So I’m sure it’ll still be called throw n mow…..throw n hope…..throw and smoke dope…..whatever…….But for myself I’m gonna rename this whole concept and call it the “Do nothing” method or approach to food plotting. I’m sure that name will still leave the door open to plenty comedic relief. It comes from the Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka with his “Do nothing farming” techniques. Its his concepts and ideas that have probably had the biggest influence on how I manage my plots and my property as whole. The term “throw n mow” is just too narrow in scope and worst of all its just commercially cheesy.

So with planting season fast approaching, I’m gonna try and start up a new thread here where folks who are interested can ask questions and so I can have a space where I can just throw out my thoughts on paper. If it’s a problem with the powers that be then just let me know…..if it’s a problem with having to read it all to moderate it …..I’d make the case that I’ve done a reasonably fair job of moderating myself and you could probably just skip over most of it,

I’ve posted this before a few years ago but thought it would be a good intro to this thread for those who never read it. It'll give you a little bit of an idea of who I an as a hunter and where I've came from. I also thought it would be a good way to get us amped up about deer season being just around the corner……..

Come on fall and cooler days!!!!!

Not this chit again...

So a lot of the problems people have with this type of method is getting started and getting their fields “out of the hole” as I’ve referred to it in the past. The idea I’m gonna throw out there to help with this matter will not be feasible for everyone but may be for some folks who have the time and the means to make it happen……It will get you immediately out of the hole...well relatively speaking anyways..... and probably by pass 5-10 years worth of soil building…..It’ll take some work to do but it’d be worth it if you could cut out that much time from the process……

For anyone who may have a front end loader on their tractor or even better yet…..access to a bulldozer…..You could probably pretty easily import a lot “biomass” from the surrounding habitat around your fields which would normally take years to grow. Take the FEL or bulldozer and just scrape the debris and top couple inches of soil away and move it into your plot until it accumulates a foot or two of soil and biomass on top of your existing field. I'm not talking about trees and big debris but just the leaf litter and rotten limbs, etc....That may not be feasible for fields of several acres but for your every day small kill plot of ¼ to 1 acre….it probably wouldn’t be too bad to do.

It would probably be best to do this right after hunting season ends because its gonna take some time to break that biomass down into rich soil. Its probably gonna take adding a decent amount of nitrogen to it as well to make it possible to do in a short period of time. I think what I’d do is to move the debris into the plot after hunting season and throw out some N onto it in the process….. then let it settle down for a while…..Once it warmed up enough I’d come back in with a heavy seeding of millet over the top and more N…..The reason for doing this is that a thick stand of something like millet over the top of the debris will be like putting a greenhouse roof over all of it. It’ll keep the conditions underneath warm, moist and rapidly decomposing. Once the first millet crop seeds out……cut it,,,add more N..... and grow another one.

Let me say that I’ve never done this before and its just an idea…..but I think it might be well worth trying on some of your smaller plots…..Just realize that a lot of debris is gonna really require you to throw the N on it for it to rapidly decompose. Try not to import a lot big woody debris and keep it to stuff like leaf litter and small understory growth. I think this would help get your smaller plots out of the hole a lot quicker than trying to grow the biomass needed in the beginning. It can be hard to do on small acreage when there’s even a moderate deer population present.

Putting the QDMA sub-forum back on the map like........... .............................

Is the guy who wrote that article related to Clint Eastwood?

I mentioned this briefly in another thread in the serious deer forum…….as if there’s such a thing around here……..but if there’s anyone out there with a high fence operation who wanted to try some new out of the box techniques…..I really would like to help someone introduce cattle or buffalo to the situation and see what kind of management results could come from it. It’s a pretty interesting idea because most management tools cost money……fire costs, herbicide costs, running heavy equipment cost…..etc, etc…….Cattle or buffalo would be a management tool though that made money in the end and eliminated the need for many of those other accrued costs. I’m sure it would require some trial and error to get a feel for how many would be needed and any unforeseen problems that may arise…..but it would be a very cool thing to see if it worked out like I believe it could. Instead of rotating the buffalo herd around with hot wire and such like with mob grazing…..you would just let them run wild inside of the high fence and manage the understory the same way they did the great plains for centuries…..allowing them to freely move from one area to another according to their needs and the level of the vegetation……This is where some tweaking would be required to find the number of animals that wasn’t too much or too little to accomplish the desired objectives…....Just an idea in case anyone with the means to do such is reading along……..

A couple other thoughts to add to the high fence buffola/cow idea before moving on……I’d imagine one of the first things that will pop into someone’s mind when reading this is…..”Won’t the buffalos/cows reduce the amount of vegetation available to the deer?”……This is just an educated guess but I’d say no….Why?.....Because deer are browsers and cattle/buffalo are grazers…..While there will be come overlap of species that each one consumes…..your grazers are gonna be hitting many of the species that deer do not use…such as your grasses. Also, the increase in soil fertility that would obtained from managing succession with a cow or boffola herd versus other means that may be currently used….that increase in soil fertility would cause a subsequent in increase in forage production and quality…..I’ve been told from folks who mob graze ranches in the Midwest that are also used for hunting purposes that the deer herd follows in behind the cattle herd as they move it around the ranch…..cattle move off of a paddock and the deer immediately flock to it to feed on the new growth.

In a high fence environment I would think that the cow or boffola herd would move themselves around just like they did in the great plains…..They would not stay in one spot until the vegetation looked like a typical cattle pasture…..they would feed on the tips of the plants that are highest in energy, trample down some of the veg, deposit manure, and then move on…..They would constantly revolve around the property setting back succession, fertilizing the landscape, and improving the soil quality. The key would be figuring out how many is needed and then selling off the excess as they produced offspring. I’m sure there are some specialty restaurants like the one that opened awhile back in Boaz who would welcome a local source of buffalo meat. How cool would it be though to go deer hunting and have a herd of wild boffola roam through during your hunt. I wonder if you could offer a few special hunts for the ones you thin out over time?

What ever happened to the beefalo? It was the craze in the early 90’s

Holy Chit batman... Your shot out with your ideas, i swear you are. Keep tinkerbelling your food plots all you want, but don't degrade good cattle with your wierd ass thoughts. Farmers been over seeding pastures for winter grazing humpteen years.. So you can't steal that idea and make your own, like everything else. Wow is all i can say

What the hell are you evening talking about…..”Overseeding pastures???”…. I’m talking about the principles and concepts behind mob grazing cattle….also called rotational grazing……..


https://www.beefmagazine.com/pasture-range/ranchers-sing-praises-mob-grazing-cattle

Yea no chit, I do this for a living, I know just a little bit about rotational grazing. But I promise you it’s different here than the mid west. But your saying you wanna turn cattle loose in a high fence and see how the deer react to the bio mass they leave behind. That’s nuts man, I honestly think you rub one out at night thinking about TnM. Your blowing smoke out your ears, it’s all you ever try to push on here is some dumb stupid shucks. Like the coyote trails and why they follow them etc. They go where the food and cover is. It’s that simple. So is this TnM. Spread any winter grazing seed and it’ll grow with rain. It’s not magic, it’s plain ole simple GD common sense. So stop spinning it and trying to be all professional about it. Its just throwing out seed........

I’m with ya. Holy chit where the Tylenol. 🤣🤣🤣

Well........bye..........

Your mangina will get hurt again soon enough. You’ll stomp around get all pissy. Say you’re gone. Then magically you’ll be back.

Just doing a little more reading........Here's one more link taking about the idea of mob grazing and wildlife management for anyone interested......This is a good subject to read about even if its not something you plan to do...It helps you see how the concepts are all the same even if we apply them in different ways......

Not sure why this doesn't directly link you to the article....If you want to read all of it just copy and paste the address into your browser and it'll pull it right up........


https://theeagle.com/landandlivestockpost/mob-hit-grazing-cattle-to-boost-whitetail-deer-numbers/article_3f2ca5f9-c86c-5604-a065-ebd3abaee741.html#:~:text=%22I%20can%20say%20that%20mob,green%20growth%20that%20deer%20relish.

Deer improvement

We high-fenced the property in 2000 and in 2010, we started mob grazing," Addison said. "By 2012, deer with maximum antler scores of 208 inches were harvested. In 2014, 10 bucks scoring more than 190 inches and five with more than 200 inch antlers were identified. The largest buck was harvested and scored 254 6/8 Boone and Crockett gross. Our deer currently have more antler mass and points than anytime during the 14 years of being in the hunting business. We also have more deer than before. Was mob grazing responsible for the improved deer population? "I can say that mob grazing of cattle has improved deer habitat," Addison said.


Mob grazing allows me to impact everything growing in a given area, which creates a more diverse plant community. Cattle break and tramp down brush promoting sprouting of new green growth that deer relish.There is very little woody plant understory in our native hardwood groves due to the cattle. The result is a mixture of grass, forbs and sprouts which entice the cattle and deer to feed in these areas. Deer on the Addison ranch eat only native vegetation. There are no food plots or supplemental protein feeding. Corn is fed during hunting season to make the deer more visible. Wildlife on the ranch is cared for through management, not money.

Cattle improvement

The same principle of low-cost management is utilized in the cattle enterprises also. There are no purchases of feed, hay, fertilizer or cattle insecticides.



Alright moving on........Let's get back to planting food plots.......

There is a guy in Louisiana about to do this exact thing on his high fence. He has all native deer and already kills deer over 200 inches. He feeds protien year round and plants over 50 acres of summer plots. He doesnt disk, has a roller crimper to terminate growth and just drills his seed through the weed mat. And now he is about to put cattle in for the reason CNC is talking about. A well known wildlife biologist came to his place and said it would be the best thing he could do to improve his property. I really didnt think there was anything he could do to make his property an better than it was, but he is going to do this.