It is a great match!

Thanks William!

Chris - Thanks for sharing. Most of us don't have cattle or fences to manage cattle. I agree that cows can be a great tool!

Excellent! Have fun and keep me posted!

Excellent!

Are broadcasting and then crimping over top?

You'd be better to plant the Summer Release and Fall release - in your rotation the Early Start Release blend doesn't seem to fit. Deer will likely hit the ag fields while they are standing but will likely use your plots as a staging area. Daylight activity has much to do with hunting pressure and location - distance from a bedding area.

Very cool! Let me know!

Patrick - if the soil includes clay or packs or crust over easily, then you are likely correct that the seeds may have been planted a bit deep. Small-sized seeds have limited onboard energy and can starve before they push through the soil and make leaves to photosynthesize.

Yes - most of the organic matter is root exudates and the roots themselves - and the biology or microorganisms they feed.

Brian - There's a bunch of good information at GreenCover.com. They also have good webcast and eblast with current information about cover crop practices!

Roundup only controls living plants - it needs leaf contact to be effective. If grasses are too mature, herbicides aren't as effective. It is best to start without weeds before planting a blend.

I've yet to see a "doe farm." Have you - or just areas where hunters didn't harvest enough does and did harvest to many bucks. Iowa is all food and no one complains about not having bucks - that passes young bucks and harvest does. Let's stick to the biology!

@@GrowingDeerTV I am actually talking about biology (deer). Does/Fawns are much more predictable than mature bucks. They have a much smaller range and frankly, are easy to hunt. If we provide year-round food, they will camp out and stay/bed close to the food. Mature does are the bullys of the deer woods and outside of the rut, mature bucks want nothing to do with them. This correlates with where mature bucks bed--and subsequent visible daylight movement. The farther away they bed, the less likely you will see them during daylight/legal shooting hours. Having a year-round "doe farm" is not because you shoot young bucks but because it is dominated by established, resident doe family groups. I absolutely want to have the most attractive property in later fall and early winter when all other food sources are drastically reduced. Not only do they not need "our food" during the summer, we inadvertently tell mature bucks they need to avoid the area. A tell-tale sign of a good property is daylight pictures of bucks. Night pictures of mature bucks may be fun to look at, but does nothing for legal harvesting. I want to do more than depend on the rut to have a mature buck cruise through---because he will do the same at my neighbors. I would rather have the big boy(s) see my property as a option for bedding --if I have year-round doe pressure/bedding close I am telling mature bucks they aren't welcome here.

Folks do grow cover crops in sandy soil! They aren't as productive the first year or two as in better soils, but if the principles of soil health are applied - no tillage, always covered, etc., the soils will heal!

Late next week! I'm excited!

Same here..I’m going the cultipacker route on my rye plots. I’m doing summer release.

I had the same problem. I didn't want to buy expensive farm equipment for two or three acres of plots, so I developed a food plot system that follows soil health principles and is cheap and simple.

We pay a neighbor with a drill to do it for us. The downside is the cost but the upside is no big outlay of cash to buy the equipment, no calibration, no storage...

We have several videos about using hand tools, fire, etc., The progress won't be as quick, but we've had good results!