Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Throw n Mow Q&A

I messed up this year by backing off on the amount of acreage that I plant here on my home property. I had to plant mostly wheat because of the rye shortage and its not putting out nearly as much growth looking at my exclusion cage. The combination of less growth and less acreage has the 2 acres I did plant taking a beating. I sure hope we're able to get cereal rye again next year.

You probably need to stack up your does like cordwood. Then your plots will be pretty. Bucks will be much, much bigger too....

I have a question about fertilizer with the rain coming in tomorrow night. I have some 33-0-0 to put out. Will I be OK putting it out tomorrow if the fields are still wet? I do not have a lot of time but also don't want to damage the fields.

As long as the grass is dry you are fine. Just don't do it while there is dew still on it.

The rain will wash it off if any sticks to the leaves of the plant...….I'm just not sure how long it could stay on it before burning it. I honestly think you would be fine but take that with a grain of salt.

It will burn immediately whatever sticks. But it will recover just fine. I'd rather burn just a bit to ensure rain cut it in.

I've spread 33-0-0 many times in the fog or on damp grass and the only sign of burning a week later was where I ran over grass that had been fertilized. So make single passes and avoid splitting the middles.

The fertilizer is out so come on rain.

As wet as it is, you don't want rain,it's already melted..

How many pounds per acre are yall doing on the 33-0-0?

I always do 100lbs/acre.

CNC, what's the latest on your test plots? How are they looking this year? My year 1 t&m plots have done well but they're getting absolutely mowed down by the deer. I wish I had set out exclusion cages.

Wish i would have gone heavier on the seed rate this year. My fields just are not as full as years past. The turkeys did not help either. I think they are half of the seed. Deer are eating them for sure though. I wish I would have put out some exclusion cages.

It always helps to go heavy. Seed is cheap enough, and I'm not planting enough acreage for it to put a dent in the budget. Wheat is $7 for a 50lb bag. That's cheap insurance.

I'll take some pics soon....been out of town visiting family and just getting back in. My test plot established itself great. However, I only planted the back two acres this year. That combined with the fact that I'm having to grow wheat instead of cereal rye has them eaten down a lot more than usual. I should have went ahead and planted about 4 acres. I've got 15+ does in here on a regular basis and they're just wearing it out.

We planted a lot on the new lease this year with T&M as well and its doing really good. It was extremely thick with bahia grass though and that's really opened my eyes up to nitrogen tie up with heavy biomass crops. We've had to continually hit it with N since planting to keep the wheat from running N deficient. I'm gonna change my game plan a little moving forward and try to have a smaller crop of biomass going into fall planting...Hopefully we'll be able to go back to cereal rye next year and think that'll really help as well.

My fields got a little taller then I wanted due to earlier planting but they are eat down to 1-2" now. I hit them with nitrate yesterday and took some pics. I'll post pics in a week or so after it takes effect and show the side by side comparison.

I planted the same amount of acreage as usual but my plots just have not been able to keep up. After reading some of the othe other comments about experiencing the same thing. Is more because of all the rain and the fertilizer leaching so much?

The rain and warmer weather have really helped to give the food plots a boost. The test plot is keeping up with browsing pressure much better now. I had 16 does and little ones on the field yesterday evening…….

My plots are yellow. I'm thinking since the spots are in low areas they must have been drowning.