Help!!! I'm stupid and can't figure this out

Chuckleins

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Feb 4, 2015
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New Holland, PA
Figured that would get people to look -

I have a B6100 with the 3 pt hitch setup etc. What I want to do is plant some deer feed plots. The field I want to do is about 6 acres but am going to only do up to 2 acres in plots. The files is empty - no trees etc but hasn't been plowed in recent memory - previous owner mowed it regularly. In order to do this correctly I believe I need to plow the ground - before rototillering etc. All this to ask my question - What I am seeing most of is single bottom plows with a "sleeve hitch" not a 3 pt hitch. I have a bar for my 3 pt hitch but am wondering if or what is needed to hook up this sleeve hitch?
If I am not clear ask me questions. Thanks in advance for the help
 

CountryBumkin

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I have a couple of "Sleeve" style implements. As mentioned they are lighter duty than the 3-PH implements, but they are still pretty tough.
You would need a "Sleeve Hitch Adapter" like this https://heavyhitch.com/store/heavy-hitch-accessories/3-point-hitch/

I have the "Heavy Hitch" 3-point Suitcase Weight adapter (from the site linked to) with built in the Reese Hitch, so the adapter I linked to would fit the Reese Hitch - and that is what I use now. This allows the 3-PH to raise/lower the implement. I got the Heavy Hitch manly to add additional weight to the rear of tractor.
 
Last edited:

aeronutt

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I'm not convinced that a full-blown plowing is required for a deer food plot. A few passes with a disk or even just a drag harrow should fluff it up enough for what you're doing. You might even consider doing stripes of lawn and deer food so there are nice firm strips of sod to walk/drive on between rows of deer food.
 

hodge

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It depends a lot on the ground- I've tilled up some deer plots twice now for a friend. All that was really needed was to scarify the ground for the seed to take hold, which it did fine. I said twice, because I went back the second year and did some more areas the same way. For what it was worth, the ground was too tough to plow, and it wasn't necessary.
I just set my tiller down enough for the tines to dig down about an inch, and away I went. As I said, it worked well for them.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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I'm still trying to wrap my head around this Food Plot, Deer Feeder, Baiting Fields, whatever you want to call it! :confused:

Up here if you do that you'll get fined or tossed in jail, it's called baiting, very frowned upon! ;)

It must be that the normal vegetation that inhabits the land is just junk that they don't want to eat. :rolleyes:

I have deer, elk, and moose among all the other animals, all over my land, year around, and nobodies starving here! :D
 

aeronutt

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In Idaho, you don't call it "deer food". You call it your "winter cover crop". Post a NO DEER sign with a warning that any deer caught stealing from your field will be shot. That should cover the legalities... :D
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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In Idaho, you don't call it "deer food". You call it your "winter cover crop". Post a NO DEER sign with a warning that any deer caught stealing from your field will be shot. That should cover the legalities... :D
Good thinking! ;) :D
 

Grouse Feathers

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I'm still trying to wrap my head around this Food Plot, Deer Feeder, Baiting Fields, whatever you want to call it! :confused:

Up here if you do that you'll get fined or tossed in jail, it's called baiting, very frowned upon! ;)

It must be that the normal vegetation that inhabits the land is just junk that they don't want to eat. :rolleyes:

I have deer, elk, and moose among all the other animals, all over my land, year around, and nobodies starving here! :D
Food plots do not come close to being the worse problem as far as calling it hunting. Its the bait piles that have eliminated deer hunting in Michigan. Over a bait pile I call it killing not hunting. In some areas you can see the clusters of gut piles around the bait piles. I refuse to call it hunting and have pretty much given up deer hunting and stick to bird hunting. Some of us still think its the hunt not the kill.

Sorry for the rant, can't help myself when it comes to hunting and sportsmanship.
 

Ike

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Food plots do not come close to being the worse problem as far as calling it hunting. Its the bait piles that have eliminated deer hunting in Michigan. Over a bait pile I call it killing not hunting. In some areas you can see the clusters of gut piles around the bait piles. I refuse to call it hunting and have pretty much given up deer hunting and stick to bird hunting. Some of us still think its the hunt not the kill.

Sorry for the rant, can't help myself when it comes to hunting and sportsmanship.
Must be a lot of deer in your area send a few this way so they can get started again:D
 

Diydave

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If it were me, planting deer plots, I'd spray an area out with an electric sprayer and some roundup, then disk, drag and seed. Only crop that really needs deep plowing would be corn, and the deer don't know the difference between plowed corn, and no till, anyway...:D:D
 

sheepfarmer

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Must be a lot of deer in your area send a few this way so they can get started again:D
I'm with GrouseFeathers, seems unsportsmanlike to me, but even if you look at it from the point of view that there is not much left of wilderness around here (lower half of lower MI), and they are either eating the neighbor's corn or your flower beds, it still seems like a bad idea to bait and encourage them to congregate. There are too many diseases like TB and chronic wasting disease that spread that way.
 

rtgt

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Jul 30, 2015
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Food plots do not come close to being the worse problem as far as calling it hunting. Its the bait piles that have eliminated deer hunting in Michigan. Over a bait pile I call it killing not hunting. In some areas you can see the clusters of gut piles around the bait piles. I refuse to call it hunting and have pretty much given up deer hunting and stick to bird hunting. Some of us still think its the hunt not the kill.

Sorry for the rant, can't help myself when it comes to hunting and sportsmanship.
Agreed 100% and I wouldn't call it a rant. Sportsman have to speak up and we either police ourselves or sit by the wayside and watch our rights disappear.

There is a big difference between a bait pile and maintaining a good habitat for deer.

I think "food plots" were created by a bunch of magazine writers that ran out of ability to write good articles.

I maintain 75 acres of mixed timber and old pasture/hay field a good place for wildlife. The fields were un-kept and not much was grazing on it.

I took several soil samples into the county ag office and they told me what it was lacking. An agent came out and we walked the fields and he gave me some pointers where to start and what to do. He also showed me the difference between the natural grasses and clover and invasive weeds. I would recommend this as a good starting point as each area is different.

Little at a time I am eliminating the noxious weeds and grasses that have invaded and it is starting to show. The better grass and clover are being enjoyed by more than just the deer.

I am working at this a little at a time. I didn't plow. Like someone else posted, grasses don't have deep roots. I use a disc and a drag harrow for the most part. A good spreader is also handy.

It isn't a food plot. To me it is a healthy place for the deer and it is something I can do those other months when the season is closed.
 

zload

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We generally just make multple harrow passes to get a couple of inches of top soil loosened up to plant some type of field pea generally iron clay peas and maybe toss in sone turnips/clover/rye whatever and then drag or disk it in while prayng for rain. It generally comes up twice once when the seed germinates and the second time is when it is eaten down to the ground by the deer. With our sandy soil and warm winters it generally won't last in the heat if dry because the soul is too shallow since not deep tilled.

FL regs allow baiting if done on private land and at least 6 mos of the year so must run auto feeders. You may think it is unsporting but I would bet you have never hunted in 1000 acres of slash pine p, pine straw, gall berry bushes and palmetto bushes its a wonder they survive at all. A big deer weighs 140 down here... Too many anti-hunters to be eating our own over legal methods...
 

zload

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OP turning the plots with a single bottom plow would be awesome but time consuming as you are making 12" - 16" passes... I do it for food crops but not deer plots. If you did it once it would probably go several seasons with just tilling/disking. Maybe try both methods and see how your plot looks, some of the name brand clovers/food plot specific seeds are way expensive when you start talking acreage size plots so may be worth it. Post up your results.
 

rtgt

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B3200
Jul 30, 2015
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Too many anti-hunters to be eating our own over legal methods...
Very good point.

Baiting is not legal (or necessary) here in Tennessee, and most other places I have hunted.

I have very little tolerance when it comes to illegal hunting.
 

skeets

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In Pa thats a big time NO NO,,, hunting over bait of any kind, and its even questionable of even hunting along corn fields or in the orchards,, Some guys have been busted for this, and while it has been thrown out of court the BS they had to contend with is just that BS,,, Usaly brough on by a barney fife deputy game warden trying to make a name for him self. I still hunt and every year it gets a little more still, and I dont cover as much ground as I use to. But hunting over bait or a feed plot, just dont sit right with me,, if it was just meat that would be something different. Hell back when i raised horses I had deer that would come in and bed down in the barn and eat what the horses missed, and drink out of the water troughs I had flowing all winter.. So you do whats legal in your neck of the woods, and the way you were brought up and its all good
 

Chuckleins

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B6100
Feb 4, 2015
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New Holland, PA
OP turning the plots with a single bottom plow would be awesome but time consuming as you are making 12" - 16" passes... I do it for food crops but not deer plots. If you did it once it would probably go several seasons with just tilling/disking. Maybe try both methods and see how your plot looks, some of the name brand clovers/food plot specific seeds are way expensive when you start talking acreage size plots so may be worth it. Post up your results.
That is sort of what I was planning on doing. It's more playing than anything