Disc vs Tiller

[SD51555]

If you have just cleared down the brush I would probably skip the disk and tiller next spring and spray with round-up instead. You could amend the soil with lime and fertilizer and spray once a month in spring and summer until it is time for a July or August fall plot. If you let the roots and debris die off and break down for a year or two things will get a lot easier and you will have more options that will be less likely to damage your equipment. You might want to throw down a little more fertilizer high in nitrogen to help the dead roots break down a little faster.

I was waiting for an answer like that. Tag will sprout up aggressively and need to be dealt with. I agree on the spraying and waiting approach. Stick with the cheap and easily broadcast germinated seeds like cereals, clovers, vetch, brassicas, chicory etc. After some of that stuff rots a little, I'd go back with a skid steer and heavy drag to smooth it out without actually breaking it or lifting anything up. If it's heavy clay, all those wooden roots will buy you some time until you can get your own roots in there to keep it from turning into a concrete pond bottom.

I plowed up a pasture for a guy in Onamia. It didn't take long to see why it had been pasture since the beginning of time. That thing threw more rocks per acre than it'd ever grow bushels of corn. It also explained why they made fence corners out of softball sized rocks. They had millions of them.

 

[Bassattackr]

I've got a solo chest mount spreader that I use for small kill plots. For our larger fields, we have a 3pt broadcast spreader we use behind the tractor.

Thanks. That's where I'm heading, looking at a 3 pt spreader.

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks. That's where I'm heading, looking at a 3 pt spreader.

Keep in mind, I find it hard to adjust a 3pt spreader for accurate adjustment, especially with small seed. My current spring plantings are primarily sunn hemp and buckwheat and the volume of seed is large enough. I set the spreader intentionally low, cover the field, and then zig-zag randomly with the remaining seed. Smaller seed is fine if I mix it with larger seed. The spreader puts out so much seed so fast, the small seed doesn't have much time to settle. It is "good enough". Small seed like brassica is always mixed with high volume larger seed like WR for my fall plants.

There are precision spreaders like Herd for tractor or ATV, but they are expensive. Unlike farmers who care about yield, as a deer manager I could not care less. I'm planting mixes not monocultures which fit deer better and help with soil health.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[jsasker007]

I gave up on seeding large and small seeds at the same time. If i have to seed the area twice so be it. I don't make any money from my plotting but i do like to get as much tonnage as i can---why not?

 

[yoderjac]

I gave up on seeding large and small seeds at the same time. If i have to seed the area twice so be it. I don't make any money from my plotting but i do like to get as much tonnage as i can---why not?

Because it requires much higher cost without greater benefit to deer. Farmers maximize yield by high fertilizer input and removal of all competing plants. Many of the plants farmers consider weeds are great deer food and often have better nutrition than the crops we plant. By focusing on soil health and targeting stress periods when nature is stingy, we can have similar benefits for deer and spend the fertilizer money on other habitat improvements.

If there is food left after the stress period you are targeting is over, the food plot has sufficient tonnage. My approach is more acreage, less tillage and inputs, more sustainable.

 

[jsasker007]

I have not gotten to the point of having any left over(extra) anything where i'm at. Come spring it's a reset and start from scratch. Don't have to replant but do have to wait for the weather to warm up things to start growing again. I agree that having more than you need doesn't make much sense but i've never had that problem.

 

[yoderjac]

I have not gotten to the point of having any left over(extra) anything where i'm at. Come spring it's a reset and start from scratch. Don't have to replant but do have to wait for the weather to warm up things to start growing again. I agree that having more than you need doesn't make much sense but i've never had that problem.

More acreage...lower yield. The only place yield might come in is for guys with tiny attraction plots. However that is a different objective. There, the goal is simply to have food during the period when you want the attraction.