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Food Plots Drought insurance

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megalomaniac

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Joined
Oct 28, 2005
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Mississippi
Here is a 5ac plot... the foreground is planted spring and fall (the green stripe is summer sorgham and millet missed by spray), but on the back hillside is native coralberry, blackberry, etc. We bushhogged the entire back hillside back in May, then bushhogged strips mid Aug. That gives me tender new growth by deer season, plus older growth/ browse/ cover.

If the 3.5 acres planted last Wednesday before a whopping 0.25in rain Saturday fail, at least I've got something for the deer to eat.

Manage your plots for variety as well as native browse as an insurance policy!
 

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Native fobs/browse is the weakest part of my habitat plan. Years like this really expose it too. Luckily I did a lot of cutting and clearing late winter for the purpose of generating soft new growth but it wasn't nearly enough to compete with this drought.
 
Ski said:
Native fobs/browse is the weakest part of my habitat plan. Years like this really expose it too. Luckily I did a lot of cutting and clearing late winter for the purpose of generating soft new growth but it wasn't nearly enough to compete with this drought.
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Before this last rain, even my ragweed had dried up and died.
 
BSK said:
Before this last rain, even my ragweed had dried up and died.
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I have about an acre of green ragweed left in place as an experiment. I think the ground has been absorbing water from an adjacent creek because it's all green despite no rain for a month or more.
 
BSK said:
Before this last rain, even my ragweed had dried up and died.
Click to expand...
I have been really blown away at the amount of feeding i have seen in the ragweed this summer , i knew they liked it but seems to be more attractive this summer around my place for some reason.
 
JAY B said:
I have been really blown away at the amount of feeding i have seen in the ragweed this summer , i knew they liked it but seems to be more attractive this summer around my place for some reason.
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I'm not too far from you and they were hitting my ragweed pretty hard. That's a big part why I've left it standing, that and additional cover.
 
lol said:
I'm not too far from you and they were hitting my ragweed pretty hard. That's a big part why I've left it standing, that and additional cover.
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I really see them hit ragweed in late summer. The one plant that may out-perform ragweed on my place is pokeweed. They tear the snot out of that in August and September. Luckily, I've got a lot of it!
 
i owned a farm out in the hills of southern bedford county from 1999 to 2008. i rarely went to it and never food plotted it but would bushhog it in late August every yr. it was amazing how lush and green it would be by late october, looked like wheat coming up. in reality was probably just as strong of an attraction without the cost
 
If I have semi-level ground with no trees on it, it's been turned into a food plot. All of my regen is on slopes too steep to mow. I'm working on spraying and burning them though.
 
redblood said:
i owned a farm out in the hills of southern bedford county from 1999 to 2008. i rarely went to it and never food plotted it but would bushhog it in late August every yr. it was amazing how lush and green it would be by late october, looked like wheat coming up. in reality was probably just as strong of an attraction without the cost
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I let one go and planted the other one. I'm curious which one ends up seeing more activity.
 
I remember watching an episode of The Hunting Public one of the last couple of seasons and the deer were hammering the leaves of Cucklebur's. Well since we moved my daughter's horse and pony down to my in-laws pasture, the field has grown up with them really back. I didnt bushhog to see if the deer would browse on them, however they haven't touched them. The clover underneath them is still alive though. I'm probably going to bush hog it next week and hopefully the clover will come back good if we ever get some rain. I cultivated another area closer to the woods and I'm going to throw some oats down before the next rain. It's crazy how dry the ground is now. Sure hoping for some rain soon.
 

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