May 2013 Food Plot Update

A Favorite Picture

The Healing Power of Nature

Welcome to the May 2013 Food Plot Journal.

We've made changes in our food plot line up for 2013. 2012 was awful for our plots. We had a poor spring and early summer that made our spring planting efforts flounder. Then we had a dry summer that tried to kill all of our established plots. At the end of June we had a wind storm that knocked over dozens of trees. We then spent the rest of the summer cleaning up rather than planting areas for the fall that we'd wanted to. All of this left us with a lot of work this spring.

So far the weather has been dry, which has allowed us to get a lot of work done, but dry weather isn't good for growing food plots.

The changes we made occur in the Whippoorwill, Right of Way and Corn Patch plots. We've extended the hayfield plot to swallow up the Whippoorwill plot and we've left part of the Corn Patch plot untouched this spring to plant apple trees. We planted two apple trees here and have started mowing part of it with the lawn tractor with the deck all the way up. There is still some clover here so the deer will still visit and there are already apple trees nearby so hopefully this will continue to be an area that draws deer. The Right of Way plot has become miniature in size compared to the hayfield plot so we'll probably just work it when we're in the area of the hayfield nearest to it. The last change is an addition that we're working on. We're plowing the field in front of the property to plant a summer annual. This plot is close to the road so we plan to put in summer crops here and let it go during the fall. Let's give them something to eat and then move them away from the road later in the year.

Oldhouse Plot

We really need to be in this plot this spring, but I don't think we're going to be able to. The plot of Durana originally sowed in 2008 is still about one third clover but it's mostly grass. We also still have one of the two trees that fell in the plot last summer still taking up part of the plot.

We'll try to keep mowing the plot to allow the clover that is left to flourish and give the deer in that area something to go to. This plot is at the far end of our property and is nice to draw deer from surrounding areas.

We'll need to mow this plot soon or the grass could take over.

You can see the grass and downed trees still in the plot in this pictures.

We planted this plot in Durana in 2008 and today it looks like it's a little less than 50% clover. We've been mowing it with a lawn tractor with the deck up this spring. It'll be interesting to see how it reacts.

We'd like to get something happening in this plot later this summer.

The garden plot is green, but there is a lot of grass.

After a poor brassica planting last fall we disked, limed, fertilized and sowed Monster Mix in this plot on April 6th. On April 27th I made two quick passes through the plot with some Alfa-Rack. So far there isn't much happening. We've had a dry spring and this plot isn't jumping up. There is minimal clover, but the grass is getting started. I'm going to wait a little longer and see what happens. If I don't see clover by the first of June we'll disk it up and try something else.

This isn't the way you want a new food plot to look after three weeks.

On April 6th we we plowed from the end of the hayfield all the way to the whippoorwill plot. On April 13th we started disking, and we've been disking every week since.

On April 27th we disked, dragged, limed, fertilized and sowed Imperial Whitetail Alfa-Rack in a portion of the long hayfield strip – probably about an acre to an acre and a half.

On May 4th we disked the remainder of the section we had plowed and applied lime. We have some Durana we want to sow, but the weather has been very dry and there isn't much rain in the long term forecast so we decided to wait and plant when we see rain on the horizon.

We mowed both the 2011 Monster Mix plot and the 2012 Monster Mix plot. Both of these plots are looking pretty good.

We mowed the Durana planted in 2010. This area looks like three different areas. One end is lush with clover, the middle is grass and weeds and the other end is about 70% clover.

The area planted in Imperial Clover looks real good and we didn't even feel the need to mow it yet.

The area we planted in Provide Chicory and Clover last spring after other failed attempts in that spot has come back. It's patchy, but there's a lot more clover here than we expected. Ryan mowed it since some of the clover was about a foot tall.

Finally the Durana planted in 2010 is rough. It didn't bounce back as good as we had hoped. This area may be on the chopping block later this summer. It looks like a good place to plant some oats.

This picture shows less than half of the area we plowed. Ryan's dragging part of the area we planted in Alfa-Rack. The Monster Mix we planted in 2012 is the green patch on the left and the knob on the right is Provide Chicory and Clover and Imperial 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 April. This bird appears to be stealing from us and then rubbing it in our faces. You can take a look at our favorite deer pictures from April here.

Our December pictures revealed that one of our regular bucks had been wounded in the back hip. You can see in the picture below that this wound looked pretty nasty.

We've watched this buck since and we've had the opportunity to watch nature heal this deer. At first he wasn't' even using his left back leg, but now, four months later you have to look real close to even see that he was wounded. We're still anxious to see if the wound affects his antler development. He was a six point with no brow tines last year. Maybe we'll see something interesting this year.