I have a relatively small 17 acre parcel in SW Wisconsin and struggled like everyone else to strike the right balance of time / money. I try to limit my annual costs to about the $600 range (it was half that ten years ago). At this point I have two plots that are about 1 acre total - after spring turkey hunting and lime spreading (the best time to fix your ph by planting season in August) I don’t set foot on the property until the 3rd or 4th week in July. I rent a walk behind brush hog (I can rent one for ten plus years and it still would not equal cost of buying one for a once a year use) and bust @$$ for 6 hours mowing all the plots. I come back in 1-2 weeks and spray gly while hand broadcasting the first phase of seeds. A week before the opener has me throwing down the second seeds (mostly winter rye and buckwheat) and then after collecting my trail cam cards / final fine tuning of the stands I don’t set foot on the property until my first hunt. No I don’t have perfect food plots but what I do have is a perfect spring fawning property and most weeds have finished their seeding life (ie this concept alone will drive you nuts fighting it all year). What is left sprouts in the 1-2 weeks after mowing really gets impacted by the gly since it is in such a vulnerable / weakened state. All that ground up mowing residue has degraded perfectly for retaining moisture / covers the seeds while they germinate without smothering them. If there is drought then the last preseason buckwheat and rye seeding will save the day. Not perfect but I’m not there to feed the deer all year - they have more than enough food all summer - I also have extra time to spend with the family - you never get that time back….

I'm a NW Lower MI sand farmer too. Switch to NT and crimping last year. The results from the drill are incredible. The results from crimping, as far as a weed control, was disappointing. Mare's Tail (or whatever you call it) is the bane of my foodplot existence. I got my thistle under control by adding 1 qt 2,4d to my gly application. Every year there seems to be a new pestilence invading my fields! Keeps things interesting and increases my respect for the farmers who make a living on this type of work! Oh, and kudos for the drill calibration video, that helped me to understand the calibration on my 505. Thanks!

Great content! Loved the overview of your no-till journey.

Good Moring Mark!!! Good Info!! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the fine content. I like the mix that Dr. Grant Woods (Growing Deer TV) uses. It gives the deer a lot of variety and does a good job on the soil. Good luck this fall.

Thank you so much for sharing your “ real life” experience with us. Very helpful.

Great video as always Mark. Funny, I'm also planting clover from Northwoods Whitetail throughout all my plots. I noticed the same as you did with last years lite over seeding of red clover doing well and choking out the weeds. Good luck and thank you for the videos!!

Great video. I too am in my fourth and now fifth fall of no till food plots. I too have drought almost every year and Sandy Lely soil and have experience exactly what you were talking about with the dry soil and weeds.

Spot on video. Good luck with your current experiment.

Another helpful video. You save us so much trial & error. What is smallest & largest seed you can plant with your tar river equipment?

My suggestion is to separate your feed plots from your kill plots. Feed plots consisting of soybeans are fantastic if they don’t get over browsed before the get established. I use clover as my go to for kill plots. The clover plot must be large enough to support the deer until winter stunts it’s growth but the deer will hammer it all fall during early hunting season. The only thing better than clover is alfalfa so also consider it as well but much harder to grow. FYI, planting feed corner is a no no if you get caught the seed company might make your life miserable….. good luck love your common sense approach!

Great video, I am NoTill Planting this weekend in NY myself in my small plots . Feeling all your points 👨🏻👍🏼

Great update Mark, I agree theres times weed control needs to part of your plan or youll pay for it the following season.

I switched over to clover in all my plots with an August planting of forage radishes and annual clovers. September planting of rye over the clover. All no till. My clover is a great weed suppressant once it thickens up. Good luck this year!

Great video and thank you for all of the information. I live in SE Michigan and my property is exactly like yours: 38 acres sand/loam. I am also no-till working hard on building organic content. I have not found any way around using gly. Good ideas with the clover. I have noticed some of the same with clover on my property. I have had really good luck with Cereal Rye in the sand this last year, planted in August. I also recommend John comp at Northwood Whitetail. Great guy.

Great share my friend of what you think will work

Thought-provoking video Mark. I’m interested in knowing what setting you will be using for the corn, soybeans and Sorghum? I purchased a Saya 505 last winter to no-till my heavy clay based food plots. I just planted soybeans using setting #2. I use clover around the fruit trees in my plot. . It helps in deterring groundhogs from hitting the beans.

Mark....great info. What did you use to control the mares tail? thanks, Bob

I’m with ya buddy I like the no till but I haven’t been able to make it work without some occasional herbicide applications

Like you it's a daunting experience. I have a no till drill and crimper but still face the same issues as you. Those weed seeds will always be there. You'll never not have weeds without spraying. Smother crops make you feel really good till you terminate them and then all of a sudden here come the weeds. No till looks great initially then over time you'll have weeds coming up in your rows from just that bit of ground disturbance. Supposedly spraying is kill the good bacteria and fungi which is not ideal, but neither is a ton of weeds. Not sure there is a good answer for food plotters unless you're ok with weedy plots.

Hi Mark.....Thanks for a Great video on your experiences with the drill. Your results are close to what I experience here in Northern MN on sandy land. I do have. crimper but last year I never used it....electing to use Glyphosate as well (In July) and then flail mowed the rye....which worked pretty good. (The clover persisted through the glyphosate application.) I do plant red and white clovers on all 7 acres of food plots each year. I do get good clover carryover each year....but add a few lbs of each when drilling in my rye in late August. I also need to kill that clover to grow brassica....as I find the clover outcompetes my attempts at brassica. Just yesterday I drilled some North Woods Whitetail Sorghum into some strips in the clover plots to get some added cover and create biomass. As always...experimenting for the future. Your results are so similar to mine.....and I thank you for putting this up on your channel my friend.

Use humus to spray on food plot Keller Homestead just south of Ionia can provide. I spray on my sweetcorn.

Kind of like swirch grass, perennial clover will win when mowing the weeds from the top. Planting tall grain crops into it takes away the mowing option. That said, I'm in the process of converting FP into mostly clover, just seeded 1/2 perennial, the other half hoping for natural reseeded crimson and red. Relatively sparse Winter Rye has more time to grow yet a bit north of you. Perfect timing of rains right now to (hopelly) to get clover germ before mowing the rye and whatever weeds. Only planning a Winter Rye overseeding in late summer.

Last Spring, I didn’t have any success with “no spray, broadcast, cultipacking no-till planting on my winter rye cover crop. Buckwheat came up, but with the drought last year, It dried up and became very sparse…much like conventional planting. I switched back to conventional planting (spray, fertilizer, till, seed, and roll it in). The soil moisture content with no-till was no different than conventional planting.

Any regrets on the tar river planter? Thinking of getting one

Good info. I have a Tar River as well and yes weeds are still a problem. I like the clover idea. I have denser soil and am having a problem getting good depth with the soybeans but can't afford a heavier drill so I just keep plodding along. Really don't like spraying but might have to after all.

Mark, do yourself a favor and invest in the crimper, put the sprayer back in storage. No need to feed the deer, you, or your family more glyphosate! If you are compelled to spray a little check out Contact Organics. I just ordered a gallon to experiment with. Thx

I just planted soybeans with a little bit of Milo. When the leaves fall off the soybeans I'm going to try to plant some either brassica or clover. Kind of the same theory that you're going with.

So, you are drilling in the corn, soybeans, oats and clover all in the same pass? You will then come back in a few days and spray? Is this correct?

I spray at spring then in the late to mid summer. Then I'll seed after it dies I'll also frost seed too. I've never sprayed them seed not long after spraying

Deer like the clover because they prefer a forb over a grass like rye. Also what was your Organic matter 5 years ago to what it is now doing no till practice?

Thistle is hard to kill. I’ve had good luck with a herbicide called Crossbow. The downside is that you must wait 3 weeks to plant after spraying.

Your food plot looks awesome! Take a look at the Packer Maxx Crimper Combo. It is $1,324.99. I just used it for the first time and it worked very well for me in South Carolina. You can pull it with a 4-wheeler, UTV, or tractor. Thanks for the video's.

The corn 🌽will love the Clover if it can jump up above it !! That clover ☘️will pump Nitrogen into the growing corn and suppress the weeds 👍🏼👍🏼

Mark, love it! You’re a great lab for the rest of us. I think you are exactly right about several things: 1. Drills (I rent a no-till drill) were a game changer for germination in my sandy soil, it’s amazing. 2. Weed control is essential and I learned that from seeing a spot you missed with herbicide last year. I also thought my crop would outcompete weeds, wrong! I’m spraying for now and it makes the diff. I don’t have a crimper either. 3. Three years in (3 falls and 3 springs) and each successive crop has been better than its predecessor, so I’m making progress. Soil is getting darker and improving. 4. I started no-till with my first fall crop being broadcasted, no bueno. Also, my first couple of summer crops dried up and died, the soil had no cover and it dried out quickly. You are a few years ahead of us, but it’s a fun journey and I like the way you scientifically think. My other challenges are different: 1) yaupon is a woody weed that makes either a closed canopy forest impassable or a pasture is overcome and useless, 2) feral hogs love my food plots, and 3) neighbors graze their pastures down to nothing, so their cows break in and have at least partially ruined my fall/winter crop each year - can’t wait to see what an unmolested fall crop looks like. I have also experimented with planting much more than the recommended amount of seed, and I like the results so far. Keep it coming!

Anyone know where a drill can be rented in s.e. michigan, trouble finding any for rent nearby?

Is Marestail roundup resistant?

We still use lots of clover and chicory. Really like alfalfa puts down a deeper root , stays green in the summer and much more tonnage per acre. NE Mich . They like your old clover better because the root system has gotten deeper and is pulling more minerals out of the soil . We have a no till drill and sprayer for the price of roundup I have a hard time justifying the price of a crimper . No farms by me so our plots get hit hard

How is that Tar river drill holding up? Looking to get one myself. Also, where did you get yours? I'm near Traverse City and can't find any nearby.

Glyphosate does not completely kill clover. Initially I would lightly roto till after the spraying and bothstill didn’t kill it. Now I no till into it spring and fall. First year growing corn in 9-10’ rows. It’s growing well so far. Rye and oats can easily be no tilled into ghly sprayed or lightly tilled clover.

When do you spray and how many times a year? I'm starting year 2 of my property and weeds are just out of control!!!

So the drill you’re using is a drill but not a no-till drill? If so, you’re getting amazing results.

Dandelion problem in clover chicory????? Ideas??

2-4-DB will target weeds in clover plots, without harming clover, if that helps. Looking forward to this, just drilled 3 acres of clover mix this weekend, and have been beating the idea of later forage soybeans drilled into clover.

Yea..I’m gonna start disking and plowing again before my corn. So every third year will get plowed….Im gonna be a partially no till now. Main chemistry..cleth, buytrac, gly, s metolachlor

Milestone will fry thistle

Greens and grains. Sounds dynamite