I've got at least an acre to work with, perhaps more. What have y'all had luck with in terms of throw and mow for summer crops? I think I've got a pretty good plan for a fall plot, but unsure of summer options.

I am curious as well. I will be planting some corn and beans via disking and cultipacking but I want to plant some other fields in Sunflowers and was wondering if this is a viable alternative for those types of seeds.

if you plant sunflowers, you better plant plenty of them, deer love them and will wear them out as soon as the plants get leaves. They would probably germinate, throw and mow, but a lot of critters, birds, etc. will eat the seeds if they can get to them. I'd disc them in.

I'll be planting some sunflowers using this method, as well as milo,sunnhemp,pea's and buckwheat. Cover it with thatch and you have the perfect storm. Don't forget to put your exclusion cage out, that way you'll know if you got good germination. Sometimes deer can hammer a young plot and it will look like a failure.

How do soybeans do with throw and mow? There is a good chance I'll have access/help with plowing, but I'm trying to have a plan B just in case.

I've had decent germination with soybeans, but they are quite a bit larger seed, than pea's. Having a good layer of thatch, is vital.

Would soybeans planted with sunflower do anything?

In these smaller plots like the one you are dealing with…..things like peas, beans, sunflowers, etc. are likley just going to be decimated by the deer before they every really get going good. It will end up being a very small, short term snack for them that serves you no real purpose. With these small plots you can also throw out the idea that you are planting stuff to “help” the deer herd. What you can accomplish though is attraction and conditioning the deer in your area to use the plot 365 days out of the year. I would look to do this in the summer time mostly through the use of clovers. Given the right conditions, clovers such as durana can persist for most of the summer. These will do best though planted in the fall.

This is my throw and mow test plot as of yesterday. You can see all of the clover that’s present in the mix. I’ll let this clover take me through the summer as long as it will. However, around the end of May when my cereal rye matures and goes to seed, I’m going to broadcast some buckwheat and maybe some radishes into the standing rye and then mow it down over the seed. The idea is that the buckwheat and brassicas will fill in the gaps left by the terminated rye and this will take me through the end of the summer. It may sound odd but I’m actually hoping that crabgrass eventually encroaches on my field enough to give me a grass component to the mix for the purpose of adding more carbon back to the soil as well as being a source of thatch for next year's fall planting.

You can try and plant some iron clay peas with a mixture of milo or soybean. My plots aren't big but if you can give them a fighting chance the deer will eat them all summer. If you put a deterrent on them you may have a chance.

Ll

I suppose some sort of electric fence would be useless?

And yes, the idea would be of keeping deer on the property more than helping the herd.

E-fence set-up seems to work great for folks who only have one or two small plots. If you want to invest in one that will change the whole game for your summer plantings.

A 2 row fence set-up has been proven to keep deer out better than any other fencing system besides a high fence. The premise is that deer have very poor depth perception. Because they can't tell exactly how far away the 2nd row of fencing is, they're too afraid to try and jump it. Someone wrote that deer can jump high, or they can jump far, but they can't jump high and far.

I will be trying this if I ever decide to plant corn or beans again.
http://anr.ext.wvu.edu/r/download/51669

With high deer density's and small plots, i would recommend planting buckwheat. It's really easy to grow, the deer will eat it, but they typically don't destroy it, unless the habitat is lacking.

What would you say is the minimum number of acres that wouldn't get browsed to death?

It really just depends on the amount of deer using the plot as well as the quality of the surrounding habitat. Small one acre plots of peas, sunflowers, etc...tend to not be able to keep up in the vast majority of situations. In higher deer density areas even 3-4 acre fields still get decimated.

I probably have 4 to 5 acres total that could be planted within 55 acres. Marion county so decent deer population if I had to guess, although I sat in a tree for many many hours seeing nada. There is only so much I am going to be able to do, but it is fun to learn and brainstorm.

I only have 1 3/4 acres of fields on my 40 acres and if I can get my iron and clay peas up good they will last till October. I have about 10-13 deer using my property regularly.

I like the sound of that.

I'm going to try Buckwheat and Iron Clay Peas on a few throw and mow spots. I sprayed behind my house last weekend and it's good and dead now. Will bush hog it on Tuesday or Wednesday when I get home from work if the Thursday rain forecast still holds up. I sprayed at my lease in Fayette County this weekend so it will be ready to go by this weekend but won't be able to get to it until the following week

Digging a little deep into the ALDEER archives huh?