My First Shot At A "Throw and Mow" Plot (Updated with comment 9 - 7/30/2016)
 

After doing a lot of reading and research on the "no till" method and the "throw and mow" method for managing food plots, I decided to give it a try last year.

I did the same thing as shown below on three small plots of 1/4 acre, 1/3 acre, and 1/3 acre. Results were the same on all three plots.

Here's how one progressed, documented in pictures. I'll never disc or till a plot again.

Nice. Gonna convert over to this method this season as well

Wow, looks pretty good. So what are your plans after this test, you going to block off a section of the plots to open during season or just let them continue eating as it they enter?

I don't plan to block off any of the plot OSD.

I visited the plots last weekend. Some native grasses are starting to show through the clover, mostly Yellow Foxtail. So I sprayed them with Clethodim. That should knock out the grass without harming the clover.

I plan to do another planting of wheat/oats/chicory/sunflower right before a rain in late September or early October. I'll add clover too if the clover looks thin or weak at that time. I'll broadcast the seed into whatever standing clover there is then mow as close to the ground as I can to lay some duff over the new seed with my home made plot cutter. If conditions seem to warrant, I'll roll my home made roller-crimper over everything to get good ground contact with the seed.



VIDEO
http://vid210.photobucket.com/albums...psrwtza3cr.mp4



(The lawn mower motors are from Harbor Freight @ $119 each.)

Nice looking homemade mower!

Thanks North Texan. That sucker cost me something around $500. I bought the diamond plate aluminum at a scrap yard and the motors, blades and hitch coupler at Harbor Freight. The wheels were free from a friend who had them laying around his shop. The miscellaneous iron was begged scrap.

Looks like a good plot, barring having the deer almost eat it to the ground. Of course, that was the point.

I may have to try that in places where it's difficult to get a disk into.

Semisane...thats some great info on how to do a no-till Food Plot on a budget and have good results.....and that 1 heck of a Mower! ;)

END JULY UPDATE: