Fields almost ready to plant...

[r49740]

Things are drying out finally for me, and have the fields getting sprayed today to kill off and get ready. I am hoping the first week of June to till it all and get going. Will be about 12 acres or so with a couple other small areas. The small areas I want to put in sunflower for birds, which im sure the deer will eat before they grow. Going to try anyways. What all do you guys plant with the sunflowers to make it nice for birds(dove and turkey)? Out of the 12 acres, I will hope to get 3 or so in brassica for the late summer planting. My deer loved it last year. Then I will have about 6 with corn and clover spread underneath. That did real well last year too. And the remainder will be soybeans. The field hasn't been worked at all for about 20 years.

Any tips on the sunflowers as I have never done those before? Anything to mix in for more bird feed or cover?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

sun flowers are easy to grow. I like iron clay cowpeas with sunflowers. Milo is always a good option. The deer didn't seem to touch mine but the birds liked it.

 

[SwampCat]

A mix of milo and browntop millet. The millet is good early since it matures in 60 days and deer or hogs dont tend to eat it

 

[yoderjac]

Things are drying out finally for me, and have the fields getting sprayed today to kill off and get ready. I am hoping the first week of June to till it all and get going. Will be about 12 acres or so with a couple other small areas. The small areas I want to put in sunflower for birds, which im sure the deer will eat before they grow. Going to try anyways. What all do you guys plant with the sunflowers to make it nice for birds(dove and turkey)? Out of the 12 acres, I will hope to get 3 or so in brassica for the late summer planting. My deer loved it last year. Then I will have about 6 with corn and clover spread underneath. That did real well last year too. And the remainder will be soybeans. The field hasn't been worked at all for about 20 years.

Any tips on the sunflowers as I have never done those before? Anything to mix in for more bird feed or cover?

I concur with swampcat that WGF sorghum and millet are dove attractants. From a diversity and soil health perspective, I like ST's idea of adding a legume as part of the mix. It is not really a bird component but great for deer and diversity and it fixes N that the bird food seeks.

As for turkey, they eat just about anything that doesn't eat them. I find it more important to deal with the big picture when managing for turkey. Food in general is not a problem. I try to get booding ground close to good nesting habitat. Most poults die because of viruses that are weather driven, but nest and poult predators are the next mortality factor. Good nesting hover makes it harder for predators to find nests. For the first couple weeks the poults are vulnerable. Having a short distance to brooding ground reduces risk. 90% of a poults diet is insects. They also can't navigate turf type grasses like fescue well. Keep this in mind between nesting and brooding. Crops like clover green up early and attract plenty of bugs by the time poults arrive. It is important to have cover next to bugging. Something like RR Beans next to clover is great. The beans form a canopy with bare ground beneath. This can protect the poults from the eyes of avian predators. When they first start to fly, roosting off the ground really helps survival, but they can't fly far or high at first. Having shrubs near by helps them with early roosting.

I never plant crops for turkey food. Other than attracting bugs for poults, food is generally not a limiting factor for turkey except maybe winter foods up north where they get heavy snow. That is not a big issue here. I can use good deer foods to accomplish all my turkey management. The key is arrangement of these to benefit poult survival.

If you want to hold turkey on your land during the summer, I've found nothing better than buckwheat for that.

Thanks,

Jack