Fall Food Plots in Texas Edwards Plateau

[bgleaton]

I know I have posted a number of times asking about food plots in the Edwards plateau. Have any of you planted fall food plots in the Edwards plateau or in an area with subpar soils? Just curious to see if you guys disk and broadcast or if you have any other advice for this type of area.

[686]

In my opinion, Edwards Plateau farming/plots is hyper site specific. You have to find some soil. For example on our place, in some places we have a foot or more of soil, and my plots have done pretty well. In other places with 8" or less of soil above caliche, they haven't done as well.

The easiest thing to do in my opinion is:

1. find your best dirt

2. fertilize per soil test or per a local feed and seed's recommendation and disk same day. Some Edwards soils are pretty Iron deficient, so you might help yourself by adding Ironite as well, but it's not cheap. Most Edwards soils are also higher pH (8+), so using Ammonium Sulfate (vs. ammonium nitrate) fertilizer can help lower the pH.

3. Roll with cultipacker

4. Broadcast seed

5. Roll with cultipacker

6. Go to church and let the boss know you'd sincerely appreciate him looking kindly on your situation by providing some water.

7. Be patient and don't get frustrated. Dry land farming in the Edwards is not reliable, but I think every time you can get something growing you're helping the herd at cents on the dollar vs. protein.

I posted more in one of the other central Texas threads on when to plant, but my deer have responded well to the plots.

[686]

Here's a "time-lapse" of a fall plot on our lampasas place:

1. Plow (I like to plow but not necessary) and disk:


2. Fertilize, disk (I disked a second time because I plowed, plowing only recommended every 5 years or so if you like to do it) roll, seed, roll:


3. Winter grazed condition, winter was pretty dry this year:


4. Spring condition after good rains:

[bwool]

Going to try it a little different this year. In areas where vegetation is thick enough, I'm going to try to get away with out scratching the ground at all. Just spray, throw & roll. In our region, ground moisture can be hard to come by.

[cylomedia]

What would you recommend planting?

[Adthomps]

I am the ITR with Tecomate here in Texas and have several clients up that way. The advise from 686 is spot on. It takes some pre-work to find your best place to plant. Ideally you would also take a soil sample to see exactly what your working with and if you need to put down any soil amendments. However, if your just starting now for this fall soil amendments won't do you a whole lot of good in the short term so just see what your working with and go from there. Tecomate has a western game mix that does well for that area and we also have a Max Attract that is great for a fall "kill" plot.

[686]

Going to try it a little different this year. In areas where vegetation is thick enough, I'm going to try to get away with out scratching the ground at all. Just spray, throw & roll. In our region, ground moisture can be hard to come by.

Unclefish has documented some "throw and mow" results in his "food plot and a little work today" thread, and lots of eastern US and nothern US folks have documented good results with "throw and crimp" or "throw and mow" methods. Elgato does a lot of "mow and no-till" I think, which is the probably the best way to go. Meanwhile, Lots of stuff I've seen for drier climates (west of 35) says that scratching the ground is the way to go. Here's some info on that: https://nebula.wsimg.com/2b41c30a0e1...&alloworigin=1

My only interpretation/theory on this conflicting info is that the "throw and mow/crimp" techniques work well in wetter climates because of the weed control provided by the thatch, and that enough rainfall occurs to first establish proper seed-soil contact, and then germinate the seed, whereas further west, we don't have as much of a weed problem, and we need to establish proper seed-soil contact mechanically, so that any rain we get goes directly to germinating/growing the seed.

FYI, I have no ag background and have just gotten overly interested in deer/habitat management, so treat my opinions as such. I like posting here because writing this stuff down helps me get my management strategy straight in my own mind. Good luck with your plotting and let us know what happens!

[88 Bound]

We followed pretty close to what 686 posted, but only disc'd twice. Right before planting and right after. Fertilized a month before planting oats and wheat. We have a hilltop plot and a bottom plot. Both were very successful this year with the wetter than norm conditions. Even with sufficient browse, our deer hammered them. This fall is scheduled to be drier, so we are planting as before and plan on watering the plots periodically with an atv sprayer. I'm expecting it to be even more popular this year if normal fall browse dries up.

We are in the NW corner of the county.

[bgleaton]

Is anyone in Menard county or know anyone who would want to plant 5 to 8 acres this fall for us? We would obviously pay for someone to do it. We have a tractor, just haven't found a disc or spreader yet. We would really like to plant something this fall.

[jason86]

Is anyone in Menard county or know anyone who would want to plant 5 to 8 acres this fall for us? We would obviously pay for someone to do it. We have a tractor, just haven't found a disc or spreader yet. We would really like to plant something this fall.

Our feed store lets us use a spreader when we purchase from them, so may check with them. Find a disc on Craigslist

[Ishi&Elvis]

I began planting fall plots a few years back and looked for low areas on the ranch, or where the soil had washed into low lying areas. I shoveled around to make sure there was some soil there because I didn't want to waste time and $$ planting something that wasn't going to make. It has paid off using those areas where there was some drainage because it gets more water and the soil had accumulated to a thicker depth over the years. That's about all I can tell you, other than keep an eye out for any rain that might be coming your way, use the disc after rain if you can keep it off the disc, fertilize before you plant to get the nutrients in the soil, plant it, drag it, or cultipack if you have one, and hope for the best. If you can give it a shot of fertilizer after it comes up and you are going to get some moisture that is always good. Good luck!

[RMW]

Wheat would be awesome in your part of the country. We've planted about 600 acres after corn harvest and the deer loved it.

[BrandonA]

We plant 10 acres. We will usually disk 2-3 times. We then broadcast a mix of 50/50% oats and wheat at 100lbs per acre. We will also put out 200lbs of fertilizer per acre. Ten we run the cultipacker over it.

[bgleaton]

I need to find some used equipment. I have been watching the auction sites and tractor house, but haven't had much luck so far. I'll have to keep looking.