No till food plots

[Species8472]

Some of these stumps have kept growing shoots for more than 10 years.

Stubborn #$%^s. I hate that and have the same issue.

[Fenelon]

I've got two plots that are about 0.7 acres each now for the past six years. Mine are till plots and i use a big rotary tiller on my 45hp tractor, set to 3" depth so I don't drag up too many stones. I advise doing a soil test and send it in for analysis. I'm glad I did this as it told me what nutrients were lacking, then made it easy to know what fert mix to buy and what application rate was needed. I cannot stress the importance of using herbicide to kill the weeds before planting. I spray roundup with a little atv estate sprayer. I then till and plant 5 to 7 days later. I've had good luck with wheat and oats. I plant 2nd week in July and the green vegatative growth gets pounded by deer during the gun hunt. Just buy feed grade seed. I don't buy seed grade as the neonic/fungicide coated seed will kill all your bees and your birds on your property if the seed is not drilled and is available for them to eat. I roll with a seven foot lawn roller after I plant but I guess you won't do this if you drill. I've tried sugar beets and radish mixes. They don't really seem to be attractive until the first snows, then the sugar content goes up and the deer then start hitting them hard. If you have a December muzzeloader hunt then this is a good choice. My best results by far, as far as being attractive to deer is chickory. They absolutely pound it. I used the Whitetail Institute Chic Magnet . It had excellent germination and grew very well. It was like candy to the deer. Putting in a plot of this is like sending a 19 year old innocent boy to a Madoc corn boil wearing a brand new pair of black Dickey's trucker jeans, buckskin wallet on a three foot chain, with a dab of the Old English Leather lure behind his ears and rubbed on his parts. Every old doe within five miles will catch wind of that sweet elixir, get "all bothered", then will involuntarily come running, hungry for "a feed". Someone/something is going to get tore all up real bad. Poor young lad will be scarred for life and will be terrified of older women...(oops! sorry, I guess I got off on a tangent!).
.I've also had good luck with the Cabelas mixed brassicas. Excellent germination , nice dense growth, and deer really hit it Sept - December. A mix of mixed brassicas and chickory is what I'm putting in this year. I've been wanting to try soyabeans but my buddy has not had good luck with it on small plots. It's simply too attractive to the deer and they overbrowse it when it's in its vegetative form. You end up with no bean production which is a big draw to deer once it goes to seed. I'd do beans if I had bigger plots. NB chickory - consider it an annual even though it will come back the following year, It then quickly bolts to flower and seed, and I found the deer had no interest in it, even after I mowed it several times. I haven't tried buckwheat yet. It's on my wish list.

[Sam Menard]

I've got two plots that are about 0.7 acres each now for the past six years. Mine are till plots and i use a big rotary tiller on my 45hp tractor, set to 3" depth so I don't drag up too many stones. I advise doing a soil test and send it in for analysis. I'm glad I did this as it told me what nutrients were lacking, then made it easy to know what fert mix to buy and what application rate was needed. I cannot stress the importance of using herbicide to kill the weeds before planting. I spray roundup with a little atv estate sprayer. I then till and plant 5 to 7 days later. I've had good luck with wheat and oats. I plant 2nd week in July and the green vegatative growth gets pounded by deer during the gun hunt. Just buy feed grade seed. I don't buy seed grade as the neonic/fungicide coated seed will kill all your bees and your birds on your property if the seed is not drilled and is available for them to eat. I roll with a seven foot lawn roller after I plant but I guess you won't do this if you drill. I've tried sugar beets and radish mixes. They don't really seem to be attractive until the first snows, then the sugar content goes up and the deer then start hitting them hard. If you have a December muzzeloader hunt then this is a good choice. My best results by far, as far as being attractive to deer is chickory. They absolutely pound it. I used the Whitetail Institute Chic Magnet . It had excellent germination and grew very well. It was like candy to the deer. Putting in a plot of this is like sending a 19 year old innocent boy to a Madoc corn boil wearing a brand new pair of black Dickey's trucker jeans, buckskin wallet on a three foot chain, with a dab of the Old English Leather lure behind his ears and rubbed on his parts. Every old doe within five miles will catch wind of that sweet elixir, get "all bothered", then will involuntarily come running, hungry for "a feed". Someone/something is going to get tore all up real bad. Poor young lad will be scarred for life and will be terrified of older women...(oops! sorry, I guess I got off on a tangent!).
.I've also had good luck with the Cabelas mixed brassicas. Excellent germination , nice dense growth, and deer really hit it Sept - December. A mix of mixed brassicas and chickory is what I'm putting in this year. I've been wanting to try soyabeans but my buddy has not had good luck with it on small plots. It's simply too attractive to the deer and they overbrowse it when it's in its vegetative form. You end up with no bean production which is a big draw to deer once it goes to seed. I'd do beans if I had bigger plots. NB chickory - consider it an annual even though it will come back the following year, It then quickly bolts to flower and seed, and I found the deer had no interest in it, even after I mowed it several times. I haven't tried buckwheat yet. It's on my wish list.

Sounds like you got things figured out. You’re lucky that you have the equipment to help get the work done. I would love to get into establishing food plots but I just don’t have the disposable income to do it right.

[Ridger]

I do a no-till method which requires a chemical sprayer , a hand seeder , and a cultipacker or some sort of lawn roller. This method requires access to farmer grade RoundUp (glyphosate).
For a fallow field I would spray twice with a 2 week gap in between. I would time it so I could plant buckwheat either this weekend or last weekend. Then wait 7 weeks max ( after that time you run the risk of the buckwheat re-seeding itself). At this time you walk through the buckwheat and broadcast your fall blend of foodplot seeds. After that you run the buckwheat over with your packer. Apply fertilizer that day , and then a month later , apply nitrogen if needed after that.
This method works great, the buckwheat outcompetes the weeds and creates bare dirt underneath. Once you crimp it over your fall seeds it helps keep the moistures in and creates a thatch for the fall seeds to grow up through.

if I started to late to plant buckwheat , I would spray 2 times before your fall planting date and attempt to use the dead weeds as cover by seeding I to them and running them over with the packer.

This right here. Have done this with brassicas and other annuals and the best part is the buckwheat becomes great green fertilizer for the following season.

I've done this with a backpack sprayer and lawn tractor as well.

Always try to get the brassica in by the 2nd week of August once the rain starts coming back. Worst case and you hit a dry spell, you can always seed it out with rye well into mid September and see growth into December.

Pretty much follow Jeff Sturgis formula from WHS and have had really good success with the plots. Check out the YouTube page for lots of great videos

https://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/

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