Warm Season Food Plot Issues

[duckman88]

I wanted to get some thoughts on issues we have had with our warm season food plots this year. Here is the background info:

Food plots were created in March 2016, sub-soiled, fertilized, sprayed by May and were planted in June 2016. Planted with a mix of Iron and Clay Peas, Buckwheat and sunflowers. Plots came in great. Deer hit all of them hard and re-planted in late July. Came back in great again. Fall comes around, we bush hogged and disked all plots, fertilized and plant with our fall mix in October 2016 (I know we were late getting it in ground). Weather sucked, everything got about two inches tall and stayed that way throughout the season. All plots were limed in February 2017. Weather started getting warmer and we got good rain and the oats/wheat in the plots got to about knee high by the time we started getting ready for this year's warm season plots. Due to two babies being due around the time we needed to plant we did not spray but we did bush hog and fertilize all plots, then disked and planted in early May 2017. This year we planted a mix of Iron and Clay peas, Lablab (pre-inoculated) and soybeans. We did a heavier seeding rate this year in hopes of combating some of the grazing pressure. Fast-forward to today, one of the plots came in great but was hammered by the deer. The other three plots are almost bare with very little germination and a decent amount of weeds (to be expected) but not enough to have out-competed our seed. We checked and the seed we used was tested in December 2016 so old seed isn't an issue. Now that you have the story, here are my questions:

Could our seeding rate (all done with hand spreaders) have been too high?

Also, we just got a cultipacker but didn't get it in time to use for these plots so we used our drag. Could it have buried the seed too deep this year even though it worked fine last year?

I am waiting to get soil test results back to see if there are any issues but, based on the fertilizer we have put out as well as lime, I cannot foresee the soil chemistry being worse than it was last year when we had good results.


Thanks!

[Duckman#1]

Rough guess how much seed to the acre did you use ?

[Duckman#1]

Also I'd put up a couple of cages to see what happens inside to give you an idea about browsing pressure.

[duckman88]

I would say 30-40lbs/acre I&C Peas and around 20lbs/acre Lablab in two of the plots.

On a third plot, 40lbs/acre pre-mixed soybeans, I&C peas and lablab.

Also, given our time constraints this year, soil conditions for planting were dry and not optimal, although we got an inch of rain the day after we planted. Will definitely get some enclosure cages up next time I am at the property.

[2thDoc]

you cant overseed to the point of it not growing. (at least not from anywhere near 50lb/acre of beans/peas)

agree you need a handle on browse. scary to think about it but its entirely possible they ate it as soon as it came up.

if they got rain, they germinated.

KISS

[Duckman#1]

Only thing that may have hurt you on germination a little, more so if drill, would be the inch of rain followed by a hot dry spell will form a hard crust that som seed may not be able to push thru.

[2thDoc]

heck, i'll bet you a nickel the deer ate it. it wasnt over seeded. they just ran a drag over it. it rained. IMO, its pretty hard to fuck up. i'll bet an exclosure would've told the story....

[DJP]

We did have 2-3 big rainstorms in May this year. We did get some wash and some seed just rotted in the duck pond b/c it does not drain well.

[Whackumstackum]

Yeller Onions and Water.