What if you can't get fertilizer next year?
- Thread starter SD51555
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yoderjac
5 year old buck +
That is exactly what I do...in a way...
The only nutrients taken from my food plots are by animals that defecate back into the plots. My balance of of legume and grasses provide the "greens and browns" needed for composting. It builds OM from the top down above ground and below ground from the root systems.
Thanks,
Jack
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Sounds like BobinCT is having some troubles getting rye where he's at. That's the one that troubles me. I don't use fert (other than gypsum) or chem anyway. But if the cereal grains pipeline busts because the grain belt dried up, that would put me in a bind. Might have to call an audible and go warm season grasses instead of cool season.
j-bird
Moderator
I just want to make an obvious statement here. Whitetail existed just fine well before the days of food plots. A well rounded and healthy habitat should be able to supply the natural browse and natural foods sources and the like the deer need. Plots are intended to supplement their diet....not be their diet. Sometimes I think we loose sight of that.
We're not savages you know. "Natural food sources"? Pffft....
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
That is a great point and it fits well with my evolving philosophy of deer management. With agriculture, farmers make a profit from the crops they grow, and deer have adapted to the seasonal presence of those high quality foods. Food plots are different. They not only don't they provide financial profit, but they have a financial cost. So, they are only financially sustainable in the long at a size that fits our personal pocketbooks.
For those whose primary objective is attraction, small plots work fine and often better than large feeding plots. While scale is needed for folks doing QDM, providing quality food when nature does not, timing of the food is more important. The objective is to even out the gaps in nature. Deer can survive these dips, but they thrive when they are evened out.
We need to think about what happens when we stop food plotting due to land sale, health, financial hardship, or whatever the reason. If we have done habitat management properly with native foods using food plot to even out the dips, deer will once again adapt to the slowly changing environment. When we overdo it with food plots and increase deer densities above the natural BCC, we risk causing even bigger dips when we stop causing the same hardships on the herd we are trying to prevent.
Food plots are one tool in the deer management arsenal. Like other tools, when applied prudently they can be very beneficial, but when misapplied, they can cause harm as well.
Thanks,
Jack
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
All good discussion... A couple of points:
1) Fertilizer is much more expensive than seed, so the end goal should be to reduce the amount of inputs if / where possible. Rotating crops, mixing varieties, green manure crops, etc... all aide in this. It wouldn't stop me from planting my plots, but rather improvise further. Necessity is the root of invention..
This coming from someone that does conventional tillage..
2) Every situation (regarding food plots) is going to be different. Food plots are also designed to bridge the gap between small racked deer in poor habitat and big racked, big deer feeding in standing crops in Ag country. Yes, anomalies do exist in both extremes (it's nature after all..) but by far and large this is the case.
So, I think food plotters are just trying to move the slider a little further over toward better deer.. Do they need our plots? Not at all. But I can't blame a guy aiming for improvement either..
1) Fertilizer is much more expensive than seed, so the end goal should be to reduce the amount of inputs if / where possible. Rotating crops, mixing varieties, green manure crops, etc... all aide in this. It wouldn't stop me from planting my plots, but rather improvise further. Necessity is the root of invention..
This coming from someone that does conventional tillage..
2) Every situation (regarding food plots) is going to be different. Food plots are also designed to bridge the gap between small racked deer in poor habitat and big racked, big deer feeding in standing crops in Ag country. Yes, anomalies do exist in both extremes (it's nature after all..) but by far and large this is the case.
So, I think food plotters are just trying to move the slider a little further over toward better deer.. Do they need our plots? Not at all. But I can't blame a guy aiming for improvement either..
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TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
That is the direction I've gone as well. By establishing a volume of low maintenance fruit and nut trees that drop around the calendar, I've converted may of my food plots to "wildlife openings". I started with established perennial clover fields and planted the trees in them. I let them get nice and weedy with plenty of quality native weeds and forbs. Every few years, I'll mow or strip disc them to keep them open. Sunlight + Native foods + mast = long term quality deer food that will slowly revert if I stop giving the herd plenty of time to adapt and will leave more deer food for many years than it could support when I started.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Maybe it's a long shot. Maybe it's a certainty? What would you do if the only thing you can get is 0-0-0 (that's nothing).
ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zerowww.zerohedge.com
Not getting fertilizer is very low on my list of concerns. I sit in stands where I watch deer browse their way for an hour on weeds, shrub's, etc. before entering a food plot. They then leave in 15-20 minutes browsing their way again through non food plot stuff.
I chuckle at folks obsession with over thinking food plots such as which clover is the best ... medium red, mammoth red, OMG don't thrown in white clover to the discussion! The deer don't care, they eat it all. The amount of money people pay for BOB seed thinking it is better is just crazy
If no fertilizer, real easy ... plant clover & chicory for spring to late fall food and WR for fall food and spring OM. All 3 are good at nitrogen scavenging so you can build fertilizer naturally. You can overseed with some brassicas also.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
"The world's largest fertilizer company said Union Pacific had hit it with railroad-mandated shipping reductions that would impact nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate shipments to Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and California. Union Pacific told CF Industries without advance notice to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad immediately. This means CF Industries had to decrease shipments by a whopping 20% to stay compliant."
www.zerohedge.com
ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Picking up 2 years worth of fertilizer, which I dont use alot. Focusing on potash, then 6-24-24. Maybe one bag of urea.
Giving the Milpa garden a shot, not for 4 legged critters though. Green cover has a program.
Remember, the global supply chain effects fertilizer, but lime is local for most of us. Get that pH in optimum and the soil will work a bit better for you.
I am in the middle of building a food plot seeder. I am toying around with different large seed box ideas. I'd like to put down as little as 60lbs/acre of potash. Sun provides, however, trails in the woods only provide so much sun. Also, you put too much fertilizer, then the trees just grow quicker into my plot.
BobinCT, rye can be offset with oats. Do you ever make it to the catskills? Millerton Agway in NY is not too far away possibly. They have bags of rye, most blends of fettilizer, and a variety of other cover crop materials.
Giving the Milpa garden a shot, not for 4 legged critters though. Green cover has a program.
Remember, the global supply chain effects fertilizer, but lime is local for most of us. Get that pH in optimum and the soil will work a bit better for you.
I am in the middle of building a food plot seeder. I am toying around with different large seed box ideas. I'd like to put down as little as 60lbs/acre of potash. Sun provides, however, trails in the woods only provide so much sun. Also, you put too much fertilizer, then the trees just grow quicker into my plot.
BobinCT, rye can be offset with oats. Do you ever make it to the catskills? Millerton Agway in NY is not too far away possibly. They have bags of rye, most blends of fettilizer, and a variety of other cover crop materials.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I plan to buy the same amount as last year...none.Picking up 2 years worth of fertilizer, which I dont use alot. Focusing on potash, then 6-24-24. Maybe one bag of urea.
Giving the Milpa garden a shot, not for 4 legged critters though. Green cover has a program.
Remember, the global supply chain effects fertilizer, but lime is local for most of us. Get that pH in optimum and the soil will work a bit better for you.
BobinCT, rye can be offset with oats. Do you ever make it to the catskills? Millerton Agway in NY is not too far away possibly. They have bags of rye, most blends of fettilizer, and a variety of other cover crop materials.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Besides growing clover around trees and using red clover in human food gardens offseason, I know squat about no-till or cover crop stuff.
But, there are folks who start a no-till program that may need a quality stand of rye to choke out weeds well.
I've played with perennial food plots for years though. Some year no fertilizer in the clover plot. However, I have used annual liming in 1/2 the plot vs nothing. The limed section looked better.
Even the no-input no-tillers guys are likely using agriform tablets.
But, there are folks who start a no-till program that may need a quality stand of rye to choke out weeds well.
I've played with perennial food plots for years though. Some year no fertilizer in the clover plot. However, I have used annual liming in 1/2 the plot vs nothing. The limed section looked better.
Even the no-input no-tillers guys are likely using agriform tablets.
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