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Jeff in TX
Posts: 2,641 Senior Member
Tried something new on food plot prep
Jeff in TX
Posts: 2,641 Senior Member
Usually I wait until after Labor Day or just before depending on the first good rain to disk the food plots and then a week or so before Oct to plant them. We haven’t had any real rain since mid May as the drought has been epic this summer. My tank is down three plus feet!
I cut all the dried and dead grasses and what have you two weeks ago. I notice when I made a turn the wheels on the mower deck broke up the ground a bit. I thought to myself the ground has to be hard as concrete. This week I saw a few farmers disking and turning over their fields. This morning it was pretty nice out and before it got too hot I said why not let’s give it a try.
Oh my gosh, the disks cut into the hard dirt two to four inches down and plowed it like I was using a high speed rototiller. One pass is all it took to break up the ground nicely. Usually I make three or four passes to accomplish what I did in one pass. All seven food plots are almost ready. I'll still wait a few days after the first good rain to disk one more time then fertilize and plant in mid to late Sept. But this has been so much easier.
I cut all the dried and dead grasses and what have you two weeks ago. I notice when I made a turn the wheels on the mower deck broke up the ground a bit. I thought to myself the ground has to be hard as concrete. This week I saw a few farmers disking and turning over their fields. This morning it was pretty nice out and before it got too hot I said why not let’s give it a try.
Oh my gosh, the disks cut into the hard dirt two to four inches down and plowed it like I was using a high speed rototiller. One pass is all it took to break up the ground nicely. Usually I make three or four passes to accomplish what I did in one pass. All seven food plots are almost ready. I'll still wait a few days after the first good rain to disk one more time then fertilize and plant in mid to late Sept. But this has been so much easier.
Distance is not an issue, but the wind can make it interesting!
John 3: 1-21
John 3: 1-21
Replies
My real issue are the cows. As soon as any green shoots come up they're feasting on them. This year I'm going to use T-post and two lower stands of galvanized wire and a top strand of barb wire and make smaller food plots within the larger food plots. Planning on planting turnips, peas and clover in the smaller plots. These will be 100' x 40' or so, not too big but there will be six of them around the ranch. This will keep the cows out and hopefully bring and keep the deer in. Two of them will also have protein feeders with hog wire around them to keep the cow and pigs out. Thinking outside the box a bit this year!
John 3: 1-21