A midsummer food plot update from the Midwest Monster home farm near Hinckley MN.
We’ve had a nearly ideal growing season so far in 2020. Unlike the past 7-8 years where we’ve had huge amounts of rain in the spring and early summer that kept us out of the plots, in 2020 I was actually working ground and planting spring plots in May instead of June. A big bonus.
Weather – We really started to dry out in the middle of June, but just when things were starting to look pretty bleak, we got some rain and then we’ve had regular rains ever since. We got over 3 inches in the past 4 days alone, so moisture is now ample and with most crops canopied, hopefully, we’ll be fine the rest of the way.
Clover and Perrenial Plots – I keep more than half of my total plot acres in perennial blends like Mega Clover Plus and AlfalfaMAX for two reasons. First, deer love clover and alfalfa and there is never a time when they won’t eat it. Secondly, perennial plots reduce my workload because they don’t need to be replanted every year.
In fact, this was the first year I haven’t planted or re-planted ANY of my 6 acres of clover blends. They just didn’t need it. My youngest Mega Clover Plus plot is now 3 years old and it just looks terrific. Thick, lush, almost no weeds, just a beautiful plot. I have another plot of MCP that is 5 years old, but it’s still plenty good for this year. This plot may get overseeded next year to thicken it a little, but this shows that with good weed control, a clover plot can last a LONG time.
I mowed my clover plots in late June and they probably need it again this week, but not a full mow, just a few inches off the top.
Soybeans – I plant both Eagle Forage Soybeans and Real World Gen 2 wildlife soybeans in my plots. The Eagles really excel at feeding deer through the summer and early fall because they produce tons of tasty leaves and the deer LOVE them from early summer to fall. The Real World beans are all about pod production. They are still aggressive-growing soybeans, but they don’t get as tall as the Eagles and that’s by design. The reason I also plant Real World is to have pods on the plants for the deer to eat after everything else is dead and covered with snow.
Across both brands, 2020 has been an excellent year for soybeans. I planted Eagle on 5/16 and Real World beans on 5/28. Germination was excellent and both varieties look excellent.
I sprayed the plots with Glyphosate on 6/19 when the weeds were about to get higher than the beans. The kill was very good and I think this year I will be able to get away with that being my only spraying, which is always my goal.
The browsing pressure really ramped up in the past 2 weeks, so I put up the PlotSAVER scent barrier on July 7. In the first week of having the PlotSAVER in place, the camera on the Eagle plot took exactly 1 picture of a deer in 7 days. This is on a prime soybean plot that the deer were hammering before I put up the PlotSAVER.
Brassicas – I planted Brassicas Bender on 7/1. We got rain the day after I planted, so things are looking good. It’s early days yet, but we had germination of all species in this blend after 7 days and the plants are now up to 6 inches high as of last week, so things are looking good.
Hope everyone’s season is going well. I love food plotting, every year brings something different and it’s just exciting to grow plots and think about fall.
Here’s some pictures of my 3 year old Mega Clover Plus plot at mowing time.
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