Looking for a list of fall planted legumes you can plant this year after you spend the early and mid part of this year preparing your whitetail deer food plot.
Consider the following legumes if you have well drained soils:
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-seasonannual plant that performs well for deer food plots further south.
Clovers, red and white, are an important part of deer food plotplantings, especially when seeded with appropriate grasses. For more detailed information about planting clover in your food plot see my article:
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a cool-season annual grass.In the Midwestern U.S., it is usually seeded in the fall for early to mid-summer grain production.As you move further north, it is more common to find wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer or early fall.
Wheat’s coldhardiness makes it a great choice for fall deer food plot plantings.It is also a fairly easy crop to seed in large fields to improve the forage options during the early spring.To improve your wheat stand, consider adding about 75 pounds of urea or ammonium nitrate per acre in the early spring.
But wheat probably performs best as part of a food plots rotation in larger fields.It may be seeded in the fall for fall and winter forage; then red or ladino clover can be “frost seeded” into the wheat field in the late winter or early spring.The natural freezing and thawing of the ground works the clover seed into the ground.The wheat may then be harvested for grain or straw, and the clover will be established in the field for summer forage.
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) should not be confused with wheat.Its purpose in a deer plot planting is to provide a green forage and cover in the early season, along with grain in the fall.You’ll find a variety of opinions on the use of buckwheat in deer food plots.I’m not persuaded that deer will choose buckwheat over other plants in our setting, but this may be due to my northern location.
Clovers are where the deer plots craze started, and, for good reason. Over time however, mixes and forages have changed, advanced and been created to provide specific deer plots needs and functions.
While fall deer attractants can provide a better hunting resource, and winter food availability in northern regions, clovers provide the optimum spring health development food source. That is why they are an integral part of deer habitat management in most areas.
When considering a clover planting, you should plant as a blend.The basic clovers are red, white and alsike.While almost any clover will do well in the spring, a well-blended plot should perform well year-round under all but the most extreme conditions.I have found a simple mix of three pounds per acre of each red clover, alsike and Ladino, a white clover, has worked well for me.
Another reason you should consider clover in your food plot planting program, is clovers fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Simply put, as the clover planting begins to deteriorate and weeds begin to take overyour stand and you should consider rotating back into annual forages, such as chicory or rapeseed for a year or two.
These Annual Forages need nitrogen in order to grow and reach their maximum potential.The clover, once tilled under, will provide some of that nitrogen need in the soil, thus reducing your investment necessary for commercial fertilizer.
clover is also easy to seed.Just be sure the weeds are gone.The site prep starts before planting.If the site is following a year or two of Annual Forage, you would simply include a spraying of emerging weeds, usually this is about the middle of May, unless you are located far to the south.A tillage pass should follow that application to bury any dead plant residue.If more weeds emerge, a second spraying may be in order just prior to seeding.
You could conduct a light tillage just before you put in your food plot seed.I try and plant my clover paddocks the last week of May or 1st week in June.The seed can then be broadcasted, no need for a drill, and then just run a drag over it when you’re done seeding.
