HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - Food Plot Ideas for small ranch
View Single Post
Old 04-04-2017, 06:36 AM
  #7  
North Texan
Giant Nontypical
 
North Texan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: a van down by the river
Posts: 8,939
Default

Stands work great for hog hunting. Not so great in my experience for coyote hunting. Coyotes are generally leery of coming up to anything they know is man-made if they can help it. Better to just pick a spot based on conditions, and set yourself up where you can see but not be seen (or smelled).

Unless you can irrigate, I'd skip the clover. The success or failure of a food plot depends a lot on rainfall, and around Lubbock, it can be very hit or miss. It really takes around 35" of annual rainfall to grow clover consistently, at least here in Texas. You also don't get near enough rainfall to grow much of anything that fruits, be it a bush or tree. Unless you can water it daily. Frost killing the blooms is also a huge problem. So I'd skip the fruit trees, too. I'd suggest oats or beardless wheat. Might try putting some hairy vetch in the mix, or maybe austrian winter peas. Neither of those seem to do well by themselves, but they will sometimes do alright mixed in with wheat or oats. Understand going into this that your success rate won't be 100%. Some years you may get a good stand, some you will struggle. I'd suggest using a sprayer and no-till as much as possible. If you don't have a no-till drill, a lot of the conservation districts have one you can rent.

Controlling brush will also help. Mesquites compete with everything for water, and they take up space that more beneficial plants could be utilizing. Cactus, if you have them, don't use as much water, but they take up a lot of space. Native forbes, grasses, and some other woody species are much more beneficial, so helping establish and maintain them will pay as big, or bigger, dividends than the food plots. Most of your native growth will be active in the summer, and it will generally perform better and more consistent than anything you can food plot. The native plants will grow and provide forage from about March through October. A food plot of wheat/oats/vetch/winter peas can be planted in September and will produce from about October to maybe May. So if you manage your natives, and your plot right, there will always be something growing for the deer to eat.

Grazing by cattle won't hurt anything so long as the land is stocked properly and rested occasionally. If it is overgrazed, then it can be a detriment. If the plots aren't fenced, then you'll need to fence them or all you will be doing is feeding the cows.
North Texan is offline