I put my old 1965 John Deere food plot tractor to bed for the winter yesterday. Another plotting season in the books. Always a bit sad to cover the tractor for the winter, I enjoy running this old tractor so much.
Time for the year in review.
Clover – I had a terrific year for clover. More than any other year, the deer just attacked my clover plots starting in late summer. All my plots now are mowed down to the nub.
The 2 acres of my Midwest Monster Mega Clover Plus brand of seed that we fall planted in 2016 turned into a fantastic plot in 2017. Thick clover with almost no weeds and even some of the chicory survived over winter, which is rare at my northern latitude. By July 4 the clover was well over knee high, but then the deer took interest and no mowing was necessary.
Again, I fall planted a quarter of my north food plot with Mega Clover Plus in September of 2017. This is later than I wanted to due to wet weather and issues getting equipment into this plot. It still took off well and I have no doubt this will be a beautiful plot come next summer.
Hopefully, someone out there can help with my biggest clover plot problem. How do you control sedge grass? Clethodim has no effect. This year I’m thinking of hand-spraying Roundup on every clump. It’s the only way I can think to kill it. Ideas?
Brassicas – Big disappointment. After last year’s massive success, almost everything went wrong this year. I got planted late. I seeded too heavily due to mistake setting up seeder. And I have not yet limed enough to correct my soil. Finally, the weather was not warm enough this summer to really get good growth that I needed in August.
My crop was small and in the overcrowded areas, it was non-existent.
Another problem that emerged this year is that the deer now seem to “know” what brassicas is and they browse the plot relentlessly. If the leaves taste starchy, my deer shrug it off. It’s like now that I have successfully taught these deer that brassicas = good stuff, they won’t leave the plants alone.
Overall, in 2018 for brassicas, I need to get started in mid-June and be sure to be planted BEFORE July 1. I also need to lay down heavy lime, I don’t think my plants are uptaking anything near the fertilizer they need to really grow due to acidic soil.
Equipment – I really fought equipment issues this year. Blown front tractor tire, busted 3 point lever, broken 3 point link, flat ATV tires, tractor fuel issue, etc, My conclusion is simply you cannot have too many tools and spar parts with you when food plotting. You can only do so much to prevent breakdowns, if it’s made of metal, it’s gonna break sooner or later.
I need a few more tools to round out the set I keep at my farm, but bottom line is because most of us have limited time, if you can fix it on the spot, it really pays off in terms of saved time.
Next year, I really, really hope to add a 3 point mower to my stable of tractor implements.
How was your 2017?
Grouse