Field of Dreams

[MK111]

Going to call my new 2 ac. food plot a Field of Dreams. Never tried food plots before. And will keep you posted on my progress. This food plot is next to my hunting woods.
1. bought my 6ft 3pt. disk
2. bought all my seed so don't have to worry about supplies in couple weeks.
3. sent in soil samples. Pleasant surprise today when I got the results back and my soil PH is 7.4. I had lime lined up but don't need it just put down fertilizer. 7.0 is perfect. Nothing has been put on the soil since I bought the farm 22 yrs ago and maybe never before that since it was a pasture use only. But I've applied 22 yrs of cow patties since then.
4. can't find my damn sprayer I bought about 14 yrs ago. I think it walked off from my son's barn. but Rurual King has a nice 15 gal. on wheels for 199.00 or 25 gal. for 250.00
5. got my shoulder bag spreader out. My son's push spreader is froze up but that maybe corrected.
6. still looking for a col de packer but my brother found me a roll of security fence I can make a good drag with.
7. going to spray Roundup soon to kill off the grass and weeds.
8. putting up a fence across the front to keep the cattle out of the plot. Also putting a gate on the south end for easy access for the deer to walk into the plot from the neighbors brush. Good place for one of my new tree stands.
8. I will continue to look for a 3pt fertilizer spreader for the future
9. I also picked up enough no-till seed to plant the shooting lanes in my woods. Hoping I have enough sunlight for it to grow. That will give me about 300 yrds of food plots.

Pictures will follow as I progress.
I figured I will have to do something to increase the deer hunting on my property as that new natural gas pipeline is going through about 150 yds east of my property. 5 yrs ago when the other pipeline went through it changed the deer movement for 3 yrs and just got back to normal in 2012. All the pipeline clearing and tree removeable has been done in the last 2 weeks.
Wish me luck and any suggestions would be appreciated from you experienced food plotters.

Frank

 

[Milo]

what are you planting frank?

 

[MK111]

I'm planting 50% in a perennial clover mix. The other 50% I'm going to plant 4 other annuals in 1/4 ac plots.
The perennials will be Evolved Harvest Pro Graze and Rack Force. These probaly will be planted on each side and the annuals in the center.
The annuals will be Evolved Harvest Exceed, Mean Bean, Winter PZ, 7 Card Stud, and Throw N Grow. The annuals will be planted in stripes so I can see what's the best attraction.
I have the Throw N Grow for the in the woods shooting lanes.
I figured I will have about a 8-10 plant item mix by planting the varity. We will see.

Then geting to fall I probaly will disk up couple of the annuals and replant a new crop for bow season.

 

[bowhunter1023]

If would behoove you to find out what they plan to reseed that pipeline with as you will be competing with it. We lime, fertilize, and seed with a wildlife blend that has rye, clover, trefoil, and a few other seeds. It is basically one big food plot, so you better be ready to compete with it...

 

[jagermeister]

Good deal, man. Sounds like you've got your ducks in a row.

 

[bigten05]

good luck what are you planting i planted some fall plots last year might switch it up and do some spring this year along with some fall

 

[Milo]

I'm planting 50% in a perennial clover mix. The other 50% I'm going to plant 4 other annuals in 1/4 ac plots.
The perennials will be Evolved Harvest Pro Graze and Rack Force. These probaly will be planted on each side and the annuals in the center.
The annuals will be Evolved Harvest Exceed, Mean Bean, Winter PZ, and Throw N Grow. The annuals will be planted in stripes so I can see what's the best attraction.
I have the Throw N Grow for the in the woods shooting lanes.
I figured I will have about a 8-10 plant item mix by planting the varity. We will see.

Then geting to fall I probaly will disk up couple of the annuals and replant a new crop for bow season.

I suggest you do a couple of things first, be sure you have slay and arrest (herbicides) for the clover..also get some low nitrogen fertilizer for it and buy enough to last you the year. as they wont reorder it or have it on hand later in the year.
check seed times for your stuff. winter peas are a fall planting and correspond to that. You also want to think about when you want them to eat your stuff. July is a terrible month to hunt but is great if you have a clover plot.:smiley_blackeyeim kidding btw)

 

[MK111]

If would behoove you to find out what they plan to reseed that pipeline with as you will be competing with it. We lime, fertilize, and seed with a wildlife blend that has rye, clover, trefoil, and a few other seeds. It is basically one big food plot, so you better be ready to compete with it...

All the pipeline near me goes across crop land and is replanted back into crops. Next door it goes across a large pasture so that goes back into pasture.
5 yrs ago when they went across the front of my farm as they are this time there surely wasn't any lime or fertilizer put down. It just just a poor job of seeding with grass. The idiots didn't even bother to move the trucks and equipment so had big bare spots when it came up. They sure didn't like it when I demanded they come back and reseed. They argued with me but when I showed them the outlines of the trucks and even see the outline between the truck and trailer they seen they lost.

 

[MK111]

The 2 perennials is a mix of several clovers, alfalfa, chicory, and brassica.

The 4 differant annuals is a mix of Labla Beans, soybeans, corn, cowbeans, winter peas, oats, clover, ryegrass, turnips, and radish.

I'm hoping with this mix I will get the deer to visit my plot during the pipeline construction and continue to do so into hunting season.

I realize some are spring and summer only but I will fall plant.

 

[MK111]

I spread the fertilizer today. Should have the Roundup sprayed next week after the rain.
Still looking for a culdepacker and a 3 pt. spreader.
Things are looking up.

 

[Big_Holla]

Sounds great so far! Can't wait to see the results!

 

[MK111]

This 7 days of rain this week is going to put me a whole week behind on my food plot. I need a day of no rain to get my Roundup sprayed to be effective.

 

[hickslawns]

You have time. It will be alright. Looking forward to seeing your results Frank. I overseeded one of my areas with clover a couple weeks ago. Went thru last week and it was sprouting nicely. I am pumped. Of course I had sprayed multiple times last year already and was trying to get the clover established before the weeds came up. You have a different scenario.

 

[Dannmann801]

If you grow it, they will come....

 

[bowhunter1023]

If you grow it, they will come....

If you come, it will grow. Oh wait, that's for making babies... lmao

 

[MK111]

You have time. It will be alright. Looking forward to seeing your results Frank. I overseeded one of my areas with clover a couple weeks ago. Went thru last week and it was sprouting nicely. I am pumped. Of course I had sprayed multiple times last year already and was trying to get the clover established before the weeds came up. You have a different scenario.

Ya since I put the fertilizer down last week I will have knee high pasture by next week with this rain and warm weather. Oh well. I will spray it and let it die off and mow it down before disking.

 

[MK111]

Got a break in the rain for the next 24-36 hrs so spraying plant killer today. I bought a 15 gl sprayer on wheels from Rural King 2 weeks ago and what a piece of junk. It has only 2 wheels and the wheel frame is bolted to the bottom of the plastic tank with 1/8" bolts. I didn't even get to the field and hit a chuck hole and the wheel collapsed and flipped the sprayer upside down and broke all the plumbing off.
I complained to Rural King and they agreed and took it back on a ATV 25 gl sprayer. Much heavier duty and sprays 22 ft wide instead of 10 on the 15 gl. Plus it comes with a 2 gl and 3 gl spray tips per minute.
I mounted the sprayer on a heavy duty yard 4 wheel wagon I had and made a real heavy duty sprayer. My only downfall is my tractor is a 6 volt and the sprayer is a 12 volt so I had to mount a old 12 volt car battery on the sprayer. Since there is no generator hooked up I can only get 1 tank done before a recharge. But that was close to a acre so it's not so bad and time to rest anyway. Only have to spray once per year in any volume so it'll work out.
It's coming along. I'll let the killer work and then bushhog the tops off before disking couple times.
I have a 3 pt. fertilizer spreader coming this week. And my brother is supposed to bring me a roll of chainlink fence to make a drag with. That should about do it on equipment.

 

[MK111]

I sprayed Roundup 2 times and had about 75% kill or so I thought.
So I bushhogged the field yesterday and after cutting off all the brown tops it was as green as my yard. Damn it.
So since I'm in this for the long haul and this will be a every year food plot planting I went today to Rural King and bought a 5 ft. 3 pt. tiller by King Kutter. I'll just till the damn stuff under. It's a pasture and probably hasn't been plowed for 60 plus years.
I take some before and after pictures.
It's been raining 3-4 days out of every week here. I know of no crops being planted around me yet. We got heavy rain coming again Sunday-Monday. Hopefully I'll have some clover seed down before the rain.

On 2nd thought I got couple other out of way places on the farm I can put in some small food plots. Hopefully I will make a deer heaven here. Wishfull thinking anyway.

 

[hickslawns]

If nothing else, it sounds like you are accumulating one heck of an arsenal of food plot equipment. You will love that tiller!

 

[MK111]

1- Well the 3 pt. tiller won't break through the sod and just sorta bounces along the surface hit an miss. The pasture hasn't been plowed in 50 plus years. It's hard packed.
2- So I ran the disc across the sod and the disk only makes grooves but it was enough to break the surface tension.
3- After discing the surface I ran the tiller across 2 times. Looking better.
4- Then I ran the disc across it again. Now it really looks good.
5- Then I tilled for the final time.
6- Ready to plant.
That's 1/3 of the 2 acres.

Today I disked, tilled 2 times and going to let it dry and disc tonite and final till. If it doesn't rain. I can plant in the rain but I can't work the ground up in the rain.
The ground now is right at being too wet now and we are forecasted for heavy rain this weekend.

Bushhoged and disc ran over it.

Disced and tilled 2 times. Still a lot of surface grass.

Disked, tilled 2 times, disked again, and finished tilled. Ready to plant this weekend just in time for the rain to wash it in.