WMA “plots”

I have never hunted a food plot on public land and have no plans to do so in the future, but I am curious about your observations. Walked a gas line today that had several hundred yards of ground turned over with about 1 blade of wheat (?) per square foot. My initial thought is that was a heck of a lot of work in terms of discing to have a terrible final product. Also a heck of a waste of state money (shocking!). If I missing something (cold weather, over-browsing, etc) here, please correct me. What have you noticed in terms of plots on public land? No need to name the WMA if you have seen great ones. You would think that if anyone could buy seed cheaper in bulk, it would be the state. If it’s a money thing, seems they should do less plots right than too many crappy (assuming that’s the case).

I've seen quite a few of those so-called plots on the WMA's. Seems like they're always a bust.
I could do a better job with a spoon and a couple of toddlers.

They used the seed money to install kiosk and make everyone collect their “data” for em . I wrote it in the comments section on my card “gross waste of the states resources.” I wish we had game wardens like kieth (forgot last name) and Jud Easterwood back in Jackson county that actually gave a crap about wildlife .

All the 90 plus temperature days with no rain took a toll on it.

My $00.02.

Back in bow season my buddies were hunting little river and said the plots looked good and they saw a decent amount of deer on them

My throw and mow plots look like a million dollars compared to those

Looks like they forgot the seed

Does the state provide the plots or do the farmers that farm it provide the plots as part of the agreement?

Seems like they are suppose to leave something like 20percent standing of either corn or soybeans around here and they may leave 2 rows. If that’s even the case anymore..may not be

They wait on money to plant. Some years they get it early,, some they get it late.

No farming going on for this particular WMA. Good question about others though.

I can look at that ground and tell you the seed is just now beginning to germinate. Look at it. There’s clover all in it beginning to germinate, and grass too. Likely they planted late due to weather related set backs. That happened on several WMAs this year. I’m sure there’s a reason. Most food plots I’ve seen on WMAs have looked very nice. There are very knowledgeable and experienced ppl planting them. We’ve never waited on money to plant. Seed comes in about the same time every year. It gets put in the ground about the same time every year unless there’s reasons not to. This year there were plenty of reasons to hold off.

Take a pic of the same plot in a few weeks and post it here. I know a lot of guys that have this responsibility. Most held off because it was so dry. Then we got rain, then there's 20-40k acres they have to plant the plots on. Not like a hunting club. Then the freeze hit. They use WMS Alabama blend. It is a good mix. It'll be up this week if we get a good rain on it.

I know it's not farming and it's to attract wildlife but, that's not the best seed bed. Could have stood another round of working the soil.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I’ll be back there later in the year and can post an update.

I did mine by the book and those look better than mine. Weather and birds have taken a toll on mine.

Not the same comparison, but in the 6 years I've hunted Nat. Forest they've only made plots one, single year. It was only winter rye but they were about 5 acres each, looked great and were frequented by deer.

That "plot" looks horrible.

2 WMA's and 1 SOA (Uchee) I have been to this year has plots that looked exactly like the one in the picture

I've always wondered who plants plots on WMA's or Corps of Engineers land

What book?
My plots look better than those when I trip an fall.

Looks like a fine planted plot to me. Just late. It'll be green in two weeks and it won't even be worthy of discussion

Seems like I had herd talk of poor germination on some of the WMS blends this year

The very best public land plots I've seen were on USACE land.
Everything I've seen on state and federal lands was an embarrassing crop.

Not a good book if they look worse than what's pictured here lol I planted few weeks ago and mine look fine considering...disk seed and fert...

All depends on when they were planted. Bottom pic looks like somebody tried. Top not so much

I an vouch for that, except the deer part. There are no deer at Little River WMA.

Got some of our plots too. We had clover from previous year that came back and helped us, but they were looking bad mid october.