FH, Once again you have done a wonderful job with the pictures and your corn and beans. I want my corn to look like yours. I don't know anything about RR corn. You probably don't feel like writing a book but I would like you to tell me and everybody else how to do it by the numbers. I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, you got me with the picture of the tractor in the mud. remember? I promise to print out your reply and follow your direction to the letter. terry

Sean just a couple things we have talked about before, I definately think your population is too heavy for the amount of nutrients you use, we try to stick to 27,000. and that will reduce your costs,you might need to look for some different plates at sales ,etc. Also looking at your beans I think planting those middles will be the way to handle some of your weed problem in the beans and will increase your yield or at lesast increase your foraging availability for the deer , they will shade much faster. I think everything looks pretty good except your non- Roundup corn, hint hint..

Farmhunter I was looking at your photos again and was thinking , since you planted that corn for wildlife feed and not for harvest, if you have a bush hog why not go and mow down the turn rows and maybe a couple rows in the field or along the edge of the field and see what the wildlife reaction is to the chopped up corn , I would think you might get some deer after it , also a few doves , quail or pheasants might participate . We are already doing this for Doves which starts this week Sept 1. I wouldn't bother the beans, until the leaves drop, then chop a row of them occasionally..for the birds,, just my thoughts to start them coming into that area...

ive said it once ill say it again this is the best thread i have read on this site and you have done a great job of explaining, kudos to you

Trophyhunter were you able to get any food plots in, We got a little rain today in Delaware , it was getting dry on top and I was worried about my clover and my turnips, hopefully they might just take off a little now,We are going to start shelling corn next week , after labor day and then I can put some out to draw some deer to the plot. In Del we can shoot over bait.......

Terry - I'll PM you when I get the chance on some of the details - That way if you have questions you can let me know - If you don't have a sprayer - we'll need to talk about that for RR corn.

Ron - Would you believe doves are protected in NY?? - No dove hunting here. We may mow some of the corn for a Turkey attractant in the fall - but we would limit it to a couple "shooting lanes" - or edges.

For those of you who do not know from previous posts - our winters in Central NY can be brutal. We are coming off 2 winters in a row of 200" snow seasons - and over a week of -20 degree weather last January. Depending on exactly when the bulk of the snow falls - determines how well our deer herd does.

The deer tend to "yard up" when the snow exceeds 2 feet on the ground - and standing corn is there BEST CHANCE for energy in January, February, and some of March for us. That is how and why we started with corn. Sure we shoot some deer in and on it too, but I firmly believe that we have helped our her by leaving it stand.

Here's a picture of 2 years ago corn crop - it was about 2 acres - and did fairly well. The snow was well over 3 ft on the ground in Feb, but had started to melt back by the time the picture was taken. Also - all the ears were long gone - You'll notice there are no deer tracks - They moved on by then.



Any how - We will leave alot of it standing for this reason. Thanks for all of your input and comments.

Ron

I was able to get my food plot planted between the pines this year i used 70% wheat and 30% rye , we have had some good soaking rains here and it is about 5 inches tall

Trophy and you other guys that mix wheat and rye together for a planting mix, let me know how that turns out. I guess one of the reasons I dont have any results is that we planted 1900 acres of wheat for harvet and sometimes along the road we might get a little strip of rye and we avoid the wheat harvest so that we dont mix the rye in with the harvested wheat, it docks the market price. We dont plant it for food plots per se, much of it just becomes food plots. I would be curious to see how it mixes when it's not for harvest....

Well - by now everyone is about sick of this post, but as things change, I like to note them for the next time I plant - I'll look back on this post and it will help me make informed decisions based on the date(s).

The "Weedy Corn plot" had come along ways in the last couple weeks. It does not compare to the RR corn, but we did end up with an cheap corn plot - that will offer considerable ears of corn to the deer come late fall:






I'm pleased with the plot's progress - considering I was considering it almost a total failure a month ago. Still - the ears are smaller - and there are not near as many as the RR corn plot.

Following are some pictures of the RR corn plot - also from today - 9/12. You will see that it is very mature - with one or two ears on every plant:







Thanks for looking again - I won't say I'm done posting yet -but its been fun documenting the 2 plots.

FH

Thank you for the documentation FH! I enjoy looking and observing!

How many acres do you have and is that the tractor you use to maintain the plots?

Thanks,