July 2006 Food Plot Update

Digital Game Cameras

A Vacation with Ryan

July has been a good month for our food plots with rainfall just below average for our area. The food plots are in a generally good condition and deer are visiting most of them regularly. We saw bedded deer in two of our clover plots in the last weekend of July and the fawns have become regulars in one plot that we can see from our porch.

Although we are in the middle of summer we have already started working the ground for our first fall food plot. This plot will be an extension of our Hayfield plots.

Similar to our June results there are still a couple of plots that the deer aren’t visiting much but they’re growing nice and tall. We’re hoping that these plots turn into good hunting plots later in the fall.

Oldhouse Food Plot

The oldhouse food plot is hanging in there real nice for us. Although there is a good bit of grass in the plot the clover still accounts for about half of the vegetation and we are still getting a lot of digital game camera pictures of deer feeding in the plot. Our cameras have provided a lot of evidence that the deer spend a lot of time in the Imperial Whitetail Clover plots.

We still plan on planting a fall annual in this plot and we cut out three trees and several briar bushes to try to expand the plot. It won’t be much bigger but every little bit helps.

We mowed the plot twice, once at the beginning of the month and once at the end. The deer have kept the clover eaten close enough to the ground that we seldom mow much of the clover off, we’re pretty much just mowing the grass.

Since the plot still contains a lot of clover and the deer are spending a lot of time here it’s going to be tough to disk it up and plant it. On the other hand, the deer didn’t spend much time eating here last deer season so we’ll try to give them something else to get them to visit more in the fall and winter. I’m hoping this plan doesn’t backfire on us. We’ll likely plant this plot last this fall so the deer can continue to dine on the clover as long as possible.

After bursting at the seams with clover in the spring the deer have visited the cornpatch plot on a steady basis. A couple of apple trees dropping an occasional green apple helps to keep the visitors around as well.

The deer have managed to keep the clover trimmed off quite well but we also mowed this plot twice in July as well to keep the grass and weeds at bay.

We’re hoping to keep this plot going for a couple more years by mowing and limited herbicide application. We would also like to get a little more fertilizer and lime on this plot but time may limit our activity to the plots being planted.

The old garden plot is the worst of our three Imperial Whitetail Clover plots. In spite of this we still see plenty of deer visiting the plot. We’ll skip this plot this fall but it is a candidate for re-planting next spring.

We also mowed this plot twice in July but we used the lawn tractor instead of the brush hog. We’re experimenting a little here to see if the lower mowing height has any effect on the clover. So far it doesn’t seem to be making any difference.

For the first time we applied a small amount of borax(boron) to the plot. If it doesn’t help it grow it will at least make it sparkling clean and maybe the deer’s teeth will be whiter.

One evening during the last weekend of July we watched three fawns eat in the plot and later that night I saw one deer bedded in the clover.

If you look close you can still see some clover in the middle plot and if you look real close you can see some evergreen and chicory. Our scouting cameras have showed that deer are eating in the plot but not to a great extent. Considering that the plot is in a nice wooded location we expect more deer activity than we have been seeing.

We will likely start to till this plot during the first weekend of August if all goes well. We would like to get something growing here that will both attract deer through the fall and provide good nutrition. We’re not sure what we’ll plant here yet. We still have six seed blends lying around to choose from.

We mowed this plot twice in July as well. It didn’t really need cut twice but since it’s on the way to the oldhouse plot why not stop and give it a clip.

The whippoorwill plot never seems to grow as we expect it to. In July the sorghum jumped up and looks real nice although quite sparse. We had considered planting something else here this fall but I want to see what happens with the sorghum.

If you look real close you can see some of the bare sunflower stalks and a rare bean leaf but most of the plot is still filled with the nice purple flowered weeds.

On the good side we’re still seeing plenty of deer activity in the plot so we’ll hold back the disks here and see what happens.

The hayfield plot is a tale of two seed blends.

The Powerplant grew well and the deer have spent a considerable amount of time eating it. Our scouting cameras have taken quite a few pictures here.

On the other hand the Biologic Maximum is growing great but so far has been ignored by the deer. They did trample one spot down to eat some low hanging wild grape leaves. We still haven’t received one picture of a deer eating here and they don’t even seem to walk through it. A good fall hunting plot……We hope.

After the hay was mowed we were able to start disking and applying Round-Up to expand this plot. We added 300 pounds of lime and disked during the last weekend of July. This will add about another quarter acre to the hayfield plot. Right now we plan to plant Tecomate LabLab Plus here. LabLab Plus isn’t much different than the Powerplant that is planted here so we’ll see how it grows side by side with one planted in the spring and the other in the fall. This could be an interesting place to hunt.

Right Of Way Food Plot

The Ultra Forage has grown to a height above my knees in portions of the plot, with shade keeping it held back in some areas. As of late July we have finally started seeing a couple of deer eating in the plot.

The brassicas seem to be dominating the plot with little evidence of the legumes. Maybe we’ll see them once the deer start to nip the brassicas back.

Once again we’re hoping this plot will bring a lot of activity in the fall.

Now that it seems that fall is just around the corner we’re putting our efforts into our fall plantings. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with enough dry weather to let us plant and enough rain to make things grow. That’s not asking for too much is it?

Using our digital game cameras to watch our food plots has been a big help. In years past we tried to keep exclusion cages in our plots to see what was happening but we always had trouble with them blowing over or forgetting to put them back after mowing. The cameras have allowed us near continuous monitoring of the activity in the plots. You may have noticed that we are now using some of these pictures here in the journal updates.

One word of caution is that there is a wide dependability range with digital game cameras. In our opinion, a good one is well worth the extra money.

You can take a look at our digital game camera reviews and take a look at our test results.

My thirteen-year-old son and I just completed a three-night stay at our hunting property and I find it hard to explain the fun we had together. We did almost everything together except for lime spreading. He still doesn’t have it all out of his shoes from the spring. We disked, mowed, tested game cameras, wired electrical outlets, hit golf balls in the hayfield, rode ATV’s, looked at our deer pictures, chased and got chased by yellow jackets, talked until we fell asleep, sprayed Round-Up, laughed at our intestinal difficulties and gazed at the star filled skies.

If you have children do not miss this opportunity.

Did I mention laughing at Ryan belly crawling to the outhouse to keep from spooking the fawns in the garden food plot? If only I had a picture.