July 2012 Food Plot Update

A Favorite Picture

Leaves In My Bed

Welcome to the July Food Plot Journal. We got rain in July, but it was in brief storms and at this point it looks like it was too little. Our food plots, both old and new, are floundering.

The rain we got was in the second half of the month and came in storms, not nice soaking showers that would have helped most.

Due to the weather and other commitments, we didn't do anything in our plots in July.

The Provide Clover and Chicory that we put in Area 2 isn't growing well at all. There is some grass and weeds that we had to mow on our last visit. Ryan said that there was some clover there, but it was hard to find after he mowed the plot. Remember this is the second time we planted this plot this year. Two failures in one year.....expensive! Maybe the clover will spring back when the weather is right later this fall or next spring.

The brassicas we planted in the Middle Clearing are hard to find. I'm assuming that the deer have eaten them. The last time I saw them they were from four to six inches tall and there were a lot of them. Those that I could find on our last visit were no taller and they were hard to find. We just have a plot of low growing weeds. I would like to plant something else in this plot for the fall, but there are five large trees still across the road that the John Deere won't fit under. If we get to the point where we can get the tractor out there we'll put something in for the fall.

This is the middle plot. It looks nice and green, but it's mostly weeds at this point.

This is a picture of the hayfield plots. You can see that it is still green, but it hasn't grown much and we haven't mowed it in a while. You can see the hillside on the left that we've haven't been able to mow.

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 July. A nice fawn picture and the destruction from the storm in our food plot in the background. You can take a look at our favorite deer pictures from August 3rd here.

The evidence from the storm at the end of June is still all around us. It will take us months to get all of the trees off the road to our food plots and feeders.

This is frustrating, but the storm damage that needs cleaned up the most is in my bedroom. The wind blew the screen out of the window and sticks and leaves are all over the place. I'm having trouble figuring out whether I need to use a vacuum cleaner or a rake. I walk in there to go to bed and I'm stepping on sticks and leaves.

Let's get this right now, we've spent several hours clearing trees off roads to get to our food plots and feeders and I'm still walking on sticks in my bedroom. I guess I need to take a look at my priorities, but I think they'll get put into place when my wife gets down there!