Food plot layout?

[dipper]

Steve one of your original ?s was about "feeding" deer or of a more "kill" type of plot. I didn't want to elaborate on this earlier in the thread, due to staying on topic. Now that the thread is winding down, I want to revist it. I have really been pushing the limits on conventional food plotting. (not to sound like real world seed or anything) :rolleyes:

My trials are becoming obvious to me a monoculture of clover, beans, brassica, rye, oats, peas, or just about anything......is just putting too many eggs in one basket. No one can debate these plants all have an individual strength. We also have to remind ourselves they all have specific weaknesses, if we are truely trying to accomplish a 365 day a year food plot. Obviously geographicial consideration will either support or weaken the strengths or limitations during specific times of the year.

It's possible to combine these plants together. When these plants are grown together, the strenghts and weaknesses are blended, never evolving into one true strenght or one weakness. I give Doug all the credit for challenging me to reflect on the 3 generations of farming experience I have been exposed to. You can never have too much soil improvement, and it doesn't include just throwing fertilizer at it. I give lickcreek all the credit for informing me deer don't just eat what comes in a prepackaged bag with a big buck on it, or the basics like corn.

This might sounds like a bunch of BS to many, dare to compare....haha. I'll be documenting what I'm seeing on the dipper rotation thread the best I can.

Answering your original ? Steve- yes, I think I can get the best of both worlds. I can get the comfort of making sure my local deer always have have an overabudance of food under the most severe winter conditions, while still keeping a plot like this small and secluded. Overpopulation or not!

Everything we plant has a strength and weakness, take advantage of both. There is also a ton of money to save along the way, and every bit helps in an expensive hobby like we have.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

couldn't agree more, dipper. I still do some monoculture plotting and likely will forever. For me, on a lot of the very large properties I manage, it's easier for me to just pay the farmer to plant grain crops (though I almost always top seed a good portion of those same crops late summer) and have a decent amount also in clover, as that's soooooooo easy to maintain for me (spray once a year and have the farmers cut it 2-3 times for hay). I just can't plant the extra cumulative 80-120 acres myself each year.

That said, it's been quite a while since any of the annual plots I personally put in have been a monoculture. Because I smorgasbords hold deer so much better, I'd been planting diverse plots before I ever stumbled across the forums. Still, Doug has no doubt done a tremendous job in opening a lot of people's eyes to that (and Paul/LC, as well). Where I personally have to give Doug a BIG hat tip is that he has really opened my eyes to the importance of soil health and at least tripled my knowledge on how to increase soil health, and I still don't claim to know 20% of what he does on the subject. Fantastic resource.

 

[dipper]

The nwsg is in, and I no tilled my summer cocktail is peas, beans, oats and sunflowers into the rye and clover that was already growing.
This is a view from the south side of the newly designed plot. You can kinda make out the curvy perimeter of the plot by the little darker shade of the rye. I think this curves will make the deer feel safer eating in the plot. This is the first time I've made a plot awkward like this, all my other plots are rectangle and square.

 

[dipper]

This is the outline of the plot, thanks for your help Steve.

The water hole will be on the south end where I took the picture. Where is alot of run off draining to this low spot, I should collect plenty of water.
I ended up motifying the original plan a little. I'll have a "yellow brick road" strip NW of the main plot. This should serve similiar to what Steve was suggesting. I'll be able to cover the strip gun season, and aid in visibility with deer crossing from the wood lot to the north and the NWSG. I'm gonna keep some NWSG where the arrow is pointing. This is already a great spot to pick of a rutting buck, every year one is spotted here. I hope the NWSG makes them feel just a tad more comfortable doing so. It's still narrow enough deer shouldn't want to bed here.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

My pleasure/no prob, dipper...Good Luck. I'd ask for pics of how it all shapes up, but I know you'll share them anyway.