>>>What about the other years? How was usage in your clover plots during that timeframe?<<<
It seems like a fall drought has just become normal at our place, so it's hard to say how much usage they get in a normal year. I checked one of the unfertilized clover only plots today and it was full of deer sign made since the rain. Nobody has even hunted near it this season. Here's a close picture of the clover:
![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/4d6Yc1Bx/PXL-20260124-163754876.jpg)
I think we would probably kill the same number of deer if I did all the plots like this. I'm sure they don't produce as much forage as the fertilized plots, but so what. I have nearly 40 acres of open land, so my situation is kinda unique. Good luck with your plots!
Is that as thick as yours gets or does it fill in over time?
It will get thicker and taller as the year goes by, and how soon depends a lot on the weather. Annual clover like this just doesn't make a whole lot of growth during cold weather, and the deer also keep it from getting very high. A higher seeding rate would make it thicker in January, but I'm not trying to attract deer to these plots.
If you are planting plots for the deer, I would say to fertilize them well and add some elbon rye to the clover. The plots we fix that way produce more forage for sure, but the deer still feed some in the clover only areas.
What rate did you plant that field?
It's really hard to say; this isn't a precise practice.
. Every year I buy a bag of arrowleaf, 3 bags of crimson, and mix them up in a wash tub. I use some at my house, some in a club I'm in, then take the rest to the farm. I put 10 pounds of clover per acre on the deer plots, along with a bag of rye and 4 to 6 bags of fertilizer, depending on what I can get. I was able to get T19 this year so it was 4 bags per acre.
Then what clover is left goes on the unfertilized turkey plots, and it's always a little different every year. I want to put out all of the seed I have left, so I do a little Jethro Bodine type cyphering and figure out how much to put per field. All I do to prepare the land is to single cut it with the disc, then I put out the seed with the ATV and a very old Moultrie spreader. That spreader is very imprecise so I figure out how many scoops of seed each plot should get and ride until the hamper is empty. I am not likely to win any farming awards for this method, but it gets the seed out.
I would guess that this year it was around 15 lbs per acre. I remember that when I first started doing this I wanted to put out 20 lbs per acre, but I'm covering more land now. There's also some reseeding happening, so I don't think I need as much seed as I did when I started.
I'm sure you would want to use a more intensive and precise practice if you go to clover-only in some of your plots, but maybe this gives you some ideas on what is possible.
