Food Plot - Gonna give it a try

[EastTexun]

I am interested to compare notes with you regarding the Alyce Clover. I overseeded all of my beans with Alyce, but I also planted 2 stands of pure Alyce where the beans would not have enough acreage to maintain themselves.

So far, my only observation is that it is surprising how slow it grows as compared to other similar seeds. I am not sure if it is establishing a big rootstock or is simply slow growing.

[macoop]

I like it! You did a heck of a job.

[Nailhead]

I like it! You did a heck of a job.

Thanks. Much appreciated!

[Nailhead]

Well here she is! On her maiden voyage. It worked and I don't think anything broke on the ride up. Lol. I just wanted to see if it worked and how well. So I went out by the old fall plot...that failed last year...and disced a few rows. The way the disc is set and how I went over it to break everything up it left some pretty high spots. Also it looks like some previous owner rowed that section of the pasture so I need to break those down this fall when I plant. I will come up with something to harrow it with behind the disc to level it out better before packing. I am pleased with the results though. Might have to add some weight depending upon the soil, but in the sandy loam it did pretty good where it was not rolling over a low spot. It was pushing up some good dirt infront of it knocking down the high spots some and did a great job with the clods of dirt left by the disc. Can't wait for the fall to get here so I can try it out with some seed and all the other tips I have been picking up along the way.

[Nailhead]

Here is an update on our spring plot out in the pasture. It is doing awesome so far. Only been in the ground 2 weeks with no fertilizer. I am not sure how to identify everything yet, but I believe it is all making an appearance of some kind. I believe the peas and soybeans are making the biggest show and I believe the sorgum is making a huge run at it right behind them. You can see we have quite a bit of grass that came in in the upper portion of the plot, but the peas and beans are coming up in it just as thick. We also got an isolation cage setup in hopes we can see a difference once the deer start to hit it. There are some tracks going through it, but don't see anything nipped off yet. Of course this time of year the bucks kinda move out for a little while, at least they did last year. We have at least one doe with fawn running around, but we think there is at least one more pair. Starting to get more pictures, but not much activity yet.

[Nailhead]

And an update on my clover plot out in the woods. All of the small clover plots across that place are showing promise, but the one by my bow stand is coming in the best. Not sure why, but I'm not going to complain. Again, only been down 2 weeks and showing some real promise. In the front is Alyce, and just as EastTexun has noticed, it appears to be the slowest growing of the 3 types planted. This trend carries across the property in all our clover plots. In the back to the left is Durana and to the right is Red(pictures in that same order). Some of the Red is already 3"-4" tall. Hopefully this little bit will help to draw some bucks in and get them to stop by while I am in the stand this year. But so far the clover seems to like it out in the woods. It seems to dig the moister partially shadded areas.

[the marshall]

Looks good

[EastTexun]

Cultipacker looks like it will work well! I can't ever look at it without imagining it taking you for a ride when you flip it over though. I hope to have some comparisons about Alyce clover this weekend if the rain holds off.

[Nailhead]

Another week and the spring plot is rockin. From these pictures the folks sent me it seems like this one section is really coming in well, still coming in good elsewhere though from what I can see. This area was just planted heavy and seems to hold moisture at the right amount.

[unclefish]

The packer is awesome! Looking good.

[jkelbe]

Looks great. Can't wait to see how many deer you attract.

[Nailhead]

The folks were up at the property this weekend, so I got Mom to snap a few pictures for me of my clover plot. Still looking pretty good, but Mom says the clover plots in general need some rain pretty bad. It's a catch 22 for us right now. Cause we want some rain for the plots, but we don't want a whole lot of rain because we are talking about building a pier on the lake and with the water down from the dam blow out this would be a good time to do it. With the dam now fixed we could handle the rain, but will make it a real pain to put the pier in.

[EastTexun]

Looking good and green. I was up at our place this weekend, and my Alyceclover finally started growing pretty well. In most areas it was up about 6 inches overall, but in 2 spots its still really short and weak. Both of those areas held some water, so that may have been the issue. Got any lookers on camera yet? I was surprised at how far along some of the deer were.

[Nailhead]

Looking good and green. I was up at our place this weekend, and my Alyceclover finally started growing pretty well. In most areas it was up about 6 inches overall, but in 2 spots its still really short and weak. Both of those areas held some water, so that may have been the issue. Got any lookers on camera yet? I was surprised at how far along some of the deer were.

We just got our first buck picture this last time they were up. They said he is young, but has some good mass. Didn't sound like he was too far along yet from how they were trying to describe him. I haven't seen the picture yet. If I can get my hands on it I will post it.

[Nailhead]

Went up to the ranch over the holiday weekend. Got some work done and checked on the plots. The Spring plot is really rocking. There is one section that is growing extra well. I think every variety of plant in the mix is waist high in that area. The sunflowers are poking through the leaves quite well and should be starting to bloom soon. We have one rogue corn stalk that I noticed growing when we planted this plot, so I left it alone. It is now almost chest high and has two ears of corn growing on it. Small ears, but ears none the less.

A couple of the clover plots are doing well. The Alyce has really taken off, we have some areas that are better than 8" tall. We need some rain though, it hasn't rained in a couple weeks and some of the smaller plants are taking a hit from it.

We also cleaned up around the lakes a little and I got a chance to do a little fishing both Friday and Saturday. I am no expert Angler by any stretch of the imagination, but I did pretty well this weekend. Within in a few hours between the two days I caught around 15 or so large mouth bass anywhere from 1-3 lbs. I even managed to catch to 2 monster Crappie and one small crappie on a spinner bait. We have notice that most of the bass we catch around averaging around 1.5-2 pounds, which tells us we probably have too many fish in the lakes and need to start keeping some so the ones we do throw back can get bigger. Would love to have some monster bass in the lakes. I need to do some research and talk to someone about managing fish in the lakes and see what we can do.