Looking like a great plot year

Got one rain just after I got done planting a couple of weeks ago and that was enough to get things going.Got another after these were taken, so I should be good to go as far as moisture.

Yep been a great year for plots. So good that I added a few plots across the property just to take advantage of the weather.

257, what all you got in that plot and what was your planting rate for each seed? I see radish, clover and oats?

Triticale 50# per acre
Wheat 30# per acre
Radish 5# per acre
Dixie reseeding clover all volunteer from last year

No till drilled into burned down seed bed

Are the deer grazing it. It doesn't seem to be getting hit very hard. If I had that at my place it would look like a lawn mower ran over it. I got all mine in the ground about 10 days ago and it is coming along pretty good. I planted a blend of WMS Alabama and Magnet blend, along with BFO, purple top turnips and diakon radishes. If it ever gets to that stage outside the grazing, I will be delighted.

Yes. Hammering it. That pic is from my shop porch. Get away from it and it’s got traffic all over.

Awesome looking fields 257.

Your mix is a little different than mine but they look a lot alike as far as the production . I had a mix of Bama blend, Crimson Clover, and Austrian Winter Peas. The peas really produce and the deer love em.

My 70# lab in plots today. Coming along well

Good looking dog and field - I like big fields

Went and looked at ours at the club this weekend. Best they have ever looked and it ain’t even close.

Zero fertilizer so far.........

Looks good, but I could not withstand all that big stuff standing in there.

Same here...go weed eat it CNC!

Those are pioneer plants. Hush

🤣

What nights does that girl dance in them.plots?

Those fields look like chit, CNC. Your planting a plot not making a bedding area good lord

He's got all in one

They can eating laying down.😄

CNC, you forgot the "mow" part of throw and mow. You are going to be pissed when you miss a deer because your bullet hits 575 dozen of those stalks on the way to the deer.

Oh my word. No way, I mean no way I could deal with all that trash in a field. I had a couple Johnson’s grass plants in a few plots. I had to go pull them.

Same here I had like 15-20 Jimsonweed plants come up I went and hand pulled them. That’s just pure laziness in that photo

Man in low light conditions there would be several brush deer out there.

What all do you have planted in there?

Pioneer plants. Duh

It got sprayed but didn’t lay down when drug. I couldn’t give a shucks less.
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The deer should feel comfortable walking in all that tall chit. They think they are still hid. The farmer in me will not let me do something like that. If it works for y’all thats all that matters.

It’s cereal rye and crimson clover. I’m just letting it marinate for right now. All of the debris is acting like a bunch of little exclusion cages across the field that gives the young seedlings some cover from browsing and allows the field to bank some forage…. I’ll mow across the top of everything and open it on up for shooting and seeing in a few weeks if the deer don’t beat it down…The buffer around the outside will be left.

Thank goodness we can hunt over corn now!

Throw and mow is for sura an acquired taste. I've got a great stand of pretty green oats growing out of 8inch high bushhog stubble. The feeds there but it sure looks weird with all them sticks standing in it. Trade off for the time and wear and tear on my equipment I saved, I can look at sticks. I just hope the deer don't poke their eyes out trying to eat their oats.

I'll take "weeds" for $500 Alex. JK

You sound like a convert!......

I have been enlightened somewhat but I'll still break ground in some instances.

Most certainly......The key is knowing "when" to do "what" instead of only following any single cookie cutter method.....

Some rain would be nice......Conditions are rarely ever perfect......The best plotting year in a long time turned into a minor drought

Ours were doing really good, but now are needing rain.

Might be the smartest thing I’ve heard you say. Most of the time it’s “my way is the only way”. That being said we picked up a lease on land that was mined 100 years ago by steam shovel. The entire area is nothing but spoil piles and pretty much ZERO topsoil. We ended up doing the throw and mow on a couple of spots with pretty good results. It would be virtually impossible to drill or disc any of these spots due to VW sized rocks right at the surface of the soil. We seeded VERY heavy, as in 3-400lbs/acre but we used cheap seed (feed wheat and oats). I’m pleased with the outcome (it’s green) but doesn’t have near the diversity I prefer having in a food plot.

They look good. Give it a few years for that good biomass to build up and you'll be in bussines.

I agree.....Nice looking plots

Thanks guys. It’s been a good plot year for us on all 3 pieces of property. We had some pretty timely rain.

Still absolutely ZERO fertilizer…..Now that’s got to count for sumpin no matter what else you can find to beech about…..Jwalker, maybe they’ll eventually be more benefits in it for you than just wear and tear.

My big food plot consists of about 1/3 clover field i never do anything but bushhog twice a year. It has built up a pretty good layer of compost, for lack of a better word. The other 2/3 i disk every year, sometimes twice. I noticed this that everything that grows up in the clover side looks healthy and vigorous. The stuff that grows up on the other side looks weak and unhealthy. There was a very noticable difference that can only be explained by what ive done there in the past five years. Im gona quit disking the other 2/3 as much as possible for a while. Mostly just gona rotate between ic peas and oats. Ill disk up some of it each year for some brassicas. Although i have thought about spreading my brassicas thin in the oats over the 2/3 im throw and mowing. Its not necessarily just about the wear and tear. I know ive been stripping nutrients out of part of the field, im gona put some back for a while.

Your deer must have plenty of other stuff to eat cause they sure ain't touching that mess of a plot. Glad your tickled by it, though.

We think that “change” concerning these types of things is more monumental than it is…..more of a mountain to get over than it really seems like.......even though that's absolutely the case!!…..Just look at blood tracking with a dog though…..Idahomike came on here about 6 years ago and stirred up everyone’s interest in it ….We held a few tracking conventions and more folks began to train dogs…..myself and others came along and started telling stories….and now tracking is mainstream……Its no different with the idea of using cattle to manage the understory or no till principles for food plotting……Human psychology is the main hurdle.....and its an odd beast

Yes they do.....The majority of my understory is a jungle of browse and cover that's over head high....The overstory trees are mostly water oaks that have the ground loaded with acorns.....I have my last dropping pears just laying on the ground not being messed with at the moment

So in all seriousness jwalker…..I’ve been pounding my head against a wall for nearly a decade trying to convince people of something you now see is so, so simple…..What gives??? Is change just this hard?......I guess it SHOULD be this hard though really from an evolutionary standpoint….I guess that makes sense…..Humans sure can be a pain in the arse though sometimes with their resisting!

Ill try about anything once. I kindof convinced myself though. All youve got to do is look at the two sides of the field and consider what has gone on there the past five years. Its plain as day. Like i said, im not goingvto sell my turning plows and disk but my food plotting methods are changing.

Just remember all the bonus rain you hit this fall too. That ain’t gonna happen every fall

Yeah i know it all lined up just right. I dont know if you saw my other thread but ive got oats and daikons sprouting right now. Weird stuff. What i would really like is to go full on perrineal. Thats just hard to do.

.....and in my mind that's one of the reasons FOR planting this way.......I've got a buffer built up against droughty conditions.....I'm way past getting seed to germinate. That's simply the first step that has been such a hurdle to get folks over initially. Did I also mention that planting cost on this is around $50 an acre and took around 20-30 minutes total in time....I actually planted in the rain when one of those tropical systems began to hit

Just add a little bit of white clover into your seed mix each fall and broadcast it....like 1 pound to the acre even....$5.....You're about to switch to something that is more like perennial plantings.....You'll have a little of both going at the same time in the same field

Its funny what we humans let get in our way sometimes.....The appearance of the plots is one of the biggest issues in most people's minds.....I find that interesting I guess....Of all of the variables in the equation to be concerned with.....we are worried about it being messy and ugly like a bunch of west coast granola crunchers looking at a recently logged clear-cut

On the topic of utilization......go back and look a little closer at the top pic again......Look at the clumps of dog fennel you can see on the ground getting consumed by cereal rye.....See how much taller those areas are than the areas in between them???......Those areas are getting some early protection from browsing pressure....It'll slowly disappear as the winter progresses

Is be embarrassed if I spent $50 an acre on plot seed and had results like that. For $50 an acre it better be way better than those pics I’ve seen

3 bags of cereal rye.....a few lbs of crimson clover....couple gallons of fuel……Hard to get much more minimal than that…..Oh sure someone will say “Oh my God 150 lbs of seed!!”…..but did I mention ZERO fertilizer…..I don’t care what kind of bullchit you throw out there….that’s major.

Keep humping your dog fennel patches. I’ll keep running sound practices with fertility and weed management.

I'm good with that if you are......

Ya'll 2 crack me up

Abbott & Costello

Dumb and dumber most days

Yall do realize CNC could bushhog his plot and in another week it would look better than most of the plots people have posted pictures of on here. Maybe not 257s plot, it is exceptional, but he does grow things for a living. I think CNC leaves the trash in it just to drive yall crazy. The deer dont care.

The deer are hammering my plots. I wish I would have put out isolation cages. I was going to hit them with some fertilizer, but since my season is pretty much over due to shoulder surgery, just going to let them do whatever they do and not spend any more money.

I planted after Zeta. Had 2.5 weeks of no rain then a couple of good rains and now cold temps. My fields look terrible. Not to mention the kid at the seed store mixed in 2 tons of 17-17-17 in the buggy when I only paid for 1 ton and seed for 1 ton.

Mmmmm......(sniff, sniff)........I love the smell of a freshly mowed field. I wonder if the deer can smell it?


Isn't "green" manure supposed to rapidly decompose and act as sort of an instant feed fertilizer?......I noticed I'm nipping the tops out of some of the cereal rye and clover and making a "green/brown" combo of mulch that I'm putting the ground. I know its dang sure gonna make some rich soil. I'll snap some pics when I'm finished. Looking forward to seeing if this makes it jump after the next rain. Deer are probably about to start really hammering the plots after Christmas

Pretty sure the thermostat is stuck on my tractor......,,,grrrr

A plot of rye that looks green... WHAT A JOKE. And it appears nothing is eating it.

I’m gonna shoot him standing in that lane on the left……There’s gonna be a bunch of does feeding in the field and he’s gonna slip up and follow them in too fer……

You'll be waiting there a while. That looks like garbage. The stuff will come up in the bed of my truck and look green.

How do you like my dog fennel?

Dang it Goatkiller…….I missed a spot.

I picture is worth 1,000 words. Nothing is eating that.

CNC you might have to take a pic of 30 deer standing in the field. At that point, i dont care if theyre eating there or using it for a potty. As long as theyre there.

Actually they barely even let me get the tractor cut off good before they started coming out this evening…..Phone pic isn’t so great but these are some of the does that I was referring to that would be standing in the plot when I shoot him…..There are more does on the way now. I’m ringing the dinner bell. There’s no telling how far that fresh mowed smell travels down that bottom behind the field at night…..

You know what I like the most about the dog fennel…….It allows me to carve out a design into the understory that I can use strategically to my advantage.

I would have shitty looking plots like that if It would get the deer he has using his at my house and lease.

I think this may be my big doe that had triplets last year.......I'm pretty sure every deer in the pic is her descendants.....She's the deer in the back left of the pic. Just something to think about the next time anyone shoots a doe for meat but yet wants to see more deer.....You would impact the population much less by shooting that button head in the group instead of that big old doe throwing off triplets.....but someone would stroke out if you killed their future booner.

I like to shoot the big ole does myself. I prefer to shoot the ones without fawns though. I figure they are either barren or bad mothers. I’d rather the ones that do great survive

The hard part is often deciding, throughout the season, which are barren are producers. In my area, the old does are as cagey as the bucks(at least) and rarely seen in daylight. Sometimes they'll mix in with 4-6 other adults and their fawns but not often. If they are with a group you are going to educate all the others when you shoot.

I'm not sure what exactly happens but I think shooting the old does throws the social structure amongst doe groups into flux. I think leaving them would create a more "orderly" distribution of doe groups that remains fairly constant and predictable.......Taking them out causes new competition to arise......Now the pros and cons of creating this disruption is what I'm not sure about.....

Ive got some old nannies. We quit killing does several years ago and just feed alot more. Talked some closeby neighbors into sparing the does and eating young bucks. It has made a difference. I probably have pictures of 20 1yr old bucks. No way it could hurt anything to kill a couple of them. Them big does will be three deer next year, 7-8 deer year after next, 15+ that next year. I understand some people think they have too many. And i understand the best remedy for that is killing a few does. We had the opposite problem. It has taken us 5yrs i guess to get it where deer hunting is a pleasure around here. I had 18 in the field at dark yesterday. I expect there to be a few days of 20+. We see more bucks than we ever have. Not like they show it on tv by a long shot but its alot better than it used to be. Thats because of two things 1)dont kill does 2)plant as much and put out as much feed as we can afford to.

Sounds great JWalker - sounds like Ton of fun - use to hunt place where we saw 6-30 a hunt but not many bucks

My Clarke county spot - I May see 1- 5 but one of them has good chance to be buck and 2-3 deer sighting is more common and occasional get blanked - don’t shoot does here - only shoot 4 Year and up - I Hav taken 1 buck here each of last 2 seasons and only had it 2 seasons

Had my Wilcox county spot this year only - May see 8-15 mostly does - Ton of does - I hav taken 2 shooters here this year and I am tagged out - but there so many does - May go back and take a couple w my bow - I like not shooting does - but here I may take few

Same exact approach we have taken. It works.

I dont want to be misunderstood. Lee and tiffany would laugh at what we have going on. Alot of yall have much better places to hunt. Im just saying, if you want to see more deer, put out more feed and quit killing the baby makers.

I never been big on shootin does

Considering it this year in Wilcox

I don’t disagree w u - glad u seeing some improvements - got to feel good

This is true to a certain extent. We had all but stopped shooting does on our place for the past 5 years. Also most of our neighbors have quit hunting so they aren’t killing any either. We now have a bunch of old mean blowing does everywhere. According to the cameras they run every buck that shows up at the feeders and plots off. We decided it’s time to try to get rid of some of them older does. That’s not an easy task. Those older does are smart

What happens to the rest of the group of 8 when you shoot the head mama doe? Of course the button head is leaving eventually anyways but what happens with the other does in the group? Do they stick together and one just assumes the new lead role? Do they bust up and form new doe groups? How do they handle the competition from other doe groups now that the head doe is gone?

I don’t fully understand it but I have a feeling that shooting the old mama does that are leading these groups will cause turmoil in the social structure somehow…..I think its definitely gonna cause sudden new competition amongst doe groups which will make everything more erratic and less patternable….Yes, those old does are territorial and aggressive toward young bucks but are you truly better off taking them out??

Some of those older does need taken out because they're to smart.

Especially them blowing daughters of bucks.

I don’t get into it that deep. I don’t know if we are better off but it makes me feel better knowing that with no air in her lungs,that long nose ho can’t blow no more. Like Jared said, some of em just needs killin. And they make good sausage.

For meat I'd target spikes and yearling does if processing myself

We got one in the plot with spots still.

There's just not enough meat on spotted fawns to mess with. It's the year and a half old deer that I'm talking about.....young and tender but still a decent amount of meat.....I don't think you mess with much social structure taking them out either.....maybe just a little hunting pressure applied but it likely doesn't shake up social dynamics nearly as much as whacking the "Godmother"

Dumbest deer in the woods too

We try not to shoot in groups of does. We take loners or big does with just yearlings with them. Does with fawns get a pass.

Ours don’t group up much. We may see 7-8 in one hunt but most come from different areas and directions. We’ve had one group of 10 one year but since big groups are rare.

This was a few years ago..... I saw that piebald for three seasons....She was the fawn of one of those biggest does

Nice.

There's also more cohorts in that age group than any other........You have more young does you have 5 1/2+ year old ones

When those old does disappeared, did it throw chaos into the social structure of your doe groups?

It's hard for me to make that call here because I cant just isolate that variable really......I dont shoot any does though I do still get come mortality due to the road...Its usually little ones and young bucks. This would be something good for someone like Auburn to do at their research facility where they have a close eye on everything and can better see the effect of something like this......There has definitely been a big disruption over the last 5 years here at my place but I dont know the for sure cause of it.....I had a big spike in yote activity too so I dont know how much of it was this or that............Maybe things are building back up now....I'm seeing this group of 8 again.......and another group of 3.........and one lone doe......Five years ago I was seeing 20-25+ in January with multiple big doe groups

Nothing is going to happen if you shoot an old doe. They are about to die anyway no guarantee after 5 they will see another season either way.

Same thing with deer in general. They are like raising livestock. If you have 3 one gets sick and lives you still have 3. If one gets sick and dies you have 2. If you have 50 and 5 get sick and die you still have 45 left. Getting sick and dying is a given. This concept many can't seem to grasp. Wild anything can and will die at any moment. The more deer you have the better the odds something will make it to maturity. Of those that do make it even fewer will have the racks some of us are looking for. Odds are not good with low populations.

Negative........There is much more social dynamics at play with a wild deer herd than with a bunch of cows standing around in a pasture

Let me say this……..I’ve lived here 14 years now…….The deer herd using my place has changed over the course of that time as I’ve changed the habitat…….A good bit of my place used to be a horse pasture……Long story short as I increased food and cover the doe population grew and got older until I was routinely seeing 20-25+ does concentrate on me during January…..Well, after 4-5 years in a row of my place being a doe hot spot in January the rut was suddenly off the chain crazy and I was having the same bucks just show up in January that I didn’t see at any other time…….

Here’s where I’m going with it…….I think having a very consistent concentration of big doe groups in a spot year after year that is very predictable….I think that become a known hot spot to more and more bucks in the area and they return each year……The year things seemed to peak here at my place there were 12 deer runover in a 2 week time period in about a ½ mile stretch of road in front of my place……I never seen anything like it…..There were bucks harassing the tee-total chit out of does until I believe they were running them out into the road to try and get away……It took it’s toll on the deer population here around my house. The dead road kill drew in a chit load of coyotes and the whole thing kinda compounded on itself…..I saw a big drop off in doe numbers after that. It was awesome when it peaked though....I think I may start feeding year round just to try and help insure that I have that consistent concentration.....

Now is when it counts around here..................