Central Wisconsin Foodplots

[CrazyEd]

I am rolling the dice and planting one of my fall food plots this weekend. I only have 2 small plots so i'm going to do one early and one a little later. The past 2 or 3 years I have struggled to get anything established with the droughts and dry summers. I'm hoping planting one early is the key. We have high deer density and the deer seem to eat just about anything so again this is an experiment. This plot is maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of an acre. Last year it was planted in a mix of winter rye, GFR, PTT and rape. All that really came up was some winter rye. I also did add about 500lbs of pel lime to it last spring, i plan to add a bit more tomorrow.

April 24, 2012

May 4, 2014

I plan to go nuts with the Rye this year and put down close to a bushell. I'm also going to throw in 5-7 lbs of GFR. Some sunflowers and some purple prairie clover. I'll basically broadcast into the thatch and rye, and then drag my thatcher over it for a good 30 minutes and try and get the seeds worked into the ground a bit. Keeping it no-til style as we don't have big equipment and from talking to others this should hopefully help hold moisture in my sandy soils. We'll see how it goes.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's my plot from the overhead view - september 2013.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Looks like a buck hang out to me with all that edge!

 

[CrazyEd]

Ed
Keep us posted. I have a clearing that I plan on doing this to later this year. What's your thatcher look like?

I'll take a pic but honestly it was like $60 at sears, simple as can be and almost laughable. it is a glorified rake. I used it last year, it seemed to help and was better than just broadcasting on top of my sandy soil. I pull it with our ATV.

 

[2ndHand]

Good luck Ed! I am trying plots for the first time this year - planting Buckwheat this weekend - hopefully it isn't to early, I won't be back to the farm for about a month, so I want to get in in the ground...Enjoy the weekend!

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's what this food plot looked like on Saturday. It has greened up pretty well and I'd say most of the winter rye was between 4-6" or more. If you look at the tallest Jack Pine at the far end of the plot, there is an opening through that way that goes through to my newest 30 tree orchard. I'll post more about that project in another thread later.

May 24, 2014

Here's another view.

I started off by broadcasting the following into the food plot.
7# groundhog forage radish
1 bushell winter rye
1# partridge pea
1# purple prairie clover
1 small bag of pumpkin seeds, squash seeds and sunflower seeds.
120# pel lime

After all the seed was broadcast I thatched the hell out of it with my heavy duty food plotting machine. Yes, it's a glorified rake pulled by a 20 year old 250cc atv. But it seems to do the job and I think it does it pretty well. It does enough to put some soil over the seed, and it pulled up just a bit of the winter rye and it's root system to again help cover up my seed. Overall it seems like there is a pretty decent layer of organic material building on the surface, enough that moisture retention should improve significantly if I keep this type of plotting up.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's what it looks like post thatching.

Here's a closeup look. The surface was covered in seed. I put down a TON and pretty much way overseeded this thing just because of poor germination in the past. As you can see in this picture, there is not really much if any seed present on the surface. Just a little bit of pel lime.

 

[CrazyEd]

A few more pics

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's the last picture. This picture was taken, standing in my new (future) orchard. There is a little path that leads from my foodplot into this orchard. My orchard then leads basically right to a 60+ ag field, this year it will be all corn I think. Our whole farm is basically bedding and staging area adjacent to the ag fields. It works out pretty well.

 

[dipper]

Looks good guys, I'm all done with the stuff I plant for other people. I was able to start my own stuff, with some in. I have about 18 acres left to seed. 16 of those acres are red clover I'm no tilling into a what was sod the last 50 years. I'm stuck at work until Monday, so things will be on a stand still. I ran out of EW on my plots. Instead of a 12' strip it will be 6'. The other 6' will be oats, and sunflower. That should look nice if the deer don't mow them down.

Not sure if you guys remember that possible mountain lion I posted on the other thread last year. Well the neighbor said it crossed in front of his truck last week. He said it was only 70' away, and it's belly looked huge. It wasn't around since October, maybe it's a different one? Anyone know when they give birth, that would be interesting?

 

[CrazyEd]

Fall planted rye is heading out and will help throw some more seed down on my plot soon. Looks good. 2.5" of documented rain in my rain gauge since the day I planted this plot.

Radishes are coming up!

 

[wklman]

Looks good guys, I'm all done with the stuff I plant for other people. I was able to start my own stuff, with some in. I have about 18 acres left to seed. 16 of those acres are red clover I'm no tilling into a what was sod the last 50 years. I'm stuck at work until Monday, so things will be on a stand still. I ran out of EW on my plots. Instead of a 12' strip it will be 6'. The other 6' will be oats, and sunflower. That should look nice if the deer don't mow them down.

Not sure if you guys remember that possible mountain lion I posted on the other thread last year. Well the neighbor said it crossed in front of his truck last week. He said it was only 70' away, and it's belly looked huge. It wasn't around since October, maybe it's a different one? Anyone know when they give birth, that would be interesting?

They can give birth at any time of the year dipper. Lions don't have a set period they can come in heat.

 

[bueller]

I'm jealous I don't have any of my fall plots planted or even prepped yet.

 

[CrazyEd]

I'm jealous I don't have any of my fall plots planted or even prepped yet.

it's early but for our area it seems like the right thing to do. I can always top dress with more seed later if needed.

 

[bueller]

Because of work I probably won't be able to plant my brassicas until around the 4th of July. That's ok though it still leaves a lot of growing time and the red clover will feed them until then.

 

[dipper]

They can give birth at any time of the year dipper. Lions don't have a set period they can come in heat.

Thanks, I doubt it's pregnant. It was sighted on a field where a ton of does hang out at, my guess it's belly had plenty of deer in it.

 

[sandbur]

Ed-I have a bit of land that reminds me of your place. I admire your persistence as I have given up on it and leave it as a dead zone. All I have done is plant a field breaks/screen for field access of scotch pine, jack pine, and red cedar.

do you have many red cedar on your place?

 

[CrazyEd]

do you have many red cedar on your place?

we have some red cedars. I would not say a lot. here is a list of species, most common on top.

jack pine
red oak
bur oak
black cherry
red pine
white pine
red cedar
aspen
maple
spruce

 

[sandbur]

Ed-I have a bit of land that reminds me of your place. I admire your persistence as I have given up on it and leave it as a dead zone. All I have done is plant a field breaks/screen for field access of scotch pine, jack pine, and red cedar.

do you have many red cedar on your place?

Here is my field windbreak. I gave up on the sand to the right of the picture.