Burning Millet

I got my field in 6/8 and have had several good rains on it since. I’m a dove field novice with this year being my 3rd attempt. If the deer don’t eat all my BTM I should have a good stand in 60 days. I know that I’m going to have grass and weeds in my field. My question is how to prep the millet to hunt? Looking at first hunt to be 9/21 or 9/28. My plan is to spray round up mid August, come back and mow around Labor Day, then set it on fire a week ahead of the shoot. Is this spray, mow, burn method a pretty good idea?

People say burn it, but I just mow it. I like having the soil protected and that thatch for planting my fall food plot. Besides, if it rains, your field will be a muddy mess.

Bush hog strips a few weeks before and as the season progresses.
No need to burn or spray it.

Definitely burn some if you can. You don’t have to burn it all. Chances are you won’t.

People act like you have to have bare dirt for doves, because of their small spindly legs. Think about it, other than a dove field, where does this occur? No where, that's where. I have dove by the hundreds come in when I bush hog my cereal grains down. They land on the mowed grains with no problem.

Yes they will feed in other places but I’m trying to differentiate my self from everyone else. I don’t want to just have doves, I want to have a lot of doves. All row crop fields have bare dirt

There’s so much corn planted in the Tn valley having a dove shoot gonna be tough this year. Combines will fire off mid August and scatter birds all over the valley

One of the best dove hunts for me in the past few years was a 5 acre pumpkin patch I had planted. Hedge row of Autumn Olives and crab grasses growing around the pumpkins. I tried to keep the ground clean but crab grass just kept on keeping on.

One of the best planted for dove fields we ever had, 4 row planter planting 2 passes of corn, then sorghum then millet, then soybean. As soon as brown top millet made we bush hogged it, Kept bush hogging every few weeks to hold the birds. We then planted wheat in strips the week of the opener. Opening day all we had left standing was several rows of corn to hide in. 100 to 200 birds per flock wave after wave of doves. We pulled birds from fields less than a mile a way of brown top millet that was cut and bailed for hay. Clean ground and tons of seed everywhere. They had a pond and power lines setup too.

In all the years we prepared the best day in day out were locations that had a pond with clean edges, roost trees usually old dead oaks with large pines and strips of wheat planted and or sunflowers bush hogged. Most folks wouldn't look twice at some these spots we absolutely wore birds out for several, several weekends.

I understand that row crop fields are bare dirt down below, but there are tons of birds where there are no row crops. A new clear cut is a dove magnet and its not bare dirt. Burn it if you want to.

Exactly! Happens every year.

Family member just sent me a pic of the field and it’s coming along nicely.

Field is looking good. This is my first attempt at planting millet and I think it looks great! Maybe a little thick, but I think that helped with grass competition. I’m planning on spraying it in about a month then burning. Will also too sew wheat. We won’t shoot it until last weekend in September of first weekend of October.

Looks good. How big is you field?

Only about 2 acres of millet. We have an adjacent 2 acres of grass that will be sprayed and burned and another 1 acre that will be top sewed with wheat that will make a good deer plot. So a total of 5 acres that will be dedicated to dove

Just checked my field and only had like 6 get out of it. Disced up a couple more strips and put the feed to them. Hopefully we will have more by next Saturday