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Food plot strategies
Topic Started: Mar 20 2012, 07:39 AM (613 Views)
Posted Image baydog
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How many members are getting into food plots this year for the first time? Or, are developing new properties from scratch? I'm hoping we can get some good dialect going on here and learn from each other by maybe sharing plans etc.

The past 8 years or so I've had some pretty good success with plots and land management for whitetails. Before that, I tried various throw and grow products, didn't properly prepare my land, and skipped steps, ultimately ending up with crappy plots year after year. Eventually, I made the commitment, properly prepared the soil, fertilize, use strategic planting methods to ensure year round nutrition etc.

Right now I have my 100 acre homestead pretty much where I want it with regards to habitat management but there's always something to do. I bought another 160 acres that I'm going to be developing into wildlife paradise (hopefully!) so will be scouring this forum as well as others to get tips and ideas. My brother has also purchased a 1/4 section and will taking the leap into foodplotting so we're going to help each other out.

I'm really interested to see what everyone is doing and hopefully be able to pick up some pointers.


:tractor:
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brokenarrow
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Congrats on the new ground. It's great to see someone being able to really manage their habitat. BigR mentioned on an earlier thread, that hunting the area from field edges etc, would allow you to gain some perspective on natural deer movement, thus being able to formulate a long-term plan. IMHO, that's the way to go. At my place, I have approximately 9 acres of Food Plots in total, 5 non-hunting and 4 hunting. The 4 acre plot at the se corner of my farm is roughly 600-800 yds from destination feed fields and anywhere from 300 -1000 yds from various bedding areas in the timber adjacent to me. There's many who believe that if you go out and plant a food plot anywhere, the deer will just appear. I disagree. This one is on their natural bed to feed route, allowing them to stop and snack for 15-20 minutes before they move on. With so much food around, food plots have to be strategically placed. Just my thoughts.
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Renegade
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Atikokan, Ontario
Right on Baydog. Congratulations to you and your brother on getting your own properties to manage. It sure is addictive! Looking forward to seeing what you will be doing this year. I wish I could watch my properties from field edges but it just doesn't work that well in my area. I have to piece things together with trail cams and reading sign. We have a lot of plotting members, should be a real interesting summer of reading in this section!

:tractor:
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Posted Image forkhorn


I started a throw and grow plot last year with limited success. I never brought in machinery because it wasnt my land but.. this year I am buying the property. Its only 80 arcres but has been good to me.. I am planning on doing some grubbing with a doozer soon as the frost is out. I primarily bow hunt so I would like to keep my plots small 50 yards by 50 yards max... Not sure what I will plant yet.
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Posted Image bigr
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Great topic.

My first steps was with and very limited success with a rake and seed variety as well. Part of the learning curve I guess . It grew but was really a waste of time and money.

Biggest lessons since then. Seeds for the most part are seeds. There are no magic beans processed in some mystical "DEER LAB" where millions of $ are spent to provide you with the magic seeds. WRONG!

Farming industry has been around longer. Loads of great info.

Soil prep or doing enough work to get it right is big. Just even getting the dirt up is sometimes not done by some enough. I'm glad we have followed this step well from the beginning.

For me fertilizer is king as well. Its cheep for what you will get in the end with your results.

Planning on adding another 2 acres this year. Tough area to get worked up and we will need some dry weather to get this done. Once it is set up our water drainage will be better.
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Posted Image baydog
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brokenarrow
Mar 20 2012, 07:06 AM
Congrats on the new ground. It's great to see someone being able to really manage their habitat. BigR mentioned on an earlier thread, that hunting the area from field edges etc, would allow you to gain some perspective on natural deer movement, thus being able to formulate a long-term plan. IMHO, that's the way to go. At my place, I have approximately 9 acres of Food Plots in total, 5 non-hunting and 4 hunting. The 4 acre plot at the se corner of my farm is roughly 600-800 yds from destination feed fields and anywhere from 300 -1000 yds from various bedding areas in the timber adjacent to me. There's many who believe that if you go out and plant a food plot anywhere, the deer will just appear. I disagree. This one is on their natural bed to feed route, allowing them to stop and snack for 15-20 minutes before they move on. With so much food around, food plots have to be strategically placed. Just my thoughts.

I agree. I've had most of my success on routes to and from food plots in staging areas or over small plots off of the main ones. One thing I need to do is add some acreage to provide more food. I have a hard time keeping up as there is very little agriculture around here other than hay fields.
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forkhorn
Mar 20 2012, 06:41 PM
I started a throw and grow plot last year with limited success. I never brought in machinery because it wasnt my land but.. this year I am buying the property. Its only 80 arcres but has been good to me.. I am planning on doing some grubbing with a doozer soon as the frost is out. I primarily bow hunt so I would like to keep my plots small 50 yards by 50 yards max... Not sure what I will plant yet.

I used that throw and grow stuff before and it didn't work. I haven't really heard of anyone really having success with the stuff but they sure seem to sell a lot of it. The only way I've had success without proper tillage is to nuke an area with gly two or three times the year before to kill absolutely everything and then frost seed clover in the spring. It works great and the clover grows right up through the dead thatch. Really good technique for hard to get at places.

Good article on frost seeding:

http://outreachserver.com/qdmacanada/image...ost_Seeding.pdf
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brokenarrow
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Let us know how it's going. I've got winter wheat that I will kill around the middle of May. The farmer might be planting corn for the first time in 7 years on my big fields, so I'll have to devise a plan for that. Probably go back to clover because it's been 3 years since I had it there.
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Posted Image forkhorn


What would be better.. Three small food plots or one large one.... The prop. I have is mainly surrounded by hay fields but have alot of clover in them. The prop is all wooded and has been cut twice... once 5 years ago and another 10 yrs.. Most of the softwood was removed. 20 ft Poplar cover most of the area. There are three good bottle neck areas (where i was thinking of the smaller plots) or put one big plot in the centre and still hunt the bottle necks.. The big plot in the centre would give me more op. at some bucks traveling before hitting the field.???
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Friggs
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The most important part of a food plot strategy is getting a soil sample first before you start.
This will tell you what kind of shape your soil is in and what it needs for certain crops...PH, CEC, Base Sat., P-K, and micro-nuitrents. Without a soil sample you might be throwing money away.

Friggs
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Posted Image forkhorn


Another question.. mainly for the Thunder Bay area guys is.. Where would you get a soil test done and where is the best place to get seed? Or did I miss the boat!
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Friggs
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forkhorn
Mar 22 2012, 12:14 PM
Another question.. mainly for the Thunder Bay area guys is.. Where would you get a soil test done and where is the best place to get seed? Or did I miss the boat!

I mail my soil samples to A&L Labs. in London, Ont., they email me the results in about a week.
The complete soil test S1B + S7 which includes everything is about $35.00, they have cheaper tests S1B just Ph, N-P-K, OM, CEC... this test is what you want.
A&L also has an online data base where they keep all your test where you can access all of them.

They have all the instructions on how to do everything regarding soil samples on their website.

http://www.alcanada.com/Agricultural-Soil.htm

I just mailed one in last Monday and should have the results early next week.

Friggs
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Friggs
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Hey Forkhorn,

I found this place in your neck of the woods, Lakehead University. Check it out....

http://lucas.lakeheadu.ca/forest/

Friggs
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Posted Image baydog
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Friggs
Mar 22 2012, 03:26 PM
Hey Forkhorn,

I found this place in your neck of the woods, Lakehead University. Check it out....

http://lucas.lakeheadu.ca/forest/

Friggs

Yep, the university will do soil tests for you. I buy my seed from Thunder Bay Co-op. Scott is the guy I deal with. I usually email him first to make sure they have what I want or get them to order it. They've got most quite a bit in stock right now. scttmol@tbaytel.net
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forkhorn
Mar 21 2012, 09:22 PM
What would be better.. Three small food plots or one large one.... The prop. I have is mainly surrounded by hay fields but have alot of clover in them. The prop is all wooded and has been cut twice... once 5 years ago and another 10 yrs.. Most of the softwood was removed. 20 ft Poplar cover most of the area. There are three good bottle neck areas (where i was thinking of the smaller plots) or put one big plot in the centre and still hunt the bottle necks.. The big plot in the centre would give me more op. at some bucks traveling before hitting the field.???


This sounds interesting. Your property sounds very similar to my property. Do you have an air photo or google earth image that we can see? I prefer smaller plots as I think the bucks are more inclined to enter one during daylight hours than a larger one. There are exceptions though as the buck I got last fall was in an 80 acre field 2 hrs before dusk. Sounds like your hayfield/clover plot may be the night time destination for the deer and the smaller plots could act as a staging area where a big buck might come out before dark, or cruise during the rut.
I try and leave borders and treelines so the deer have the feeling of being in a smaller area (if that makes sense).
This image is actually one section of a rye/radish/clover food plot but it seems nice and small to a deer because of the trees acting as a border. It's about an acre as it continues around the corner and in behind the trees.


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Posted Image forkhorn


I never even thought of LU... I took a few soils classes there and I didn't realize that they did samples. I am going to make a few calls.
Thanks, Things r coming together.
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Posted Image forkhorn


I'll put together a ruff map.... and plan. The hunting pressure around the prop. is getting bad but I try not to over hunt it.. But some people just don't care about property lines. The big hay/clover field is hunted by several people so I stay away from it mainly and hunt the bush. Thanks for the e-mail address I am going to put in a order for Bigr secret blend on the other post. :cheers:
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forkhorn
Mar 23 2012, 02:16 PM
Thanks for the e-mail address I am going to put in a order for Bigr secret blend

:yikes:
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Posted Image baydog
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Forkhorn, just a heads up, they don't have any 4010 peas. That's the reason I was asking about soybeans in my other post. Do you know anyone heading over to the Fort? Probably be able to get them there.
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I just got an e-mail back from him and he informed about the peas. He said he could bring a full tote @ 2200lbs.....but thats alot of peas :spinning: He also said he was going to be bringing out is stock of seeds next week and will know better of what he has. Thanks for the address.
I will ask a guy I work with that is from the Fort, when he's going home. :cheers:
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Posted Image bigr
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Do they have common #1 peas ? I'd go for that as well.
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bigr
Mar 23 2012, 08:37 PM
Do they have common #1 peas ? I'd go for that as well.

No, the closest thing they could substitute is soybeans.
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