Brown top planting times

**2thDoc** · 05-22-2023, 07:46 AM

i'm pretty sure my birds just kick it on the ground to sprout and eat the sunflowers and corn....

to the OP--people often discount sunflowers bc they cant keep deer out, but I am smarter than a deer and have opposable thumbs and electricity. I usually win.
Making a hot fence around a few acres is a simple, repeatable job if one wants to give the effort. I even take my fence down every year before the season opens.

**2thDoc** · 05-22-2023, 07:46 AM

but i've yet to have enough doves to matter
(edited to add)

**Palmetto Bug** · 05-22-2023, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by YoungBuckTX

there's a reason birds eat all the different seeds out of a feeder, but leave the millet alone or eat it last.

I think millet gets eaten second to last if the only thing left is sorghum and millet.

Years ago, wild bird seed had hemp seeds in it and that was what the birds ate first. That's one of the reasons I have been interested in hemp coming back as a common crop. I doubt the seeds will ever make it back into bird seed mixes because it's much more valuable for making CBD oil.

**Palmetto Bug** · 05-22-2023, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by 2thDoc

i'm pretty sure my birds just kick it on the ground to sprout and eat the sunflowers and corn....

to the OP--people often discount sunflowers bc they cant keep deer out, but I am smarter than a deer and have opposable thumbs and electricity. I usually win.
Making a hot fence around a few acres is a simple, repeatable job if one wants to give the effort. I even take my fence down every year before the season opens.

I'm still trying to avoid the hassle of stringing electric fence. This weekend I spent time spreading poconite and hanging half bars of Dial soap and feed bags around my dove field. Every year those voodoo measures get less effective though.

**YoungBuckTX** · 05-22-2023, 08:19 AM

that's more work than a fence and less effective. we setup two fences around our 12 acre field in about 4 hours. takes less than that to take it down. I am in the process of adding in permanent post at the corners and gate to speed up the process even more.

**Otter 1200** · 05-22-2023, 11:07 AM

Since all you guys talk about how easy electric fences are, I decided to plant an acre or so of sunflowers. Spent about 6 hrs. Saturday putting up a fence by myself, 1st time I’ve ever put one up. Actually think it would go much faster now that I’ve done one and wish I would have planted another acre or more since it went well. Any way will plant the remaining 3+ acres in browntop around June 10th or so. Planted the same time frame for 20+ years.

**YoungBuckTX** · 05-22-2023, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by Otter 1200

Since all you guys talk about how easy electric fences are, I decided to plant an acre or so of sunflowers. Spent about 6 hrs. Saturday putting up a fence by myself, 1st time I’ve ever put one up. Actually think it would go much faster now that I’ve done one and wish I would have planted another acre or more since it went well. Any way will plant the remaining 3+ acres in browntop around June 10th or so. Planted the same time frame for 20+ years.

make sure that you are getting a minimum of 5,000 V reading on a tester, and have a good grounding rod

**Otter 1200** · 05-22-2023, 01:21 PM

Which tester do you use? I bought the cheap one from tractor supply and couldn’t get anything to read at all. But the fence is hot for sure. I drove 2 eight foot ground rods in 10’ apart as the install instructions recommended. That is what took a lot of my time, between those 2 and all the T-post.

**Highstrung** · 05-22-2023, 01:29 PM

Our doves love millet, we put up an eight foot tall plastic mesh fence that we can take down and put up between seasons and plantings. They also like sunflowers, and they'll heap up in cut corn during the late seasons.

**Highstrung** · 05-22-2023, 01:30 PM

Yall have sassy uppity doves

**Highstrung** · 05-22-2023, 01:33 PM

I like a smorgasbord out there.. except for row planted milo, I'm not planting it again, so there's no more searching for doves in that mess.. it's fine cut down and shooting them in Mexico