Food Plots - Finished up this weekend

[RobJ]

Ok the wrap up on food plots for 2008. And some fun tractor pics to boot!

Went over to the same place again, not much rain in the last 2 weeks and my lightweight disc did get in like it did before. I put the weight on and it helped some but then took it off, just to much.

Got 3 bags of whole oats...$10. Bob oats seed oats was about $15 a bag (50#) and another brand of seed oats was about $20. so the whole oats are a lot cheaper. My BIL likes wheat, so I got a bag of it to mix in. I think the wheat was 15-18 bucks.

So I get the land preped, the night before I 4wheelered over to BIL's place to pick up the spreader. GREAT!! the pto shaft was there with it. Of course wince it's BIL spreader, the shaft was rusted together...no slidie. Funny, I joked about having to fix it the night before..haha. I remember a post a while bag about all the ideas to get it loose. Lets see, heat, solvent, PB Blaster. I laid the shaft in a 24" pipe wrench and beat the crap out of it with a 12# sledge for an hour. It started to move about half an inch. Remedy?? Took the 4" angle grinder with a cutting disk on it. Cut a 1/16" slit down the middle past the overlap part. It was loose. OK I'm sure it lost some strength and won't run a RC again, but not much load on the spreader. I'm back in business.

I also bought 50# of winter peas. Ouch $37.50 a bag. I spread them without the other mix and in special areas. I had the spreader on "20" most of the time, "10" for the peas. I'm sure that's different for different seeds and stuff. I sort of tied harrow V1.0 and V2.0 to the tractof to cover the seed. Not pretty but it worked.

Need some rain now. And some pics....

 

[RobJ]

And some more fun....

 

[RobJ]

And this is a little hill behind the house, just looks cool to see some green, and everyone else sees deer up there except me. In the second pic you can see the roof of the house on the left.

And the last pic is my wifes draw to the place, her flowers!! All I had to do was install a sprinkler system and they do fine!

Rob

 

[Western]

Looks good!

I did mine yesterday. Been real dry here too, ( N Texas) I had been waiting for rain, and yesterday morning I saw the NOAA map, yeah buddy! all I could get were Nora oats so out I ran, re-disced, broadcast seed and as I was finishing the drag, ( I was using 7 old tires wired together and it worked great) it started to rain.

I love this time of year in Texas, hunting on the horizon and the fall temps. I only have 15 acres now but there is nothing like being out on your land pretending to be productive..LOL
Now if I could figure out where to mount a "cough".. cup holder on my tractor

You guy's down south may get more rain than you want this weekend!

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

It looks great!!! My food plot is a disaster. I'm still trying to remove the hill where it's going to be, but with breakdowns and the rains, I'm not getting very much done at all. Hopefully I'll be able to move some dirt again sometime soon, but with todays rains, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

How much land are you planting? How many pounds of seed do you put down? Is it possible to put down too much? Did you have the soil tested or do anything to it before planting? Add lime or fertilizer? Or did you just disk, then disk again and plant the seed?

Eddie

 

[RobJ]

I don't to fancy with these, just trying to draw in some game. The largest area there are cows in there and they will keep it down.

I just disc, spread, cover. If I was going for the gold I'd fertilize, lime every few years, etc. You can put it out as heavy as you can afford. Whole oats are cheaper so I put it on heavy. And since I'm not doing a lot I put it out heavy. I'm going at least 50# an acre. To tell you the truth I think that's heavy, might not be. I'm interested in the peas this year, expensive seed, we'll see how they do. No cows in those areas.

If you do any kind of planting, these spreaders are wonderful. $300 or so isn't that bad. Deer feeders on the back of an ATV work ok to.

 

[nate_m]

Thanks for sharing the pics, Rob. That's a beautiful piece of land you have there.

Are you trying to attract anything in particular or just whatever wonders along?

 

[czechsonofagun]

That looks really good, I am sure them bambis will appreciate it

 

[RobJ]

Thanks for sharing the pics, Rob. That's a beautiful piece of land you have there.

Are you trying to attract anything in particular or just whatever wonders along?

hehe, ANYTHING but cows and horses. Mostly deer.

My wifes flowers pictures above, eventually a cow will break a fence and eat them up.

 

[coobie]

Great pics Rob.I am trying my first food plot this year,my fingers are crossed.coobie