Disgusting Food plot ..surprise

1673 Views 19 Replies 15 Participants Last post by Deeraholic, Oct 7, 2019

Broken Bear

Discussion Starter · Oct 5, 2019

I always take pride in my clean high protein delivering food plots with great varieties of grains and greens
This year rains killed timely lime, chem applications, burn downs,plantings and repeatedly late follow up sprays
The deer hammered the roundup forage type beans so bad they never canopied ..hence the weeds ran rampart
So plan B ..I spread right over the weeds a potpourri of brassicas over 8 AC
I have the finest stand of rag,pig,smart,hemp,****er,etc etc weeds money can buy

And sheltered in among this huge weed patch are hidden beans,clover,turnips, chicory, peas and kale

My largest problem is ..this is hard to admit ..my largest problem is the cameras are showing more,bigger,better and consistent bucks than we have ever had in near 20 years of food plotting ..now that hurts a feller's pride

Figuring this stuff out is above my pay grade ..I don't think it is tall enough to add "comfort cover" ..there isn't anything in there we haven't had in other plots at other times ..but the mix of weeds,brassicas and beans is a new wrinkle ..go figure??

Bear

Reactions: 5

1 - 20 of 20 Posts

Maddog3355

· #2 · Oct 5, 2019

Your finding out what I’ve been wondering about food plotters for awhile. Why fret over a few weeds that the deer usually eat also. I know for a fact deer love the ragweed and water hemp.

Reactions: 2

fishshooter

· #3 · Oct 5, 2019

They also like the cover

They don’t wanna walk out exposed on a golf course

They wanna eat in cover

Reactions: 5

UrbanHunter

· #4 · Oct 5, 2019

Y'all ever eat an all lettuce salad? You can't put enough dressing on it to make it palatable.
Deer like variety.

Reactions: 4

letemgrow

· #5 · Oct 5, 2019

Weeds are the cheapest food plot you'll ever plant. Deer browse giant ragweed to the nubs in my beanfield.

Reactions: 5

GTOHunter

· #6 · Oct 6, 2019

As several mentioned....all Deer want is some cover and an assortment of greens/food.If You get 1 Deer to come in to Your plots and harvest it You've accomplished Your goal.

With all the Rain we had this Spring the weeds are thick in our Food Plots too but with all the good cover it seems the Deer like it even more so that's a good thing!

:bow::bow:

Reactions: 1

pinwheel

· #7 · Oct 6, 2019

I've been drifting this direction for several years, but last year made a true believer out of me. Like you this year, weather destroyed my best effort plots. All 20 acres of my open plot ground was overtaken by pig weed & rag weed last year. I physically seen more bucks in the open than any of the other 13 years we've owned this place. Under all the pig weed & rag weed, I have a lot of natural clover. So I've started mowing strips through it late in the summer to encourage it's growth in the fall.

I feel like I'm half assing my plots this year, I let the weeds grow all summer. This fall, I mowed 30' wide strips & planted them with wheaI left the weeds everywhere else. Unless you're looking down the strips, you'd think it's nothing but weeds in all my fields. The bucks will have to come into the open to see if there's does feeding in the plots.

Reactions: 2

Hawk

· #8 · Oct 6, 2019

Weeds are good.

The problem with many weeds is they die and lose palatability (IMO) after a couple frosts.

Reactions: 2

sandals

· #9 · Oct 6, 2019

letemgrow said:
Weeds are the cheapest food plot you'll ever plant. Deer browse giant ragweed to the nubs in my beanfield.

I don't know. I burn a few hundred acres of timber each year. Costs me about $5 in Diesel and gas.

I think my cost per acre is around $.01

Reactions: 1

Dafish

· #10 · Oct 6, 2019

I told this story to many times
in short, place I had to hunt, tracks all over in the over grown with weeds, food plot of turnip and radishes, put up 2 stands, came back a few weeks later and it was disked up, just bare dirt and landowner said the weeds took over so disked it under. Hardly seen a track on it all season..

Reactions: 1

letemgrow

· #11 · Oct 7, 2019

Hawk said:
Weeds are good.

The problem with many weeds is they die and lose palatability (IMO) after a couple frosts.

I don't think weeds can replace a plot far as nutrition goes come winter either.

I had a big buck skirt a green food plot one December, when I was muzzleloader hunting. He browsed on goldenrod next to the plot and never touched the greens. It was an eye opening experience for me when it came to weeds many moons ago. If I had a muzzleloader that I felt comfortable out to 150 yards at the time I would have never known....

Reactions: 2

letemgrow

· #12 · Oct 7, 2019

sandals said:
I don't know. I burn a few hundred acres of timber each year. Costs me about $5 in Diesel and gas.

I think my cost per acre is around $.01

No doubt!! What do you have coming back yearly after the burn?

Reactions: 1

WBF

· #13 · Oct 7, 2019

Finally got much needed rain on plots planted Sept 15 and 16... 20 plus days the seed has sit... Be curious how much seed loss I have To critters and the seed baking in the sun... Sad part of it is the plots looked really good prior to burn down with Gly. Drill is set to go with several bags of Winter Rye.. depending on germination in the next 7-10 days.... still time for Rye but it’s getting late...

Reactions: 1

swat1018

· #14 · Oct 7, 2019

Once you get pig weed going, it's a real biatch.

Reactions: 1

sandals

· #15 · Oct 7, 2019

letemgrow said:
No doubt!! What do you have coming back yearly after the burn?

Surprisingly alot of new growth for about 3-4 years then I end up burning it every 4-5.

I'll even throw clover out after a burn in February if there is a late frost. It never gets real thick, but it'll come back

Reactions: 1

justindh1

· #16 · Oct 7, 2019

sandals said:
I don't know. I burn a few hundred acres of timber each year. Costs me about $5 in Diesel and gas.

I think my cost per acre is around $.01

sandals said:
Surprisingly alot of new growth for about 3-4 years then I end up burning it every 4-5.

I'll even throw clover out after a burn in February if there is a late frost. It never gets real thick, but it'll come back

So you burn a few hundred acres of timber a year and burn each every 4 to 5 years? That's 800 to 1000 acres of timber that gets burnt every 4 to 5 years. Be nice to have that much.

Reactions: 2

sandals

· #17 · Oct 7, 2019

justindh1 said:
So you burn a few hundred acres of timber a year and burn each every 4 to 5 years? That's 800 to 1000 acres of timber that gets burnt every 4 to 5 years. Be nice to have that much.

It's alot more than that. Every year we talk a few more neighbors into joining the burn crew. In total there's 19 of us and we burn almost 4000 acres in rotation.

It's a hell of a lot less work when everybody's on the same page

Reactions: 5

UrbanHunter

· #18 · Oct 7, 2019

Lord I wish I could do that. I think that kinda burn may reach Ruskin Heights!
I could see the headline...

"A massive fire swept through south Kansas City, doing $47 million dollars worth of improvement"...

Reactions: 3

mx1alex

· #19 · Oct 7, 2019

2

I have 12 acres of beans that never canopied. I sprayed them twice throughout the summer, the last time thinking they were about to canopy. Well the deer kepth them mowed down and now I have a perfect stand of foxtail. I kinda like it though. I can see where the deer are bedding out in it and it think it's kind of protecting what beans I do have left.

This was Aug 23...

This is what it looks like now.

See less See more

Reactions: 4

Deeraholic

· #20 · Oct 7, 2019

Dirty Plots are good!!!

Food + Cover

Reactions: 2

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