Opinions on clover.

[b116757]

Last year I fought drought conditions and my WW and WR both did very poorly for me this past late winter early spring I frost seeded Durano WC and am still fighting drought but it came up and appears to be pretty tough clover. My deer definitely use it they may give it a break now with 150 acres of WW coming up this fall and rain in the forecast for all week keeping my fingers crossed that we get rain.

 

[Catscratch]

Last year I fought drought conditions and my WW and WR both did very poorly for me this past late winter early spring I frost seeded Durano WC and am still fighting drought but it came up and appears to be pretty tough clover. My deer definitely use it they may give it a break now with 150 acres of WW coming up this fall and rain in the forecast for all week keeping my fingers crossed that we get rain.

I'll keep fingers crossed for ya! We had a little bit of relief mid summer with a couple of rains in the same week, but it's since turned extremely dry again. Our ponds are as low as anyone has ever seen them and pastures are suffering. Lots of guys hauling water!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

.....and if I could only have two....the second one would be Cereal Rye. Do I hear a suggestion for a third?

Chicory. When the summers here get hot & dry, chicory still is green and the deer eat it happily. Long tap root gets down to enough deep soil moisture to stay green.

For our location - these are the food plot items I'd never want to be without ...... various clovers, (always clovers!!!) winter rye grain, winter wheat, chicory, radishes & turnips. Alfalfa is a "luxury" crop for us - it doesn't grow in all our fields - only certain ones. Mixed variety plots seem to work best.

 

[b116757]

I saw a guy hauling water Sunday looked like a 1000gallon poly tank on a flatbed trailer he was using. I still have water in some ponds but it’s bad very bad in the pastures and ponds here locally. Thankfully I have multiply ponds in some pastures and at least one of them is deep enough to still have water. So my pasture tenants haven’t had to haul water at least not yet.

 

[b116757]

I did have a small chicory plot that the deer tore up until it burned up completely but it was planted in some exceptionally poor soil conditions where I have prickly pear cactus growing naturally on my home place.

 

[omicron1792]

Sure it’s pretty, it’s very easy to manage weeds in, it is relatively nutritious but…I just don’t see it being that attractive. I have 2 plots that are beautiful and lush with a variety of clovers. One is maybe an acre and the other is 2 acres. I broadcasted wheat, rye, oats and brassicas into them but that was a fools errand as they are too thick with clover. I just don’t see the use out of that I would like. I have a camera looking down one and it sends me an automatic pic every evening about 30 minutes before dark, more often than not it’s empty…and I have too many deer. I know clover is popular with foodplotters but I wonder if it’s not more because of its ease to grow and manage rather than it’s attraction for deer. Just my experience with it.

We have talked about deer vetch and Alyce clover in the past. When it was a jungle I just didn’t see that much browse.

I cut lanes through it and they ate on every single plant along the lanes.

I drilled into it knocking a lot of it down but it’s still growing. I was out there yesterday and every single plant on the whole plot was nipped. I couldn’t find one that wasn’t.

 

[Foggy47]

"For our location - these are the food plot items I'd never want to be without ...... various clovers, (always clovers!!!) winter rye grain, winter wheat, chicory, radishes & turnips. Alfalfa is a "luxury" crop for us - it doesn't grow in all our fields - only certain ones. Mixed variety plots seem to work best."

^ Agree with these choices......but "variety" is hard to maintain in a clover plot for me. I can keep multiple clovers.....and the rye and chicory will play well with clovers........but I have a deuce of a time getting other things to co-exist in my clover plots.

I've been experimenting for a few year in my thick clovers......and about the only solution is to nuke the clover and then do light tillage and then plant brassica into those areas. Even then.....the clover comes roaring back in a few weeks or months.

The only thing about chicory is that I have issues with treating it for weeds. I love the crop.....and so do my deer.....especially in late season......but it's not chemical friendly. (though somebody recently wrote about a herbicide for use with clover and chicory. ....and I failed to make note of it?).

 

[Catscratch]

I saw a guy hauling water Sunday looked like a 1000gallon poly tank on a flatbed trailer he was using. I still have water in some ponds but it’s bad very bad in the pastures and ponds here locally. Thankfully I have multiply ponds in some pastures and at least one of them is deep enough to still have water. So my pasture tenants haven’t had to haul water at least not yet.

Neighbors have long trailers with 2 to 3 of those big poly tanks on them. I think they decided if they were going to have to put something together they might as well go big. They fill up in town so the fewer trips the better.
We are currently getting a downpour. I can hear it from inside at work. Completely awesome! Hope it dumps several inches on us and tops everything off before winter!

 

[bigboreblr]

I hunt a 450 acre spot split into 20-100 acreish fields with a row or two of trees n weds between. I see a nice deer walking the corn field edge. I stand up incase he's nice. He's coming around the bend I can see a deer, not how well the horns are. I'm standing, and standing, waiting. 450 acres of corn and all they want to eat is the weeds on the side of the farm...... Same thing with soybeans sometimes too.

I remember a posting about plantain last fall. I went outside to take a picture of my home plot. Where'd the plantain go..... They plucked off every last weed of plantain in my plot.

Hard to plan what deer are going to eat sometimes.

 

[omicron1792]

I hunt a 450 acre spot split into 20-100 acreish fields with a row or two of trees n weds between. I see a nice deer walking the corn field edge. I stand up incase he's nice. He's coming around the bend I can see a deer, not how well the horns are. I'm standing, and standing, waiting. 450 acres of corn and all they want to eat is the weeds on the side of the farm...... Same thing with soybeans sometimes too.

I remember a posting about plantain last fall. I went outside to take a picture of my home plot. Where'd the plantain go..... They plucked off every last weed of plantain in my plot.

Hard to plan what deer are going to eat sometimes.

Don’t call plantain a weed unless you want SD155 to get you! Ha

 

[bigboreblr]

Don’t call plantain a weed unless you want SD155 to get you! Ha

I like my plantain. In fact, I hand picked seeds the past 2 or 3 years to plant up north. It's a good seed for ATV paths too.

My plot was starting to get too much for my liking. Since I got the EHD outbreak here, I havent been focused on the home plot as much, not so many deer here now. Stating to see more. I don't think I sprayed my plot last year. Did a mow a month clover thing.

 

[Tree Spud]

Clover is a good, low maintenance food source for me especially during spring green up. The bigger attraction of clover is it's nitrogen fixing ability. Cheap way to get nitrogen in your soil.

You can always plow it under as green manure when ready to plant summer crops.

 

[bigboreblr]

Everyone wants to beat the system. Average deer hunter doesn't want to be a farmer. They want something easy to grow, they want to skimp out on lime and fertilizer, they want something easy. Clover is easy.

Oats, turnips, cowpeas, or either peas would be higher on my list. White clovers can be aggressive. Used to dislike medium red clover. Just seeing white clovers go to seed alot more often, especially if I mowed in an attempt to keep weeds in line.

Rye clover brassica rotations take about the least amount of money and time to produce alot of food for alot of acres. IF you want attraction during hunting season, there's better routes to go.

Seen a few folks on here do strips of this, strips of that. That is the way to go. Deer dont care for turnips, then they walk to oats, or nibble on the border of corn.

Think the fall wheat, oats, clover, rape, chicory, and winter peas mix is a really good cheap blend. Maybe spreading rye in there around typical 1st frost date, maybe a week or two ahead. Give something for the deer to eat beginning of the spring when they need it most. However, many folks are skiddish about doing foodplot work during hunting season.

This will be year 2 doing clover rye rotation. I did put turnips in this year, but not alot. Roughly 1lb / acre. I'm ging back to what I did before with the wheat mess. Basically plotspike forage feast. But, rotating it back to rye n clover for the spring / summer.

 

[SD51555]

Don’t call plantain a weed unless you want SD155 to get you! Ha

You guys with weeds are lucky. I have to buy my weed seed. You know what they get for a pound of common ragweed these days?

It's ridiculous.

 

[omicron1792]

You guys with weeds are lucky. I have to buy my weed seed. You know what they get for a pound of common ragweed these days?

It's ridiculous.

You can have some of mine anytime!

 

[b116757]

Where we have winter fed cattle I will have giant ragweed 10-12’ tall it’s impressive.

 

[Catscratch]

Where we have winter fed cattle I will have giant ragweed 10-12’ tall it’s impressive.

We get giant ragweed that tall around the creek bottoms. Damn near impossible to get through with a pole if you want to go fishing.

 

[SwampCat]

This summer - Giant ragweed and marsh elder in a food plot that was planted last October. I would guess with the long growing season - us southern plotters have to deal with more weeds. It seems like quite a few northern plotters are planting in Aug. I just finished my planting yesterday

 

[farmlegend]

Like a lot of things on this subjet, your mileage may vary.

My deer dig through the snow each winter to eat my white clovers(favorite is Alice White, outperforms Ladino on my dirt).

These same deer wouldn't eat a turnip bulb or a rape leaf if you soaked them in maple syrup.

 

[Foggy47]

I like Alice clover too. But it is a variety of Ladino clover.....according to what I read on the Welters site. My deer like radish, and most brasica varieties tho. And chicory is always a favorite too. Variety is king.

Also I have come to appreciate red clover more each year. It's less expensive.....yet provides lots of N when terminated. A good part of the attraction to clover is not only food value.....but also the nitrogen credits when it gets terminated. I'm almost fertilizer free now......and staying away from tillage and row crops as much as possible..

Edit: In fact I did not buy any Fertilizer this year.....and grew some nice brasica in the clover plots. Still honing my techniques but I am close now. And very little herbicides applied this year too.....between the rye and clover (and not tilling up weed seeds) I am becoming an organic guy. grin.