First Try At Plotting...Pics
 

Put my first plot in 15 days ago here in WV. A little late but had a tractor and 6ft rotary tiller. Field was waist high in field grass , fescue and weeds. Mowed and sprayed waited 10 days and tilled to a good 5-6 inch seedbed. I know, no soil test but didn't have time, handheld ph meter was 5.9. This a 6 acre field that I worked 2 acres. Planted 50# ww, 50# rye grain, 10# red clover,4# chicory, 4# white clover, 4 # turnip and 2# radish. Also at last minute farmer gave me 50# fresh soybeans. its been 10 days since first good rain hit. Ill post some pics as it matures. Got my fingers crossed.

We cut 3 lanes like this into the plot from 3 corners entering 2 bedding areas and a patch of woods leading to a pond. The are about 80 yards long each. Hope they use them to just travel and stage.

looks good, the only thing I would have done differently would be to make the travel lanes a little more narrow, maybe no more then 10'..

other then that looks good..:cool2:

Looks great! I've always used my discs, until this year. (I have a 8ft 3point disc for my sub-1acre plots down in the bottom & a 14ft IH wheel disc for my 1.5-2acre corn plots up in my pastures) This year however I scored a 5ft KingKutter2 rotary tiller & WOW what I've been missing! :woot: My plots look like something from Augusta National & the rotary tiller made MUCH easier & quicker work than the old discs.

My only recommendation on your setup is that next year I wouldn't scalp the ground/plant in your "approach lanes". I'd simply bush hog them to be about 10-15ft wide (mine are 14ft wide as I make 2 passes with my 7ft hog) & I'd leave them appx 1ft deep with natural grass/growth. Big bucks especially don't like wide open areas but WILL readily use mowed lanes to move through otherwise grown up areas in broad daylight. My place had appx 80 acres of row crops on it when I bought it. (In fact it had beans in it) I've since let that 80 acres grow up & I alternately hog it in 2-3yr intervals. I have several plots in it & quite a trail/lane & farm road system through it now. The deer, turkeys & upland game LOVE that overgrown area & use my "trail/lane system" as their own. (Entire property is 625 acres with the rest being "down the bluff" in classic southern river bottoms & cypress swamps with 10 plots of 1/4-3/4 acre in size scattered throughout the bottoms)

I'm curious as to how well the beans will come up this late? They DO lovem tho!!! :fighting0007:

You're right about that! Takes forever with a disc. I changed to a tiller 3 years ago and will never go back! Takes less time and it makes the dirt look like powder!

We use a IH 856 with a 2 row disc and a 3 point spreader to plant our plots. Bush hog with a 706 JD bush hog. Can be a little too large in size, but it was paid for 30 years ago! I'd like to see what a rotary tiller would do, but can't justify buying one with all the paid for stuff sitting around.

Even though this is my first plot , I can tell you all. The difference in a disc and a tiller is immense. We tried a 5 ft disc on that field that hadn't been touched in 20 years. It barely touched it. Rented the tiller for 125.00 for the weekend and had to go slow the first pass (@ 2 hrs for 2 acres) and got three total passes in 4 hours. Seed bed was 5 inches deep and very nice. The thatch you see in the pics is the old dead 4 inch fescue and other matter that was tilled up. Ill post pics in about another week. and Ill let you know on the beans. The farmer that owns the property say they will get a foot or so tall if frost or deer do not wipe them out.

How big of a tractor are you using? That can make a difference too. What we use to disc three times with a 35 hp Mahindra we disc once with the 100hp 856 with a bigger disc.

All you need now is RAIN! Good luck with the plot, can't wait to see pics of the finished product!

We did it with a 60hp 4wd Kobota.

Kubota M7040 4x4. (70hp)

That is a good sopunding mix. Come on rain !!

If I expected to use this plot again next year, I would go ahead and have a soil test made around early spring. Then pH coprrect as soon as you can. Your farmer buddy might know af a lime app service. If a ph of about 5.9-6.0 is accurate, your are still looking at a good deal of lime per acre to bring it up to around 7.0. Probably 1 to 1.5 tons/acre. A lime wagon and ag line would be the way I'd go. Pelletized would be very pricey by comparison.

I would also apply glysophate sometime lae May or earlyJune to try to interrupt the weed seedin cycle. The bush hog the dead stubblea couple of weeks later. If you do not plant a summer plot, it is likely that you will have a cecond weed crop of some extent. I'd kill it again about 2-3 weeks before planting. SHould result in a dang clean field for tilling.

Not sure if you are too far north for Sunn Hemp. You can check with local ag extension agent. If Sunn Hemp is a suitable crop up there, I suggest you plant the whole 2 acres as a summer food plot crop. You can read up on the info avaiable ... my experience is that Sunn Hemp is a fine summer food plot for deer. I had never tried this stuff until last summer. I will attest that I like the results. It matures quickly and is a very good soil builder. Andthe leaves are high in protein. Down this way (SE Al.) the deer like the leaves and hit the crop pretty hard at once it starts to leaf out. However, they have not (so far) been able to "ravage" it to the extent they do small plots of crops we have tried such as soy beans or iron clay peas. Even the hardest hit areas still retained about 12" - 18" of plant heighth with a decent supply of leaves. Once it gets going good, the deer do not mess with the tough stalk. They nip the leaves as the stalk continues to grow upward. Some of ours hit 6' , then they flowered. First frost kills it dead as a hammer. It is a hot weatehr plant. Seeds run about $2/pound. The typical rate is 10#-15# per acre of seed. Might be worth a try.

Plan right now is to frost overseed clover and chicory in late Feb. Soil test and apply ag lime and fert in late March. No till drill rr beans in late May. Spray gly @ 1 Aug. Then broadcast seed ww and rye grain in mid Sept.

That is plenty big enough of a tractor, 60hp is big enough to do most any job at a deer camp! Good for you!
Anyhow, we busted ass this weekend. We plowed up all the plots with the bigger 2 row disc, seeded with our broadcast spreader that fits on the 3pt hitch, and went back in and covered the seed with our little 5 foot square bladed disc ( or harrow blade as some may call it). It really busted the clods up well like we hoped it would. Hopefully we'll get some rain this week and get the plots up. Got 8 of 12 plots planted. 500# each of wheat and oats and 200# of austrian winter peas. Having fun can be work!

I wish we had a front end loader!!!!!

Entire plot is coming up like this. This is day 28 , seems all a little small but coming in at least.

Awesome! Hopefully it will produce some deer! Good luck!

Very nice work love working and planting new food plots almost as much as hunting.