Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum My biggest frustration with throw and mow

Thanks CNC

Me too. But in reality I'm betting that it would probably make the deer feel more secure when feeding.

It isn’t as if deer have historically made a living only eating off manicured fields. There’s little difference between that plot with standing dead vegetation and a burned section full of forbs.

The only problem with what I did that year was having to run through 7-8 ft tall dog fennel……That’s why I started mowing once around the first of July…..If all you gotta do is come back through and broadcast seed at planting time….you can get a lot done in a hurry that way

May have already been said, but do you broadcast before cutting, or after ?

Before

If you read that book I posted you’ll see that the way the Japanese farmer rotated crops was by broadcasting seed into his current crop about 2 weeks ahead of harvest……He basically let it germinate under the canopy of the current crop and then “released” it by harvesting……That’s what got me to thinking that if he could germinate his crops that way then I should be able to do the same by just broadcasting into my summer growth…..and if its only knee high or so then there’s really no need to have to release it from an over topping canopy by mowing….It should be fine until the first frost completely terminates any remaining summer veg that isnt already petered out…..That’s exactly what we’ve done this year.....If it works out well its how I'll probably plant from now on.....Its just easy peezy that way

I'm considering trying this on a small field I have next year. Work out the kinks and maybe try it out on some larger ones later.

It does seem easier than spray, mow, disc broadcast, and drag. It also seems better for the soil.

Start preparing for it in the spring……One of the biggest downfalls folks have with it is deciding on a whim that they want to try T&M when fall planting time comes around and their fields are not in the condition to be successful…….If you really want it to have the best chance or working…..hit your fields with some N late in the season around early Jan so hopefully you get a nice stand of mature cereal grains grow out in the spring…….It would be better to hit them a little later but early Jan will get you a boost for late season hunting……Once the cereals mature in May, mow them down over your soil surface…….If your field is really infertile and barely grows anything during the summer then you’ll want to hit it with some more N around June to give it a boost so that you have some hay at the end of the summer……This isnt something you’ll have to do every year but many times this is going to be required to get poor fields out of the hole……You cant just wait until fall and broadcast seed onto a crusty soil surface with no hay to cover it and expect it to work

This is my little 1/3ac plot. I’ve been doing throw and mow only for 5 years here. This is prior to planting two weeks ago. The grasses are knee high. I did not spray them this year because I have millet and sorghum finally trying to regrow(which I planted the same way in July before it turned dry). There’s also a bunch of 6” chicory I finally got going. I broadcast seed and mowed it down to 4” with my Super Z mower. Deck all the way up in half strips one way, then dropped to 4” and did the same perpendicular.


This is after mowing. Turkeys might find some seed but I couldn’t see any. I also increase the planting rate by half for loss.

Kept a shot from the plot in March with the exclusion cage for comparison. This plot stays lip high all season. Couple of my resident does from 3 weeks ago. I try to never clear the table for these girls.

Your exclusion cage really tells the story in that last pic…….its tough to produce biomass in small fields due to the browsing pressure……Are you adding nitrogen during Dec/Jan??

How could i keep perennial rye grass from taking over everything in the plot using this method?

Help me understand what you're asking......How would this method allow rye grass to take over compared to conventional methods.....This isnt something I've had an issue with so others may have to help answer your question

Yes. I add a bag of 34-0-0 in the second half of December ahead of a rain. I had to add chicken wire to the bottom of that cage. The turkey were sticking their heads through and eating from inside it also😂

I’ve never had a problem with perennial rye down in my area. I let it go to seed and then knock it down in July. I plant cereal rye every year so a little more wouldn’t hurt either way.

Back to your turkey problem. I planted a couple of fields Saturday and put out feeders. The corn is getting a lot more attention than the oats

All the years of that perennial rye going to seed every spring has a bazillion seeds in the seed bank now. Every year you disk the ground, turns up new seed close to the surface to germinate, and you get more rye grass growing. I tried this and it worked until "somebody else" couldn't help but go back to disking every year and the rye grass persists on today.

Spray gly in Feb or early March to kill this year's rye before it has a chance to seed out. The field will look like surface of the moon going into spring/ summer which isn't great, but you have to start somewhere if you want to stop growing rye grass. Depending on your soil fertility, field moisture, money and time, you could overseed in spring with some small seed summer crop such as millet to get something growing and have some "hay" for fall. You may have enough other summer seed in the seed bank that will germinate and grow for you though. you could also do like CNC recommends and fertilize this summer growth to get more "hay". Then spread your seed in fall and mow down the summer growth on top of your seed. Don't disturb the seed bank with a disk and it will keep the existing rye seed buried deep enough to not germ.

Our place is in north pike county. The soil on our place is sandy, rocky and very very poor. I’ve been following Dr. Woods and his no-till food-plot methodology. It makes sense but I can’t commit to buying a drill at the prices I’ve been seeing plus I’m not sure how effective it would be in the rockier areas. We plan on going to the throw and mow method and see what kind of results we can achieve by doing this. As a side note, my house is 9 years old and so is my centipede lawn. The top soil that I have built in my yard from weekly cutting during growing season is surprising. If we can achieve similar results on a plot by not disturbing the soil and growing plenty of biomass, I believe we can have much better return on our investment

If you’ll do what you gotta do to produce some big crops of biomass like this to get started you’ll build some topsoil in a hurry….Once you get the ball rolling then these methods will work much better for you……This was one of my spring cereal grain crops from 2017……If you’re just getting started this is what you want to try and produce in the spring for at least a couple rotations......This is where those periodic nitrogen applications help out

It's a timber co lease, which is part of the problem. They sprayed this summer, and bascially killed 125 acre's of clear cut growth that was just starting to get good, and in the process, took out 4 of the fields I had planted because of wind drift.

If I had 2 fields that were 2 acres, I could do a lot, it would give me enough space that it withstanding browse pressure would be good. The problem I have with smaller fields is it only takes a couple deer hitting them every day to wear them down. Spring planting windows are narrow too. If I don't have peas in the ground by the first of May, they won't get up high enough before the deer find them and wipe them out. Sunn Hemp is awesome, if I can get it up and going. It needs to be a foot tall and then it takes off.

I have them covered in the winter and coming out of the rut, crimson clover stays viable into May. The whitetail clover into mid july or later if we get rain. It's that august thru october time. This year has been awful. I have deer hitting greenfields with nothing in them looking for anything to eat. Losing 125 acres of clear cut forbes hurt. Next year it will be better.

We can't feed either.

We are gonna see next spring, I have all my fields planted now, and still have 400 pounds of cereal rye I am going to go back in and broadcast in a month. Still have Nitrogen too.

Hopefully no frost this week, so the brassica's get going, otherwise I need a new plan on them.