Vet Judy

I frequently get questions about what seed to use in my food plots and immediately after that I get questions about food plot failures. I think it is no accident that weed control is hardly ever talked about thoroughly and most people spend a lot of time on the “right seed”, high fertilizer rates and somehow just don’t manage to deal with the weed problem.

The effect of weeds can be significant and if I was to have one priority in getting a productive food plot it would be dealing properly with the weeds. Assuming you have a good location for your food plot and you have picked a plant combination that works in your soil type, then loss in yields are often due to poor weed efforts.

Effects of Weeds in deer food Plots:

Competition for nutrients, light and water

Chemical impact some weed have on other plants

Competition decreases yields of prefered plants

Can alter palatability and deer can avoid the plot because weeds make it bitter

Steps to dealing with weeds

1. Prevent them form establishing

                Control prior to seed set: We spend a lot of time pretreating and tilling the land in combination with controlled burning(if it can be done safely) to get the best weed control possible before planting.

2. Don’t bring them in

               This is often overlooked. Consider how weeds are spread: wind, water, animals,  human movement, equipment, etc.  Don’t use contaminated seed (use only plant certified crop seed) which means it is certified to be free of weeds.  Use clean equipment,  don’t drag vegetative parts of perennial weeds around as it spreads weeds.

3. Understand the enviroment

     Different enviroments promote different weeds. Tilled row crops discourage perennials and encourage annuals. Established perennial crops like alfalfa may out compete annual weeds but perennials may get going because of lack of tillage.

Stay tuned for next in the series. I will discuss annual, biennial and perennial weeds that are likely a concern in your whitetail food plot.

If you are interested in getting started with a food plot, but aren’t sure where to start: download the first chapter in my ebook “deer food Plots Made Easy” and read all about food plot Design Strategies.

http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/index.html

If you are looking for more detailed information on specific weed control, I have found this website is helpful. It is Washington State University Extension. Check in the agriculture section under plants, then weed control. There are specific publications that may be helpful to you and online courses in weed identification also:)

http://extprograms.wsu.edu/agriculture/plants/weed/Pages/default.aspx

I receive emails daily from clients looking for help with their food plot endeavors. They are all highly motivated people and often have 10’s to 100’s of acres to play with. Some have 1/2 to 3/4 acre plots and some much larger. There are some common themes though, that seem to stump people or get them overwhelmed. There are also some common themes among clients about restrictions that they have.

Here are some of the common issues prevalent among food plotters.

1. Most want low maintenance plots. Some clients are even hundreds of miles away from their land or their plot locations, so low maintenance becomes a necessity, not just a wish.

2. Most want to keep fertilizer costs down or find cheaper seed. I think there are two factors here. The first is that fertilizer is expensive and the second is that seed mixes that are well advertised for whitetail Deer are also expensive. Add to that the fact that these premixed seeds often have extremely high fertilizer requirements listed as part of the planting instructions.

3. A lot of the clients have needs for cold resistant varieties. Most want something that is good in wet soil and dry, since this level of variation seems to be prevalent in a lot of areas.This is a tall order. Species are often combined so that if the conditions are this variable, there is a better chance of survival.

4. Shade tolerant plants become a concern when plots have been carved out of woods. Rocks and stumps also are a concern when trying to maintain plots that have been created from woody or overgrown regions.

5. Weed control is a huge problem, but people often blame the seed they spent so much money on.I often say the soil fails the seed, or we fail the plant!

Well, I am here to tell you there is no miracle seed, no miracle plot, no easy way. Some are easier than others, but here is how I would approach plotting if I was starting out.

-First I would eliminate all plots with less than 6 hours sunlight, or I would correct the sunlight problem, since even the most shade resistant plants need more than 4-6 hours of sunlight to grow well.

-Then I would get a soil sample. Knowing what your soil is made up and whether or not the pH is going to be a limited factor can save you a lot of aggravation and costs. It can help narrow down the plant choices and may even reveal that without amendments, nothing will really produce well.I can’t tell you how many people I have run into, that planted good varieties of clover and were unsuccessful in the first 2-3 years because of the need for lime. This of course, they did not realize until the soil test was done out of frustration before the third year. I have had several clients needing even as much as 4-6 tonnes of lime in a 2 acre plot to bring the pH up enough to get proper growth. So do the soil test on each plot area you wish to use.

-Then I would decide what the primary and secondary uses of my plot are. For example. Am I using the plot mainly to feed deer with no interest in hunting. If I am planning on hunting a plot, am I primarily interested in rut hunting, or late season winter hunting, bow or rifle etc. Each plot should have a primary function, then you know what season you want to see the best growth in, and whether you need warm or cool season plants to choose from. Often plant species are mixed together to try to cover the entire year basis, but generally speaking you should still have a primary interest for each plot location. This way you are focusing on the needs of the plant species you wish to succeed the most, at the time of the year  you need it to succeed.

-In regards to low maintenance. Low maintenance is subjective. If you want a photo perfect plot, it is doubtful that you will have low maintenance in the first few years. If you spend the majority of your time on weed control, you may develop this over a few years. However, if your goals are not so lofty, and you just want a functional plot, you may have less maintenance. If you ignore weed management on an ongoing basis, eventually this will be a poor strategy and your losses in productivity will increase over time. The keys to low maintenance are to get the soil in better condition to start so that growing plants have a better chance of competing with weeds. Spending the first year or maybe even 2 years planting annuals and devoting the rest of the season to weed control, can also be a great strategy for low maintenance plots in the long run. The use of varieties that have high seedling vigor and rapid growth rates can also be helpful in winning the war against weeds.

-I would pick annuals for my first couple of years and concentrate on cool season plantings. Then I could see where the problem areas are. I would realize that not one plant or group of plant is going to be ideal under every circumstance and seasonal variations I might get in the weather etc.

-Finally I would settle into doing one or two plots well in each growing season, until I am more realistic about the time and money that can be spent doing plots well. Maybe I would decide I would rather do one well , then 10 poorly and have disappointing results. Alternatively, I may decide I am capable and have the desire, as well as the time and resources to manage multiple plots or varying sizes.

The biggest thing I think that goes wrong in food plots is most people have the time to clear, disc, till, prep the soil and seed it: but not the time to deal with weeds or maintenance when these are two factors often critical in successful results. There are some great seed varieties out there developed specifically for whitetail tastes and for regional variations as well, but this is only one of the many factors in food plot success.

Happy deer food Plots: May this be your best year ever.

For food plot location strategies:

download the first Chapter of deer food Plots Made Easy for free.

www.diydeerfoodplots.com

Happy New Year 2009

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.

            Anytime you go into a place that hasn’t been cultivated and do some cultivating, you’re going to disturb thousands upon thousands of seeds that have been waiting for something to disturb them.  These seeds are called “weeds,” and they’ll love you for making a food plot.  Here are some tips to keeping the weeds from growing where you want your deer food plots to grow.

·         Get an early start

            Weed control is just another good reason to begin planning your food plot in the spring—even when you won’t be planting until late summer.  When we establish new plots, we go in during the spring when the grass is a few inches high a spray the field with glyphosate (Roundup™).  Glyphosate is a very safe herbicide and gives us a good “burndown” before tilling a few weeks later.

·         Spray it again

            An initial application of Roundup™ won’t take care of all the weeds, though.  So come back in the middle of the summer and do another burndown.  This second application, combined with the tillage for your late summer seeding, will take out a lot of those weed seeds.  For new plot sites where there may be a lot of weed pressure, another burndown application might also be an option.

 A herbicide like glyphosate easily and economically applied to plots sized less than a few acres.  If you don’t have the sort of sprayer that can easily do a whole acre, you may be able to hire the application rather inexpensively from a local farmer or farm supply business.  I hear from friends in the States that this can often be done for around $30-$40 per acre, and I think you’ll find a $75 investment that keeps the weeds of your food plot to be worthwhile.

Once you have your weeds under control first, then you can move onto choosing what to plant. I love annuals especially when you spend most of your first year just dealing with the weed issues. For more information on annuals see article: http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html

 Soybeans (Glycine max) are a legume that deer  love to consume.  In fact, you may have acquired the right to hunt near farmland where the owners or managers are hoping your efforts will help manage deer populations that have enjoyed eating soybean a little too much!

            There are two kinds of soybeans used in deer food plot plantings: soybeans used for grain production and “forage soybeans” or soybeans planted to provide green forage in the early fall.  Grain soybeans can be planted from spring through the summer for deer forage, and may especially attract deer if soybeans aren’t widely grown in your area.  Some varieties of soybeans have been bred to be resistant to Roundup™.  If you want to utilize such varieties into a new food plot, that can potentially make weed control a lot easier.

            I like soybeans best in larger food plots.  Whitetail deer will keep the soybean from maturing in plantings of an acre or less, especially if there are not other soybean options nearby.  Soybeans can be used as a source of winter feed, but soybean stems tend to lodge (bend/break) in the winter, making them less reliable than some of the other grains commonly used in deer food plots.

            Be sure to use an inoculant when planting soybeans.  Plantings in areas with nearby soybean acreage for fall and winter browsing should be made in the spring.  Soybeans planted as Annual Forage  legumes in fall food plots can be seeded between mid-August and mid-September.  Personally, though, I prefer other fall forage options.

            Some soybean varieties have been bred to be more ideally suited for forage, but many managers find that grain soybeans are suitable for late summer seeding—and in a new food plot, the “Roundup Ready” option of soybeans that can be sprayed with glyphosate may be especially attractive in the first year.