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

The warm weather has my T&M fields taking off. I was wanting to put some lime on them. Is now a ok time to do this? I have a lot of clover in them. Should I do anything else or just let it all grow?

Clover loves Lime so it want hurt a thing

Postseason wheat pic…….I still want my cereal rye back. I feel like it would have put out more growth. The field is perking up now but it was pretty eat down at the end of Jan……



Definitely gonna plant some more crimson clover where I have some heavier clay soil. They seemed to like it better than the cereal grains…I should have put a cage in this field too. It was heavily utilized. This was grown basically for free too. I originally sowed it last year and then grew it out to seed in the spring. This all came back from seed.

This area was just left in natural summer growth….a lot of dewberry and blackberry. The deer spent a lot of time browsing in here too. A lot more than you would have thought……..

You still out there CNC? Been awfully quiet here lately...

If i can get myself up on the morning to go chase turkeys, I’ll take a pic of my fields. I have not been there since deer season.

I'm still out here.....Been working on an addition to our back porch

I tried one year of T&M with little success. I’m going to give it another shot this year.

It works if you give it time and plant with good moisture in the future.

We have some sandy spots on our club in Barbour County and have had little success with traditional bush hog, plow, plant, cover. We have been doing throw & mow on those spots the last two years and have had better success. Hope it will improve a little each year. We spread seed & fert, then bush hog. Easy as that.

Too early to T&M some peas? getting out on the tractor mowing some clover this weekend and thought I may throw some ICP out before I mow a few other fields.

I usually wait till May, but as long as danger of frost is gone, sew away.

These fields did not do great during the year, but they are growing like crazy now. Lot of clover finally came up. I hope we can get cereal rye again next fall. Most of these will get millet, but the one by the pond I’ve posted before , I’m probably going with sun hemp to get some more biomass.

Toothdoc...….you've probably had clover well established the whole time but just didn't know it because the deer we're keeping it eat down to a nub. They've finally left it alone now and its had a chance to grow so that its visible. It didn't just establish itself....it has been established the whole time. I planted a pure stand of crimson clover behind my house and was amazed at how much they actually utilize it during the winter. It stayed eaten down to ground level with deer in it every single night.

I ran some turkeys out of one of them. Should have been turned hunting, but I’m enjoying being a food plot farmer more than hunting these days.

If you'll let those crimson clover heads get good and brown before you do any mowing then you'll have a lot come back from seed for free in the plots where its well established. I'm really considering cutting back on the amount of cereal grains I plant and instead just using mostly crimson clover in areas where the soil is right for it. It thrives in soils with a decent clay content compared to really sandy areas. In those spots I'll probably still go with a heavy dose of cereal rye. At our club land we have some big fields that used to be old pasture land where we can plant 8-10 acres in one area. We're in the process of getting the bahia grass under control so that we can establish the majority of it in clover with only an acre or two of heavier cereal grains. Long term maintenance and cost of growing the clover is much cheaper with a lot less labor involved compared to establishing cereal grains every year. The seed is free and doesn't really require anything other than I guess mowing in the fall to knock down the summer veg and make sure plenty of sunlight is getting to the ground.....possibly doing some grass control from time to time to keep it at a reasonable level.

starting to get a little brown on the heads... it was all a mute point because I had a flat on the tractor tire and the generator was acting up so I couldn't get it aired up today....

Hey CNC, got a question for you. We put our I&C peas this weekend and I was able to convince the other guys to give me one plot to try the throw and mow method in. It went great. Ended up running the cultipacker over it instead of mowing it. Question is, will it be possible to plant this plot in the fall using the throw and mow method? I don't see any possibility of getting the same thatch layer from the peas as we did with the wheat/rye from our fall planting. I know that is a question with a lot of variables. Thanks.

I'm not CNC, but I used throw and mow with WMS pea patch blend in two patches last year and fall T&M with wheat, rye, crimson clover, arrow leaf clover, rape, and turnips went just fine.

You will have plenty of weeds and grass fill in with the peas.