post your food plot pictures....
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: nutritionist
28-Jun-15
Here is a couple pictures of a mix called fall draw. This is a mix that proves that brassicas can be consummed any time of the year. You don't need to have a frost to draw deer in if you have the proper fertility and the right brassica species.
This pic was sent to me today and my friend is reporting 20-25 deer in this patch every day.
From: nutritionist
28-Jun-15
another one of fall draw
From: Charlie Rehor
28-Jun-15
Ambush!
From: Dennis Razza
28-Jun-15
I only planted one plot this spring but a wet spring has flooded the plot. Here's one from last fall with rape, turnip, radish, and carrot. will be a busy July and August!
Nutritionist, Looks great!
From: Zbone
29-Jun-15
After about half a dozen years of trial and error, I think I may have it down for my location, soil, and limited equipment... Am proud this year so will post a few pix...
This photo was taken a month, 10 days ago on May 18, 2015, after 12 days sprayed with herbicide mixture, then mowing the winter wheat and rye down to a stuble two days before this photo was taken... The clover then started taking off...
From: Zbone
29-Jun-15
This photo taken yesterday evening, same location on June 28, 2015... I think it's mainly medium red clover (what I seeded the most), but there are a varity of clovers I now see established...
I seeded so many different kinds through the years not sure which is which... There may even be some alfalfa in there I seeded a couple years ago (will have to look at my notes)...
From: Zbone
29-Jun-15
So a few days ago, I broadcast some purple top turnip seeds within, then it rain good for a coupled days. Hopefully the tiny seeds got pelted to ground surface...
Now I don't know what to do, it's so pretty, I don't want to mow it...8^) I think I'm going to allow it to go to seed, then mow, and hopefully that'll be soon so it will have time to grow back a nice height before fall dormancy...
From: drycreek
29-Jun-15
This is a soybean iron/clay pea mix. Got her a little thick I think. Brand new plot so I'm gonna have to spray for grass as soon as my herbicide arrives. Not gonna post my clover plot because it looks pretty damn raggedy, been too wet to get a tractor in there to mow. This week though !
From: deadeye
29-Jun-15
Charlie,is that Ambush from Whitetail Institute?When did you put it in and what do you think about it?I have 2 bags for my ambush plots in the creek bottom Hoping to put them in this week.
From: X-Master
29-Jun-15
The rain has been relentless and the food plots are doing well considering. You'll notice that I have the "Plot Saver" tape up on the soybeans but don't ask me why. With all the rain I don't believe it has had a chance to do much good as all the repellant would have long been washed off and it has been pretty much useless to re-apply with rain every day. Once again this year portions of the plot are doing extremely well but you will notice in pic#2 taken from the south end that areas along the left(west) side of the plot are once again being hammered by ground hogs- they have they mowed down to nothing. You can also see difference between the beans outside of the utilization cage and those inside. This year, I used predominantly "Real World" seed with some "Eagle" brand beans mixed in. The jury is still out on the results as it's still early.
From: X-Master
29-Jun-15
From: X-Master
29-Jun-15
The clover plot that is in picture #3 is doing extremely well again this year after being sprayed - mowed and frost seeded over this past spring. I'll be over seeding the soybean plot with Tall Tine Tubers/Brassicas around the first of Aug. for the late season.
From: GhostBird
29-Jun-15
Clover & Chicory.
From: Charlie Rehor
29-Jun-15
deadeye: It's brasakus and corn behind. Ambush is what we create:) I have no idea what brands. My friends do the planting and I help with setting up kill spots! One opening to view the deer for size and the second opening to shoot. I'm just a hunter and don't know much about farming. C
From: deadeye
29-Jun-15
Charlie,I saw the ambush on the pik and thats what we plant them for.Last year I planted Winter Greens brassica mix in the ambush plots.The deer ate all of it into Feb.and march.Had 13 deer in a eighth acre tract in february.Going to try a new Ambush seed from whitetail Institute down there this year.If you hunt late in the season ,the deer will flock in to those brassicas.
From: JW
29-Jun-15
This is a bed from a buck I jumped last week while out checking plots. It's a homemade mixture of Ladino, White, Red and Alsike clovers, Chichory and Alfalfa. This mix gets quite a bit of utilization all year long here in central Ohio. It's out performed Winifred Brassica, Purple Top Turnips, Sugar and Fodder Beets and Giant Swiss Chard on our farm hands down.
From: JW
29-Jun-15
I took this buck last season out of an adjacent plot with the same mixture.
From: deadeye
29-Jun-15
Ambush plot February 4th. West Central IL.
From: deadeye
29-Jun-15
Ambush plot February 4th. West Central IL.
From: WV Mountaineer
29-Jun-15
Good looking plots fella's. God Bless
From: woodstick
29-Jun-15
This a half acre I sowed in buckwheat. These deer have never seen any before, but started browsing on it within a couple weeks. Gonna strip plant brassicas and rye/clover later this summer.
From: woodstick
29-Jun-15
This is a 1/4 harvest plot I'm working on now. Brushed last fall with a dozer and sprayed once with glyphosphate this summer. Gonna disc and broadcast buckwheat the next time mother nature will let me. Will throw and mow with rye 8/15-9/1.
From: drycreek
29-Jun-15
Woodstick, I have never tried buckwheat, but some of y'all have made me want to. How long does it last, and when can you plant it ? Both questions with temperatures in mind, both soil and air temps. Frost kills I assume ?
From: woodstick
29-Jun-15
I'm waiting for answers to some of those questions myself. This is my 1st time with it. I planted May 31st , it came up in three days. And deer were feeding in it within two weeks. I just used it for soil prep this time, but considering how fast it came in and the attention the deer are giving it, it looks like a pretty good summer plot. I made my soil amendments the day before, but am very impressed with the growth and health of the buckwheat.
From: drycreek
29-Jun-15
Thanks wood, maybe John will chime in here.
From: woodstick
29-Jun-15
3 weeks growth.
From: r-man
29-Jun-15
it is a annual, it will die with frost, and will last till frost. I only mixed 5-10 lbs of buckwheat per acher. best to mix some turnip in and any thing else that stays green, even a little clover, you can nock it over in strips and plant other things like beans .
From: drycreek
30-Jun-15
Thanks r-man. Here is a pic of my iron-clay peas on another property.
From: Sticker6
30-Jun-15
Brassica Plus from Arrow Seed Company. I just hope we keep getting rain to keep the turnips growing strong!
From: Sticker6
30-Jun-15
Closeup of the brassica bulbs!
From: drycreek
30-Jun-15
Lets try this again !
Edit: Evidently this ipad and I are having problems ! Sorry for the double post.
From: Mike-TN
01-Jul-15
Clover and alfalfa mix
From: Dennis Razza
01-Jul-15
Checked on one of my plots tonight. It got flooded last week... looks like some of it will bounce back.
From: Dennis Razza
01-Jul-15
From: willliamtell
02-Jul-15
I;ve been to chi-chi salad bars on the west coast that couldn't touch these offerings. If it was certified organic you could bag it up and sell it for good coin at farmers markets. Of course, there's the chance of stab wounds to consider. Nice jobs guys. Out here things are either dry as a bone or you're wasting water.
From: Redoak
02-Jul-15
A new clover plot this year, the second photo is a weed I have coming up all over in the plot. Can anybody tell me what it is and how to kill it.
From: Redoak
02-Jul-15
the weed
From: r-man
02-Jul-15
I forget the name of it, yet it remains a terrible menace around my property, till I seen the deer eat it, that weed is very deep rooted and shy from sanitizing the soil , Its going to be there. It has tiny white flowers in the morning.
From: Zbone
02-Jul-15
Yeah, don't know what that weed is either, but I have them too...
From: drycreek
02-Jul-15
Redoak, I googled weed ID and it looks like common chickweed. Look up Butyrac label and see if that will kill it.
From: Matte
02-Jul-15
Small Sample of what we have done this year. This was the start.
From: Matte
02-Jul-15
Today
From: Matte
02-Jul-15
Picture of stagger Milo corn, grass and clover
From: woodstick
02-Jul-15
That weed is common purslane. It gets pretty bad in my garden. I read that it spreads from cuttings, might explain why it gets worse when I till.
From: Redoak
02-Jul-15
Thanks for the reply's, I'm trying to figure out what to spray it with and not kill the clover. I spray a small area with a broad leaf herbicide that was for alfalfa and clover can't think of the name right now., didn't hurt the weed at all but killed the clover, I don't think the clover was mature enough.
From: nutritionist
03-Jul-15
http://www.cdms.net/LDat/ld8C4000.pdf
this is basically generic pursuit. carefully read the label directions.
I also use to sell a lot of brox but again, it's to be used early growth and then late fall during dormancy.
http://albaughllc.com/brox-2ec-2/
From: nutritionist
03-Jul-15
Here is a 60 day pic of an experimental mix that has alfalfa, chicory, sainfoin and trefoil. We clipped it at day 60 and even though we used the big haybine, look at the windrow.
The purpose of this mix is to get more years out of a plot and twice the tonnage per acre. Most clovers will yield 2-3 ton of dry matter per year and this mix i hope to yield around 5-6 ton of dry matter per year. Some of the top alfalfas now push 9-10 ton of dry matter per acre per year. The sainfoin is a unique option and i wanted this mix to handle dry conditions as well as low ground.
From: nutritionist
04-Jul-15
this pic perhaps we can use as a quiz. Who knows what this is? I love this forage even though very few people plant it. It is what the deer will hit in december over most anything i plant.
From: deadeye
04-Jul-15
Nutritionist,It looks like Rape to me.
From: Michael Schwister
04-Jul-15
rutabaga
From: Michael Schwister
04-Jul-15
rutabaga
From: bowriter
04-Jul-15
From: Txbear
04-Jul-15
It looks like some type of lettuce or cabbage to me.
From: nutritionist
04-Jul-15
rutabaga...
i use it in my fall draw blend as well.
Too many people plant purple top turnips too early. They are 60 days to maturity where as rutabaga needs 90-100 days until maturity. They are larger bulbs and sweeter than turnips. So, my tip for people who want bulbs planted before august 1 is to use rutabaga.
From: r-man
04-Jul-15
my deer love it as well, rutabaga, so much mmore top growth then turnip.
From: cityhunter
04-Jul-15
do u plant the rutabaga alone or can one mix
From: r-man
04-Jul-15
I mix every thing, deer like choices, I never plant a single crop. I due have beans often all summer, yet even that has some wheat and turnip, cabage, collards
From: nutritionist
04-Jul-15
i only plant things straight when to get pics or in test plots. I come from a managed intenstive grazing background and subscribe to the cafeteria approach. I want multiple species that mature at staggered times. I also prefer having as many multigraze species in a mix as possible. For me it's all about tonnage per acre per year and sward density.
The fall draw with the rutabaga in it is a homerun. It's a diverse mix that is drawing large numbers of deer to it early season , even though it's a brassica mix. There is a couple reasons for this and one of them is having berseem clover included in the mix. The other is the ethiopian cabbage.
From: cityhunter
05-Jul-15
thats what i thought i mix it up i figured if one seed type fails i have a backup in the plot . John will be placing a small order thanks.
From: DC
05-Jul-15
Her are a couple of ours
From: DC
05-Jul-15
Another
From: cityhunter
05-Jul-15
nice work
From: Osceola
05-Jul-15
Here is my spring planted clover plot a few days after its second mowing. Planting clover in the spring was a topic earlier this year. I am very satisfied how it turned out.
From: Osceola
05-Jul-15
Here is my 8 acre soybean field that I drilled with a Van Brundt steel wheeled drill. Seed was given to me by a farmer. I found some bags that were dated as far back as 2006, most was less than 2 years old. I planted it @ 120 lbs. to the acre trying to guess how much wouldn't germinate. It is still a little thin, but it is OK.
From: Mike-TN
05-Jul-15
Soybeans tin side the fence.... Clover and alfalfa outside
From: Michael Schwister
06-Jul-15
I use an old oliver superior drill for soybeans and the winter greens mix of cereal grains in the grain box and brassicas in the legume (small seed) box. It gets much better stands with a cultipacker behind the drill. I just added a hitch and use a double cultipacker the same width.
From: drycreek
07-Jul-15
This is my Eagle beans planted the middle of last week. I know it's late, but this plot has been really wet on the low side. Got a half inch rain over the weekend so I'm glad I got it in when I did.
From: drycreek
07-Jul-15
Here is my creek bottom " volunteer " beans that seeded themselves from the heavy bean crop I had last year. Got a few weeds and a little grass, but I'll take care of them with gly in a couple days.
From: Michael Schwister
15-Jul-15
Eagle beans "Gamekeeper" 10 JUL 15, over 36" high and heavy grazing pressure-unfenced
From: Michael Schwister
15-Jul-15
Third mowing for chicory plus plot on 10 July. This plot was direct seeded in MAR after the fall planting was destroyed by a herd of stray beef during the fall/winter
From: Michael Schwister
15-Jul-15
A narrow end of the eagle bean plot shows the heavy grazing pressure. They are catching up and will still produce heavy pods 10 JUL 15
From: WV Mountaineer
15-Jul-15
You got it rockin' Michael. Good luck to you all and they are all looking good. God Bless
From: Michael Schwister
15-Jul-15
One more picture from the tractor of the Eagle "Gamekeeper". This stand was planted 70 days before in a field of clay/shale soil. The field was a 50 year old stand of Virginia pine when I logged it in 2007. I have worked around/over stumps with a no-till drill at first, then went to a chisel plow and disc later and currently. It has been limed and amended as needed every year. Now the PH is @7 and this year I amended with 70 # P and 120# K per acre. This was planted with a 1967 Oliver 76 superior drill I got off CL for $600 and made some repairs for another $600. Best I can tell there is at least 40 different deer using this 2 acre plot daily as well as many, many rabbits, groundhogs and other wildlife.
From: WV Mountaineer
15-Jul-15
What part of VA are you located in Michael?
From: Michael Schwister
15-Jul-15
Rockingham county
From: r-man
15-Jul-15
so the eagle beans are holding up against heavy grazeing , are they just a soy type bean? or do they resemble something else? cant believe the height .
From: Michael Schwister
16-Jul-15
The eagle brand are a forage mix RR bean, they will get over 60" normally and probably 72" this year. They continue to grow and stay green until frost, and they produce heavy pods for late winter. The deer stay in them even after the acorns fall, so they make the first two weeks of bow season interesting. Many folks further north do not like them as the seasons may be too short to allow full development. These were planted 1 may this year, which is earlier than I have done before, but with conventional tillage the soil warms earlier, and we had warm weather the first week of may and no frost since late April. I still have other plots of cool season perennials and plow then disk down the more heavily grazed part of these beans and will plant a fall annual of cereal grains mixed with Brassicas using a conventional grain drill and cultipacker. In our area it is mostly mature hardwoods, and the major stress period for lack of feed is during the antler and fawn growing months of mid june-august. The Eagle beans fill this nutrition gap nicely. I want the beans eaten down in the summer, we will have heavy acorns most years that last till spring, and the summer is the limiting factor. I also broadcast winter grazing rye seed into the standing beans at the first frost, and the rye comes up as the leaves drop, giving great grazing on beans and greens for November on. The beans still have green leaves and are hit hard until mid october, so not a big gap during the october lull.
From: drycreek
16-Jul-15
Wet as hell last month, dry as hell now. A little irrigation never hurts ! Clover sandwiched between late beans. Maybe TOO LATE !
From: nutritionist
18-Jul-15
Rutabaga.....
My long term solution to the soon to be non existent non-roundup sugar beet market.
From: nutritionist
18-Jul-15
Plantains
From: nutritionist
18-Jul-15
Inner Sanctum. A shade tolerant, higher end nutrition mix, than the normal shady or throw and go's on the market.
From: r-man
18-Jul-15
man you have some nice looking soil, you would cry if you seen my white beach sand, it a miracle I get anything to grow here. I have done spread tons of time and effort and minerals in to my land and it getting better all the time. nutritionist, please tell us about (plantains) what family is it from, sounds like a bananna
From: Zebow
19-Jul-15
I would but my plot is under water from these floods..go figure!!
From: nutritionist
19-Jul-15
I am a nutritionist first and when I talk or sell seed, it really am trying to sell nutrition, taken up from the best way possible, the forage. Deer have a high requirement for zinc, copper and selenium. The guys who are trying to grow 400" racks know how important this is. I come from the manages rotational grazing arena and I choose forages that give tons of protein, minerals and digestible fibers. The plantain fits the bill. It also is very drought tolerant and that means I can place it in many areas of the us.
Ceres Tonic plantain
A deep rooted forage herb
Tonic Plantain Forage Herb ImageTonic plantain has been selected for its ability to produce high levels of dry matter production in a range of soil types where good grazing management and soil nutrition practices are adopted.
Tonic was bred by Dr Alan Stewart from the Ceres Research station in New Zealand where it has shown persistence under a range of conditions in beef, sheep and dairy systems and is reported to have similar yield to ryegrass based pastures.
Being deep rooted Tonic plantain is known to have higher levels of calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, cobalt, copper and phosphorus and laboratory testing suggest that plantain species have some anthelmintic properties.
http://www.midwestgrass.com/chicory__plantain/plantain_-_tonic
From: r-man
19-Jul-15
thank you sir, next question, did your deer eat it, I know they take time to find and to try stuff, mine around here don't know what to do with pumkins they just walk around them, as well as carrots, took them two yrs to figure out what mustard was, and only 12hrs to adjust to chestnuts
From: turkeyhunter
21-Jul-15
Working the plots here in the far East.
From: stick n string
23-Jul-15
This is a one section of a 1/3 acre plot we hunt over.it was seeded August 8th last year after being plowed August 7th. We seeded with perennial plus and a 4 brassica mix. Seed was from deer creek seeds, the brassica mix was planted to cover the perennials and get them started. Worked beautifully as it got up quick to shade out weeds and keep browsing pressure off the clover and chicory. It also served as a decent draw in fall and winter for hunting. This spring, the clover and chicory came up great and this picture was about a week ago and after we have mowed it twice already this year. The one lower section of this plot is about 8 ft wide by about 30 yds long and we havent had to mow it yet as the deer keep it mowed down to about 6-8". Couldnt be happier with how it turned out. Nutritionalist, thanks for being willing to share your knowledge and info
From: JimG
23-Jul-15
Alfalfa plot draws in a few. This plot is a year old.
From: JimG
23-Jul-15
Same alfalfa plot a little earlier in the daytime.
From: nutritionist
23-Jul-15
That IS what winter triticale looks like for those who haven't seen it. This client will have about 150 acres in the ground again this fall. The problem now with triticale is supply and demand. I need to contract with more growers to keep up with the demand.
It matures 2 weeks later than fall rye and oats. It's 15% higher in mineral content and 1% higher in protein. It does better on heavy ground than oats.
