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Food plots for Southern Wisconsin

I have never put in a food plot and I think this will be my first year. I am totally new to this and research has been confusing. A few questions for folks smarter then me on this one. What have you had success planting? once in do you have control weeds? If so how do you spray every few weeks? What do you spray with not to kill the good stuff? How soon do you plant? Do you stagger the planting? I have selected three areas each about 1/2 acre with the land owners approval. I was thinking one plot with Biologic maximum, one plot with turnips/sugar beets and one in a clover. Any wisdom you could provide would be appreciated. As the more research I do the more confused I get and the more questions I have come up. I am sure I am not the only one with questions and I know we have a lot of experience here so I thought I would ask. Thanks Tom

Tom, if by success you are wondering what plants have grown well, I can say I have had good luck with beets, turnips, clover and a variety of different mixes. If success is what attracted deer, I'd say there is nothing better than a secluded field full of soy beans.

After this last weekend, I have 9 acres ready for planting. Six will be soybeans, two are alfalfa and still not sure what will go in the last acre. I sm pretty sure the deer will not eat six acres of beans so I might consider harvesting a couple acres, just to offset the cost of putting them in.

Agreed on the soybeans. One needs to consider what the goals are when planting. When do you want them to be ripe? Early bow season? Pre-rut? Gun season? Or are you just hoping to provide some extra food over the winter when most things have been harvested and food is scarce? Also, consider your soil needs, such as clover can help put nitrogen back in the soil, etc.

Check out Grampa Rays website. He does test plots In Wisconsin and has good advice about what to plant and how to plant successful food plots. Not a company selling you a brand name they are a seed company that wants you to have successful food plots.

Wonderful job people. Giving wonderful advice.

It may be worth hiring someone to help you with your food plots to get you started. I have many clients that fought for years trying to get productive food plots. The mistakes can cost you a lot of time, money, and sweat. There are a lot of things that go into a great habitat project that a contractor may be able to help you sort through and get things going smoothly.

I agree with Grampa Ray Outdoors, John is a very good source of info and he is in the Madison area. As soon as Mother Nature co-operates we will be planting his Mass Builder, Fall Draw, Frosty Delight, and Inner Sanctum.

Depends on the equipment you have. I like to spray now and kill all the weeds/grass coming up. Clover I plant sep 1 with winter rye, turnips July 20, not sure on beets but I believe mid june, biologic no clue. Get yourself a 25gal atv sprayer and start spraying glyphosate.

Tom, Go to qdma.com and purchase the book: Quality Food Plots, your guide to better deer and better deer hunting.

Lots of great advice here as well. Good luck.

Lots of good suggestions here. I have found our local Co-op folks to be of great help with both product and advice. Food plots are a great tool to use for hunting as well as the great service they offer to local wildlife through large portions of the year. Admirable that you are interested in doing them. If you do not have the necessary tools to do your plots, most, if not all of them, can be found at local rental centers.

I plan on starting mine this weekend. Will be doing some thining and hinge cutting. Will be planting a 1:4 perennial rye, clover.

Tweed- I would wait til 9/1 to plant clover. Spray 2-3 times until then, disc lightly and broadcast winter rye and ladino clover. The cooler nights will allow the clover roots to grow and the rye will smother any weeds that try to grow. Summer clover plots usually need lots of herbicide to fight weeds. Next spring just let rye die on its own, then mow.

RJN-thanks for the advise. Unfortunately I only have so many free weekends.

I will barely hunt this and this project is more of an experiment / hobby to see what happens.

No tilling. Just a hoe, rake and chainsaw. I'm really hoping it will be nice for the fawns.

If I can make it up again in late summer I might reseed. Since I only text camp, I don't hunt too late into the season.

Good advice.

Thoughts on putting in clover now to provide something for Summer, but then till up and replant with something else (brassica, turnips, etc) later on (late July or early August? )

Guess it depends on what natural foods are now available. In my area, I don't think the effort would be warranted as there is ample other foods available.

Capt - what region are you in?

I'll be in far NE WI

I'm in SW WI

Educate yourself as much as you can. A wealth of free information is available at QDMA.com. The link above takes you right the QDMA food plot section. You can also purchase books form QDMA and the one referenced above, "Quality Food Plots" is a good one. There is also one by Ed Spinnazola, another good one. Jeff Sturgis has a set of 3 books, get the last one on food plots if that is your main focus for now. I do suggest getting all three, it will change the way you think about your land. I think a more advance book by Dr. Craig Harper is one of the best, "A Guide to Wildlife Food Plots and Early Successional Plants." It maybe too much for some people, but by far the best type of book IMHO. All available at The Shed at QDMA.com . Might as well join up while you are on the site. ;)

I really don't think you have to hire anyone to help with your food plots. Remember, it's not rocket science. Follow a few, simple, basic, yet very important steps and you will do fine. There is so much information out on the web and in books, really no need to pay someone to tell you what you need to know. Be careful though, always get information from trusted sources. Good luck and have fun! BC

I'd agree with Bow Crazy no need to pay someone to tell you what you need to know, not to mention half the fun is the trial and error seeing what works and what doesn't and learning as you go. I posted a link to a place to get some good seed mixes. As others have mentioned also, the local co-op/feed stores are great resources too. Have fun food plotting, it can be addictive!

Link to a resource I like to use for soil testing.

Lots of information out there. I have some food plots at my place in SW Wisconsin. My philosophy for food plots is they supplement the deer, and attract more deer to my property. I rarely hunt them though, I have found that it is not that productive. I typically only hunt for 10-12 days in November though. Check out Bill Winke's videos, Grandpa Ray's, Whitetail Institute and Frigid Forage. My plots are small/trails and mostly I have clover. I have Frigid Forage Wild Game Buffet, Whitetail Institute Imperial Clover, and I am going to plant Grandpa Ray's Mass Builder in a new plot this year.) Here is how I plant them with an ATV and disc. 1) Get a soil test. This will tell you what fertizer to use and if you PH is in balance. 2) Mow the planting site 3) Spray the plot site with round up. 4) Week later spray again. 5) Disc up the ground. 6) Fertilize and plant with a hand held spreader. 7) Drive around the plot with my ATV to help get better seed to soil contact. 8) Pray for rain. I recently read you should spray before you mow, but I that is not how I have done things. I have never sprayed my plots, I just mow them with a trail mower. Only do that once or twice a year. My neighbors keep their clover mowed down pretty good, and swear by it. (Keeps the clover tender and more appetizing for the deer. Think if you spray them you only need to do it once or twice a year. Good luck!

Here is a link to another great source of information. It spawned off the old QDMA site. There is a section in there on foodplots and a great thread on Throw and Mow.

Kdog, good post. I've never understood the need to mow clover so much. I listened to a talk by Dr. Craig Harper, he recommends only mowing once a year, in August. He says spray for grasses and broadleaf in the early growing season. Let the clover go and reseed itself. Mow in August. Spray for grasses in August again if needed. Simple. The clover reseeds itself each year. I do add seed if needed in the spring, really you can do anytime of the year. I'm doing some this weekend. BC

The picture is of Grandpa Rays Inner Sactum 9 days after planting. This has been a tough spot in SW WI to get good growth for a number of years. Very happy so far.

How big of an area is that?

Just under 1/2 acre.

Clipping clovers keeps them much more nutritious and palatable. You loose the benefit of the "free" seeding but the whole point of growing the clovers is to provide nutrition to the wildlife so it is the best option in my opinion. I can always overseed if it is a little thin for next to nothing.

Looks good Doug.

I just broadcasted some clover mixed with a bit of rye a few weeks ago. Haven't been back up to check on it but your photo makes me optimistic.

I finally got two of my three plots planted last Saturday 5-27. On plot was planted with Grandpa Rays Inner Scantum and the other was planted with Frosty Delight. I will post some pictures once I get back up there in a couple weeks.

Konk1, I see you've put in Frosty Delight have you planted this before this early? if so what's it like come fall? I was going to put that in around first of Aug. I just planted couple weeks ago Four Galore form Grandpa Rays going up this weekend to take a look never used it before.

I have the same ? on the Frosty Delight. I would think the optimum time to plant it would be mid to late July. I have not heard about people planting brassicas for a summer plot. Deer mostly don't touch it until after a frost.

My friend just came back from my camp in the UP and he shot me a couple of pics. This small plot was new last year and is very sandy. I have laid a lot of lime and fertilizer. There is rye and clover in there from last fall. I planted Granda Ray's Soil Builder mix 2 weeks ago and added some extra buckwheat. The weather in the UP has been cold but it is growing. If you look in the apple tree cages, you can see the real growth and see how the deer are mowing it down outside the cages. I won't ever have to worry about cutting. Too many deer.

Happy, where in u.p. is your place? Just curious as there's pockets of plentiful deer and vast areas of few. Have you used the soil builder mix before? I've never tried it, usually oats is my go to for that purpose

That's beautiful. Looks like a golf course.

My place is near Escanaba in Delta County. I used Soil Builder last year in a plot that I built in the woods. I cleared some trees, raked leaves, and spread a bunch of lime and 19/19/19 with no soil sample. I planted it in May and it grew great and gave me an awesome start of amending the soil and adding OM. The pic is that plot.

I added rye, brassicas (GRO's Fall Draw), and oats in August into that plot and the deer stayed all fall and scraped it in the winter.

I used the Soil Builder on that very sandy area above hoping for more OM and soil amendments. I'll broadcast brassicas in mid-July right before a rain and roll it over. I'll broadcast in some oats, winter rye, and more clover in August. My goal is to keep something in that dirt all the time to add OM, improve the soil and prevent weeds.

Now if my bigger plots would just dry so I can get lime down on them. They are fall plots only. My land is mostly wet cedar swamp. I'm lucky to have some areas I can plant.

duplicate post.

"Clipping clovers keeps them much more nutritious and palatable." I know these are the talking points from the industry experts, I'm not sure I totally agree or even if it matters.

From my observations in our clover plots the deer eat the leaves and the new growth stems no matter how old they are. These parts are very palatable or seem so to the deer. If the nutrition is lower on older growth clover, it can't be much and if it is, does it really make a difference? I really doubt it. Will the nutrition added to clipped clover help my bucks have a bigger rack, or my does/fawns be healthier?

I like to keep things simple, spraying twice a year and clipping once is as simple as it gets for me. BC

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