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I recently purchased my first parcel of land. I have 33 acres. I have a big ridge that runs a horseshoe around the property with a 2 acre field in the middle of the property. I have a mixture of red & white oaks, 3 kinds of pine, other hard woods and about 30 apple trees. I have quite a few farm fields within a few miles, mostly corn and beans this year. Just wondering what I should plant on my field? I'm wanting to plant something that will help out in late season. Was thinking about white clover on half of it and rape, turnips, and radishes. Am I on the right path?
Plant the clover in the fall with winter rye. Realize in ag country it might take 3 yrs or so for the deer to aquire a taste for brassicas. Unless you have high deer #s, I would plant all soybeans.
thanks for the info. I thought about soybeans but it seems like from my experiences with them, they are good early in the year but once they start to brown up the deer don't come out to them until late season.
We planted beans on 6/1 and they started to turn brown on 10/5. It gave us about 3 weeks of early season to hunt the beans. Every night there was bucks in the field. The month of Oct. They moved off the beans until Nov. If you have standing beans when all ag fields are harvested, you will have bucks.
Get a soil test done 1st and then use that to start your plan on what to plant. An easy option for the 1st year would be winter rye. Deer have been in my plot of WR from when it started all through the winter. WR will pretty much grow anywhere, deer love it, and it is good for your soil.
I bought land right next to a bean field and the deer have been hitting those beans all fall (hard in October) and winter so far! They were no-till beans, planted late, and didn't grow very tall, so most of them basically got ran over by the combine rather than harvested. I didn't go up to hunt last week but the deer were pounding that field pretty good up until then. I think beans would be a good thing to plant in your field.
Thanks for all the info guys. Sounds like soybeans or winter rye it is. I may just throw some clover around the apple trees we have. I have some work to do on them as well. The couple we bought the property from didn't even know they had apple trees as they weren't into the outdoors. These apple trees haven't been touched in 25 years.
Peeps. I planned on getting a soil test done in the spring. Was the first thing on my list to do. I'm in northern Eau Claire County and its a little sandy from what I can tell in that field.
I'm just excited to get to work on these projects but I do have some nice bucks coming in still so I'm holding off on the work to try and stick one of those with the bow yet.
Plant 1/3 strip of white clover. The rest plant a mix of wr/ptt:fhr on 8 /1. Congrats and enjoy
Talk with Nutritionist on this site. He helped me out a ton this year.
What other projects are you planning on doing? I have a collection of books I would be happy to recommend if you are interested. If your near Waunakee I would be happy to loan you. BC
BC- I am talking an agronomist that got recommended to me from a friend. I spoke with him last night and recommended I get a soil test done which I was going to do right away in the spring. He's familiar with the area and figures the soil is a sandy loam type. He also recommended that if I plant soybeans that I plant a Group 2 RR bean which my local feed mill has apparently.
I have been looking around books online. Any recommendations on what to get. I live up in Eau Claire County east of Eau Claire so I don't make it down that way very often. I appreciate the offer though.
As far as other projects, this winter I plan on cleaning up this field, pruning and opening up around these apple trees I have. I also plan on cutting down some trees so I can get some under brush growing in. I had a forester come out and walk the land with me. He had done work out there 5 years ago as some pines along the road had some disease so he had to walk to property to check on the other trees. he made me a map of my land with 8 zones and a description of what I should cut and when.
Sorry for the novel.
Bow Crazy's Link
Since you asked:
Don't do anything until you read this book, "Whitetail Success by Design" by Jeff Sturgis. He has a new book out that Santa is bringing me. Seriously, purchase this book today. His website is the link above, follow his blog and facebook page. He talks about Landscaping your land for deer, different that most.
The bible on planting food plots, "Ultimate Deer Food Plots" by Ed Spinazzola of Michigan. This must is a must have if you are planting your own food plots with a limited budget and even if you aren't.
"Growing & Hunting Quality Bucks" by Tom Indrebo, of Buffalo County Outfitters, with Patrick Durkin. There is one "secret" in that book that will transform your property.
"Grow 'Em Right" by Neil and Craig Dougherty, a guide to creating habitat and food plots.
Include these on your Christmas list, send a letter to Santa, there still is time.
Follow these four books and you will be able to create a place of your dreams. Nutritionist on this site is writing a book, get on the his list, it will be a good one!
Treefarm on this site lives up by you and he is a great resource as well. He has landscaped his property and because of it has some pretty good hunting. BC
Good on ya mate on the land purchase. Wish I could pull it off, but not for a couple years maybe.