New to Forum

[Brookesmith]

Hello All, I am new to the forum. I did not grow up as a deer hunter but had 2 kids that were interested in it so I jumped in about 14 years ago and started learning with them. I have spent many hours with my kids (and wife) sitting in various hunting setups with some hunting success but best of all -- lots of great memories! I look forward to spending more time with them and grandkids some day doing the same, Lord willing :)

I stumbled upon this forum as I was searching for deer food plot No-Till concepts / strategies. For several days I have been intrigued and spending lots time reading many of the Throw and Mow / No-Till posts. I have only scratched the surface on reading the entire 85 pages of "THE THROW n' MOW METHOD" post, but read enough to know that I wanted to join the forum to ask questions to continue my education.

I grew up on a small farm / cattle ranch in central Texas surrounded by lots of farm land with good annual rainfall and deep fertile soil but no deer :(

We now have a place in Brookesmith, TX with decent soil in places and lots of deer potential but much less rainfall than I am used to for farming. I have used conventional tillage methods in the past to grow some decent food plots year round over last 3 years but only when the good Lord blesses us with timely rains and many hours of me in the seat of my small tractor using conventional farming techniques that I learned from grandfather and my Dad. I am always looking for better ways of doing things. I think I am in the right place to get some good ideas.

Hoping to find others here with similar interests and food plot challenges.

 

[Bill]

Hello All, I am new to the forum. I did not grow up as a deer hunter but had 2 kids that were interested in it so I jumped in about 14 years ago and started learning with them. I have spent many hours with my kids (and wife) sitting in various hunting setups with some hunting success but best of all -- lots of great memories! I look forward to spending more time with them and grandkids some day doing the same, Lord willing :)

I stumbled upon this forum as I was searching for deer food plot No-Till concepts / strategies. For several days I have been intrigued and spending lots time reading many of the Throw and Mow / No-Till posts. I have only scratched the surface on reading the entire 85 pages of "THE THROW n' MOW METHOD" post, but read enough to know that I wanted to join the forum to ask questions to continue my education.

I grew up on a small farm / cattle ranch in central Texas surrounded by lots of farm land with good annual rainfall and deep fertile soil but no deer :(

We now have a place in Brookesmith, TX with decent soil in places and lots of deer potential but much less rainfall than I am used to for farming. I have used conventional tillage methods in the past to grow some decent food plots year round over last 3 years but only when the good Lord blesses us with timely rains and many hours of me in the seat of my small tractor using conventional farming techniques that I learned from grandfather and my Dad. I am always looking for better ways of doing things. I think I am in the right place to get some good ideas.

Hoping to find others here with similar interests and food plot challenges.

Welcome to H-T talk. No experience in hot Texas but here in N central MO I’m all on board with 3/4 of an inch of rain in the last 8 weeks. There are some TX guys on board that will be way more helpful than me...

Glad you found us.

 

[Brookesmith]

Welcome to H-T talk. No experience in hot Texas but here in N central MO I’m all on board with 3/4 of an inch of rain in the last 8 weeks. There are some TX guys on board that will be way more helpful than me...

Glad you found us.

Thanks, me too!

 

[yoderjac]

Welcome aboard! Google "Ray the soil guy" and watch some of his videos first. Start with the infiltration video. Most of his videos are geared to commercial farmers with large equipment, but he does a great job of explaining the underlying concepts. The lengthy Throw and Mow thread takes those underlying principles and shows how we can use small equipment to apply them.

One more general concept to contemplate. While we can borrow a lot from farmers, our objectives are quite different. While specific objectives may be different depending on whether we are doing QDM on scale or just trying to improve our property for hunting, in general our objectives are much closer to each other than to farmers. The big things to consider are these:
- Farmers harvest
- They typically plant monocultures so that they can use mechanical harvest equipment
- Harvesting removes nutrients from the soil.
- Profit from the crop drives farming so yield on a per acre basis is king.
- Any plant not planted by a farmer is a "weed" to the farmer as it reduces yield.
- Fertilizer recommendations are designed for this.

- Food Plotters don't harvest
- This allows us to plant mixes of complementary crops that improve soil health while feeding and attracting deer
- Deer and other wildlife eat our crops, but they return a lot of the nutrients in their droppings
- Plants in or fields that would be "weeds" to a farmer, may or may not be beneficial (often more so than what we plant) to deer.
- Deer are browsers and not grazers. Food plots comprise a small percentage of their diet.
- There are two general objectives for food plots, feeding deer or influencing their movement (attraction)
- For a feeding objective (those doing QDM at scale) plots are focused to provide quality food stress periods. If there is food left after the stress period, it was a success.
- For attraction, other factors like hunting pressure and food plot size or location dominate over the specific crop, but if deer movement is influenced as desired, the plot was a success.

Ponder these points as you watch the videos on soil health and browse through the T&M thread.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Catscratch]

Welcome, and good to have ya!

 

[scott44]

Welcome to HT!

 

[Brookesmith]

Welcome aboard! Google "Ray the soil guy" and watch some of his videos first. Start with the infiltration video. Most of his videos are geared to commercial farmers with large equipment, but he does a great job of explaining the underlying concepts. The lengthy Throw and Mow thread takes those underlying principles and shows how we can use small equipment to apply them.

One more general concept to contemplate. While we can borrow a lot from farmers, our objectives are quite different. While specific objectives may be different depending on whether we are doing QDM on scale or just trying to improve our property for hunting, in general our objectives are much closer to each other than to farmers. The big things to consider are these:
- Farmers harvest
- They typically plant monocultures so that they can use mechanical harvest equipment
- Harvesting removes nutrients from the soil.
- Profit from the crop drives farming so yield on a per acre basis is king.
- Any plant not planted by a farmer is a "weed" to the farmer as it reduces yield.
- Fertilizer recommendations are designed for this.

- Food Plotters don't harvest
- This allows us to plant mixes of complementary crops that improve soil health while feeding and attracting deer
- Deer and other wildlife eat our crops, but they return a lot of the nutrients in their droppings
- Plants in or fields that would be "weeds" to a farmer, may or may not be beneficial (often more so than what we plant) to deer.
- Deer are browsers and not grazers. Food plots comprise a small percentage of their diet.
- There are two general objectives for food plots, feeding deer or influencing their movement (attraction)
- For a feeding objective (those doing QDM at scale) plots are focused to provide quality food stress periods. If there is food left after the stress period, it was a success.
- For attraction, other factors like hunting pressure and food plot size or location dominate over the specific crop, but if deer movement is influenced as desired, the plot was a success.

Ponder these points as you watch the videos on soil health and browse through the T&M thread.

Thanks,

Hello Jack, Those are some really good points, thanks for your input and words of wisdom. I am looking for some of Ray's videos now.