Food plot 2015

[vtsnowedin]

The oats came in well. Looking good.

Yes but more importantly the clover is coming up between the oat plants. The oats are a nurse crop that quickly spreads out roots that hold the soil from erosion and the young stems break the force of falling rain drops reducing splatter etc.
Some of the clover is a variety I had not seen before. It's a red clover but the blossoms are small and cylindrical rather then globular like the native red clover. It's the clover that pulls the nitrogen from the air and fixes it on root nodules where it can be released into the soil when I plow it under.
There are also turnips and other things in the mix that are doing ok but are being held back by the shade from the oats.
I may brush hog a path or two through the oats to see how that helps or hurts the other plants.

 

[Deerherd]

Here's a before and after of one of my soybean fields.





I also experimented with mixing soybeans and corn. The deer are hitting the soybeans hard right now and the corn is starting to tassel up.

 

[EddieWalker]

I envy you guys who can grow things in the summer. Here, it's spring and fall. The heat just burns everything up, and it's going to be another month and a half until I can even think of doing anything. Mid September the heat breaks and I will start prepping my food plot by spraying round up, then after two weeks, disk it and then plant on or around Oct 1st. Opening day is in November, so there should be some fresh new shoots coming up for them.

 

[dave1949]

Yes but more importantly the clover is coming up between the oat plants. The oats are a nurse crop that quickly spreads out roots that hold the soil from erosion and the young stems break the force of falling rain drops reducing splatter etc.
Some of the clover is a variety I had not seen before. It's a red clover but the blossoms are small and cylindrical rather then globular like the native red clover. It's the clover that pulls the nitrogen from the air and fixes it on root nodules where it can be released into the soil when I plow it under.
There are also turnips and other things in the mix that are doing ok but are being held back by the shade from the oats.
I may brush hog a path or two through the oats to see how that helps or hurts the other plants.

This has been a really good clover year for Dutch white, red and yellow hop. I have good patches of red and yellow hop in the field. Dutch white is thick in the yard this year.

This is yellow hop clover:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_aureum

I have no idea how so much of it grew because I didn't plant it. No sign yet of the Alsike clover I broadcast back in June.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Too cold in winter vs too hot in summer comes down to about the same short growing season. One advantage the northern tier has is the melting snow in spring gives plenty of water to get things well started.
As to the clovers I've yet to see a variety better then the Vermont state flower. Trifoluium pratense
I' remember growing up watching cows sort through their hay and eating the clover before the timothy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_pratense

 

[dave1949]

Too cold in winter vs too hot in summer comes down to about the same short growing season. One advantage the northern tier has is the melting snow in spring gives plenty of water to get things well started.
As to the clovers I've yet to see a variety better then the Vermont state flower. Trifoluium pratense
I' remember growing up watching cows sort through their hay and eating the clover before the timothy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_pratense

That's what I mean by red clover. I am always surprised by how well red clover will colonize open spaces in acid soils. It seems like there are always seeds around to keep it going year after year.

All the dried, dark brown heads in this pic are red clover.


I noticed a lot of bees and bumblebees feeding on the clover so I stopped mowing this patch three weeks ago. There is quite a bit of red clover mixed in there.