Food Plot Discussion

[nwwanderer]

Progene in Othello has a bunch of winter pea varieties, much better choice than austrians, yield and critter use.  Icicle is a new one.  Try it, you will like it!!

[T-ROY]

first year results of my food plot, on laborday weekend i disked it untill my four wheeler wouldn't pull the disk any more and then tried an atv drag harrow, that did work at all just plugged up with loose sod almost immediately. it only ended up being about a 1/2 acre or just under. i broadcast-ed 50 pound of triticale on the 1/2 acre and drover back and forth over it with my four wheeler to try and pack down the loose dirt. got a good rain a few days later. it came up in the bottom of the atv tracks pertty good, looks like 1/2 acre ag field with 12 inch spacing. looks pretty good but that is not enough feed, between the hand full of does and the tukeys and probably pretty poor soil it  never got more that 3 or 4 inches tall. wish i would have put out  a wire cage to see how much it actually grew with out grazing. very fun experiment, but have to do better next year, just built a black corrugated culvert cultipacker, hoping a can get the same results but with a 5 inch row spacing from the cultipacker  that sound double the amount of feed in theory? or best case it will come in like a yard.  i was thinking of frost seeding some sort of clover blend, annual and perennial mix and fertilizing hear pretty soon and then run over it it with the cultipacker  to set the seed before the triticale starts to take off. when should a guy frost seed and fertilize??  or frost seed and then fertalize a mount later? is february to early? by the way thanks for all help from all you guys.  o yeah planted around a 100 apple seeds  in seed pods and about 25 of them have germinated so far. those are getting planted some time this spring also. if 2 or 3 make it ill be happy

[Wsucoug]

Isnt it way to early for rye and triticale ? seems like it would be tall and stemy by winter

Sorry I didn't see this last fall. Usually we don't get to pick the planting date. Rain is sooooo important to getting any plot started that you have to plant when it's in the forecast... period.

It's better to have stemmy food plot than bare dirt.

[Wsucoug]

yes i would be nice to see more pictures in sept and oct. is this plot south facing?

Mostly westerly, I imagine it will dry up in July until fall rains green up the clover again. There is the option of overseeding with a winter grain to get some good late fall attraction. If I over seeded with winter rye or wheat and then mowed the oats that would probably help the winter grain germinate better, but I've been told it should germinate as soon as there is good rain even without mowing. (I've tilled in the fall for winter grain before, this over seeding method would be a new thing to try.)

I actually did this last Fall. Overseeded winter rye in the first photo. And then rolled the stocks down on top of the seed. Second photo is during late buck. Last photo is the rye filling into the chicory in the late spring. This method really keeps the weeds at Bay and also provides good early spring tonnage.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

boy that looks nice beautiful piece of property to boot.  would mowing be better than just rolling it down and after the over seeding?

It's easier to get even disturbution of the stocks when you roll it down. Mowing can lead to the stocks clumping and other areas being bare. Both methods work.

Also mowing is gonna work better if you have serious tonnage.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

What do you guys think of some of these blends? Too "East Coast"? Been following a lot of the regenerative agriculture/food plot management and this guy has some good podcast and videos on it. Not to mention 5 different kinds of blends to through down. Spring, Summer, Fall + Perennial and Pollinator Blend.

https://www.droptineseed.com/regenerative-wildlife-agriculture

I want to do a little work on some property near Lake Roosevelt, still figuring out how or when I want to start.

[buckfvr]

Every year is different along the benches east of the lake.  What worked last year may not next year.  Some things just wont catch on like they should.  Wind born weed seed is a never ending problem.  A completely parched field should be expected from july to october.  Spring rains can wash seed away and or rot it or not come in significant quantity for the amount of seed you place.  Frost seeding is spotty at best.

Mowing your field areas will promote regrowth of the grasses and draw in deer.  High grasses offer valuable cover especially during fawning/calving.  I see lots of deer where there is unattended alfalfa and mix of wild grasses/field grass, wild roses, choke cherry, and elderberry.  Down where you are there are huge areas of worked fields with lots of deer that move off as fall approaches.  I would look to keep a more natural enviroment , cutting areas maybe twice each season while leaving others all natural, and planting in some alfalfa in the areas to be cut.  That way you get a few years between planting.

Expect a serious learning curve       

[Wsucoug]

What do you guys think of some of these blends? Too "East Coast"? Been following a lot of the regenerative agriculture/food plot management and this guy has some good podcast and videos on it. Not to mention 5 different kinds of blends to through down. Spring, Summer, Fall + Perennial and Pollinator Blend.

https://www.droptineseed.com/regenerative-wildlife-agriculture

I want to do a little work on some property near Lake Roosevelt, still figuring out how or when I want to start.

I would stay away from any mixes that were not developed specifically for the West. There is no double cropping as there isn't enough moisture to go around. 

If you are irrigated then that's totally different, and we can go down that road if that is what you have.

What kind of equipment do you have? Have you ever grown anything? How big is your area?

[T-ROY]

my cousin is monatana dry land wheat farmer and he  told me not to buy blends also. becuase of the different seeding depths. with only a disk and a now a homemade cultipacker, he told me to disk it up and broadcast the larger seeds  then pack it and then broadcast  the smaller seeds like alfalfa and clover and then re pack it to set the seed.  if the clover seed get much deep than 1/4 inch probably wont come up. makes sense

[Wsucoug]

first year results of my food plot, on laborday weekend i disked it untill my four wheeler wouldn't pull the disk any more and then tried an atv drag harrow, that did work at all just plugged up with loose sod almost immediately. it only ended up being about a 1/2 acre or just under. i broadcast-ed 50 pound of triticale on the 1/2 acre and drover back and forth over it with my four wheeler to try and pack down the loose dirt. got a good rain a few days later. it came up in the bottom of the atv tracks pertty good, looks like 1/2 acre ag field with 12 inch spacing. looks pretty good but that is not enough feed, between the hand full of does and the tukeys and probably pretty poor soil it  never got more that 3 or 4 inches tall. wish i would have put out  a wire cage to see how much it actually grew with out grazing. very fun experiment, but have to do better next year, just built a black corrugated culvert cultipacker, hoping a can get the same results but with a 5 inch row spacing from the cultipacker  that sound double the amount of feed in theory? or best case it will come in like a yard.  i was thinking of frost seeding some sort of clover blend, annual and perennial mix and fertilizing hear pretty soon and then run over it it with the cultipacker  to set the seed before the triticale starts to take off. when should a guy frost seed and fertilize??  or frost seed and then fertalize a mount later? is february to early? by the way thanks for all help from all you guys.  o yeah planted around a 100 apple seeds  in seed pods and about 25 of them have germinated so far. those are getting planted some time this spring also. if 2 or 3 make it ill be happy

I would still have planted during those August rains. That amount of rain at that time would have gotten things going much better.  Cultipacking helps alot, but a good rain would have gotten everything going, not just the atv packed seed.

Also you should have thrown in 6 pounds of red clover in with the fall planting. Fall planted clover can come in really good the following spring, which has tons of soil benefits and given you a spring food plot without hardly any extra work. 

I would go ahead and get the red clover down as soon as you see dirt.  It's a hard seed and will germinate when the time is right. What type of fertilizer do you have access to? A high nitrogen fertilizer will usually just promote weed growth, especially if the plot is pretty thin.  Also there is high potential for spring run off with your fertilizer if you put it down now.  I would probably wait to fertilize until the next time the plot is worked up or the next time you apply herbicide.

IF your triticale looks like it might fill in this spring but looks a little stunted, you can add some triple 16 to help promote growth. The thinking here is this will help feed the triticale which will increase tonnage which in turn increase the green manure for the next crop. 

Did you take any pictures?

[T-ROY]

actually i did put down a blend of seed at the same time that the guy at airway heights seed sold me. clover, peas, wheat blend of some kind. yep i got some pictures i just think the seed may have ended up to deep. it was 4 inches of powered what i drove back and forth on way to many times

[T-ROY]

i dont think it looked to bad for a month of growing, think if will fill in this spring?

[Wsucoug]

When I get that fine power i usually spread my large seeds (winter rye, peas, wheat, triticale ect) , drag, and then spread my small seeds (clover). I just walk away at this point, a let a good rain work it into the top 1/4 inch of soil.  This works well.



 

   

[Wsucoug]

i don' t think it looked to bad for a month of growing, think if will fill in this spring?

When the triticale heads out in the spring it will look like a full plot. It will look fairly impressive to a first time plotter at this point.

Can't say if the clover will come in or not. In my experience if the clover did not get going in the fall, a weed will likely fill in and take its place in the spring. Frost seeding is kinda hard because this weed usually has a head start on the clover, and your desired plant(clover) just can't catch up.

Either way you will learn something. You can also frost seed half and leave the other half and learn two things this spring.

[Jhughes32]

Any of you guys doing this for black tail or just white tail

[nwwanderer]

Droptine stuff looks good but pricey.  You could put together similar locally for about half.  The no fertilizer ideas would work over time but probably not if your starting point is low on macro nutrients.