Food Plot Basics

[Deer Slayer]

I had a sad story told to me this afternoon. It seems a friend who has a lease out by Wheeler,Tx told me that the does are abandoning their fawns because of the drought. The fawns are then wandering around not knowing what to do and are being hit on the road. This is sickening. I increased my daily feed amount to 1.5 gallons/day today. If it is cleaned up tomorrow then I may increase to 2 gallons/day.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

With all this moisture now would be a good time to get a handle on food plot sites before weeds shoot up. Brush hog and work a couple of times or spray with round up. With poor native vegetation and mast this winter may be tough on deer if you aren't in farm/wheat country. I will be working on my food plot soon. I have a feeder with protein pellets/alfalfa pellets/corn mix going in one food plot site. Food plots will save money over feeders in the long run. They also are beneficial because they aren't a target for low life theives.

 

[Swine]

I'm new to the food plots for deer. Our lease has no running water, so its a gamble with nature.

Our first stab at food plots died due to the heat... have feeders putting out a mix of high protein pellets and corn.

So what suggestions for a fall food source and when should it be planted?

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Deer slayer has more knowledge than me. But you can find a fall mix at most co ops. Most is bagged at Johnson Seed in Enid Oklahoma and is around 25 bucks for a 50# bag and will plant a 1/2-1 acre depending on planting method. They have a few different blends. But the bulk is tritical or rye with turnips, rape and a few winter peas.

I planted 50 pounds of this last year and then bought a 50# sack of "feed oats" and planted that. Everything did pretty well up until January when moisture was getting thin.
Wheat/rye/oats or mixes that contain mostly that will be ok to plant late August if moisture is good and appears that will be there through the next month too. If you can save some to plant mid September it will usually do better because of cooler temps and more rain.
You can get a bag of winter peas and plant by themselves but without a little research I cant tell you better planting dates other than same as above.
Keep in mind when planting. If using one type of seed exclusively planting it at least as deep as seed diameter or a twice as deep as diameter will yield best results. The mix blends are real easy however. If you work the ground and broadcast seed with a fertilizer spreader and then drag a piece of chain link fence or cattle panel or even a cut cedar tree it will cover the seed adequately.
A soil analysis will yield best results but isn't required. If I am planting a higher cost seed mix such as round up ready soy beans in the spring it will be worth a soil sample to me. For the oats, and wheat/winter pea/turnip mix I use a general 16/8/8 or a 20/10/10 fertilizer mix.

 

[Deer Slayer]

Oklahomabassin- You did a great job or reccommending. Right now we have had some rain, at least in OKC,which will allow me to till some of my food plots. The weather has not turned cool enough to plant but you could till the plot and let any weeds/grass germinate so that they can be tilled again and killed. I typically plant in Mid September to allow the weather to cool some and get a couple of rains to get the soil moisture up to increase the success rate. Oklabassin has some good reccommendations. Ross Seed in El Reno has some fine Fall blends 405-262-3456 to choose from. Soybean blends in ther Spring will be awesome for the summer months. Ross Seed has a good blend for that. Also, I strongly reccommend the Whitetail Institute Products. The products are backed by a great deal of testing and research. I have used most of their products and have assisted them in their research on food plots in Oklahoma. They are worth the money.

 

[Deer Slayer]

I am planning on tilling my plots in OKC tomorrow to turn as much grass under as possible while the ground is moist.

 

[Deer Slayer]

I had one of my plots tilled Saturday to kill the grass and hopefully get some grass germinating since the soil was moist and fluffed nicely. If it germinates anything then that will get tilled on the next rain. I had the priviledge on Saturday afternoon to watch one of my speckled butts come to the feeder with Momma and get down on its knees and nurse. Boy, its little flag was whipping a mile a minute until Momma got tired of that and flicked it off her nipple. She walked up to the feeder checkin on a little snack and was confronted by an irate squirrel that did NOT want to give up his position at the feeder. He stood his ground and tried to run Momma off who just looked at it, shrugged her shoulders and walked off. Speckled butt walked up and the squirrel pulled the same stunt. The fawn became curious enough to stick its kneck out to the squirrel who in turn jumped into its face startling Junior. Junior had all it wanted of the squirrel and it left too. The deer are coming regularly to the feeder now, at least twice a day and appear to be filling out. I plan to continue feeding high protein pellets until probably 10/1 or until we have sustained moisture and the fall plots are up. Pray for rain.

 

[DEER 24/7]

thats funny about squirrel i love watching critters

 

[angsniper]

My plots are all tilled and ready for seed. When are you guys thinking you'll get seeds in the ground. My place is dry as a bone. I have the river close enough that I could pump water to one plot but all the others are just too far from water. They all have creeks nearby but they're all dry right now. Everything that was growing in the spring has been fried crispy.

 

[sleeperx4]

My buddy and I went last weekend and tilled our plots up, and plan on planting on Sunday before Labor Day. My plots had pretty good moisture in them. My buddies were dry as a bone. My plot is down by a creek where it holds moisture and his are in pretty sandy soil. We both planted a LABLAB mix in the spring for summer plots. With its ability to retain moisture my summer plot did pretty good, but his burned up. Hopefully the weather pattern will change soon and the rain will return.