I have a few questions for those that plant RR Ready corn. I have a 5 acre field I plan on planting 3 acres of Alfarack and 2 acres of RR corn. If you could share with me your process from spraying and what glycophosphate you use to preparing the seed bed, which seed you use, Dekalb, Asgrow, etc, fertilizer, your soil ph, success of weed and grass control, timing and number of sprayings for grass control, and how well the plot did. I had a soil test done last summer and had 12 tons of ag lime spread and disced in and am now just waiting for April to get here to get this going. Thanks in advance for your responses. Antler Addict

This won't answer all your questions but it does go into the RR corn and how they timed their sprays and such. http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=62 Read the Warm-Season/'Get RDone'Program part.

RR Corn is meant for agricultural use forweed controled crop yield.
It is not the best for atracting deer. RR Corn and RR Soybeans planted next to non-rr crops show this time after time. deer will walk right through RR crops to get to non.
Atracting and maintaing deer herds on your place depends on you having better food plots than your neighbor.
If you have 5 acres to work with try planting different stuff at different times. 1/4 acre at a time
Deer find certain growth stages to be more paletable than others.
If you are in an area where you can not put out corn you will need some standing

I sell both Dekalb and Asgrow they are both products of Monsanto. I dont know ehere you live . but in Delaware we start planting about the 10th of April, spray the weeds when the corn gets a little higher than ankle high. Our planting rates are about 26000 ppa, which means a bag of seed corn will plant about 3 acres, if your fertilization and ph are up you could get by without a starter fertilizer.. We use triple 15 for starter , we use 2- 16 row JD planters one liquid and one dry, we are going to plant a little over 4,000 acres this year and it will all be RR....

I've never seen any more or less deer use with RR vs. non-RR corn or soybeans. In fact, I'd say that unless you have other herbicides to control weeds for non RR crops (not all are legal in NY for the "casual foodplotter" without a permit) - RR crops increase yeild and forage available.

Corn can grow quite well on soil with Ph 6.0 - or even in the high 5's. Its tough to go wrong putting extr nitrogen down at planting. With Roundup - you don't have to worry so much about giveing the weeds a head start with the fertilizer.

On most RR corn plots - we spray ONE time. Around 7/1 (or when the weeds are about 4" tall - but not more.

On RR soybeans - we usually spray 2X - 7/1 and 8/1 approx.

Here's the link to our planting post last year - some pics may be gone - but it might help a little:

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=1616777&mpage=1&key=corn&#16 16777

I had a better post with input from membersin 2004 - but the archives don't go back that far I don't think.

FH

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I appreciate and respect your knowledge on this subject as I've read your posts the past 3 years.
Last summer I had a soil test done on this 5 acres for alfalfa which I will plant 3 acres of. Was undecided what to plant with the remaining 2 acres, but based on my 30 plus years of hunting deer and the fact that the local farmers disc the fields within a week of harvesting, there is really no corn left. I believe corn is the absolute best late season food source, and RR corn is all the farmers are using these days, at least in my area of north central MO. I will have another soil test done to get the fertilizer requirements for the corn. From 2000 to 2005 this field was alternatively planted in RR corn and RR beans but was left idle in 2006. Will have some weeds and grass to take care of first so would like some advice on a glyco product that has worked for you. Lots of choices out there. Also any particular brand of seed any of you prefer. I'm not looking to set a record yield but still want a nice patch of corn I can be proud of and provide a few hundred bushels of corn for the animals. Also any preference as to width of rows for a corn plot that will be one third brush hogged and two thirds left standing. Thanks again for your help. P.S. Soil ph should be between 6.8 to 7.0 as I had 12 tons of ag lime disced in last August.

We plant in 30" rows, you are talking of bush hogging part of the corn, I would have to think about that, deer like standing corn, they eat it off the stalk and standing corn gives them a sense of security, of hiding , if you do knock down some of the corn I would go over and pick some by hand for feeding later in the winter, store it for later use. Check with local farmers for planting dates in your area.If you dont have the equip. to plant with hire a local farmer,, also deer like alfalfa , try plaanting some turnips in the late summer...

Antler Addict,
Something to consider before brush hogging your corn. Will that be considered baiting in your state? Here it would because that that would not be a 'normal farming practice'. Even if that isn't a problem with deer in your state it almost certainly will be with waterfowl, if that is something to consider.

As to a 'gly' recommendation. Gly is gly, pretty much. About the only difference is that some have a surfactant added. A surfactant helps theweeds absorb the gly better.

answerguy, thanks for your input. As for the glycol products, I found a 41% glyco product at the local Tractor Supply called Bronco for $32 a gallon. Roundup label is very expensive. I'd rather spend the money on seed and fertilizer than the spray. Since glyco is glyco I'll go the cheap route on it. 3 years ago the farmer that planted my field went in with his combine and thrashed the corn since the ears were only about half what they should be. I will check on the legality of brush hogging since I don't want to be baiting. Will probably have more questions when I get soil test back for corn planting in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for educating me .

You figured out what I left off about 'gly is gly'. It's the percentage that you go by. You don't want the pre-mixed stuff that's for sure.