Food plot photos

[idahohuntr]

My backup plan to a bunch of "Not Selected"s even though I have 0 experience with food plots.  I planted two different plots about 300 yards apart, 1/2 acre each.  One plot is all garbanzo beans and the other 1/2 acre is alfalfa, chicory, and brassica.  All the photos are from the garb plot, I don't have a camera on the other plot.  I plan to build a permanent blind near the garb plot and also put in a corn feeder and a bunch of salt...I am not too sure how long a 1/2 acre of garbs will last in the foothills of the blues.

Any recommendations on what I should/should not be doing with food plots I am all ears...never done this before.

The picture of the doe looks to me like she is about to have a fawn???

[Dan-o]

My suggestion would be:

1.   Make friends with Dan-o on this forum because he'd dearly love to hunt that plot   he's really knowledgeable about food plots.

So, sorry, I really have no suggestions but dang that place looks absolutely beautiful and I am jealous beyond words......

[Scott]

Dang that looks familiar! 

[Landowner]

Here's my thoughts, take them with a grain of salt.

Biggest problem is undesirable grasses and weeds ("bad stuff") competing with the good stuff.  The bad stuff hurts yield and can destroy a nice plot in short order.  We farmers deal with the bad stuff all the time, and we like the chemicals that do a nice job in keeping the ground and crop clean from the bad stuff.

So, after you hit the area you want to plant heavy with Round-up, and after your get your ground ready for planting (your photo shows a decent start to a seed bed),  then plant a crop like Round-up Ready Alfalfa.  Deer and elk will regularly go to it over most all other crops, the protein in it will get the antlers growing, and you can pour the Round-up to it once it gets to the 3-leaf stage with a spot sprayer on your ATV or small tractor, and it will kill the bad stuff and keep the good stuff growing strong.  Then, maybe mix in some Round-up ready clover. 

Bottom line---keep the bad stuff out of your food plot.

[nocklehead]

mmm GMO deermeat.... eat up kiddies!  but to each their own I guess.... but get your pollen in my field, and Im suing you to make up for the costs of fighting Monsatan on patent infringement after they discover "their" property on my land.

Heres another option to avoid fear, poison and legal problems:: Till the area deep and heavy with aged cow, chicken or horse manure, then till again with a mix of kelp or alfalfa meal and some oyster shell meal or bone meal. You could also boost with extra beneficial strains of mycorizzae and humic acid

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/research/mycorrhizae.html

Now plant your seed, (hopefully not patented GMO seed) keep it watered, and watch it grow. You can till between rows and seedlings as they start out to keep the weeds down, then as your super healthy plants start to shade out the surrounding area, not much weeding will be needed.

Another option, since this is a food plot would be to mix all your seed and not worry about rows, scatter seed the entire thing and weeds would barely have a chance, and the plants might actually do better like this, companion planting as its known is a tried and true method, such as the "three sisters method", where beans are planted around corn, and squash around that, creating a beneficial system for all 3.

Being that this is a food plot for attracting deer, not one for maximizing profits on an industrial scale, I believe these more "natural" options, will provide you the highest quality food and thus, the deer will thank you for it, and what they leave behind, you can feed to your family without guilt or worry as well as your neighbors, your groundwater, and generations to come.

Id bet a friend or family member (or forum member  ) would help you put in the extra work for a day or two in the field, for a day or two in the blind!

Good Luck!

[Landowner]

NH---I assume you and your family do not buy or eat beef or milk from your local grocery store or most restaurants.  If you have problems with Roundup Ready alfalfa, then stop buying and consuming those products because the milk cows and beef cows are eating a lot of it. 

No surprise, as the Ag Secretary has stated:   

"After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa ... APHIS [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa." 

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2011/01/0035.xml

If you want a good wildlife plot, leave the oyster shells in the shed. 

[nocklehead]

NH---I assume you and your family do not buy or eat beef or milk from your local grocery store or most restaurants.  If you have problems with Roundup Ready alfalfa, then stop buying and consuming those products because the milk cows and beef cows are eating a lot of it. 

No surprise, as the Ag Secretary has stated:   

"After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa ... APHIS [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa." 

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2011/01/0035.xml

If you want a good wildlife plot, leave the oyster shells in the shed.

No, we dont eat out alot.
While youre so trusting of the same people who made, then approved DDT and agent orange.....I am not, I raise animals for consumption, and I buy organic alfalfa. I buy organic milk,sometimes raw. I also hunt away from farmland as much as possible.
 While Im all for people putting whatever they want in their bodies, GMO is different, as it can float onto my land...and  being that Monsanto is stealing farms where they find their genes, growing GMO is very disrespectful to your neighbors.
Not trying to get in a big debate, or derail the thread... if you can keep your genetics in your own field, and your super round-up in your own water, I dont care what you do.

[slim9300]

mmm GMO deermeat.... eat up kiddies!  but to each their own I guess.... but get your pollen in my field, and Im suing you to make up for the costs of fighting Monsatan on patent infringement after they discover "their" property on my land.

Heres another option to avoid fear, poison and legal problems:: Till the area deep and heavy with aged cow, chicken or horse manure, then till again with a mix of kelp or alfalfa meal and some oyster shell meal or bone meal. You could also boost with extra beneficial strains of mycorizzae and humic acid

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/research/mycorrhizae.html

Now plant your seed, (hopefully not patented GMO seed) keep it watered, and watch it grow. You can till between rows and seedlings as they start out to keep the weeds down, then as your super healthy plants start to shade out the surrounding area, not much weeding will be needed.

Another option, since this is a food plot would be to mix all your seed and not worry about rows, scatter seed the entire thing and weeds would barely have a chance, and the plants might actually do better like this, companion planting as its known is a tried and true method, such as the "three sisters method", where beans are planted around corn, and squash around that, creating a beneficial system for all 3.

Being that this is a food plot for attracting deer, not one for maximizing profits on an industrial scale, I believe these more "natural" options, will provide you the highest quality food and thus, the deer will thank you for it, and what they leave behind, you can feed to your family without guilt or worry as well as your neighbors, your groundwater, and generations to come.

Id bet a friend or family member (or forum member  ) would help you put in the extra work for a day or two in the field, for a day or two in the blind!

Good Luck!

I'm not trying to get into the general discussion here, since I don't really care one way or the other. But you do realize that the banning of DDT was one of the worst governmental decisions in human history right? Thanks to that scam of a decision, MILLIONS died in 3rd world countries. Much of that decision was falsely based on Rachel Carson convincing the scientific community that DDT caused cancer in humans. Silent Spring is a joke of a fictional novel. I remember making daily arguments against my professor and class 'way' back in college that they had no rebuttal to.


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