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Last Minute Food Plot Salvage [Drought & Over Browsing]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ย. 2023
- Between the drought and over browsing by deer, my brassica plot is in tough shape. I'm not going to let that stop me from having a good deer season though. Watch as I make a last minute effort to salvage my food plot and my hunting season
![Winter Rye Attraction in the Late Season [And All Season]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nust8y1Acc8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Winter Rye Attraction in the Late Season [And All Season]](/img/tr.png)
Wow,I'm in southern Iowa and we mirror the exact problems your having. I just broadcasted oats and rye grain today. Third year of drought. No rain here since 8th of august. I'm getting to the point where not wanting to plant anything until labor day. We practice no till and love the results we get in late spring with our summer soil building crops but faucet shuts off after july 4th and we cook. I'm thinking a September planting may not produce baseball sized bulbs but maybe golf ball. Rain should be more frequent as day light is shorter and cooler. Nothing worse than to get good germination in August just to watch it shrivel up. Good luck ,hope you harvest that dandy buck!
Tough deal. I think a lot of guys and gals across the Midwest are experiencing a dry summer and early fall. I like your approach though. Thanks for commenting and good luck to you as well!
Im in Pennsylvania, lots of rain this year and plots are doing great 😃.
Id suggest two things.....
Plant later in season.
Plant thick growing cover crop yearly, mow or kill and let it rot into sand soil in effort to build better soil that'll hold moisture. It'll take many years to turn it around but its doable.
I like your ideas! Good luck this fall
I was way too stubborn trying to get brassicas growing to any worth in my northern MN sand box for years. Wasted $$ I transitioned to rye, buckwheat, oats and radish with some red clover. Grows nice and you can let the rye go till late summer and broadcast next years mix in and roll.
Helps protect from seed from drought and turkeys. Then over time hopefully I will be able mix in turnips and such.
And the volunteer rye seed will give you your heavy rye stand.
GL
I like that approach. I’m finding I need to focus on more Cereal grains next year and less brassica
Ya I’m mad I didn’t “settle” more on cereal grains earlier. I kept thinking I had to have brassicas. I also made the mistake of using a tiller too much in the beginning so now I’m trying to repair some of the damage I did. I have one plot amongst the sand that’s along a river that has a richer black soil. I can’t screw that one up, brassicas Galore! The learning part is fun for sure but sometimes a lot of wasted $$$! Once I selected more drought tolerant and ph tolerate plants I had green in November😁
My next experiment is gonna be rutabagas. They like Sandy soil. And the deer always hit them in the garden🤷🏼♂️. They need to be planted in June so once my rye hits the dough stage in June I’m gonna broadcast and roll and give it a try🤞
Best of luck
I love in Northeastern PA. I have tried brassica's but the deer browse always is too much. Had good success with rye and oats (more rye than oats), and it seems like clover is always good. In small parcels I have switched to only planting rye and clover. Good luck to you.
I have too many deer and sandy soil also. I even have a browse line on the buckthorn(which deer aren't supposed to like) on my property. The Back 40 uses a regular grain drill to get the seed into the ground. in sandy soil without tilling. I am trying Matt Morse's method to help with the overbrowsing. Check out his 7 videos. U outdoors has a video "Maximizing Whitetail Food Plots with Minimal Effort" that makes sense. Good luck
Thanks and good luck robyou as well
Good post. You have a niche for those of us hunting far north. I have 2 small plots about 40 minutes north of Grand Rapids which I tried a variety. Sugar beets got browsed out early. I then sprayed and planted brassicas and winter peas a month ago. Brassiccas are being browsed but holding their own but not much tonnage due to browse and drought. I overseeded brassicas with heavy oats and cereal rye yesterday hoping the rain for Tues/Weds pans out. A patch of corn grew but very limited cob formation. The deer are beginning to eat the immature cobs and the corn plants themselves. I've had good luck with brassicas in the past but realistically without any other crop food competition, oats and rye might be the best bet and most economical and probably plenty fine for food plot. I tried a strip of Northwoods Whitetail HD screen. Only about 6 foot right now but impressive for how dry its been.
I love the Grand Rapids area. I’m a little west of you. I’m glad you appreciate the niche. I started this channel because I always wanted to interact with folks up our way but nobody was doing it around here on TH-cam so I decided to throw some videos together. We actually just got .13” of rain this morning. Was never forecast. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel for getting it! Yeah they are still saying rain for tomorrow- let’s hope we get it. Honestly next year I’m probably going to plant only oats and rye. This droughty sand country I’m in just isn’t conducive for brassicas unfortunately (along with the browse pressure). Thanks for sharing.
Im in central lake michigan, im in the same boat you are, they just wont leave the brassica alone. rye always saves the food plots tho. my problem is heavy browse from does, i have a doe fawn property until rut. im torn on shooting does tho. guess ill deal with the heavy browse pressure and lay down the rye. hey, have a great hunting season, thats a really nice buck you have on camera.
Thanks I appreciate the note. Do you find that the higher concentration of does on your property pulls in bucks during the rut though? I like having does around. Good luck this fall.
yes the does do pull in the bucks, its a rut property for sure.
Eastern WV here and the drought this year is worse than last year’s record breaking drought. 15” below normal to date for the year and no end in sight. You know it’s bad when even oats and rye won’t even germinate. Third year in a row for failed fall food plots. Time to rethink even trying food plots any more. Time and money wasted. I think the best approach now is hardwood regeneration plots in strategic locations. These droughts will only get worse.
That’s a really tough situation. Sorry to hear that. Soft mast or hard mast trees around? (Crab apple, oak, etc?)
I really enjoy your videos and you sharing things you’ve learned about hunting the big woods over years and years of doing it. I think we could talk for hours about it if given the chance haha…quick question, are you in northeast or northwest Minnesota and what do you think about a guy trying the northeast ? Specifically St.Louis county and Lake ?? I know numbers are low but can a guy get away from people there and find deer ??
Thankyou man and keep the videos coming 😊
Hey thanks for the note I appreciate it. Yeah you are spot on that the densities will be low in those counties. But the big benefit is that you can most definitely get away from other hunters. There is a ton of public land too which is nice (superior national forest). Bucks can get old up in those areas too. We hunt not far from that area and the cool part of the rut is that you see as many bucks or more bucks than does. They are forced to walk further and cover more ground during the rut in order to find does. Good luck up there. The big woods can break you if you aren’t careful. Just when you think it’s hopeless, you can get surprised with a beautiful heavy horned north woods bruiser.
I see you had bare ground between you brassicas, if you add winter rye to that area it would have a great chance to take. I had to do the same on my brassica food plots.
Yeah I did that last year. Some of it took. As I was saying in the video, it’s so sandy here, with that large rye seed just laying on top of the ground, it struggled to germinate well. It’s not a bad idea; I just didn’t have great luck doing it last year.
I have luck doing overseeding rye when brassica plots get devoured.
Same. Over seed brassicas with rye works great in September. Even into late September. I am in northern WI.
I’m in Central PA and I’ve been having good luck with grain sorghum I plant usually around Memorial Day and it takes 3 to 4 months to mature the grain head and deer don’t seem to mess with it until it’s mature without much Ag around you and no corn or beans in the fall that carbohydrate source of sorghum might be a good deal for you
Interesting… what do you do for weed control? Is it touchy in the sense that grass/weed competition really hampers growth? Or is it pretty tenacious and grows in adverse environments?
Nope I typically throw about the seed on till it in lightly then spread the other half right on top and go over it with a roller to push it into the soil for good contact and then pray for rain which that time of year seems to come more frequently
The only downside I’ve found is you are left with dry woody stocks very similar to corn stalks to deal with the following spring but the root system they leave behind is supposed to be great for soil building which you also need
Good tip! I'll go and do the same this weekend here on the west coast of Norway. My plot was seeded a bit late this year, and it is not really growing that well. Will be interesting to see if the winter rye gets going.
Rain is really not something we lack. Rather the opposite.
Do you guys have white tails over there? Other type of deer?
@@northernforestwhitetail The finns have some whitetail that have been released into the wild in Finland. Here in Norway we have red deer, roe deer and moose. And we have immigration of wild boars coming over from Sweden. That is our larger game, unless you add in seals and other sea mammals. (I know the latter might be controversial, so not much is said about hunting those)
@@rolfnilsen6385 that’s awesome. Good luck 👍
Hello, question for you. I am on 20 acres in SC. All pines and (a little) natural browse. I have a few young bucks, some does and a 3 1/2 eight-pointer that I see regularly but that's about it. I've cut in 2 half acre food plots, in the process of getting this terrible, acidic soil up to par, have put up a few mock scrapes. My question is, how do deer find good food sources. In other words, how will other deer in the surrounding area eventually find their way to my farm? There's no ag in the area, everyone else just throws out deer corn so my plots are the only thing going in the area. Lol is it deer word of mouth, each one comes in with a plus one??? Any help u have is appreciated!!!
If you have food, they will find it. It’s amazing how deer locate food in their natural habitat. First off, they are social creatures- meaning they interact and travel together at times. Also, they are constantly foraging. If you can establish a doe presence going into the fall around your food, then you will have roaming bucks run into their scent and stick around. Imagine the scents in the woods that a doe family group leaves behind. The bucks will be covering ground in the pre rut and run into the doe scent left behind. Just focus on getting high quality food on your property and the deer will do the rest. Good luck!
@northernforestwhitetail thank you for the reply! I'm lucky because all of .y neighbors just put put out corn piles so my plots really the best thing around. Just working through the process of getting the soil up to par. It's ridiculously acidic! Thanks again for the info and best of luck to you as well!!!
I always fill bare spots in brassicas by broadcasting cereal rye. Works great! I do have excellent black dirt though.
I wish I could get away with that. I can see it’s critical for me to have an area of rye that I first disk in to establish then supplement with additional seeding. Hope your hunting season is shaping up nice.
Always great to get those plots topped off. I typically go with 200 lb per acre and then will top dress another 100 lb per acre one month later. I’m in Ga so don’t plant it until later in Sept. Good luck this season.
I like the system. Thanks- I hope you have some luck down there too.
I’m also from northern mn and I run an electric fence around five acres with great success. You might want to check the joule output on your fencer. Mine puts out over 11.5 And you also need a highly visible poly wire about 3 ft inside your outer wire
Good tips- thanks for sharing
When i had a couple armys of turkeys hitting the plot after seeding winter rye in the fall.no such thing as overseeding...like we did .frost seeding would be a waste of money and time here.i,m talkin fall flocks of 40/ 50 birds,all hungry.love our turkeys but they make fall seeding difficult and expensive.🙄
Sounds like you need to fill some turkey tags- tough deal there.
@@northernforestwhitetail most of the flocks are 75/80% hens.some jakes no fall season to speak of here in eTn ...hens are definitely off the table 🙄
I feel you man, I’m in northwestern wisconsin on year 2 in sand country as well and I went with a chicory/raddish/rye mix that took “ok”. Just over seeded with 100lb rye last week praying we get this forecasted rain on Tuesday. Planning to over-seed with another 100lb of rye the weekend of opener.
The original planting took ok with the rains we had in early august but it’s been dry since so things are getting bad… 2 years in a row with fall drought is rough!
It’s a tough deal this drought. Two summers ago (summer of 2021) we had a really bad drought here. Now this summer is bad again. Unbelievably we lucked out with .13” this morning. They never forecast it. Fingers crossed we get that Tuesday rain tomorrow. I like your strategy. Just keep hammering that rye on top of it and you should have some green tonnage going into the season. Hope you luck out this fall.
Low ph in the soil can affect plant taste preference. What was your ph in the plot last year.
Great looking deer herd! Nice job!
Thanks! I can’t believe it but we got .13” of rain this morning. Might be just what it takes to get this all to germinate. Hope your season is shaping up nice.
Southern iowa looks like dirt plots right now ! No rain over a month also! Rye to the rescue!!
Dang you guys are dry down there too
Need to run 2 fences for deer and something they can see. Put them 3-4 feet apart so the deer are not comfortable jumping between them. Unless a single fence is over 6’ tall it’s useless
If the deer don’t have a good spot to land they won’t jump it unless our northern wi wolves are after them
Might need to start doing that.
@@northernforestwhitetail I had same problem over here in northern wi. Doubling amount of food was what worked the best. Every year I added more food until it was enough and now no fences required. Good luck!
Just subscribe best of luck
Hey thanks for the sub- hope your fall is setting up well for you.
I would sow rye into the brassica portion. The deer will continue hammering the brassicas giving the rye a chance to grow.
I way overseed like you. Same sandy soil in northern WI, and I dont have the equipment to get a perfect seedbed. Drought is screwing me too though
It’s the way to go. Hope you guys get some rain
Cant wait to see that big buck down!!
Thanks buddy hopefully he sticks around after the acorns are done. Hope your season is shaping up nice
I have some nice public land bucks, but no home area bucks yet. Waiting for the fall shift.
Obviously just kidding. Every food plot I've ever tried, deer have always topped it before it even had a chance to grow properly. Even when I fenced it off. I still try every year but, same thing happens every time, no matter where I put it. So I feel your pain. Maybe not exactly but......😊
Ha yep. I can’t believe they went thru my 30 mile cattle fence. These deer r nuts around here I guess
@@northernforestwhitetail One year I put an acre of corn in, and fenced it off like you. After trying to keep it watered for a month and constantly fixing the fence. I gave in to the deer take over 🙆🤷. I had some grow to 3 ft, very few, still produced baby corn. But, they kicked my ass. I can laugh about it now but, wasn't so funny back then.
try some winter wheat
Seems like they will choose oats over wheat- have you had different results? I do the rye for the regeneration the following summer.
With early seeded oats and rye do you have to mow it to keep it from going to seed? Will mowing kill it or do the deer keep it down? I always thought you cant plant rye too early because it would go to seed and become unpalatable by fall.
I don’t mow it. In my case, the deer have kept it down. Regarding the topic of it going to seed; winter rye needs a winter cycle before it will actually go to seed or head-out. So if you plant it in the summer or fall, it won’t head out. If you are in areas with food competition sources I.e. soy beans, food plots, corn, alfalfa, etc, then you will want to time your rye and oat planting early fall so that it maximizes palatability and supersedes the attractiveness of the other competing food sources as you enter the hunting season. On the other hand, if you have low quality competition in your neighborhood (like me; I.e. no ag, no alfalfa, no food plots) then you can plant the rye earlier. I do it this way so maximize tonnage. I have a buddy who plants winter rye at the start of August every year because if he doesn’t, the deer will have it down to the dirt by November. I’m in a similar situation as he is. Hope this helps.
Yes, thanks!
What, you never heard of a sprinkler system?!? Come on man!
I know right! My dad drilled a sand point well on his land to water his plot years ago. I may do it someday. Hold my beer…