To be honest, food plotting is a hobby for most of us - and oftentimes, expensive. Most of us dont make a living off the game that calls our lands home, but it would be hard to justify the time, effort, and money that many of us put into this past time if we didnt have the animals to justify our cost and work. In reality, a person can create very nice food plots with very rudimentary equipment. I know a guy who rigged a bracket on the back of his $1000 Yard Machine riding mower to hold a sprayer. He sprayed the plots from his riding lawn mower. He spread seed and fertilizer with a bag spreader. And then mowed the plot - and has had some beautiful looking food plots - and his equipment costs were about $200 for the sprayer and seeder combined - he already had the mower for his yard. I have seen plots produced with a $50,000 tractor and a $18,000 drill that were absolutely no better. I planted 30 acres a year with a 28 hp tractor, five ft disk, 5 ft bush hog, 3 pt spreader, and a drag - and had really great food plots.
To be honest, I invested in bigger and "better" equipment to cut my time down. If I was planting five acres, it would be very difficult for me to justify owning a 65 hp tractor, Woods Seeder, and all the other supporting equipment for no more food plot acreage than that. However, the more acreage you do, the easier it is to invest in equipment to reduce planting time and improve success. I now plant about 60 acres a year - specific food plots for ducks, deer, doves, and turkeys. Not only can upgrading equipment reduce time and effort, it can increase success due to more consistent seed depth, metering, coverage, etc. I have used everything from hand crank spreaders to high dollar no-till equipment all in the same year. I own a hand crank spreader, an electric spreader for my SXS, a 3 pt spreader, a one row covington planter, and an 84" Woods Seeder. I use them all - every year.
As you become more familiar with your place, you can better identify the specific equipment you need. I have a 10" pto water pump and 500 ft of 10" aluminum pipe capable of moving 3500 gallons of water per minute. It is strictly used for dewatering or pumping up duck holes. Some years, when water conditions are right - it doesnt even get used - it is truly a specific, one dimensional, expensive piece of equipment. There is no other piece of equipment that is capable of pumping quantities of water - if you need water pumped in the middle of nowhere, you dont really have much choice. Conversely, when it come to planting, you have a lot of choices - from a hand crank spreader to a no-till drill - and a lot in between. Your land, planting choices, finances, and time will dictate your purchases. For example, when I decided to step up to a higher grade planter over a spreader, there is basically a no-till drill and what would be consider a food plot planter like a Woods Seeder or Firminator. I have used a no-till drill and they are top of the line for planting - but that is all they do. For me, that is a lot of money to spend for a very specific piece of planting equipment that has no other use. That is why I selected a Woods Seeder - a fair bit less expensive, and it also has a very effective disk that can be used strictly for disking. It also has a cultipacker and spiked roller - that can be used just for cultipacking. I plant an acre every 20 minutes. It also seemed a little bit more durable than a no-till for less than optimum conditions, and I also dont like the way no-tills only plant in rows and dont completely cover the ground - but that is strictly a personal thing. No tills are the king of strictly planting. My Woods does require a little better field prep in some cases.
That is what works best for me - but it might not for everyone. Most folks dont plant for deer, turkeys, dove, and ducks. But I have also modified my planting regime to match my equipment and time constraints. For deer, almost all my food plots are are durana clover and wheat. I pull my Woods Seeder through my clover each fall, planting wheat, and only disturbing about 50% of the dirt. That still creates a thick even growth of wheat and stimulates the clover. I use no fertilizer at any time. My ground does not require lime. I bush hog a couple times a year if required - and that is it. I plant my thirty acres of deer food plots in two days. I have been doing this stuff since 1979 - and I didnt figure it out overnight. That is what works for me - based upon my area, soil, deer density, time, and finances. But that has no bearing on what works best for someone else.
To be honest, I invested in bigger and "better" equipment to cut my time down. If I was planting five acres, it would be very difficult for me to justify owning a 65 hp tractor, Woods Seeder, and all the other supporting equipment for no more food plot acreage than that. However, the more acreage you do, the easier it is to invest in equipment to reduce planting time and improve success. I now plant about 60 acres a year - specific food plots for ducks, deer, doves, and turkeys. Not only can upgrading equipment reduce time and effort, it can increase success due to more consistent seed depth, metering, coverage, etc. I have used everything from hand crank spreaders to high dollar no-till equipment all in the same year. I own a hand crank spreader, an electric spreader for my SXS, a 3 pt spreader, a one row covington planter, and an 84" Woods Seeder. I use them all - every year.
As you become more familiar with your place, you can better identify the specific equipment you need. I have a 10" pto water pump and 500 ft of 10" aluminum pipe capable of moving 3500 gallons of water per minute. It is strictly used for dewatering or pumping up duck holes. Some years, when water conditions are right - it doesnt even get used - it is truly a specific, one dimensional, expensive piece of equipment. There is no other piece of equipment that is capable of pumping quantities of water - if you need water pumped in the middle of nowhere, you dont really have much choice. Conversely, when it come to planting, you have a lot of choices - from a hand crank spreader to a no-till drill - and a lot in between. Your land, planting choices, finances, and time will dictate your purchases. For example, when I decided to step up to a higher grade planter over a spreader, there is basically a no-till drill and what would be consider a food plot planter like a Woods Seeder or Firminator. I have used a no-till drill and they are top of the line for planting - but that is all they do. For me, that is a lot of money to spend for a very specific piece of planting equipment that has no other use. That is why I selected a Woods Seeder - a fair bit less expensive, and it also has a very effective disk that can be used strictly for disking. It also has a cultipacker and spiked roller - that can be used just for cultipacking. I plant an acre every 20 minutes. It also seemed a little bit more durable than a no-till for less than optimum conditions, and I also dont like the way no-tills only plant in rows and dont completely cover the ground - but that is strictly a personal thing. No tills are the king of strictly planting. My Woods does require a little better field prep in some cases.
That is what works best for me - but it might not for everyone. Most folks dont plant for deer, turkeys, dove, and ducks. But I have also modified my planting regime to match my equipment and time constraints. For deer, almost all my food plots are are durana clover and wheat. I pull my Woods Seeder through my clover each fall, planting wheat, and only disturbing about 50% of the dirt. That still creates a thick even growth of wheat and stimulates the clover. I use no fertilizer at any time. My ground does not require lime. I bush hog a couple times a year if required - and that is it. I plant my thirty acres of deer food plots in two days. I have been doing this stuff since 1979 - and I didnt figure it out overnight. That is what works for me - based upon my area, soil, deer density, time, and finances. But that has no bearing on what works best for someone else.
