It's getting a little late for this, but what implement would you all recommend to lay down a food plot in my back field? Most of the seed I see is no till but I still would imagine you'd want to rough up the ground a little.
Implement for Deer Food Plot
- Thread starter MyMonyPit
- Start date
Creature Meadow
Well-known member
Lifetime Member
Equipment
2012 L4600, Disk, Brush Hog, GB60 Garden Bedder, GSS72 Grading Scraper
Here in NC I plant oats and wheat and mix in rape. We are planting ours this weekend.
I disk my ground then broadcast a 2:1 ratio of oats to wheat then lite disk back over with gangs nearly straight to cover. I then broadcast rape and run over plots with aerator which serves as my cultipacker to ensure seed has good contact with soil.
this combination works well for us here and it runs me $50 an acre to plant.
Deer here will eat oats and wheat most of winter and the sugar will come up in the rape later in December then they will switch over to it.
I disk my ground then broadcast a 2:1 ratio of oats to wheat then lite disk back over with gangs nearly straight to cover. I then broadcast rape and run over plots with aerator which serves as my cultipacker to ensure seed has good contact with soil.
this combination works well for us here and it runs me $50 an acre to plant.
Deer here will eat oats and wheat most of winter and the sugar will come up in the rape later in December then they will switch over to it.
For me, if I could only have 1 implement for food plots, it would be a heavy drag harrow, spiked side down. Maybe it is my soils, but it works awesome. At times, it is all I use for fall food plots.
Here is what I do for easy to grow seeds, such as brassicas and turnips.. If I have standing grass or weeds, I spray them with herbicide (41% glyphosate), by hand, if the plot is small enough. Then I put down my seed, then I fertilize, then I drag it with my harrow.
The reason I do it in that order, is if I have standing vegetation to deal with, I don't want to be knocking it over until I get my seed spread. Knocking it down in advance will prevent good seed to soil contact. With dragging afterwards, it knocks down the vegetation, plus turns up the ground just enough to get some dirt on the seeds.
This has worked well for me for a number of years.
Here is what I do for easy to grow seeds, such as brassicas and turnips.. If I have standing grass or weeds, I spray them with herbicide (41% glyphosate), by hand, if the plot is small enough. Then I put down my seed, then I fertilize, then I drag it with my harrow.
The reason I do it in that order, is if I have standing vegetation to deal with, I don't want to be knocking it over until I get my seed spread. Knocking it down in advance will prevent good seed to soil contact. With dragging afterwards, it knocks down the vegetation, plus turns up the ground just enough to get some dirt on the seeds.
This has worked well for me for a number of years.
I have had pretty good success spraying the plot with glyphosate to kill everything, then going back in a week or two and broadcasting my seed, lime, and fertilizer. Once I am done with that, I will take my rotary cutter and mow everything down on top of what I just broadcast. This acts like a mini greenhouse conserving moisture, keeping birds from eating your seeds and keeping the sun from baking the ground hard. Doing it this way also keeps those pesky weed seeds, sleeping in the ground, from sprouting when you turn up the soil with a 3pt disc or "bog". A good rain will lay the mat of dead vegetation down and let your plot come up through it. It will add to the organic matter of your soil and give the little micro-organisms something to slowly eat and put nutrients back in your soil. If you want to take it a little further, you can cultipack or roll over it to get more seed to soil contact and get the mat closer to the seeds and ground.
bambam31
Member
Equipment
L3800HST 4x4,R1,FEL, 6'disc, 5'bush hog,piranhaTB,6'grader,6'rake, 48"forks
I have been subscribing to this method for a few years. It has definitely save a lot of time and expense. Last year, instead of mowing, I sprayed, lightly ran over the plot one time with the disk, broadcasted seed and fertilizer and then lightly disked again. All the dead vegetation laid over as if I had cut it. It has worked both ways for us.
I just roughed up the ground with my ratchet rake and spread a red and white clover mix. Coming up pretty good despite the fact that it rained for 4 days after I planted it.
Dave
Dave
So you don't even rough up the surface? that's good to know. I'll have to try it
Here's my setup. Disc and a harrow. Not much rain since planting BUT the plots are coming up pretty nicely!
http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/videos/east-oh-ryser-82517/
http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/videos/e-ryser-8-27-17/
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http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/videos/east-oh-ryser-82517/
http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/videos/e-ryser-8-27-17/
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Been checking Craigslist for both disc and drag harrows. Wouldn't mind finding a decent deal on a used one.
I do not. I just make sure that I broadcast my seed BEFORE I cut. This lets the seed get down to the ground better. Everything that gets cut, adds to the OM(organic matter) and fertility of the soil. I have done this for a couple of years on one property and have added no lime or fertilizer. We just started on our lease. I pulled the soil test the other day and my pH is 6.46. This has been native vegetation for roughly 10 years before I started messing with it. I disced it twice. Once was the first time I planted it and the second time is when I expanded it to double the plot size. This will be my 5th fall planting it and I have already sprayed. Work and other commitments have delayed my planting it, but I am hoping to fertilize and plant this coming Sunday. I am not against discing, but I try to do it the least amount that I can.
Every time you disc, it brings up a new batch of weed seeds and you have to think about controlling them so your crop can grow with the least amount of competition. Discing also kills beneficial bacteria in the soil and destroys or runs earthworms off(you want both in the ground). Once you get everything rolling, you have less weed troubles and have to use less chemicals. Unlike TV shows, I don't have to have a perfect looking food plot, but I want the least amount of weeds possible. I allow some weeds, as deer eat them too and diversity is good for the soil and the deer. You can look at different plant rotations to control weeds and help with supplying nutrients to the next crop. For instance, daikon radishes will recycle nitrogen by pulling it up from deep in the soil to the surface and leave it there when they die. They also have a chemical that has an allelopathic effect to suppress weeds once the leaves die and lay on the ground. Daikons also bust hard pans, from plowing and discing, and mellows the soil. Cereal Rye(not rye grass) is winter hardy, grows on a wide range of soil Ph from acid to alkaline, is a nitrogen scavenger (compared to wheat that sucks up N like a sponge), is one of the ultimate cover crops because of it's allelopathic effects on many types of weeds and it's ability to break up hardpan soils and is high in crude protein. It makes a great mat to cover seeds when cut at the right time in the spring. Clover is a nitrogen producer and will help any crop you plant after it that loves nitrogen. Buckwheat, if cut at the right time can increase phosphorus in the soil. It is also great crop just to have, as the deer like it and it can reseed by itself or with your help cutting it once seeds are produced. You can get 2-3 crops out of it in a growing season depending on where you live. It works great in mixes. Bees like it also.