans/peas. We will have to do all the prep work this spring to turn it into thick grass to dirt. Not sure if we will have the time to put a cover crop of buckwheat first or not. Since I’m planting brassica in July I want to get a cover of buckwheat in first. The roundup ready corn and soybeans will be planted in the spring without a cover crop.

Thoughts/fixes/advice?

[deadeye]

Bush_84 wow, that's a lot to unpack here. First of all, I think you are on the right track with your plots, and I am impressed with what you have accomplished. As you pointed out you will not be able to compete with the big farmers that surround you with corn and beans so that leaves two options. First is to plant something that they do not plant and second thing to do is have a discussion with the immediate neighbors regarding not harvesting several rows of corn or beans adjacent to your woods. Tell them you will pay them for the crop so it's a win/win/win situation. It costs the farmer nothing to do this, you don't have to do any of the work and the wildlife gets to enjoy cover and food throughout the fall and winter. My suggestion for the weedy plot would be to spray in late May and then again in the middle of July or about 10 days prior to planting. This should take care of the early perennials and any late spring germinating weed seeds. Your plant choice seems fine to me. Turnips and radish should be a nice variety for the deer. I don't think competing with the farmers would much benefit here. I don't know much about buckwheat (other than the saying "The bear $hit in the ..) but I would look into cereal winter rye (not rye grass) as this would provide great green forage in late fall and early spring. Good Luck and let us know how things go next year.         

[Bush_84]

My weedy plot is “two years old.”  This year I sprayed it minimum three times before I planted. I still got overrun with weeds. So I need to try something different. I figure if I can keep up with spraying I’ll maybe eventually kill all of the seed. Probably won’t happen in one year but I’m out of ideas. Both years I’ve been beat by weeds.

I’ve considered asking about leaving up some corn. My biggest issue is that the only spot I’d ask to leave up is on the wrong side. My stands are on the house side of the woods and the field is on the opposite side. I have my two stands setup to either catch deer in the plot or going into the plot. I don’t really have options for stands on the other side of the woods without scaring any deer that might be around.

My strategy thus far has been brassica because it’s still good after harvest. I figured that once the fields were gone I’d get more attention. I had a nice 8 and 10 pointer at my place all rut without appreciable use of the plot. At that time the fields were all essentially done. So my goal with adding peas/beans to the mix is to get the deer used to these plots as food. Hoping the plots of soybeans/corn will achieve the same.

I used rye at my dads property this year. Farmer killed our small brassica kill plot. So I tried to put rye down to salvage it. We never did get the rain for that to take off. I was thinking about mixing it with my brassica but I’ve read in various places that deer eat wheat better. My thought process is that if the deer eat on the plot early they’ll take to the turnips/radish better.

I tried to take a large swath of grass and turn it into clover this year. Didn’t go well and it was mostly my fault. I watched a video from white habitat solutions. Jeff said you can use brassica as a cover crop for clover. With how dry it was I thought it was a good idea. I later learned that he meant kale and not the tubers. Not that it would have mattered because everything quickly turned into a brassica and weed mess. Don’t think much if any of the clover took. I’ll see in the spring but I’m assuming 100% failure and will try again. This time no cover crop. If weeds pop up I can use 2-4db and grass specific herbicide. I can also mow. Might double the quantity of seed I put down to make sure it comes up thick. I planted durana but could only get that online. So I might just try ladino or a mix from my local co-op.