New food plot next to me
Whitetail Deer
My son lives next to me on the farm and he put a new target range in. There's about 1/2 ac of cleared land and he asked me if I would work it up and plant a food plot.
Only seed I got now is chickory without a wait. I disked it up good today and going to let it dry some and re-disk tomorrow and cultipack it and plant. We got a forecast of 5 days of rain coming Wednesday. Next spring I'll frost seed clover in it.
Can't have too many food plots spread around. Besides there is a cleared path leading to my front pasture. It's right past my grain bin and I see deer tracks around it cleaning up any spilled corn when it get corn for the cattle.
Well it's planted today and hoping for rain. At least it will cover the bear dirt. I'll frost seed clover in Feb. Also threw in a little turnips and radish for the family to eat.
I planted a product from WINA called Extreme a couple times. It has three plants, one of which is chicory. I had mixed results with it. The deer liked it, including the chicory, but I had hell keeping the weeds out of it too. Grass was not a problem, as I sprayed with cleth, but the weeds plagued me until I quit it. May try it again in a new-ground plot though where there aren't many weed seeds. It was very drought resistant, and that makes it attractive here. Our seasons tend to be like flipping a light switch, one day it's summer, and it doesn't rain until October.
Any interest in broadcasting something like turnip seeds, or wheat, late this summer or early fall?
Ran short on seed since my grandson did the spreading so sowed some radish, turnips and clover to finish.
The family will eat most of the turnips though. Come Feb. I'll frost seed clover.
We got a good heavy downpour of rain at noon. Off and on rain for the next week.
I check my bottom food plots that I sprayed and the plants are starting to look yellow-brown. Seeds are in so now for the rain to cooperate.
I live in north idaho where there is no farmland. Pretty much just woody browse, so the deer hammer my plots. However they will eat the clover right around the chicory and won't touch it. Strange.
They really like it in our plots. Almost every pic of deer feeding we get on the cams will have chicory It will have hanging out its mouth. I planted a lot of it mixed with annual clover last year and it still looks pretty good this year. The chicory I panted by itself looks good too. Planted some with Durana this year. Also overseed thin spots of the pur chicory patch. All came up good so we'll overseed any thin spots this fall and see how it goes.
Chicory can be hit and miss but remember folks, here is what affects palatability.
pH, some forages tolerate lower pH's than others. Chicory needs a slightly higher pH than some clovers.
Soil organic matter. The ability to hold nutrients is huge.
Sulfur. Sulfur is deficient in about 80% of the soils and it's a huge factor in growth and palatability.
So, chicory can be hit and miss for some but i love it because it has "worming type properties." It's got a huge mineral and nutrient package. So, make sure your soils healthy and try different genetics if need be or....or......switch to plantain. A few of the bowsite program members have it now in their fields and I loveeeeeeeee it for deer.
I have a chicory mix in another clover plot about 200 yds away and it gets eat off every season.
