I am not giving up the disk, yet. Some of my plantings are very time specific - and their success or failure depends on precise timing. My dove fields have to be planted between May 1 and May 15 to allow sufficient time for the crop to mature, and doves to find it and numbers build before season. Two early, and they eat all the seed and move on. Too late and the seed does not mature early enough for doves to find it and build numbers. I am not going to do anything to risk that type of planting - conventional tillage is what I know works best. Some of my duck holes are the same way. Deer plots - that is another story. I plant 30 some acres. If a few acres dont succeed - it doesnt matter - I have plenty of deer dood in other plots. In those cases where My hunting success doesnt live or die by perfect timing - I will use other methods
The Throw n’ Mow Method
- Thread starter Crimson n' Camo
- Start date
I am not giving up the disk, yet. Some of my plantings are very time specific - and their success or failure depends on precise timing. My dove fields have to be planted between May 1 and May 15 to allow sufficient time for the crop to mature, and doves to find it and numbers build before season. Two early, and they eat all the seed and move on. Too late and the seed does not mature early enough for doves to find it and build numbers. I am not going to do anything to risk that type of planting - conventional tillage is what I know works best. Some of my duck holes are the same way. Deer plots - that is another story. I plant 30 some acres. If a few acres dont succeed - it doesnt matter - I have plenty of deer dood in other plots. In those cases where My hunting success doesnt live or die by perfect timing - I will use other methods
Crimson n' Camo
5 year old buck +
Cool then....I actually love your answer......
There's gonna be something like maybe 10-12 variables that are gonna all have an impact of the success you have....You have to recognize all of those variables and see them with each planting....each field.... You may not be able to do much about effecting some of them but you'll know what your limiting factors are and what may be the reason for less then ideal results.....
- Soil type
- Oraganic Matter %...depth
- Amount of shade/sunlight
- On top of a hill or in a swamp....natural moisture.....a lot of this revolves around moisture
- What stage are you in as far as long term development.....things change over time
- Amount of biomass being grown
- Amount of biomass on the soil surface....amount of decayed biomass and humus.....Are you throwing seed into compost pile?
- % of Microbial Community present.....Do you have things like m. fungi helping your field get up and established, make connections, etc
There's others I'll add as they come to me but you get the idea.....These will all play apart in your results as well as what you decide is the best method for whatever it is you're wanting to accomplish.....Oh, yeah all that stuff on balanced C:N ratio and such too needs considering
Don't throw away your disks.....they are simply a tool. They may still be useful. Who knows where we may be in a few years or what you might want to use them for....maybe you just want to stimulate the soil bank in the spring or fall to help with new growth of this kind or that
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
I still disc up trail/road edges on occasion in spring or fall depending on how i want to stimulate the seed bank
Discs are also better than root tillers for creating fire lanes( in my experience)
bill
I still use a disk for several things - like pulling through my NWSG to thin it out and stimulate some forb growth, smoothing ruts in trails, initial food plot prep when I am making a new plot in an area that has never been planted before. I have a tiller, too - and it stays mostly in the garden. Some of my plots flood, and sometimes, when the water comes down - it leaves an area denuded of vegetation - nothing to tnm in to. As opposed to waiting a year for vegetation to return - some kind of tillage is required.
My philosophy is - never get rid of a piece of equipment - you will need it the day after you get rid of it.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
I dream of NWSG that needs to be thinned out
Im covered up in bermuda grass in cattle country
SwampCat,are you near Texarkana?
bill
Forty miles north of Texarkana. My land backs up to Millwood Lake
Bearhtr67
Yearling... With promise
We see the same here in our area of Virginia, the deer won't touch the brassica but with that being said we still plant some turnip in our mixes because they are good soil builders. We also have very heavy clay soil so the large deep taproot help with opening up the soil.
Crimson n' Camo
5 year old buck +
Are the turnips tops a lush deep green or are you getting a lot of colors....purple, yellow, red ???
my turnips have been lush green, while actively growing
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
Never had luck with deer eating any brassica here in east texas
My family loves purple top turnips so i continue to plant them and daikon radish for soil purposes as stated above
bill
Bearhtr67
Yearling... With promise
Same with us as swampcat normally nice and green. I have a neighbor that loves to plant brassica because in his mind they look great but I've never seen any evidence that they have eaten his either.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Don't eat turnips on my place, but they love radish greens.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Crimson n' Camo
5 year old buck +
It would be interesting to see a BRIX reading from each person's turnip leaves.....There's the other variables to consider like how much other food is present to the amount of deer.....but turnips are a lush green that ought to be utilized with preference I'd think.....UNLESS....something about how its being grown makes it extremely bitter or less than desired. Maybe if this or that were tweaked then they would be sweeter and more utilized....just a guess.
Bearhtr67
Yearling... With promise
I've never tried radishes but I might have to give them a try.
I think sometimes, it is an acquired taste, also. I planted purple hull peas in a cleared opening in the woods. Not a one was touched the first two years. My wife and I picked them by the bushels. The third year, there was some minor browsing. The fourth year, they ate them to the ground. If I plant them now, they wont make it over six inches tall. Most deer plantings, I am not going to plant four years in a row if the deer arent utilizing them.
Bearhtr67
Yearling... With promise
Whitetails are finicky eaters when they have choices, they eat by what their nutritional needs are. Just look at another plant like plantains, at times deer won't touch them and then you look a few weeks later and they are eaten to the ground.
Also, there are different reasons for planting different things and the best utilized may or may not be a reason to plant. Deer love my soybean plantings - to the point they eat them to the ground soon after emergence. Same with any of the warm season peas. Same with sunflowers. Cant plant milo or corn because the hogs get it all. Brassicas dont work for my planting regime because they require a late summer planting to provide a viable food source during season and that means they would often have to be planted in heat and drought and fail to make a crop. Your place might be in a flood zone and plantings are based upon when floods do and dont occur. Sometimes we have to resort to our second or third choice planting species.
Bearhtr67
Yearling... With promise
Turtlesprings
5 year old buck +
I have a half acre field in rye/winter vetch. It is growing really well. Almost to 25% flowering stage. I am wanting to roll with my cultipacker at 80% flowering stage and cast a lablab plus type mix into the mess. Do you think that will work? Should I broad cast the seed into the standing mess, roll and spray glypho at the same time?
