Question about "clean" monocultures

[Boll Weevil]

I'll be the first to admit I really don't mind a few weeds/grasses in my clover patches. Many critters including deer, turkey, quail, and songbirds make use of the added diversity and in many cases the volunteer plants scavenge built-up nitrogen while also providing some reprieve from the hot summer sun. I generally mow to manage the undesirables and have maintained healthy perennial clover this way for years.

This year I'm experimenting with a more disciplined herbicide regimen to determine the 1) Resource requirements to manage the clover crop compared to mowing and 2) Quality and volume of clover crop. This is on about 7 acres of established Durana clover in several plots ranging in size from 0.5 to a little over 1 acre. Grasses managed by Clethodim 2EC and Butyrac 2,4 DB for broadleaf. I got an early start this spring as soon as the young "undesireables" popped I sprayed and here's what I'm seeing thus far.

Time: It's absolutely no comparison and takes far less time to spray than to mow the same acreage. I'm sure it helped that I got an early start rather than have to deal with more mature competition.
Cost: With fuel prices climbing (Diesel $2.65 and Gasoline $2.46 in my area) I have thus far consumed far less fuel spraying than mowing. Chemical, surfactant and water are the largest cost differences and so far, I'm still way ahead spraying vs. mowing.
Crop: It's never looked better. I haven't seen any increased use by wildlife but won't start running any cameras until July. Even though we've had a super-late spring seems the clover bloomed much earlier than normal so not sure if this is a function of removing competition or some other factors.

Given that overview here's my question: Is it worth it to you (in whatever terms you use to quantify) to maintain "clean" clover monocultures?

 

[yoderjac]

Nope! Deer are browsers. Food plots are a fraction of their diet. The key for QDM is having quality food available when nature is stingy. This helps even out the valleys in food. Deer use my weedy plots just as much as my clean plots. Refreshed plots are always used more simply because young vegetation is more palatable. Clover (or whatever food) that does not end up in the belly of a deer contributes nothing to a QDM program for deer. I think of food plots this way. First, they are targeted to provide quality food during some stress period. If there is food left in these plots after the stress period is over, they did their job and the excess just goes back into the nutrient cycling process.

I tend to think in the long term. For me, soil health is the key. Maintaining monocultures that provide excess yield are less beneficial to soil health than a mix of plants even if some are "weeds". Also keep in mind that many plants that are "weeds" to farmers are beneficial to deer and other wildlife.

This is not to say there is no place for herbicides in your program. There are problematic weeds that have no wildlife benefit and herbicides can help with these.

As I see it, the best approach is to first have tolerance for weeds in general. Next is to have multiple tools to deal with problematic weeds and herbicides are one tool.

Clover is the anchor of my program. In my area (zone 7B), I plant durana. I start with best practices for planting. I don't plant Durana in the spring. I use herbicides to burn down the existing vegetation and don't till after that to bring up weeds. I always use WR as a nurse crop. Durana is slow to establish, so I'm careful to mow the WR the following spring each time it hits a foot or so to release the clover but keep the WR growing to combat weeds until the clover is established. By fall, I'll have a very clean field. After that, I generally mow once or twice a year. I like weeds in the summer as they help shade the clover underneath. I mow right before our archery season and by that time the fall rains and cool nights are favoring the clover over other weeds. Fields that you would think were just weeds in the summer become lush clover fields in the fall again. When the Durana eventually gets too weedy, I'll spray the field with 1 qt/ac of gly in the fall to suppress it and then drill GHR and WR into the suppressed clover. The clover bounces back and fills in after the GHR and WR have germinated. This gives me several more years out of a field before I need to rotate through an N seeking crop like buckwheat.

This is not the only way to do it, but it works well for me. I would rather have more acreage in weedy clover than less acreage in a monoculture of clover. It will support more deer.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Catscratch]

I plant very few "clean" plots. When I start a plot it will be a mix of all sorts of stuff. Some of it reproduces for a couple of yrs and some of it stays long term (like clovers). I like to overseed in the fall too. An example would be overseeding awnless wheat into clover... My plots mature and evolve over several yrs and deer usage stays high. I don't spray anything except gly and that is only every few yrs when I start over. The one exception is when an invasive finds it's way into a plot. I have little tolerance for the presence of marestail, pigweed, thistles, or johnson grass. I'll spot spray those guys and if it doesn't work I'll nuke the whole plot and start over. Otherwise native weeds and early successional plants are great!

Here are some pics from the weekend. Lots of variety, lots of stages of growth, lots of ugly, lots of stuff I didn't plant... Lots of great food and habitat!

 

[Boll Weevil]

One of the reasons (maybe even the primary reason) to experiment with this aspect of property management has become increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Over the years as my farm has expanded I've needed to place more focus on managing the inputs required to yield any given outcome. One of the most critical inputs for me is simply time required for management activities.

Every property manager recognizes there's generally far more work and projects to complete than there is time, money, or manpower. This is a case where I asked the question does it make more sense from an inputs perspective to modify the method of management for certain activities? I've started evaluating the most time consuming and/or repetitive activities first.

As you both state and as I mentioned, I really don't mind a few weeds. That being said, based on inputs required to yield a given outcome I may stick with this method a couple of growing seasons just to adequately evaluate.

 

[yoderjac]

One of the reasons (maybe even the primary reason) to experiment with this aspect of property management has become increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Over the years as my farm has expanded I've needed to place more focus on managing the inputs required to yield any given outcome. One of the most critical inputs for me is simply time required for management activities.

Every property manager recognizes there's generally far more work and projects to complete than there is time, money, or manpower. This is a case where I asked the question does it make more sense from an inputs perspective to modify the method of management for certain activities? I've started evaluating the most time consuming and/or repetitive activities first.

As you both state and as I mentioned, I really don't mind a few weeds. That being said, based on inputs required to yield a given outcome I may stick with this method a couple of growing seasons just to adequately evaluate.

I like the way you think. Those of us trying to manage at scale never have enough resources. The key is figuring out what the limiting factors are for the long term and wisely applying resources to alleviate those limitations. Quality food is only one of the aspects. Each decision we make to do "something" is a decision not to do "something else". I mentioned this is my earlier post in passing, but here is something to consider:

Familial doe groups tend to anchor on my small cover plots. The will bed in cover nearby an primarily use that plot. While they will also feed in large plots and elsewhere on the property, I get pictures of the same deer in the same small plots much more frequently than I get pictures of other deer whose pictures I get most often on their anchor plots. Regardless of how weedy these plots get, the deer find sufficient clover and are often seen eating broadleaf weeds. When I have multiple small plots close together, I don't get different doe groups anchoring on them. A single group will use multiple plots regularly. This means that having many small plots distributed over a large area will hold more family groups than a single large clover plot. The problem is that many distributed small plots require a lot more time to maintain than a single large plot.

I find low maintenance clover to be the ideal solution. With a high tolerance for (most) weeds, it takes little time or resources to maintain these once established. I'll choose a few older weedier plots each year to refurbish and eventually rotate which is manageable. If I tried to keep these plots as weed-free monocultures of clover, I wouldn't have time for other important habitat management projects.

By the way, it has taken me may years with many mistakes to get where I am and I'm learning all the time.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SwampCat]

I agree that time can be a very big factor to consider. Even aside from that, I like to keep a clean plot. I dont mean my plots dont have any weeds - I just try to keep them to a minimum. I have about 400 acres - forty or fifty acres in food plots. The rest is in native vegetation. There is plenty of native vegetation to eat when they want it. I dont see the deer eating the native vegetation to the ground like they do my wheat, clover, and beans. Deer come to my land for what I plant - not for ragweed, bluestem, or wild sunflowers. Every voluteer plant in one of my food plots is taking up room and nutrition for the plants I want to be there. It is even more apparent in my duck and dove plots - the more food I provide - the more of them will visit my land.

 

[yoderjac]

I agree that time can be a very big factor to consider. Even aside from that, I like to keep a clean plot. I dont mean my plots dont have any weeds - I just try to keep them to a minimum. I have about 400 acres - forty or fifty acres in food plots. The rest is in native vegetation. There is plenty of native vegetation to eat when they want it. I dont see the deer eating the native vegetation to the ground like they do my wheat, clover, and beans. Deer come to my land for what I plant - not for ragweed, bluestem, or wild sunflowers. Every voluteer plant in one of my food plots is taking up room and nutrition for the plants I want to be there. It is even more apparent in my duck and dove plots - the more food I provide - the more of them will visit my land.

I disagree with the statement in bold. There are lots of factors that limit what an individual plant can uptake. If the soil has sufficient fertility for two plants and they both get sufficient light, they don't detract from one another. In some cases they add. On top of that, it is not the total nutritional value of your crop that matters, it is the total nutrition that ends up in the bellies of deer. Since our food plots are only a small fraction of a deer's diet, the best we can do is to provide quality food during the times when nature is stingy. The size and number of deer will be limited by the underlying fertility of the soil or genetic or age factors.

If they are eating you wheat, clover, and beans to the ground, you may in fact have a yield (or more likely deer numbers) issue.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Peplin Creek]

I do like to keep my clover plots “clean.” I’ll be the first to admit it though, it’s for my own selfish reasons, I just like the way it looks. It gets me out in the woods and helps scratch that itch in the off-season. I wish I could let it go and not care like some of you guys.... sure would make things easier. :)

Also, I think if my plots were bigger, I would be more tolerable if weeds. But when I have a small clover kill plot, getting crowded by weeds and grasses, It just makes me feel better to do something about it. Even if I shouldn’t or don’t have too.

 

[SwampCat]

I disagree with the statement in bold. There are lots of factors that limit what an individual plant can uptake. If the soil has sufficient fertility for two plants and they both get sufficient light, they don't detract from one another. In some cases they add. On top of that, it is not the total nutritional value of your crop that matters, it is the total nutrition that ends up in the bellies of deer. Since our food plots are only a small fraction of a deer's diet, the best we can do is to provide quality food during the times when nature is stingy. The size and number of deer will be limited by the underlying fertility of the soil or genetic or age factors.

If they are eating you wheat, clover, and beans to the ground, you may in fact have a yield (or more likely deer numbers) issue.

Thanks,

Jack

I agree in theory to what you are saying. But, I have a lot of time and money invested in my land, equipment, and efforts. I measure my success by the number of deer I have on my place. There were few deer on my place when I bought it - before I started my planting programs. I have easily increased regular use of my place by five fold - and five fold what exists on surrounding land. If my plots were half “weeds” - I would not have as many deer. Deer come to my plots to eat what I plant. There are no weeds in my plots that dont exist widespread across the rest of the landscape. Just like my duck holes, full of smartweedp, pond weeds, sedges, arrowleaf, etc. When I eliminated the native foods and started providing a monoculture of millet, use by ducks increased ten fold - maybe more. Same with doves - when I only had ragweeds and croton, we killed a few doves. When I started planting commercial sunflowers - we started killing them by the hundreds.

I understand the science behind improving the soil and providing for the health of the wildlife. I am a trained wildlife biologist and worked professionally in natural resource management for 34 years - so I get that. But, now I am retired, I have invested a lot of money and time in attracting game - to watch, to hunt, and to kill. On my land, and maybe only my land, monocultures attract more wildlife than anything else I could plant. They might not be the best for the wildlife or the soil - but it is the best thing I have found for acheiving my goal of putting wildlife on my property.

 

[Boll Weevil]

The problem is that many distributed small plots require a lot more time to maintain than a single large plot.

Exactly...this is one of my challenges. With around 6 miles of interior roads going from plot to plot on an ATV with a boomless sprayer that casts a 30ft swath of chemical is way faster and more efficient than mowing. The time required to add chemical+water and hit each plot vs. hooking up the cutter and making lap after lap on the tractor mowing before heading to the next plot...no comparison.

If I tried to keep these plots as weed-free monocultures of clover, I wouldn't have time for other important habitat management projects.

Agree with this point and based on your responses I'm 100% certain you understand what I'm getting at. It occurred to me that while I'm not necessarily trying to keep a weed-free monoculture, being weed-free has been an outcome of this particular management method. I was simply trying to reclaim some time for other projects. Even if I only mowed once in the fall, it still requires higher input costs (time and fuel) than spraying.

 

[SwampCat]

Another advantage of spraying over mowing clover - not as likely to run over a fawn, turkey nest, rabbit nest, etc

 

[Catscratch]

I agree in theory to what you are saying. But, I have a lot of time and money invested in my land, equipment, and efforts. I measure my success by the number of deer I have on my place. There were few deer on my place when I bought it - before I started my planting programs. I have easily increased regular use of my place by five fold - and five fold what exists on surrounding land. If my plots were half “weeds” - I would not have as many deer. Deer come to my plots to eat what I plant. There are no weeds in my plots that dont exist widespread across the rest of the landscape. Just like my duck holes, full of smartweedp, pond weeds, sedges, arrowleaf, etc. When I eliminated the native foods and started providing a monoculture of millet, use by ducks increased ten fold - maybe more. Same with doves - when I only had ragweeds and croton, we killed a few doves. When I started planting commercial sunflowers - we started killing them by the hundreds.

I understand the science behind improving the soil and providing for the health of the wildlife. I am a trained wildlife biologist and worked professionally in natural resource management for 34 years - so I get that. But, now I am retired, I have invested a lot of money and time in attracting game - to watch, to hunt, and to kill. On my land, and maybe only my land, monocultures attract more wildlife than anything else I could plant. They might not be the best for the wildlife or the soil - but it is the best thing I have found for acheiving my goal of putting wildlife on my property.

Your place sounds awesome! Three of my favorites; deer, duck, and dove! (I probably like dove hunting the most of the three)