More food plot questions

This year I plan on expanding my food plots. Pat will be coming up to help Mike and I out the spring. Last year I had a kill plot planted in oats and brassica with a small clover plot. This year I am going to put in a destination plot with part of it being corn, part of it in soybeans and part of it in brassica. I don’t have equipment to plant the corn or soybeans and plan on broadcasting the seeds like I do with the clover and the brassica and just drag the seed bed. So, I was wondering how many of you have broadcast corn and soybeans and what kind of results did you get? The plot will be about an acre or so.

Great question, was just thinking about this myself.

I have hand-broadcasted corn and beans with awesome results.

I usually drag a big tree trunk over them to cover. Nothing special. If you want, overseed the area more than you would if planting… You’ll undoubtably get some seed that sets too shallow or too deep, so plan for that. Otherwise, it will work just fine. You won’t get rows, but the only realistic disadvantage I have found with that is that you end up running over some plants when you Roundup them with a 4 wheeler sprayer. (Many of these plants pop back up anyway).

If that’s the way you gotta do, just go for it… It will work fine.

I broadcast spread soybeans last year, and worked fine. I used a spring tooth to work the ground, spread the seed, and used a drag(weighted chain link fence) to smooth the gound, then packed with wheeler tires. The spring tooth leaves gooves in the soil(2-3″), and that is where the seed grew the best. I plan to try and broadcast corn in the same plot as my beans this year so I am curious about the corn answer myself.

Nut

To account for seed lossed due to incorrect planting depths it is advised to add another 33% more seed, which is also key to compensate for heavy browseing that typicaly occurs in food plots due to location. If the beans don’t canopy they will struggle as ground moisture dwindles rapidly and weed thrive

I have had very good luck with the soybeans I have had some issues when I have broadcast both together one of the things that happens is that when you work your plot in preparation for your seeding you will have inadvertently left many low spots, when you are broadcasting your seed many of the seeds will fall into these low spots. this leaves many seeds in close proximity this is not a good thing, Several seeds will be competing for moisture, fertilizer etc. This is no different than having a weedy plot That being said It will work just not as well as if planted in a well spaced row. Most people over estimate the size of the plot and put more seed on than what they need. You are always better to have less plants per acre than to many per acre

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This year I plan on expanding my food plots. Pat will be coming up to help Mike and I out the spring. Last year I had a kill plot planted in oats and brassica with a small clover plot. This year I am going to put in a destination plot with part of it being corn, part of it in soybeans and part of it in brassica. I don’t have equipment to plant the corn or soybeans and plan on broadcasting the seeds like I do with the clover and the brassica and just drag the seed bed. So, I was wondering how many of you have broadcast corn and soybeans and what kind of results did you get? The plot will be about an acre or so.

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If the timing works out I may be able to bring my planter over and plant for you It would take about 15 minutes to plant once pat gets the seed bed prepared.

I will keep that in mind Bob. I appreciate the offer.

I have seen broadcast beans and they looked great But never tried it with corn ? ?

I am working on getting a planter too Dan. But if Bob wants to bring his over we take advantage of the knowledge he brings with the planter

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I have seen broadcast beans and they looked great But never tried it with corn ? ?

I am working on getting a planter too Dan. But if Bob wants to bring his over we take advantage of the knowledge he brings with the planter

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I am working on getting a planter too Dan. But if Bob wants to bring his over we take advantage of the knowledge he brings with the planter

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You guys a very generous! Thanks again.

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I have had very good luck with the soybeans Most people over estimate the size of the plot and put more seed on than what they need. You are always better to have less plants per acre than to many per acre

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I would agree with that 100% I have had very good luck with broad casting soybeans. Even from an agricultural production standpoint you can get away with much closer ‘drilled’ soybeans than you can with corn. Bobs mentioned points are the same disadvantages I have found as well with broad casting. What Ive found is you can get away with planting beans alot closer (hence drilled soybeans) but too close (due to falling in low spots) or too many seeds can be a bad deal.

I have broad casted corn with both over seeding and under seeding. Over seeding they out competed each other and under seeding we had sparse growth due to the points Bob mentioned about low spots, and these plants were browsed hard due to over all numbers of plants.

Keep your eyes open for planter options. With $7 corn and $13 dollar beans, a lot of producers are getting out of thier older equipment and buying new during this up-turn in the market. This year I built a 4 row planter out of some IH row units that drive off of the pack wheels and mounted them on a 4″ bar off an old JD hiller. I now have a VERY nice, light weight planter, that I can use with either my JD 3038 or my JD 4010. The bar cost me $65 and the row units cost me $42 a piece at auction