Vet Judy

            By this time, your weed worries in your food plots may be a thing of the past.  Your food plot plantings may be well on their way to providing deer forage this fall.  However, if you’re establishing a new food plot this fall, there is a class of weeds that may prove quite troublesome.   They’re the cool-season weeds that thrive in the same conditions that some of your best food plot crops thrive.

            Cool-season broadleaf weeds can be especially troublesome, especially in areas a little farther south than mine.  (Weeds like deadnettle, common chickweed, and henbit have proven to be especially troublesome.)  Such weeds present particular problems when you’re trying to seed perennial crops in the late summer or fall.  Many perennial crops that are used in food plots can be slow to grow after seeding; this gives the weeds a great chance to overtake your plot. What a waste this would be prior to fall and winter hunting attraction goals for whitetail  or Mule Deer.

            Honestly, the best thing you can do under heavy weed pressure is spray the weeds.  The most effective sprays are pre-emergent herbicides that you can actually spray before seeding.  Obtain a local recommendation for these and be sure that any herbicides you use are properly applied.

            If you’re applying a post-emergent herbicide, take special care that the herbicide you choose won’t affect the variety of crops that may be in your food plots.  Some herbicides, for example, will affect legumes in younger stages but not in older stages.

Of course, replanting may sometimes be an option.  Like anything else that deals with food plots or growing other crops, you may sometimes have to start over from scratch!

For More information on Do It Yourself deer food Plots, please visit our website www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

corn

            corn harvest is right around the corner in most places.  corn is a common crop in many deer food plot plantings and habitat management—both as a crop planted specifically for deer, and as a row crop that is planted on farms and ranches for grain.  Take time this fall to remember a few things about managing corn stands.

            First of all, the extent that deer utilize corn grain for food is heavily influenced by the acorn crop.  If your area is experiencing a normal to heavy acorn drop, standing corn may not be as critical for a food supply later on.  The strips that you plan to leave standing around the cornfields could possibly be reduced in width.  However, if you planned to leave strips of standing corn on field edges during the winter, it’s still a good idea to leave them.  They provided valuable cover and field borders for winter deer habitat.

            Second, the state of the local corn crop can help you judge the overall deer forage situation.  Dry or cool conditions that may have hampered the heat-loving corn plant’s growth (remember, corn is a grass!) in the summer may also have affected other warm-season grasses on your property.  That’s important to keep in mind for next year’s management and planting.

            On many of our landscapes, corn is such an important crop that it has become part of the annual landscape.  Be sure that you treat it and manage it as such in your fall food plot mix.

See our article http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/8-steps-to-successful-food-plots.html  for tips on successful food plot strategies and other free resources.

Wondering what to do with fall planting annuals: visit our website and look at article: http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html

Let’s take a closer look at rye and ryegrass and their use in deer food plots.
 

   Annual ryegrass (Lollium multiflorum).is a cool-season annual grass commonly used in deer food plot plantings.  It is not to be confused with rye (Secale cereale).  Rye is also an annual grass, but is more commonly grown for grain than for forage.

 If you’re planting for deer forage in a warmer season, rye can be an excellent choice.  A disadvantage in cooler weather is that lower temperatures cause the rye plant to bend over (a condition called “lodging”).  This puts the plant on the ground rather than up in the air.

• Still, rye is a very valuable food source for deer and other wildlife.  In northern zones, some university research has recommended simply seeding rye into forest openings each year in the spring to improve food value for wildlife.
• My experience with the deer food plots on the ranch, however, is to treat crops as annuals with a “harvest” by the deer in the fall and winter.  Annual ryegrass really meets that purpose.  It contains about 16% crude protein.  It is also relatively high in calcium when compared to other common deer food plot crops.
•  As I’ve noted when writing about cool-season grasses, be sure that you don’t select a perennial ryegrass variety.  The perennial version can be aggressive and hard to get out of your food plot.  In addition to avoiding perennial varieties, there are some disease issues in ryegrass that can occur, especially in warmer climates, if it is seeded continuously.  (That’s another argument for rotating crops in your food plot.)
• Annual ryegrass will perform well when seeded into a food plot with a moderate pH (between 5.5 and 7.5).  Another advantage to annual ryegrass is that it is more tolerant to soils that are not as well-drained. 
•  Annual ryegrass is a great crop to use in a crop mix, as it serves as a good “companion” for some clovers and other shorter crops.  It’s quick growing and rapidly establishes, and it can be effectively used as a standalone crop to provide food value in spots where other grasses might not grow as easily.  I like to seed it on our fourwheeler trails to provide some deer cover and forage value on hard-traveled paths.

 For more free information on annual options for deer food plots visit: www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

Accurately determining the size of your deer food plot is one of the elements of having a successful food plot. It determines proper seeding rates, lime application and fertilizing rates. Here are some examples of how just guessing can lead to big problems in your food plot.

a) Too little seed leads to poor uniformity and decreased competition for weeds. The result here: you spend tonnes more time in weed control and your deer food plot annuals or perennials forage won’t flourish.

b) Too much seed result in plants that are too close together. They don’t get proper nutrition due to competition from their own. This results in plants that are more susceptable to poor moisture levels, decreased fertility in the soil, and increased weed competition.

c) Too much lime may potentially swing the pH to the opposite side of neutral. Neither acidic nor basic soils are good for most plant types that we chooose for our food plots. The vast majority of soils are acidic enough that this may seem unlikely, but I have seen it happen.

d) Too little lime or lime applied to the wrong level in the soil will not raise the pH sufficiently. This means the soil will remain more acidic than you would like and the nutrients and the fertilizer will not be available to the same extent. You may as well throw you money out!

e) Too much fertilizer is a bit self explanatory given the cost of fertilizer. Remember anything you do for the plants, you do for the weeds. The other important thing is that too much of a good thing can actually be toxic to the plants you are desperately working to grow.

f) Too little fertilizer is a little like depriving yourself of proper nutrition and then wondering why you are sick and weak and feel awful. You need to give the soil what it needs based on your soil test, nothing short of that is really a good idea for the forage, even if money is tight. It leads to weaker plants and thinner forage and may allow weeds and schrubs to take over the plot. Then you will end of spending money dealing with that problem.

Legume Lowdown: Clovers

            In an earlier blog, I touted the research reports from Minnesota concerning birdsfoot trefoil, an important legume in deer food plot plantings.  I’ve also written about how it’s critical to inoculate legumes at planting.  Now, I want to list some of the benefits of clover for deer food plots. 

            Clovers are perennials that are high-quality sources of green deer forage .  It comes in several varieties that are deer friendly.  Like alfalfa, fresh clover gives deer a browse option that combines the high protein with the high calcium of a legume.  Red clover (Trifolium pretense) is a cool-season legume that can be fall-seeded in more moderate climates or spring seeded in northern climates like mine.  It is an exceptional source of calcium at 1.70%. 

            White clover, also called ladino clover (Trifolium repens), can be more susceptible than red clover to nematodes attacking its root system.  Both red and white clovers are seeded in soils with a pH range of 6.0.  Ladino clover tends perform a little better than red clover in poorly drained soils.  It also can last a couple years longer in a deer food plot seeding than does red clover.  In larger fields, some land managers find that seeding ladino in the spring over a wheat planting is an effective management tool.

            Red and white clovers are often mixed with grass to provide a grazing option for white tailed deer.  Their status as cool-season, perennial plants make them a great source of nutrition in the spring and summer.  Food plots requiring a source of forage in the summer months should include red or white clovers in the mix.

            Don’t confuse red or white clover with another plant often marketed for deer food plots, alyceclover (Alysicarpus vaginalis).  Alyceclover is a warm-season annual plant that performs well for deer food plots further south.

            Clovers, red and white, are an important part of deer food plot plantings, especially when seeded with appropriate grasses. For more detailed information about planting clover in your food plot see my article:

http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/perennial-food-plots-clover.html