Back in May, I attempted to plant a spring food plot. Since I broke our disk last fall while trying to get it across a narrow, rocky creek bottom, I wanted to try Semisane's no-till method. However, it didn't quite work out primarily because of improper herbicide use and not increasing my seeding rate.

With this in mind, last weekend my dad and I sprayed our two food plots - both about 1 acre in size - with a mixture of glyphosate and crossbow herbicides to ensure the weeds and grasses don't come back. I sent my Phantom to check on them Wednesday afternoon:






With everything quickly dying, I went by the local farmer's cooperative to buy some lime, fertilizer, and seed.



I had originally planned on a mix of winter wheat, forage oats, and crimson clover, but they didn't have any oats. So, I bought 300 pounds of winter wheat and 50 pounds of crimson clover to spread across the two plots. I realize that's a very heavy seeding rate for both plants, but the amount of thatch covering the ground is going to impede the sprouting of a lot of the seed.

Saturday morning dawned warm and sunny, so we set about planting the plots, starting with the west plot.





While my dad broadcast the wheat with the tractor, I broadcast about 25 pounds of the crimson clover on foot using a bag spreader. After that, we spread the fertilizer and lime. While on our way to sow the east plot, dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain quite heavily. We made sure the remaining bags of seed were either in my truck or inside a covered container, then went inside to wait out the storm.



About an hour and a half later, we finally got to the east plot and tended to it.



With everything seeded, we hooked up to a mower to cut the standing dead grass in both fields. After that, we hooked up to our cultipacker and rolled it over the west plot. Due to the poor state of the crossing leading into the east plot (the same one where I broke the disk last fall), we both decided to not cultipack the east plot. With more heavy rain in the forecast, we figured it would do a decent job of compacting the thatch and driving the seed into the soil on its own.





With another thunderstorm coming, I set up my trail cameras and took the final pictures of the plots. Just as I was taking the picture of the east plot, the bottom fell out and it began pouring down raindrops the size of gravel rocks. It rained on and off throughout the evening, and it has continued to rain through the morning at varying intensities. You couldn't ask for more ideal conditions.

The only thing I forgot to do yesterday was set up some exclusion cages, but I can go out and do that today if it stops raining, or sometime this week if it doesn't.

Now, it's just a waiting game to see if our hard work (not to mention the money I spent) will bear fruit.