Trying to get my food plots in. My buddy didn’t have time to spray so I had to mow some tall grass first. It’s going pretty well and I have a been seeing numerous does and fawns from the tractor.
DT
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Tools of the trade.
DT
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Another
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The wood ticks are horrible up here.
DT
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DT
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Well it has been down pouring here since 2am and we are in a flood warning. The plot is up from the river enough where shouldn’t be a huge mess but it is a day lost. At least I don’t need to compact the soil before I plant. Hard to see in the picture but it is a small 6 pointer. Tried to call in some coyotes last night but only called in a doe with a fawn in distress call. The yotes are out of control right now and they have two calves missing from the farm.
DT
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We got just over 3 inches if rain today. My food plot is a sloppy mess. If I try to get a tractor in there is will sink it. I may just have to seed it as is.
DT
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@thefamousgrouse, what are your thoughts on me spreading the seed the way it is? It’s sloppy and I can’t even get a wheeler back there to pack it. This is probably my only chance.
DT
That’s a bummer. Always tough when the weather goes bad just at the wrong time.
I would hold off if you canon ground that wet. I’m assuming you have pretty wide spread standing water in that plot? IMO, you’d be beter off spraying and then trying to go back if you can. Any chance someone else could spread the seed for you when it dries out a little?
The clover you can hold off for quite a while as that’s a perrenieal and doesn’t need to be mature before the frosts. The brassicas is the tough one because I’d say sometime in the next two weeks that needs to go in. Otherwise, I’d hold onto it and if you can’t go back, wait until next year.. I’d hate to see you burn up that much seed on a plot that will be marginal at best.
Grouse
That’s a dang shame, looks like you had some good equipment in there and making progress until ma nature put a halt to it. 
If it were me I wouldn’t waste the seed, that much standing water and brassica will never make it.
If it were me I wouldn’t waste the seed, that much standing water and brassica will never make it.
X2
I should have specified. That is the way into the plot. The plot itself has no standing water. I’m going to check it out today and see what it looks like.
DT
Even the wheeler had trouble in the plot today.
DT
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Broke ground on a new plot yesterday. I’m super excited about the location of this one.
DT
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We mowed it yesterday and going to try and disc it today.
DT
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Is there any chance of getting some Roundup down on the plots before or even after disking if necessary? If at all possible, I’d like to get that grass killed otherwise it’ll come roaring back in your plot.
Roundup is a contact killer so as long as it stays on long enough to be rain-fast, it won’t affect seed. Anything you can do in this regard will be money well spent for the brassicas crop especially because there’s no such thing as Roundup Ready brassicas. Once planted, you’re pretty much stuck with what comes up, weeds and all.
I wish I had your tractors and other equipment! Man, anything with a loader on would be SWEET right now. I’m picking rock with an ATV and a trailer and it’s SLOWWWWWWW.
Grouse
That is exactly what I did Grouse. Here is a panoramic picture of my plot. On the right side down the trail will be clover. The center will be brassicas and down the left trail will be clover.
DT
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Looks like a great plot and you have it worked up nicely. Hope it works out for you.
Nice plot. Got it worked up real nice, that should be a great one. I like idea of seeding the trails coming in/out.
That’s going to be a good one when it gets going.
Put up a browse exclusion cage if you have a chance. I suspect the deer will keep everything mowed like a golf course.
Grouse
The one thing I forgot to pack was my roll of chicken wire. I will have to have my buddy do that in the next few days. I sprayed it last night then planted it today. I then pulled our small cultipacker around with the wheeler for over an hour. It’s not very heavy but seemed to be going good. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will see.
DT
Awesome. Mission accomplished. Good work.
Grouse
Here is an update to my plots for 2015. Looks like my brassicas did not turn out. I think I still need to work on the condition of my soil. I will take care of that this spring. It looks like my oats and clover turned out great though. I didn’t get a chance to mow or spray my clover but it still should be good to go this spring. Just wanted to give a shout out to TheFamousGrouse. I got all of my seed from him. Its nice knowing that when you order seed, you get seed and not filler. I have even bigger plans for next year and will be going through him again.
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Sorry the brassicas didn’t turn out. It was a difficult year for brassicas all over MN and in genera, this is not the easiest plot crop to grow. It’s a bit of a gamble because when brassicas pays off, it REALLY pays off.
I have a couple of questions and I’m corresponding with some forage crop experts to get a better understanding of the soil and nutrition needs of both radish and turnips. My leading theories are that brassicas do not like “wet feet” and that they have rather specific nutrient requirements across both the NPK spectrum AND possibly the trace element spectrum. More to learn about this.
Across the board, though, my Monster Clover blend of 5 different clover species was DYNAMITE this year. I was testing it with 4 different plotters in different areas and it was just terrific in all areas. The new plot establishment was just terrific. I’ve tuned this blend to be biased toward fast-establishment and to grow to a rapid fill-in of the entire plot.
I’ll post some pics of my clover plot, but this blend is a keeper for sure. I know there’s a lot of emphasis on the brassicas and the big hitter ag crops like beans and corn, but to me good clover plots are the foundation of any good plotting setup. There is never a time of year when deer WON’T eat clover if they can get it.
Grouse
Before and after of the new plot. Also a pic of a buck that was in it the other day.
DT
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Before
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From what I can tell from that picture, your plot is getting grazed pretty hard. Are your cams showing good activity? Do you have any set in time lapse mode?
My clover plot wasn’t attracting a lot of attention in the summer, but then the corn and beans disappeared and suddenly I’ve got deer that have moved in to the plot and don’t seem to leave. They love that young clover.
Grouse
The camera has only been out a week on this plot. My other clover plot has been getting good use with deer in it every evening. My oats next to it has also been hit hard.
DT
I think the clover looks great in this new plot. I just need to take care of the grasses in the spring. My other clover plot has very little for weeds and grasses but it also has been turned over before.
DT
Yes, back in the summer I thought the clover was getting too long without a lot of grazing and I thought I was going to have to mow it. Well, that’s not an issue any more now that the deer have their clover groove on.
The turkeys on my property love the oats. They really cleaned them up once they dried out.
Even though my clover looks to have few weeds, I’m still going to hit it with Clethodim next spring to kill the grass that is in there. I don’t want to let the grasses have free run of the place and try to control them later when they’ve taken over.
Grouse
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