2014 Food Plot Update

A Favorite Picture

Black Bear Problems Again

Welcome to the 2014 Food Plot Journal.

Oldhouse Plot

In May we put 100 lb lime and 50 lb 10-20-20 fertilizer on this plot. The old house plot turned six years old this year and we were looking hard at plowing it up this year, but we just didn't have the time so we went ahead with the lime and fertilizer.

As spring turned to summer the Durana impressed us and this plot was a pretty nice plot of clover and it still has quite a bit of clover in October.

We mowed several times over the summer to keep the grass at bay.

Here is a picture of the plot in October. You can see that it is still green and there is still a good bit of clover.

We did plow up and disk this plot this spring. It had been planted in clover back in 2008 and was thinning badly. After adding 125 lb of lime and 100 lb of 10-10-10 fertilizer we planted Hancock Seed Summer Blend. This blend popped up and the deer hit it pretty hard. There was milo in the blend which seeds for the deer to eat in the fall, but it was pretty thin so I went ahead and plowed it up in late August.

On September 6th we finally had the chance to add 100 lb lime and 50 lb fertilizer and plant PlotSpike Forage Oats. We were concerned that we were late and we got less than an inch of rain the rest of the month. Much to our surprise we still achieved a nice plot of oats. Maybe the lime and fertilizer we put on in the spring and late summer helped boost our planting.

By our October 10th visit the deer had hit these oats pretty hard.

This is a picture of the plot after the deer had started to spend time in them so you can see a lot of dirt.

In the spring of 2013 we planted Monster Mix in this plot and on March 7th of this year we overseeded with Durana and limed the plot. Then on April 18th we added 100 lb 10-20-20 fertilizer. This plot has been a strong plot of clover all spring and summer and still has a lot of clover this late into the fall.

The sunshine makes it difficult to see how nice this plot is, but you can see that it is nice and green. This will be a nice plot again next year.

We lost about one quarter of our hayfield plots to pipeline construction this summer. We had hoped that they would get this done and plant clover and alphapha by mid summer, but this didn't happen. As of writing they still haven't completed the project. That's the downside. The upside is that once the right of way is planted and green we'll have a lot of great food for our deer. The pipeline should add a couple of acres to our food plot area that we should be able to keep in food plots in the years to come. I look for next summer to be a great summer for our deer.

Area 5, planted in 2011 in Monster Mix, continued to be a great clover plot. On March 7th we limed and overseeded with Durana. On April 18th we added fertilizer. If you come to our property we refer to this plot as Area 51.

Area 6 was planted in Monster Mix in 2012, but for some reason hasn't performed as well as Area 5. We followed the same lime and fertilizer regimen as area 5 and the plot came around pretty good. Still not the plot that Area 5 is, but there was still nice clover here.

Area 7 was planted in AlfaRack in 2013 and never looked good. We even thought about plowing the area up this spring, but when we looked close we saw some promise so we applied lime in late March. The plot did come back with some decent clover so we didn't kick ourselves for not plowing.

Most of area 3, which was planted in Durana in 2013, was taken by the pipeline, but we did lime and overseed on March 22nd. This hasn't been a fantastic plot for us, but the size of it still provides a lot of clover for our deer.

The Durana in Area 1 was planted in 2010 and hasn't impressed the last couple years. We thought about plowing it up in the spring, but this didn't happen so we added lime and overseeded on March 22nd. Thankfully the clover prospered and we had some real nice clover in areas of this plot.

In late August we plowed and disked the section of Area 1 closest to the woods and planted PlotSpike Forage Oats after liming and adding fertilizer. The oats have come up great and we have a nice plot of oats over six inches tall and bright green. The deer have found it and we're watching it with cameras to see what we've drawn in.

Two pictures of the hayfield plots. The first is our fall oats. They grew great here and the deer love them.

Our Front Field food plot got bigger this year.

Last year we put in a plot with some seed that was a ladino clover and fescue mix along with a small amount of AlfaRack. Last year there was clover but it wasn't very impressive. We kept it mowed and saw some clover and the deer did visit. On March 7th we limed and overseeded with Durana. We saw improvement this year but it's not anything to brag about.

This spring we got the bright idea to plant a small super plot just above this plot, but I got a little carried away with the plow and ended up with close to an acre plowed. We kept our super plot idea and used 850 lb lime and 200 lb 10-20-20 fertilizer. We then planted Monster Mix. This plot did well and I expect it to be even better next year. We've noticed in the past that our clover plots often do better the year after they are first planted and if this is true with this plot we truly have a super plot here. This was another plot that stayed green with clover late into the summer and is still green today.

You can see the new super plot in the middle, it's the greenest part of the field with last years plot below it.

We feel the lime and fertilizer we added did a lot of good. We saw some poor plots come back and produce some decent clover and we saw our better plots thrive. We'll surely do the same next spring.

We know the acreage we lost to the pipeline didn't help us, but we hope it's short term pain for long term gain. We look to pick up a real nice food plot that bisects a wooded area that the deer should love. On the other hand the lime and fertilizer we added helped our remaining plots help cover for those we lost.

What's in store for next year? With the pipeline planted in clover and alfafa we're thinking about putting some of our older plots in summer annuals for variety. Which ones and how many, we're not sure. Right now the lower portion of the front field, Area 7 and the old house plots come to mind. We'll also need to do something with the two areas we have oats in right now......probably clover.

We get thousands of pictures each month with our digital trail cameras but we narrow down each set of pictures to our favorite six or seven and these are usually buck pictures. As you can imagine there are always several more that are very good but don't make the cut.

Below is one of our favorite pictures from 2014. Sometimes the sun gets involved in our pictures depending on which way our cameras are pointed. This picture didn't make our pictures page, but I liked the picture. How about the sun's rays coating this nice buck. You can take a look at our favorite deer pictures from October 10th here.

Last fall in our Food Plot Journal we talked about our black bear problems. Well, we had more problems again this summer. Once again a black bear took out all three feeders. For some time he stayed away from the feeder at Whippoorwill, but he finally found it and ruined it. We now have three feeders back out and we watch them close to see what happens the next time yogi visits. Ryan put bucket feeders high in the air suspended from pulleys and ropes from trees. Now the challenge is to get something bigger than a bucket high in the air. I'm curious to see if we catch a climbing bear.

This is a picture we got before the bear knocked the feeder over.