just got mine in today, 1/2 winter rye, then 1/2 radishes, turnips and rape seed, clover down the woods road....what do you guys do, and any suggestions for other stuff.....I might do some fruit and other?

2 weeks early for the turnips/rape and 5 weeks to early for the rye.

my food plots are the farmers hay fields and corn fields lol.

Same here.

Food plots are next to useless here. Deer can’t turn around without getting hit in the mouth with something to eat.

We have enough natural vegetation to keep deer happy all year. Besides most folks end up plowing under better food than what they’re planting…and last longer. But it seems no matter what’s planted or poured, when the acorns fall, everything else is ignored.
Although the place I’m trapping now has Alfalfa planted and keeps it year round. The deer keep it mowed down pretty good too.

Our food plots go In around the first part of August. We don't want to feed deer In the summer we want to feed them In the fall after most of the farm crops have been harvested.

Whitetail clover mix and soybeans, they eat the beans as they grow and eat the bean pods in the winter and spring before everything else starts to grow.

Clover fields with turnips and rape. Gotta plant ours early en ground still has some moisture or it’ll never grow.

Best food plot I ever hunted was an acre of oats in an old pasture. Lots of other good stuff but these oats were several miles from any other agricultural crops and they drew the deer like cocaine. Nothing for miles but woods and pastures.

1/2 acre soybeans 2 weeks ago and they are up about 1.5”, no till brassica mix last weekend in some very sandy soil to preserve moisture that has just started to come up. Second mowing of 1/4 acre clover plot and waiting to plant last 1.5 acre plot with brassica, non Roundup beans and some winter rye all to be planted at different times.

Dave

I hunt in the oaks. Plant them for your children and grandchildren to hunt in

I need to get out a fall plot. I'm not sure what to plant though.

I put out about 1/2 acre of sunflowers and that it so far for wildlife this yeas. Had a few flowers on them blooming two days back when I was home.. I will probably need to plant a cover crop in that spot around November. I then maybe clover there In the spring. Or maybe clover this fall just after dove season instead of a cover crop. What do you think?

Im not trying to shame you either but you are a bit early. I have planted brassicas in lower sunlight areas this time of July, but in my climate, last Saturday in july to first Saturday in August is more ideal to catch the rain you need. This is my first year trying rye. Ill start my layering near labor day and finish right before Oct.

Sounds like you're off to a good start- I would consider Chickory in your food plot mix, its high in protein and highly digestible. I focus a lot on browse plots, American Plum, Red Osier Dogwood, aspen clear cuts, for soft mast production I prefer pears over apples- the land management can be as much fun as the hunting. Deer hunting has changed over the years and anything you can improve to make your property a bucks home range is worth the effort - give him a reason to be there during daylight hours.

Having just acquired a property last fall with limited open ground i did a ton of work by hand to open up what i could. In total ill have about 1.25 acres planted in 6 different plots. Unfortunately due to sunlight two have to be all rye planted late. Ill have two different brassica blends and two others will be a mix a late planted bean, peas, and oats with an overlayer of rye. The majority of thos food is not going to be hunted due to the lay of the land, rather keep deer crossing where i can hunt and get to stands without spooking.

My other property is the opposite. Almost all field and limited cover for the field. I could plant a lot more there but i dont yet. Bucks simply need more security, which they are slowing getting over time. There are still some to chase but mostly this place is a teenage dance party of does and scrubs. I plant 1/2 acre of annuals, screen with Egyptian wheat, have rotating clover, and mow for wild clover here.

Could talk for hours on plots. It's very laborious. Im spending every weekend on my new property half on stands and half on plots. It will pay off in the coming years i hope. Be able to get back to fishing and doing other things rather than clearing lanes and cutting trees every weekend from march to june. My work list for this year is still long but there is so much behind me that im probably 85% done.

got to spray my food plots this week to kill off weeds then till , will plant them end of month or first of august

I did rape and turnips last year. Trying pumpkins this year. We need rain desperately.

We have about 3 acres in clover on 3 different plots. Low maintenance, just keep the grass and weeds out.
Keystone ag products have good products for that.
We have 2 acres that get rotated. Brasacus was killed off over the 4th. Brasacus will get a root rot after about 2 years so you need to kill it every other year so it won’t get into your soil.
20% of That 2 acre plot was planted in Blackeyed Susan’s. In August we will plant an Awnless forage winter wheat and Winter Peas.

Fruit, we plant Crab Apples, Pears, Persimmon, and a mix of Apples. Blue hill Wildlife Nursery has a good selection of wildlife trees. This spring we will plant 5 of their rifle Pear, 5 Chinese Chestnut, and 5 of their Fall Draw Chestnut. Last spring we did 20 crab apples. 20 was too much to plant for a weekend. We plant, install a 5’ diameter wire cage of concrete wire staked with 1” conduit to keep the deer from browsing and bears from climbing the trees. We put 24” of tree shelter at the base to keep the rodents from eating the bark.

Leonard Products sells a 2 year fertilizer pellet. We fertilize the trees in the spring of even years. I took a pellet to a welder, he made me a stick I can push down with my foot and drop the pellet into the hole. Next trip to our place in Potter County Pa. I’ll take a photo of it.

Thx for the advice...I went with planting now because of the shade...I'm in big woods1/2 of it gets 0% direct sunlight, we'll see how it turns out