Howdy, new guy here

[roymunson]

Hey everyone, been stalking around here for a little bit. I'm a novice food plotter.

1 of the spots I hunt is a 40 acre pasture field, but it's surrounded by timber on 3 sides. 1 side is a "hunt club" that primarily gun hunts.

So dad's pasture has a brush hog on it, and an aerator for knifing up the soil. I mowed, sprayed, and aerated about 2 acres 2 weeks ago. Got it tore up enough, and planted some of this.
http://meritseed.com/ultra-max-annual/

Did a smaller version last year and was able to pull quite a few deer out of a CRP field from the hunt club, and into my plot.

I don't own the land, and the entire pasture field gets brush hogged by the owner multiple times a year. I'd love to get some switchgrass going on it, but we'll have to use it as a process.

I don't have a ton of useage or huge deer numbers in it, but hopefully things grow.

I kept part of the plot open to plant some cereal/browse grains in early september. I want it to be palatable when we open up the last week of september. Any great ideas on what to plant? I'm open to trying something new.

 

[roymunson]

Shoulda mentioned, I'm in NE Ohio. About 90 minutes south of Cleveland

 

[Eggman]

Welcome! glad to have you

 

[scott44]

welcome!

 

[chummer]

Welcome! The easy answer is brassicas. Plant them now and hope your deer like them. If they do you are all set if they don't back to the drawing board.

 

[yoderjac]

Welcome to the forum. If you are just starting, I'd recommend Winter Rye as a cereal grain for fall. It is easy to plant and very forgiving of soil fertility and pH. Deer love it and it is good for the soil.

Best of Luck,

jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Agree with Jack ^^^^. Rye is the first thing to green up in spring too, so you get the added benefit of late winter / very early spring feed to get deer fed at the toughest time of year.

 

[wiscwhip]

The brassica mix you listed above has some very good varieties in it, good choice. If you want something more in that plot for next spring, don't be afraid to throw down some medium red clover at around 4 to 8 lbs per acre with those cereal grains. It will germinate this fall and really take off next spring to provide your deer with food and your plot with organic matter and nitrogen. Make sure the clover is inoculated before you plant unless this area has had red clover within the last 2 to 3 years.

 

[roymunson]

I want to draw more deer in as it is a destination plot, any thoughts on sunflowers? From everything I've heard, they suck deer in from everywhere.

 

[wiscwhip]

I want to draw more deer in as it is a destination plot, any thoughts on sunflowers? From everything I've heard, they suck deer in from everywhere.

It may be different in your area, but I think it is pretty late in the game for sunflowers, and even if that is not the case, you would likely need to protect them with an electric fence if you wanted them to last more than a few weeks after germination. With fall coming, once the native browse starts to brown down, they would hoover those sunflowers to the dirt in a matter of days, if they even left them alone that long, quite likely leaving you with a dirt patch for a plot. Now if you want to experiment and throw some down with some rye and clover, just for attraction to get them using the plot, that is a different story, but you must have something else in there that can withstand browse pressure.

 

[WTNUT]

First, Welcome. Second, I flew up to and back from Akron today. You should have joined out group earlier and I would have stopped by ha ha. Don't mess with sunflowers this time of year, or until you have tried a lot better crops for plots. You have good soil in that part of the world, very good friends with a business colleague who has to be close to you and he farms, plots and plays. I would go with Rye and Alice Clover. You can throw in some red. The Alice will put on root growth this year and come on strong next year.


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[H20fwler]

Welcome!
I've had a lot of luck over on the other side of the state from you putting out sugar beets and radishes for late fall plots and good clover plots in spring.