southboundfishing
Yearling... With promise
Excluding time, fuel and equipment was was your cost per acre this fall's annual plots
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2022 Fall Plots - Cost per acre
- Thread starter southboundfishing
- Start date
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
It might help to break the question down for food plots by perennial vs annual and then again further based on summer vs. fall/winter.
My fall costs this year were bin run wheat, 150 lbs per acre at $13.50 per 50 lbs = $40.50. 4 lbs durana clover per acre at $6.25 per lb = $25 and four lbs crimson clover at $1.30 per lb = $5.20. Total $70.70 per acre.
This was not a normal year. We had a severe drought and I was afraid it killed my durana clover so it was like I was starting anew. I normally dont plant crimson and I normally only add 2 lbs of durana each year to existing clover just to freshen the clover stand. A normal year for me would be $40.50 for wheat and $12.50 for durana for a total of $53 per acre. I plant about thirty acres - for deer
This was not a normal year. We had a severe drought and I was afraid it killed my durana clover so it was like I was starting anew. I normally dont plant crimson and I normally only add 2 lbs of durana each year to existing clover just to freshen the clover stand. A normal year for me would be $40.50 for wheat and $12.50 for durana for a total of $53 per acre. I plant about thirty acres - for deer
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Mine are all perennial. I don't even look in the establishment year. It's spendy.
After that, maybe $55/ac. I keep changing mine up, so take that for what it's worth. I'm bumping all my winter cereals and jap millet to late winter/early spring planting, so fall will only see a little flax, more jap millet, and maybe a top off rate of chicory and plantain.
Is your jap millet for deer or birds?
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Deer.
I plant jap millet in my duck holes in the summer because deer wont eat it
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I got an opportunity to watch a doe chow down on it in mid October. I couldn't believe how much she ate in one sitting. And this was among a lush plot of clover. She ate a little clover to balance it all out, but it has become a big favorite this year. I'm still surprised at how much I'm still learning about what the deer in my area eat and when.
Japanese millet can volunteer fairly well here, so I took a shot and spread a bunch early when the soils were cold and into standing water. I got such a good stand, I could hardly get my POS rental goat mower through it. And lots of it stood back up and put on a seed head with only 8 weeks left to frost. I even noticed my deer eating some immature plants that I seeded 8 weeks before frost in another plot. So I spread millet spring and late summer at my place, especially when it only costs about $4 every time I do it.
I wanna go back right after season and see if they took the rest of the plant on my mature stalks.
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
Seeing your guys' discussion on japanese millet sent me to google and I eventually found this publication: https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=utk_agexfish
(PB1743-Growing and Managing Successful Food Plots for Wildlife in the Mid-South)
(PB1743-Growing and Managing Successful Food Plots for Wildlife in the Mid-South)
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
What a great read! A little dated but 95% still very good stuff.
I wonder how much of the regenerative ag for food plotters is to sell more seed. Getting a good clover plot going and freshening it with light discing and fall grains seems like a tried and true method that is almost talked down upon now.
