food plot: wood duck

[big bubba]

have an existing favorable wetland site where wood duck & other species already nest & raise clutches. want to enhance the habitat by establishing a food plot along water's edge & an acre plot w/good cover. per recommendation of F&G, will seed w/ japanese millet. anyone have experience growing this grain? site already has fescue which could be problematic in competition, but don't want to go the chemical removal route. heavy discing, or shallow plowing then disc are options. suggestions? am designing nesting boxes w/preditor guards as well, but main question is regarding the food plot. thanks in advance, few images of the site

 

[nybirdman]

How deep is your pond?Can you plant wild rice in the pond?I like your idea about the Japanese Millet next to the pond.I know around here the ducks flock to any "cut" grain fields.I would think any small grain crop would work;barley,wheat ect.

 

[AaronS]

You have a beautiful spot there. I know you said you don't want to use chemicals, but I'd hit the fescue with gly, probably twice. If that isn't an option, turn it over with a moldboard plow then disk, or disk, wait for weeds to emerge then disk again, repeat until you have a clean seed bed.

 

[Deerherd]

Ideally, Japanese millet is planted in an area that you can control the water level. Flooding the area after the millet is established creates a great food source and cover.

This was the third year for me of planting millet but beavers moved in and flooded the planted areas before the millet got established. In my experience, waterfowl won't go too far into an unflooded solid stand of millet. It's way too thick for waterfowl to forage too far into the stand. Songbirds love the millet and can readily perch on the stalk.

If you can't control the water level, planting right up to the waterline is your best option, but keep the stand sparse and fairly narrow, 10-15' max. You will also need to fertilize. As a side note wood ducks will readily feed into my corn fields but can see and escape predators much easier than in the millet. Good luck!

 

[big bubba]

thanks nybirdman, aarons, deerherd good to know the other grain options. like the idea of rice that would keep deer competition down. actually, site is more of a wetland marsh around 3-4 ft deep. but it's spring fed & never goes dry, recedes a bit. way back when it was built, they hit bedrock & left it alone. it's one of the areas on my place that i've left untouched, the water fowl seem to like it as it's right on top of the mt. but don't have the means of flooding, etc, so rice may be questionable. the wood duck is a beautiful creature to see & hear.... thanks again

 

[oosik]

Around here the ducks, of all kinds, seem to prefer the barley fields over the various types of wheat fields. And the geese - well, they don't give a darn - they just fly in, stomp everything down and eat it all. Seasonally, I get all the types of ducks but only a few pair of mallards will stay year round. This time of year they are all banding up for the trip south.

I would think that just about any type of grain would provide food for the ducks.

 

[SRMN8R]

What's already been said is spot on. I'd strongly encourage you to do your best to eliminate as much of the fescue as possible. Another wonderful food source is oaks! If you don't have any near water's edge, you may want to consider planting a few sawtooth oaks, as they bear seed in just a few years.

Controlling the water level, in my experience, is paramount to managing a waterfowl factory. Build some dikes and have at it.

 

[kneedeep]

If you could drain the water off and allow the edge to dry enough for seed to germinate, the choice of what to plant increases.
There is a lot of information available from state. This may help;

Planting feed on your duck hunting land - Mississippi Sportsman

BASIC ELEMENTS OF A POND DAM

PM me for a management PDF too big to post