jonesato

I usually plant a winter food plot for deer consisting of clover and rye grass. Winters here in north Louisiana are generally pretty mild. It's 70 here this week. I was thinking about planting year round and was wondering what to plant and when to plant it. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking about soybeans for the fall but I'm not sure when to plant.

Slumpbuster

Forget adding ryegrass to any perennial plot. It's too hard to get rid of, if it has a chance to seed-out in the spring. There are easier to control annuals like wheat, rye or oats that can be added as a cover crop while the clover establishes. Plant them at about 1/3 of the normal seeding rate to give your clover room to establish and them mow the annual in the spring before it forms seed heads.

My suggestion for planting time would be fall in your area. Looking at the various websites with planting info, you can plant in Feb. but it may not have time to mature before it get hot and dry which can be tough on an immature planting.

I likeyour idea of perennial clover. I have clover, alfalfa and a couple other perennials. My choice if your soil has a pH of 6.3 or higher and it holds moisture is clover. I'm a little north of you but my best success is with the Imperal clover. It rocks. My field is 3 years old and still sucking in deer. Two good 10 pointers this year off the same field.

There are quite a few options out there but that's the best field I've had in over 20 years.

Get a soil test ASAP and add the lime required to get the pH in line and you should be well satisfied.

Buster

Coyotestalker

Clover, buckwheat, chufa( especially for the turkeys), knoda oats, forage mix hay and oats, and austrian winter peas. The clover has really helped the sugar and protein intake of the balcktails here, not to mention seed formation for the turkeys in the late Spring, early summer. The buckwheat is great to draw in beneficial insects, as well as soft new growth for the deer. The oats are no contest with deer, and between the barley, corn, and open cover crops areas, they get stampeded my racked bucks in the fall here. But all to a good cause, with management and control in mind.

CoastalTexan

Soybeans in the spring/summer work wonders for antlers. Deer LOVE them, a cheap alternative to a food plot is to disk a field about now in late winter and let it grow though the summer, forbes and everything else will grow in it.