Clover seed? Is superprimo seed worth it?

Because the land I purchased is all wooded, I’m going to have to punt this year with food plots until I get some land cleared.

The only open ground I have is one wide fenceline. Luckily, this is the fenceline I share with a friend who has the adjacent cattle ranch, so they are not competing with me as far as hunting deer.

So my thinking is to seed that fenceline with clover. What the heck, right? May as well take advantage of what I have.

So now to my question. I know with clover, much of the success is in ground prep and having the proper PH. I have been assured by the neighboring ranch owner that every inch of ground in my area needs lime to bring it up to clover standards, but if I spread lime, the clover should grow fine.

I intend to seed about 100 yards of fenceline X 30 feet wide.

Now my qustion. Is there REALLY any advantage in going with superprimo wildlife food plot seed for clover? It’s about 4X the cost of going with various clover mixes from the local feed store. All of which seem to grow just fine in this area, again ground prep and Ph seem to be the main make/break factors.

Is the cost worth the gain with clover?

Grouse

To be honest I have never tried the big money stuff. I buy it from Welters or the local feed store and have had great luck with it. I would NOT pay the extra for the name.

Yes I’m just having trouble seeing an advantage in the high dollar stuff. Given the fact that the all contain some blend of the same 4 or so clovers.

I’d rather spend the money on lime and fertilizer.

Grouse

Superprimo….ehhh. maybe not but don’t cheat yourself either. One half of the equation is how well it’s going to grow in your area and the other half is the nutrients & palatability it offers. Protein content is a big one for clovers. The higher amount of protein the greater attracting power (more palatability) . Not all clovers are created the same. Protein content can greatly vary, from 12% in some species of clover or less to upwards of 35%+ in some of the wildlife specific blends.

So it’s quite the range. A lot of them are genetically engineered for whitetails and specific climates/regions/soil types, which make them more expensive. A lot of plain generic clovers are simply designed for hay and cattle production. Cattle & deer are two different beasts, cattle have a greater capacity to digest the structural (lignins etc.) elements of the generic clovers, deer do not. Therefore they can design clovers to grow more leaf mass as compared to stems, thus increasing palatability.

It can lead to better planting success and greater deer attraction. There are hundreds of different types of clovers and they will attract deer no doubt about that, it’s just some of the superprimo seeds have hand selected the best attributes such as taste, ability to withstand grazing pressure, growth rate, height, nutrients…etc.

So many times companies will mix a whole bunch of clover types together with each hand picked for a different attribute specifically for whitetails.

So I wouldn’t go off breaking the bank but I wouldn’t skimp on it either. Some of the tried and true deer seeds are Whitetail Institute, among many others that aren’t crazy expensive.

Ouch that got a little long winded!

It’s difficult to navigate what is marketing hype vs what is really an advantage when it comes to the food-plot specific seeds.

For example, most of the wildlife specialty companies say they offer a superior seed blend, but it’s a one-size-fits-all blend. They don’t make regional blends, they just alter the planting time.

On the other side, agricultural seed blends are often made for a specific region and soil/growing conditions. To my thinking, it may actually be better to go with a seed blend that is tuned to a specific area and conditions.

Protein is an important factor in ag seeds as well, but again there is a tradeoff. Higher protein requires more carefully controlled growing conditions. So while more is better, more may not be achievable in my plot area, so paying extra for hi-pro seed would be a waste, wouldn’t it?

It would be one thing if the food plot blends were just a little more expensive. But holy cow, look at the cost per acre! I can buy very high quality ag seed for 25% of some superprimo wildlife blends.

I’m more open to the argument in some cases like turnups, but with clover I can’t see just how paying more really gets you more?

Grouse

I plant jumbo ladino white clover. It grows great in less than favorable condition, grows fast and is pretty much maintanace free except mowing, has huge leaves and the deer absolutely devower it 9 months plus a year. I could post pics of 8-10 deer in it at a time on a 1/4 acre plot, but that wouldn’t help. If I was you with uncertain soil conditions I would spend the money on soil amendments and buy the cheaper seed from the local coop and see how it does. If the plot is sucessful, next year you can overseed or frost seed some high dollar seed.

Agreed. It’s a fine line between BS and science. When I’m putting something in a less than great soil, I’ll choose growth over nutrients any day of the week. In my case it’s, a lack of sunlight as a limiting factor.

Is the rancher putting cattle or other livestock on the other side of the fence from your clover? Even with tight fences, there’s a chance you’ll lose the plot to bovine. If you are attracting deer, you’ll be attracting livestock too!

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Is the rancher putting cattle or other livestock on the other side of the fence from your clover? Even with tight fences, there’s a chance you’ll lose the plot to bovine. If you are attracting deer, you’ll be attracting livestock too!

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Yes, no doubt the cattle will be taking advantage of whatever they can get to. The cattle are moved in and out of this area, so when they are around I’m sure they’ll find whatever they can.

This planting is more in the interest of science and learning about what works/doesn’t work. It’s also a “best fast solution” type of thing as it’s the only open ground I have.

We’re going to have some plots cleared by dozer this summer, but they won’t be in any shape to hunt this fall, so this is kind of a science experiment so I can hopefully be a lot more dialed in when we go to plant “real” plots.

Grouse