What is growing in my food plot?

   / What is growing in my food plot? #1  

N80

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I had a little area left over to plant a food plot after planting my other larger plots in cow peas and sunflowers. Just for the heck of it I planted a bag of Rack Master (or something like that.) All I did was disk the turf, fertilize and broadcast the stuff. I don't even remember what was in it. There have been a few sunflowers, a few soy beans, a few cow peas, but mostly its the stuff in the following two pictures and they have come up like gangbusters. i mean they are dense, thick and green! They deer haven't touched any of it. Both of these plants have 'corn-like' leaves and stalks. They look nearly identical until they seed up. This type is nearly seven feet tall:

20984DSC5108-med.jpg


I was thinking it might be sorghum.

These are about 4-5 feet tall and have broader leaves:

20984DSC5110-med.jpg


I was thinking it might be millet.

Anyone know for sure? I sure hope the doves and quail like whatever it is because the deer do not seem interested. Thanks for any help
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #2  
Looks like Milo, but around here it only gets about 3ft tall,,The birds will eat it
The quail clubs around my area plant it
 
   / What is growing in my food plot?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
After a little more research it looks like the bottom one is definitely sorghum. I have no idea what the top one is. Doesn't look like millet to me, but it could be.

And after a little more research it seems like the tall stuff is dove proso millet,
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #4  
Don't know what the top one is but I suspect your right.
I have to agree the bottom one is definitely sorghum. Around here the plants are about 4' tall or so.
 
   / What is growing in my food plot?
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#5  
I also just found out that 'milo' and sorghum are the same thing. I like this sorghum. It is very hearty and very easy to grow. I did not even plow this patch, I just disked a bare field of weeds and grass and the sorghum literally took over the weeds!

The deer do not touch the plant and apparently only eat the seeds when they ripen in late summer/early fall. And as mentioned, the dove and quail like the seeds to. I think I will plant a lot more of this next year.
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #6  
Sweet sorghum can also be used to make a syrup.... one of my neighbors does a small patch each year. One of these years I want to go provide manual labor so I can learn how to make it.
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #7  
Saw somewhere recently that sorghum is now being considered as a replacement for corn for making ethanol....supposed to give six times the yield, but they didn't specify if that was on a per acre basis or what. Doesn't it grow pretty much everywhere that corn will grow? It might even actually make sense, as opposed to using corn that is.

Chuck
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #8  
Do you all think it's too late to plant something like this now in West Texas?
I never have planted a food plot for the quail, pheasant and turkey but I'd like to this year. My two dry pastures don't have anything better to do right now.
I've seen a few deer through here too and would love to see them stick around whether it's legal to hunt them in this county or not.
 
   / What is growing in my food plot? #9  
Chuck52 said:
Saw somewhere recently that sorghum is now being considered as a replacement for corn for making ethanol....supposed to give six times the yield, but they didn't specify if that was on a per acre basis or what. Doesn't it grow pretty much everywhere that corn will grow? It might even actually make sense, as opposed to using corn that is.

I've wondered about that myself since I knew you could make syrup from it. Anything with high sugar content would be ideal for ethanol. Sugar beets are real popular crop here as well, not sure if they grow everywhere.

Of course you still would be likely to take some corn acres out of production to grow the other crop so the anti-biofuels groups would still complain. :rolleyes:

Number one problem for biofuels is irrigation water... you can have all the acres-based stats in the world but if you don't have irrigation water how many acres it would take to fuel the nation really doesn't matter.
 
   / What is growing in my food plot?
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#10  
Apparently it has much lower fertilizer requirements than corn as well so that would be a plus for ethanol production too. But I agree, if it takes food put of production I'm not sure its a net gain.

I'd also have to say that the soil prep is much easier. Disk and spread and boom its up and choking out the weeds.
 
 
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