Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I've really been waffling back and forth on what to do with my food plot trails this year. I worked on widening several trails this year and opened them up to more light as well. I have two new areas I'm opening up that will be more irregular shaped food plots in addition to the logging roads trails I put in last year. I should have right at an acre and a half of total plot area when it's all done. I had kind of convinced myself that even though I really wanted to try a brassica plot I'd probably be better off sticking with the cereal grain mix everywhere again this year. My clover got off to a good start last fall and this spring but then we got hit with a hot dry spell and it kind of fizzled in several spots while others have held on okay. The radish tops in the mix I planted over Labor Day weekend last year got lots of use but didn't develop any tubers or get very big.
I did soil tests in several areas over the winter and worked on adding lime and fertilizer this past spring. I had plans to go do a little work on one of my new areas this weekend and then we got a cool spell forecast for the next two weeks along with a 90% chance of rain today and a 100% chance all day tomorrow. So yesterday I went to the local grain store and bought some seed and a little additional fertilizer. The area is three logging road trails that converge into one spot near one of the waterholes I put in a couple weeks ago. It's a total of 36% of an acre so I wanted a pound of purple top turnips, a pound of dwarf essex rape and 2 lbs of GHFR. They didn't have any rape seed so I went with 2 lbs of turnips instead and when I watched him weigh the radish it was pretty obvious he put in too much. When I mentioned it to him he said "yeah, no big deal, I always throw in a little extra". I put it all down so hopefully it's not too much.
I put down 100 lbs of 6-24-24' and disked under what was left of the clover and the accompanying weeds. I use an ATV with a 60 inch disc that I've added about 85 lbs of weight on so it took a few passes to get it like I wanted it. I had intended to then cultipack, spread the turnips, then the radish, then pack again. The rain arrived about three hours early though. I looked at the radar and it looked like it was going to rain hard and for a while so I hustled back to the truck, put all the seed in one earthway bag, mixed it up and just spread it all over the freshly disked ground without packing. It took me three trips up and down each trail because I barely opened the spreader door not wanting to spread it to thick. By the time I was done I was soaking wet and according to the radar it rained steady for two hours straight with more on the way yet tonight and tomorrow. We also have chances of rain a couple days next week with temps in the low eighties.
I figured worst case scenario is I have a failed plot and I'll put down the cereal mix over Labor Day weekend again but other than not getting to pack it in the rain timing sure seemed to work out perfect. It was fun anyway.
As a side note - it doesn't look like the deer have found my waterholes yet but hopefully this rain helps fill them up some more.
I did soil tests in several areas over the winter and worked on adding lime and fertilizer this past spring. I had plans to go do a little work on one of my new areas this weekend and then we got a cool spell forecast for the next two weeks along with a 90% chance of rain today and a 100% chance all day tomorrow. So yesterday I went to the local grain store and bought some seed and a little additional fertilizer. The area is three logging road trails that converge into one spot near one of the waterholes I put in a couple weeks ago. It's a total of 36% of an acre so I wanted a pound of purple top turnips, a pound of dwarf essex rape and 2 lbs of GHFR. They didn't have any rape seed so I went with 2 lbs of turnips instead and when I watched him weigh the radish it was pretty obvious he put in too much. When I mentioned it to him he said "yeah, no big deal, I always throw in a little extra". I put it all down so hopefully it's not too much.
I put down 100 lbs of 6-24-24' and disked under what was left of the clover and the accompanying weeds. I use an ATV with a 60 inch disc that I've added about 85 lbs of weight on so it took a few passes to get it like I wanted it. I had intended to then cultipack, spread the turnips, then the radish, then pack again. The rain arrived about three hours early though. I looked at the radar and it looked like it was going to rain hard and for a while so I hustled back to the truck, put all the seed in one earthway bag, mixed it up and just spread it all over the freshly disked ground without packing. It took me three trips up and down each trail because I barely opened the spreader door not wanting to spread it to thick. By the time I was done I was soaking wet and according to the radar it rained steady for two hours straight with more on the way yet tonight and tomorrow. We also have chances of rain a couple days next week with temps in the low eighties.
I figured worst case scenario is I have a failed plot and I'll put down the cereal mix over Labor Day weekend again but other than not getting to pack it in the rain timing sure seemed to work out perfect. It was fun anyway.
As a side note - it doesn't look like the deer have found my waterholes yet but hopefully this rain helps fill them up some more.
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