Food Plots!

[Deer Slayer]

ROOSA7a is right on the money too with the Noble Foundation. They are good folks.

 

[dennishoddy]

You can also take your soil sample to any OSU County Extension agent and pay $10.00 for the test. Be sure to tell the agent in writing what you are planning on planting so that OSU can correctly inform you about whether you need to add lime to the plots.
I have been planting food plots for close to 30 years and have given classes on how to properly plant a successful food plot. One of the best suggestions I can give you is to plant in late September. WHY????? because your moisture content is higher, your nights are cooler and your chances of additional rain is greater therefore you have little chance of failure. The biggest mistake I have seen people commit is plant too early and then pray for rain. You get the rain and some of the seed germinates then the weather turns hot again and everything dies. BEEN THERE DONE THAT!! You have spent alot of time and money getting things ready then you shoot yourself in the foot because you planted too early. Its your money to waste. The deer know something is happening on the food plot fields. They will investigate on the first night you till or disc. They will know. Planting in early October will allow the deer to find the fresh shoots before the acorns fall. When the acorns fall the deer are going to leave the food plots anyway. They will browsw it some but they will be in the nuts. The food plots are really the best during rifle season and December.

Your deer mineral should be out in February when the does need the extra minerals to help in their gestation period and the bucks need it for rack building. The deer back off their mineral needs normally by late July. The fawns dropped in May- June and they and their mothers will use some mineral during this period. The main need is during February to late July. It is good to have some out year round. If you plan on using mineral licks year round then put out only enough for the deer to consume over a 2 month period? Why you ask? because the minerals are encapsulated and the sunlight/UV will break down the encapsulation and the minerals will lose their potency.
I have been a field tester for the Whitetail Institute for many years and get to trial new blends each year and I have seen some great products that get scrapped for 1 reason or the other. When WINA puts out a product it has been tested extensively throughout the US by the field testers like myself and it will do great things for your deer if you follow instructions.

You are saying the same thing I've been saying for awhile on this forum about minerals in the spring, and harvest plots in the fall.

 

[MarcusR]

You can also take your soil sample to any OSU County Extension agent and pay $10.00 for the test. Be sure to tell the agent in writing what you are planning on planting so that OSU can correctly inform you about whether you need to add lime to the plots.
I have been planting food plots for close to 30 years and have given classes on how to properly plant a successful food plot. One of the best suggestions I can give you is to plant in late September. WHY????? because your moisture content is higher, your nights are cooler and your chances of additional rain is greater therefore you have little chance of failure. The biggest mistake I have seen people commit is plant too early and then pray for rain. You get the rain and some of the seed germinates then the weather turns hot again and everything dies. BEEN THERE DONE THAT!! You have spent alot of time and money getting things ready then you shoot yourself in the foot because you planted too early. Its your money to waste. The deer know something is happening on the food plot fields. They will investigate on the first night you till or disc. They will know. Planting in early October will allow the deer to find the fresh shoots before the acorns fall. When the acorns fall the deer are going to leave the food plots anyway. They will browsw it some but they will be in the nuts. The food plots are really the best during rifle season and December.

Your deer mineral should be out in February when the does need the extra minerals to help in their gestation period and the bucks need it for rack building. The deer back off their mineral needs normally by late July. The fawns dropped in May- June and they and their mothers will use some mineral during this period. The main need is during February to late July. It is good to have some out year round. If you plan on using mineral licks year round then put out only enough for the deer to consume over a 2 month period? Why you ask? because the minerals are encapsulated and the sunlight/UV will break down the encapsulation and the minerals will lose their potency.
I have been a field tester for the Whitetail Institute for many years and get to trial new blends each year and I have seen some great products that get scrapped for 1 reason or the other. When WINA puts out a product it has been tested extensively throughout the US by the field testers like myself and it will do great things for your deer if you follow instructions.

Thank you for the help this was helpful and good reading.

 

[Deer Slayer]

Marcus- If you are interested, I can burn a copy of a segment that I did for ODWC on developing food plots in 2008. The show was filmed on one of my properties in OKC.

 

[Deer Slayer]

Dennis- I plant my food plots in the Fall and I use clover and alfalfa. Occasionally I will plant a summer plot which doubles for deer and doves. I plant perrenials such as clover and alfalfa and some other blends then spend the rest of my time keeping the invasive grasses out of the fields with spray. I find this is less labor intensive and the deer and turkey benefit year round. I just have to spray and fertilize. In a nut shell I farm for wildlife. When food plots are done right it is amazing what happens in your second and third year. I do not have to constantly maintain feeders and keep them full.

I am a steward of the land and my property shows it. I have helped people develop food plots when asked and the results are normally successful if the person will follow my instructions. In 2009 when I closed the Okla Wildlife Federation I donated some of our funds to ODWC for the Lexington WMA. I donated several hundred dollars of herbicide for the invasive grasses that were choking the clover plots. The previous year the Whitetail Institute of North America,upon my request, donated some Imperial Whitetail Clover to the department for food plots at Lexington. The plots did well but the grass was a problem so the organization bought herbicide and the manager started spraying. He had enough spray to manage the plots for 2 years or so. There is a sign at the WMA showing our donation as well as Johnston Seed Co which is out of Enid. One of Johnston Seed Co. salesman was on my Board of Directors.

 

[MarcusR]

Marcus- If you are interested, I can burn a copy of a segment that I did for ODWC on developing food plots in 2008. The show was filmed on one of my properties in OKC.

I would love that. Me and my buddy have already changed our mind of when to plant cause of your article. So anything would help. We are putting in about a 1/4 acre each this year inside of a wooded area.

 

[dennishoddy]

Dennis- I plant my food plots in the Fall and I use clover and alfalfa. Occasionally I will plant a summer plot which doubles for deer and doves. I plant perrenials such as clover and alfalfa and some other blends then spend the rest of my time keeping the invasive grasses out of the fields with spray. I find this is less labor intensive and the deer and turkey benefit year round. I just have to spray and fertilize. In a nut shell I farm for wildlife. When food plots are done right it is amazing what happens in your second and third year. I do not have to constantly maintain feeders and keep them full.

I am a steward of the land and my property shows it. I have helped people develop food plots when asked and the results are normally successful if the person will follow my instructions. In 2009 when I closed the Okla Wildlife Federation I donated some of our funds to ODWC for the Lexington WMA. I donated several hundred dollars of herbicide for the invasive grasses that were choking the clover plots. The previous year the Whitetail Institute of North America,upon my request, donated some Imperial Whitetail Clover to the department for food plots at Lexington. The plots did well but the grass was a problem so the organization bought herbicide and the manager started spraying. He had enough spray to manage the plots for 2 years or so. There is a sign at the WMA showing our donation as well as Johnston Seed Co which is out of Enid. One of Johnston Seed Co. salesman was on my Board of Directors.

It sounds like you have some really nice property.
I use Johnston Seed co for my seed wheat. I have land in western Kay and middle grant country. Alfalfa does OK, but I've planted clover many times, and it just doesn't get enough rain over there. My buddy plants it in western Osage county and can get a bumper crop. We have so much agriculture around us year around, that its hard to get that "magic" food source.
Its different than wooded areas where one can open up an area and put in a plot that is like a magnet.
We don't have any acorn trees in the area where I hunt. Not many trees at all for that matter. Its usually just a strip of trees along a creek bank.

I got out this morning before it got too hot and disked up a couple of food plots for the second time. Sept 1 is planting day weather permitting for the food plots, wheat fields get planted late sept.

 

[Deer Slayer]

Marcus - Send me a PM with your cell #.

 

[Deer Slayer]

I received my Fall experimental seed blends from The Whitetail Institute on Friday. I am looking forward to seeing whats in the blends. One of the bags that I could see through contains a seed that I have used before that worked quite well. I am speculating that it will be on the market in a couple of years.

 

[jalapeno]

Marcus- If you are interested, I can burn a copy of a segment that I did for ODWC on developing food plots in 2008. The show was filmed on one of my properties in OKC.

Hey deer slayer, if possible I would love to get a copy of that segment as well. I am very interested in how to improve my food plots and planting for dove is also of interest to me. would love to hear more in detail about what you have been doing.