Just finished planting warm season plots this morning. 11 plots. Sprayed, disked, and planted over past 3 weeks. An acre of chufas, 4 acres of cowpeas, millet, and sorghum. Went from too dry about a week ago to almost too wet now.




The owl decoy dont keep the squirrels from digging up the chufas...look close, there is one in front of the owl in the pic.

A few visitors....

Looks great Patrick!
You need to pinch that turkey killer this winter!!!!

His/her days are numbered....along with a family group of coyotes and a few coons. Ive been slouching on predator control on that property. This winter gonna be several Bridger 2s planted.

Firebreak plantings....peas and browntop millet...combination for deer and turkey

Them food plots are another hobby that’s turned into an obsession, lol. All started with a bag of winter wheat for me .

Looks good! The rain this year is just about right. Rain on and off for a week then dry for a week then repeat. Our beauty berry and ragweed is looking good too.

Expensive too. Diesel fuel, herbicide, seed, fertilizer, lime, tractor and implement repairs, and the sweat equity. I love to give back to the wildlife instead of just taking. Plus, I do my best scouting from the seat of my tractor especially when mowing the logging roads and fields.

Its a lot of work but its how I punch my reset button...

How do you keep the deer out of the cowpeas till they get are able to stand the grazing pressure ?? Every time I plant them the deer destroy them when they reach about 6 inches tall

Tractors make great deer stands if they see them enough too. Heck I’m out in the woods so much they don’t even pay my truck any attention anymore. If I ever get a new one it’s going to be white too, lol.

Looks great!!!

Dont try to keep them out. The deer bite the top leaves off of many of them then slow their grazing pressure on the peas. The millet grows up fast and covers the bit off pea stems. The millet gets knee high and makes seed heads in about 60 days. The turkey broods come in and stomp the millet down while stripping the seed heads. This exposes the peas that survived the initial deer grazing and here come the deer back to browse them again. By now its about September. Disk it under and plant rye, oats, and clover.

This combo works well here in the deep south.

What is it about a white vehicle? I have a white truck and have noticed that deer and turkeys seem to hold longer than when seeing other color vehicles.

They usually let me drive right to them on my Yanmar tractor too.

Planted a couple plots that I hadn't got to yet. Replanted one and part of another that were too small to withstand the grazing pressure on first planting. Riding that tractor is how I punch my reset button.

Deer were everywhere today....mostly fat does and one with a fawn....up and moving even in this heat.

Looking good.

Awesome plots!

We don't start our food plots till late august. We don't want to feed deer all summer just during the hunting season.

This country is mostly huge tracts of timber...not much agriculture. I call myself giving something back to the deer as southern summers can be a stress period with tougher browse only available. Soils here are sandy and nutrient poor...a lot of browse but none is very nutritious. The plots are hammered, especially by nursing does. Plus summer plantings of millet, grain sorghum, and chufas are geared toward fall turkey feed as all they have here is acorns then. Another reason is I just like getting on my old tractor.

Will also plant in the fall, usually late September or first week of October here....rye, oats, clover, etc. These are select kill plots.

I can remember when I trapped In SC those boys spent a lot of time and money on doing what your doing. And they dumped tons deer corn along the roads on a daily basis.

Yessir...a lot of southern deer management includes spring/summer plantings. Corn and/or deer protein feed is big business. Corn business is huge in the fall during hunting season as most people are too lazy to plant or dont have the equipment so they just buy a bag(s) of corn to hunt over....which is legal here in Ga.