Rookie year food plotting= Tagged out!

Lots of sweat equity this year in our initial try at food plotting…used my ATV and a borrowed disc for planting/tearing up the ground..used gly to kill off what was mostly a large grass meadow…raked/disced the dead grass as best we could…didn’t do any soil testing or adding anything except a half bag of leftover lawn fertilizer I had in the garage…planted August 15th (forage oats and a handful of random brassica mixtures)and it actually rained fairly consistently after planting…it was very dry (dust blowing) when we planted so disced the seed in..plot sprouted within about a week and the deer didn’t ever wait for it to get taller than about an inch…my 12 year old killed a nice buck in the middle of the plot during youth season and I killed one this past weekend…the plot is tiny but well placed next to heavy cover and a staging area before deer move out into ag fields…plot is very small…less than a half acre and very busy..with zero experience and a roll of the dice we are super happy…

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Congratulations to both of you,nice deer.

Great work.

You basically did everything right. Good prep, good weed control, right crop planted at the right time, and last but not least (!) you got rain!

Grain is a great food plot crop. I plant cereal rye, oats, and winter wheat every year. Also, Real World’s Deadly Dozen is muy favorite late-summer-planted crop and it contains 4 different grain species.

So what’s the plan for next year? Can’t stop now, you’ve got the kids hooked.

So what’s the plan for next year? Can’t stop now, you’ve got the kids hooked.

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Funny you say that as you probably already know we have more plans now! Buying our own disc, expanding the current plot, planting at least one more small one on a different location to take advantage of different wind direction…Will probably plant at similar time and with just the forage oats and possibly some rye..

Thats awesome. Im planning to do the same next year at my brother’s place. I’ve never done any form of food plotting but I’m going to try just as you did. And hope for the best.

Nice bucks fellas. Congrats on the hard work paying off. Wish I had some private land to do the same.

Jackfish wrote:

Funny you say that as you probably already know we have more plans now! Buying our own disc, expanding the current plot, planting at least one more small one on a different location to take advantage of different wind direction…Will probably plant at similar time and with just the forage oats and possibly some rye..

“I wish I had smaller food plots. And fewer of them.” — Said exactly nobody. Ever.

Basically, you have graduated to Food Plotting Stage 2. As a refresher..

Stage 1: I just hope I can get something to grow and that the deer will find it.

Stage 2: Holy sh!t. That stuff grew pretty well and the deer freaking wiped it out! Where did all those deer come from anyway? I have to get bigger plots. And more of them. And equipment…

Just to throw it out there, I talk to a lot of food plot growers every year. The #1 thing that comes up in conversations about what we wished we’d known is that we all, almost without exception, wished we’d:

– Bought heavier duty sprayers. It surprises almost everyone who gets into food plotting just how often you use the sprayer. You want a 100% duty cycle pump, and at least a 20 to 25-gallon tank. Boom sprayers look cumbersome, but they are far more efficient than the so-called “boomless” sprayers when it comes to laying down product. That means lower cost and fewer fills.

– Started with the end in mind. Most of us ended up upgrading equipment several times as we developed the plan for our properties. Since you’re already thinking about bigger plots, project this forward as you look at your equipment needs. Either upsize now, or buy used to get by the near-term. Just don’t do what I did and buy stuff new, at full price, and then find out it’s the wrong stuff, too small, etc. Because you usually find this out when it breaks…

Did end up finding a trailer style boom sprayer for free last summer…yanked it off the trailer and mounted it to the back rack of my ATV(lots of old pocket gopher mounds so trailer didn’t work)…worked awesome…is only 14 gallons but I have access to water very close so size didn’t really matter…

Jackfish wrote:

id end up finding a trailer style boom sprayer for free last summer…yanked it off the trailer and mounted it to the back rack of my ATV(lots of old pocket gopher mounds so trailer didn’t work)…worked awesome…is only 14 gallons but I have access to water very close so size didn’t really matter…

Great deal, as long as the pump keeps working, keep using ‘er. Having easy access to water close by the plots is awesome.

Growing food plots is just fun. Always something new to do or try.

Awesome bucks Pat

We’re putting in a plot or two on our land, my biggest hurdle will be land clearing.

I have roughly a five acre area that is pretty much clearcut but has hundreds of stumps to deal with.

A high track D6 from work would be awesome, but they don’t borrow/rent out equipment to employees.

I’ll probably end up renting a mini and a skid every year and clear what I can every year.

We’re actually headed out today to burn tops and branches left after the logging. I will also get a better assessment as to how much work I have ahead of me lol

B-man wrote:

I have roughly a five acre area that is pretty much clearcut but has hundreds of stumps to deal with.

I had over 12 acres cleared out of 100% woods. It cost me just over $5k to have it totally done and the guy I used also ran a brush disc over the cleared land to cut up the remaining roots.

Just saying before you start doing it yourself, price out hiring it done. It might be cheaper and way less hassle than you’d think. If you already have cleared land and it’s just a matter of removing stumps, it’d be less than a day to do 5 acres.

Just putting it out there that it might not be worth a DIY if you don’t have a low cost machine and a way to haul it.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
I have roughly a five acre area that is pretty much clearcut but has hundreds of stumps to deal with.

I had over 12 acres cleared out of 100% woods. It cost me just over $5k to have it totally done and the guy I used also ran a brush disc over the cleared land to cut up the remaining roots.

Just saying before you start doing it yourself, price out hiring it done. It might be cheaper and way less hassle than you’d think. If you already have cleared land and it’s just a matter of removing stumps, it’d be less than a day to do 5 acres.

Just putting it out there that it might not be worth a DIY if you don’t have a low cost machine and a way to haul it.

Who did you use? Where were they from?

If someone only charged me $2,500-$3,000 for five acres I’d be tickled