My foodplotting progress...

[Glats109]

So Ive decided to take some pictures and start this thread to log my progress as a novice plotter....

Backround:

My family owns around 22 acres in the Catskill Mountains of new York. The area used to be a big dairy farm area but most of the farmers have since been subsidized by uncle sam and the deer population is feeling the effects. 

So last summer I decided to start my own QDM plan...

* Fortunatly my county is an Antler Restriction county so it is illegal to shoot any deer with less than 3 on one side...

 

 

This is my property. The front area will not be plotted. The second field has since undergone a lot of work. 

Year 1:
Had woods thinned out by logger with biology degree to improve habitat
Planted 10 apples trees 4 dunston chestnuts and 4 crab apples
Fall planted 1 acre of Antler King Clover with Chicory additive (the long green plot in second field) 

The area with the blue lines is where I planted the apple trees. I plan to expand the existing plot another acre so it will be, just as long but much wider (it will be on both sides of the existing cedar trees that you can see in the picture...

Since this was our first year we had a farmer friend till the land... I wasn't very impressed with the results, this is how it came out after its fall planting. No lime or fertilizer was used in this year, it was planted Aug 1 and this was the result... 

 

 

We weren't very pleased in this year... We were just starting off, this year I came back much more determined....

Started off the year by frost seeding the plot with some more clover and chicory in early March.

I decided that this year ( With the help from this site) I would expand the plot into LC's mix. 

I went and got my soil test it came back 5.9, so I went and got 2 tons of lime and when I started to spray it in late april, I started to notice a lot of clover....

So, I decided to take a ton of the lime I had and spread it on the existing clover plot. 

It was time to get a tractor.... So after much debate I ended up picking up a Allis Chalmers 5020. Since then I have obtained a chisel plow, a disk, a sprayer for the atv, a lime spreader and a mower. 

 

 

So then begain the plowing experiment.... I have no tractor experience so all of this has been a learning process with my two buddies. Its been very hard not to rush but the excitement is sometimes hard to overcome. 

Our soil is very rocky and more of a clay based soil, its drains ok. After a lot of hard work and pass after pass (and a few wheelys on the tractor) we were able to start seeing what we thought should look like a food plot!

 

 

I know its early to be planting but we wanted to get a head start on turning over the soil while we had the free weekends. We plan on planting mid july because the local farmers records show the first frost coming in late September.

I went up to the cabin three weeks ago  to check on my cameras and mess around on the tractor and boy was I surprised at the progress of the clover!

 

 

What a huge difference the past 8 months have made! Im so happy I gave it a chance to grow. I plan on mowing and fertilizing it in mid june.

The soil we turned over for the new LC mix area started to take on some new weeds. You can see the plot here... the left side is the existing clover and right side is the north eastern portion of the plot where we plan on putting LC brassica mix. ( unsure of what that red patch of weeds on the left is, need to spray with cleth soon)

 

 

Just recently went up again to mow , spray and fertilize (0,0, 60)

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to tilling over other side next month with the fall plot (Lickcreek mix)

 

 

Edited June 17, 2014 by Glats109

[Pav2704]

The clover looks great.... Lots of hard work there!!

[Ford]

Nice work.

 

Are they using it? Do you have a Trail camera on it?

[ncountry]

Looks like all the hard work is paying off! Be careful of those wheelies, many a farmer has been killed by an overturned tractor.. Not so common in today's age of huge tractors but was in the past.

[G-Man]

looks good, but iI hope you made a sanctuary area. Bucks can't grow if they are peressured. 22 Acres is small but 2-3 acres of no go area will help more than any food plot.

[Glats109]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Yes I have a camera on two sides of the plot. In year one, the plot had a lot of deer in it but almost everything was at night. Maybe 8-12 different spikes and a few decent bucks. The nicest buck was taken by my neighbor.

 

This year since the clover has grown so much Ive had pictures of both day and night. I do have a doe raising 2 fawns in the plot which seems like a great sign for the future. Ill try to get some pictures up.

 

As far as a sanctuary goes. I don't have an actual thick area that is designed as a sanctuary but the area to the left of my picture is hardwoods that we do not hunt. We have no stands in there and don't really go in there for any reason, so I guess we can call that the sanctuary.

 

 

 

As far as the expansion in the plot do you guys think beets and winter grains is the way to go or do you recommend anything else.

[Ford]

I have had good luck with Brassicas and Winter Rye.

 

Brassicas take a little more work, winter rye will grow on almost anything.

 

I have food plotted for three years, and have had good luck. I planted Brassicas for two years, and Winter Rye last year for fall/winter food. Oh, and clover in the spring.

 

The only thing I would have done different, is reverse what I planted first. I would have started off with Clover in spring, then Rye (late summer) Then the next year clover in spring, Brassicas late summer. You see, Brassicas use up a lot of Nitrogen. Clover and Winter Rye fix N when plowed under, creating the N the Brassicas need.

 

Now I have some pretty good clover growing. I mowed the clover and Rye already, should have some N in the soil, so I am contemplating putting Brassica in in August again. The thing is, the Winter Rye is so much easier, and I had the same amount of deer visiting. The WR also greens up early, providing food in early spring.

 

 

[Glats109]

Ive read that a few places. Was my overall plan to do half brassica half grains and atlernate them next year. Any other tips?

[Glats109]

Went up to the camp this weekend since I had a break off from work and got some planting done. First frost for me has come in late September the past few years and I had the time with the thunderstroms coming tomorrow.

Planted Lickcreek Mix. Because we do a lot of bow hunting and clover was so thick we went 50 % clover 25 % Grasses 25% brassica.

We rototilled the entire new plot area. Fertilized with 46-0-0 and the 6-24-24
planted and cultipacked. We actually used a lawn roller off of amazon that you fill with water as a cultipacker and it worked great.

Here is a picture of me spraying the clover with cleth and a view of the grasses plot in the back. there is a variety of 10 apple trees below where this picture ends. They are still fenced off and are starting to produce fruit

 

 

Here is a shot of the brassica plot that has crab apples running throughout it. We sprayed the bases of the crab apples and fertilized accordingly.

 

 

And finally here is a gun stand that we built overlooking the plots

 

 

Deer are showing up more often and looking fatter than ever just need to start seeing some mass.

[HUNTINGS IN MY DNA]

sick

[landtracdeerhunter]

Great looking greenery.

 

I know the tractor well. Nice little 2 cylinder drive train.

[SplitG2]

Awesome job!

[HUNTINGS IN MY DNA]

put up corn for the late feeding the deer are going to need energy so mid nov and on there going to look to eat high energy foods like corn and bean the sugar in the corn gets them going! good luck

[LET EM GROW]

AWESOME! I ENJOY SEING THESE PICS. ILL HAVE TO START TAKING A FEW MORE AND POST OUR PROGRESS WITH PLOTS AND SUCH.