(P) Planting for 2011

Well, Dad and I successfully finished planting our food plots for this year. It is such a great feeling to be done! This year, with the assistance of the land owner, we burned off our old food plots (except for established clover) from last year to add nutrients to the soil and kill weeds. Then we spayed our fields with round up to kill any remaining weeds. This process eliminated the need for plowing our fields, saving a lot of time and work. The burning and spraying was necessary because our fields were full of weeds from our wet year last season.

This year we have 5 fields that will committed to food plots. The first one was planted with 1.5 acres of corn next to 1.5 acres of established Whitetail Clover. This field is located between two bedding areas.

The second field is planted with 3 acres of soybeans and one acre of corn on the north end. The 3 acres of soybeans are also surrounded by 4 rows of corn to break up the field. This was necessary because this field has CRP grass fields to the east and west making it relatively open without security cover. Last year the deer usually stayed off this field until after dark. There are also small fingers of woods to the north and south. The northeast and southeast corners of the field have small established clover food plots too.

The third field is located in the middle of the woods. We built it four years ago with a bulldozer. It is planted with 1.5 acres of new Imperial Whitetail Institutes Chicory Plus Clover. This is a great chicory and clover mix that provided us with success last season in other locations.

The forth field consists of 3 acres of corn and two small established clover plots on the south edge of them. Woods lines the west and south edges of this field.

The last field is made up of 2.5 acres of established clover and chicory. There is a thick bedding area to the east and south. The stand locations are in the woods to the north for easy ambushing.

We disced the fields, drug them, fertilized them, drug them again and planted them all in two days. We obtained a newer disc this year that worked great. We had better seed beds in our fields than ever. As long as the weeds don't cause us a problem later, our food plots should be experiencing the best year to date. Hopefully that means our deer hunting will also be the best this fall!!!! All we have to do is mow the clover periodically and spray for weeds as needed. I can't wait for deer season.