Good work so far, you’ve got a great start.
A couple of thoughts for the first-timer. I’m in the food plot seed and equipment business, my company is Midwest Monster Whitetail Products. What I hear in talking to hundreds of food plotters every year is that the #1 issue in an area with heavy deer traffic is that the deer will overbrowse small plots right to the dirt.
So whatever you can do to make the plot bigger, go for it! You won’t regret it, I promise you. I’ve never had a food plotter tell me they wish they had smaller plots. If you can expand the plot more into the green areas, go as far as you can by doing more roundup work.
You are very wise to start with weed control first. This will pay you back big time in terms of avoiding problems down the road.
Next, I’d give the drag harrow a test drive and see if it will work to break the vegetation and soil. In some places this works fine, in others, it’s not enough to really work up the virgin ground.
If the drag doesn’t work, I’d say look at renting a heavy-duty tiller for a day or getting a Groundhog type ATV disc. Either way, go slow and understand you don’t have to till deep, just break up the top 1-2 inches of soil.
Next, wait about 1-2 weeks and spray again to kill whatever sprouts after you turn the soil. This second spraying is a big help as you will kill off a lot of weeds that sprouted from dormant seed laying in the soil.
Now, what to plant? Lots of possibilities here, but IMO you’re going to want to do a blend that maximizes the volume of food you’ll get out of the plot. You will also need to focus on crops that can be summer planted as you will need the rest of spring to do your prep work.
A couple of ideas:
1. A good perennial clover blend like our Mega Clover Plus or AlfalfaMAX. In an area of high browsing pressure, you will plant this blend with a nurse crop of oats or rye (grain) to provide extra food and protect the young clover.
2. An all season annual blend like Real World Wildlife Products “Deadly Dozen” or Harvest Salad. The focus of these blends is maximum tonnage per acre and they are mid-summer planted blends, so they give you the advantage of time for plot prep.
There are other possibilities, but the above 2 are simple, very reliable blends that are easy for the first time plotter to plant and maintain.
Hope this helps. PM if you’d like more info or check us out online at midwestmonster.us
Grouse
