Thanks Stanley. Jordan actually likes land management part better than the hunting part. Now, I just need to get her on a tractor and I can retire!

Thanks Daron. That is super nice of you to say. We enjoy doing it and appreciate the comment and the support. Have a great day.

Thanks Steve. We appreciate the comment and the support.

Good video, I have a question. I’ve got about 3 acres total, all virgin ground. 2 acres were sprayed last summer and they don’t have much weed competition, the other side was not. We chisel plowed and disced it all, planning on corn in 2 acres and brassica and buck oats in the other. We are planting corn this weekend and I plan on planting the rest in July. Should I just spray the other side, then come back in July and plant? I just have a hand spreader to use.

Thanks Eric, we appreciate the comment and the support.

You are welcome. Thanks for the support and comment. Have a great day.

I think you will really like having a more centralized place to focus your efforts. Any deer passing through that area will likely end up on that plot for at least a few minutes. I have found that even just making an opening in the woods becomes a central travel route, much better though when there is clover there also. Good luck.

That sounds like a great, well balanced plan Bob. Thanks for the input. Like you, I want something that appeals to the deer at all times of the year. I do over-seed some bean/brassica plots with fall rye just for that reason - to create an early green crop for the deer in the spring. It is ideal to give them something that they like all year long. Good luck.

Thanks for the comment Jim and thanks for your support over the years. I hope you are doing well.

I have a new food plot - about 1.3 acres - in sandy soils. I plan on planting buckwheat over summer and planting something in fall and am not sure what to plant. Would you still recommend clover in this plot or something else? As always great topic and appreciate the content.

Thanks Clay. Much appreciated.

That is a great rotation for the south. Thanks for input. Have a great day.

Good input. Thanks. That kind of diversity in food sources is really great. Congrats on a good plan.

Good input. I will have to experiment more with peas. I tried them once in a fall blend with fall rye and the deer hammered them (ate them to the ground as soon as they came up), but I need to try them again maybe for a spring planting.

Good points Dave. I appreciate the input. Have a great day.

That is a good plan too Dan. I just like the brassicas because of the volume of forage they produce. Have a great day and thanks for the comment.

We do the same. However we tried beans the last few years and deer just ate the beans in 2 weeks. They have a preference for beans but pumpkin is a great plot.

We tried planting pumpkins around one of the plots last year and the deer ate them in late October/early November, but I had to smash one first to "show" them that it was edible. We are going to put pumpkins around a number of plots this year. Good input.

Good luck. As for the variety, the smaller sugar pie I think are the best. I'm gonna put mine in about the 10th.

Good point. Being primarily a bowhunter, I am most interested in October and November. But adding brassicas to part of the plot doe produce a good winter food also. The cereal rye is fine too, but the amount of tonnage (volume) of forage is much less than the brassicas. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.

Thanks for the comment. I do a little bit of fall rye overseeded into my bean plots each year. I think it would not get enough sunlight if I spread it in the corn and sorghum plots, however. Have a great day.

Sounds like a great plan. We are going to add pumpkins on the edges of more and more of our plots now. They are fun to grow!

Travis, I have made many of them too. I call them "Poor Man's Plots" because you can make them so inexpensively. I bet I have made at least eight of those over the years. And yes, you appreciate having young guys around to help! I even did an episode about this process on this channel. You can see it here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ep-SYLenvN6uXX0.html Have a great day.

@@bill-winke you're the man, thanks!

Brad, for sure. That is a good plan. I don't till much either - just to get my new plots into shape and to incorporate nitrogen sometimes with corn. You can do something very similar by just broadcasting brassicas into the beans in late summer. You can't crimp them the next spring, but the result is still the same - lots of forage for the deer during the times when they need it most. It will be a while before many people really embrace crimping, but I understand the benefits. For most people, they have small plots and it doesn't justify a lot of equipment (sometimes it can be done very well with no equipment). Thanks for the input.

@@bill-winke great points. We are still doing it like you describe as we can’t afford the new equipment either. We mainly stick to rye and clover blends and may add some radish and peas in the fall for winter. Moisture has been a problem for us as it gets enough rain to germinate in fall but we tend to have a dry spell leading into winter

Jack, that is a really good plan. Anytime you can seed something into your soybeans you create a two layer plot that serves the deer much better. Good input and good plan. Good luck to you too.

Yes, if you are willing to fence them, it is hard to beat beans - especially if you broadcast a brassica blend into them in August. That works very well. I do that without a fence, but not on just one acre (at least not in an area with higher deer numbers). Good luck.

You do have low deer numbers. Even on my farm with roughly 60 deer per square mile the only thing left in that plot would be the clover and the brassicas and even the brassicas would show pretty heavy browsing pressure. Thanks for the comment.

I appreciate the comment. Have a great day.

With something that small, it is hard to get anything to grow that the deer really love when it is coming up. I would still probably stick with clover, but maybe experiment with a few other things like chicory (I have limited experience with chicory). I do think it is pretty browse tolerant. I think clover in rotation with brassicas and maybe some fall rye would be the ticket there. Good luck.

Nate, I have never factored turkeys into my management or food plot plans. I guess I am just so focused on deer. But that is an interesting take. Thanks for the input.

I agree, but it is super hard to predict what the winter will be like, so I still like to have at least some grains. I think soybeans are good option for the "grains" since the deer really seem to go to them in mild weather and corn in really cold weather. Good luck.

She is a good sport. That was kind of mean of me!

I would sure think anything high in protein would be key. Just like dairy cows. Farmers feed dairy cows a lot of high protein foods to increase the amount and quality of the milk they produce. So, with that in mind, I would sure lean toward the clovers and the alfalfas as they are very high in protein and high digestible. They hammer soybean leaves at that time too, but they are not quite as nutrient dense as clover and alfalfa. Good luck.

Joe, I think that is a good choice. I have tried it and my deer don't seem to care for chicory that much, but some areas it is really attractive. Also chicory does well in dry years so having it in the blend is good for that reason (just in case).

I am not sure if the natural seeds will produce a new planting. My guess is that the rye seeds will be muscled out by the other stuff that is already there. I don't think you need to terminate it. You can let it go to seed and die naturally. I do think if it is thick, it will shade out the clover though. I mowed my small patches this past week. I did run out a couple fawns but that was all. I sure didn't hit any. As you say, it is OK to let the deer eat the weeds first but if they become too tall or too thick they will damage (set back) the clover seeding. Good luck.

That sounds like a great plan. Thanks for the input. Corn in small plots will work in areas with lower deer numbers but the deer would wipe it out in the summer in areas with higher numbers.

@@bill-winke half the time the bears and raccoons get the corn by Sept. Bears like beets too. Our summer deer density drops as they move closer to the farms and lower ground. We don't see many until after frost and mast starts falling. Thanks for the great videos. Looking forward to the apple tree updates

I would not mix them. Separate plantings is best.

You too Edward. Thanks.

Dr. Grant Woods has a blend I used last spring that matched your description.

I have planted sorghum in the spring for the deer to eat in the fall. That works well here, but in some areas with higher deer density the deer will eat the seed in September (as soon as it starts to take shape and turn doughy). That leaves none for the fall and winter. I think if you are trying to create cover within a plot, nothing beats corn. If the deer numbers are high, you may not be able to do that without fencing (electric fence) in the spring and summer, but deer will disappear in that stuff. In states where it is legal, you can knock it down to create shooting lanes and the deer will use those heavily for feeding. Good luck.

I think for anything over one acre beans would be a consideration. The nice thing about beans is the fact that if the deer do wipe them out (or part of the plot), you can broadcast brassicas into those open spots in August and still have a good food source there. For that reason it is worth the risk on anything bigger than one acre. Good luck.

clover

I agree with George. The trees won't dry it up, in my experience. Alsike clover is known for tolerating wetter than normal soils. You can try a blend like the Imperial Whitetail Clover first to see if the other white clovers will do OK there, but if that fails, you can go back and forth between straight plantings of Dwarf Essex Rape (which seems to do OK in wet conditions) and alsike clover. Good luck.

Thanks Bill. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

I planted some of the Whitetail Institute Power Plant blend last spring. That has sun hemp in it, but I have not gotten very deep into experimenting with it. Thanks for the comment.

Steven, I think part of your question got cut off. It is never a bad plan to spread rye (cereal not ryegrass) in the late summer unless the planting is already too thick for the seed to get to the ground and germinate and then find sunlight. I don't spread fall rye in clover plantings but I do spread it into soybean plots. Good luck.

You can do a good job with just a backpack sprayer to kill the weeds and then a broadcast spreader like the Earthway to spread seed, fertilizer and lime (if needed). I have planted tons of plots that way. Here is a link to an episode we did about this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ep-SYLenvN6uXX0.htmlsi=QzuDu4SuDZuBw5s7

Poor Jordan. She is a great sport. I have just been seeing this work (and not work) for 29 years. That means I have made a lot of mistakes.

@bill-winke Bill, what I love is how she listens to you and asks pertinent questions from topics you discussed prior. I can tell she respects and loves you so much. I have 4 daughters, and I love to watch you guys. I hope my daughters look up to me as much as she does to you. I watch lots of videos and have my own channel, and your channel is my favorite.

Daniel, I think it is definitely less than that on bigger pieces. I think ten to 15 percent would be a good goal on bigger pieces. But on the smaller tracts, food will be the main thing that makes your property attractive so ten acres of food on a 40 acre tract would probably be about right. But in the end, the number of acres of food has a lot to do with the neighborhood. If there is very little standing food in the area, the deer will come to yours a lot more than otherwise. Also, if no one is shooting does, you will get flooded with does. It is a really tough situation when trying to manage deer with high densities. I would try to form some kind of co-op with more emphasis put on shooting does than on what size bucks people should shoot. You need to find ways to get the deer numbers under control or any amount of food is too little. The other option is to fence the plots and not take the wires down until fall. I don't like that either because the deer are going to be in poorer shape in general when they are food deprived. The only real answer is to get the herd numbers down and keep them down. Good luck.

I am doing it every year now. Takes out the guesswork. Good luck.

That is a good question. They are generally dry so something drought tolerant. Possibly alfalfa and chicory. Both are drought tolerant. Whitetail Institute makes the Alfa-Rack Plus blend that includes both. I am trying it on one of my dry ridge fields this year. Here is a link to more information: whitetailinstitute.com/alfa-rack-plus/

I will be checking on them soon. The deer hit them pretty hard last winter so I will be curious if they are bouncing back. I will do an update once I find out.

I like Grant and his release system is fine, but it isn't that much different from a simple no till system. In my part of the country the soil is pretty good so I just use normal farming practices. Eventually I may try to adopt more of the sustainable farming practices.

@@bill-winke gotcha. We are in the Appalachian mnts in Virginia. With poor soil and steep slopes, the release process is needed a lot of the time. Somewhere like Iowa though is different.

That is a good point. If the deer can find browse along the way to the plots they will enter the plot with less demand for calories. Example, which is better for long-term food plot sustainability - deer that enter the plot with their stomachs half full or deer that enter with their stomachs 1/4 full? We all know the answer to that. Thanks for the input.

@@bill-winke I really think cool season grasses are the enemy. You know mother nature will plug all the holes. Kill the grass and here comes the good stuff. I think it safe to safe no matter how much we kill plenty will always return. Only downside is when food is everywhere the deer can be everywhere but that is probably a big plus in fawning season.

Exactly. We sure learned that last fall!

Thanks ShadowDawg. We appreciate the support and comment.