May Food Plot Update

Feeder Follies

Digital Scouting Cameras

Fawns

This month most of our food plots sprang back to life while one has stayed a bit sparse. The Arrest that we spot sprayed seems to be working, we've got some grass turning yellow so we'll continue to spray and see what happens. Planting season has come and gone and I'm already thinking about what I might do in the fall. I'm kicking around the idea of planting a good-sized AlfaRack plot in the hayfield. The farmer that cuts our hay could cut it when he cuts the hay and the deer would love it. We'll have to wait and see since disking in the hayfield has always proved difficult for us.

Oldhouse Food Plot

The clover in the plot looks real good. I had set up one of my digital scouting cameras in the plot for two weeks and it took 189 pictures of deer and turkeys both eating and moving through.

The spot spraying of Arrest grass herbicide that I did four weeks ago has taken effect. The clumps of grass that I sprayed have turned yellow and are dying. I went ahead and sprayed the entire plot on the 29th. If I can knock the grass back some, this plot should continue to thrive.

The plot had grown quite high so we mowed it with the brush hog. The next day the clover looked real nice. The grass was higher than I would have liked to let it get, but I'm not always there to mow it exactly when it needs it.

I also fertilized the plot with some 10-20-20 granular fertilizer.

I decided to use this plot as the test for the PlotSaver. Since I know this plot will grow if the deer leave it alone, this plot is the place to see if the PlotSaver will work on our place. The clover in the exclusion cage has always been a lot taller than the clover around it. This plot is the best one to give the PlotSaver a fair trial.

This is the food plot the day after it was mowed. You can see the PlotSaver that we put up to test and the yellow spots where the Arrest killed some grass.

Corn Patch Plot

We finally got to plant the new expanded plot on the 13th. Thanks to my Dad who went down early and started disking. Most of the plot disked up pretty good but there is some tough hay that didn't want to work up.

The clover had started to pop up by the 29th. As expected, the grass that we could not get disked up had gotten a head start on the clover. I spot sprayed the grass to try to give the clover a chance to catch up. If the Arrest works as it has so far in the other plots, the clover should have a chance.

You can see the small shoots of clover starting to jump up. We will be able to watch this plot from the house as it grows.

Old Garden Food Plot

This food plot was the most surprising. On the 13th the plot had sprung back to life and on the 29th it looked even better. After looking bleak over the winter and early spring, the garden plot has greened back up. There were still some bare spots so we had overseeded on the 13th. I thought that I saw some young clover shoots coming up in few places on the 29th.

The grass that was sprayed with Arrest in April has turned yellow and died so we sprayed the entire plot. This plot may end up coming on strong if the deer do not live there and ruin it.

We also fertilized the plot with some 10-20-20.

The dead grass is easy to see in this picture as well as some nice green clover.

Middle Clearing Food Plot

The Extreme is still sparse. I overseeded it with some Imperial Whitetail Clover on the 13th hoping to fill in the bare spots.

I pulled the PlotSaver on the 13th. It had not seemed to help, but the plot is not hardy inside the exclusion cage either. I do not think this plot was a good place for the PlotSaver. I needed to put it on a plot that I know will grow strong to give it a good test.

I mowed the plot and fertilized it; it will be interesting to see how this plot does over the rest of the spring and into early summer. Hopefully the clover will pop up and thicken the plot back up.

I'm starting to wonder if the Extreme is a good product for our area.

The Extreme that we had planted in mid April is starting to jump up. I was thinking about putting some plotsaver around it but decided that it may be a better test to try it where there is clover since I know the clover will grow. I put out an exclusion cage to monitor the progress.

There was a little grass starting to grow so I used some Arrest to try to knock it back and give the plot a chance to gain ground.

If the Arrest continues to work as it has so far, it may become a stalwart of my food plot process. We'll see.

We've accomplished just about everything that we set out to do to our plots this spring and now it is up to the weather. Stay tuned to see how they all fare over the summer.

Unfortunately the feeder follies have almost become a regular part of this journal. Last year we wrapped the tree with galvanized metal to keep the raccoons from climbing onto them and emptying them. This winter we purchased two tripods with winches to ease the feeder filling process. The ease if filling the feeders is now a huge help but the raccoons have mastered climbing the legs of the tripod and emptying our feeders again.

Two weeks ago we fabricated our own larger varmint protectors but the raccoons took a lot of corn out of one of them over the last week. I wouldn't have thought they could have reached through the new ones. They need to be able to stretch their paws a good 8 inches or so to get to the spinner.

We're not sure what we'll try next. We have way too many raccoons hanging around.

We have continued reviewing digital game cameras. So far we have used an EagleEye(Nature Qwest), Cuddeback, Leaf River and a Bushnell. After reviewing these four cameras it looks like the units that have an actual digital camera are those that take the best pictures.

This last weekend I looked at about 794 pictures from the three cameras that I had out. Now that the bucks are starting to grow antlers it's getting interesting again.

I'm trying to decide what camera to try next and I’m saving money to purchase it. Stay tuned to the game camera review page to see how it goes.

We saw our first fawn of the year. As soon as we pulled onto our property we saw a doe and a fawn. They were in the hayfield below the old garden food plot. The young one should grow up real healthy hanging around the Whitetail Clover. We should be seeing them in our trail camera photos real soon.