Food plot seeds

I am playing with the weed whacker again and am clearing a patch of thicket for a food plot. Are there any mixed seeds that y'all prefer and sources where to get them ?? It will probably end up being a couple of acres next to the pond and creek its in full sun and relatively level ground sandy clay with a thin covering of rotted leaf litter if that makes a difference.

I have been planting round-up ready beans and the deer eat them as they grow and then eat them in the winter after they mature. Tried corn and the coon destroy smaller plots before they do deer any good in winter and tried turnips and they didn't get very much attention. The beans look mowed off 10 inches high as they are growing, deer love them. Spray area when you plant and maybe one or two times as needed to keep them clean. I did a mix of round-up and 2-4-D 10 days before planting to kill the mares tail that has become resistant to round-up for the burn down and it worked well last year and the food plots were clean and the beans did real well. You might not need the 2-4-D in your area if it has not been farmed with round-up.

This is a good source:

https://hancockseed.com/

Talk to some local farmers, lots of them have last years extra replant beans they got for back up incase they needed to replant. I usually get mine for free because they are a year old. They grow fine.

Ernst seed in Meadville,pa

X2 Ernst Seed

Whitetail Institute Pure Attraction is a great blend. Pricy but they develop great products
Be sure to apply lime if your PH is low. Good luck!

John

Several years ago, I was invited to visit a large game ranch in the MO Ozarks. One of those high fence places that had their own captive herd. It was under professional management. Their summertime protein food plot forage was soybeans. Hard to do on a rocky Ozarks ridge.

Last fall, I killed out a small area of a hay field to make a forage test plot. Half was seeded down to a mix of timothy grass and red clover for hay and, with a forage rye grass added for a winter cover / nurse crop. Right beside that was a bed of red top forage turnips. Total area was maybe 50' x 200'. That was mid Sep. A month later, deer moved in and stayed there all winter and as of a day or so again, at least 6 of them were still hitting the rye grass hard. As in nightly.....all winter long. At times, it looked more like a hog lot than a forage test plot. The turnips even had a buck scrape. All this 150' from my back door.

The only way to make the rye grass better would be to use winter peas instead of clover. By 1st of June, hit it with roundup and go back with no till beans.

This time of year you can also use a mix of forage oats and the same winter peas. Those will be done sometime around mid July and can then be replaced by the forage turnips.

Thank you guys. Now I have something to work with.

Hey Scuba, I use rye with red and white clover over here. They seem to like it pretty good. I'm gonna put some more out in a new plot tomorrow.

Scuba I’m a fan off half and half. Early green for the fall and grain for the winter. After 20 plus years of experience with food plots. I really like green and grain. It’s wheat/Milo here. I would suggest the wheat or rye grass on half and beans or milo on the other half. Not sure how Milo grows in your area. I’ve posted before about cutting 1000’s of acres of corn, wheat, and milo a year. A milo field we have 10 times the animals in it at harvest than any other fields. Tons of bugs for the Young birds and cover and grain for everything else. From coons and skunks to quail and deer they all love milo. Good luck

Don't buy a "Whitetail Mix." They are way over priced. Find a local feed store and get a couple pounds of what ever you want to plant. It will save you a bunch.

We plant a mix of turnips, radish, clover and rye. Every area is different
For us, the turnips are what the deer go for most. Plant a variety and see what gets eaten and what doesn't. After a few years you will have your own "blend" figured out.

Scuba, if you plan to spray with an ATV sprayer with round-up to burn down or if you plant round-up ready beans. Talk to a local farmer, not only to get left over seed but chemicals. They buy in 250 Gal. or 500 Gal. tubs and you can get round-up concentrate for anywhere from 12 to 20 bucks a gallon from them. 4 to 6 oz, a gallon will smoke your weeds. I already have clover strips for firebreaks in my warm season native prairie grass so that is why I just plant honey holes with soybeans. They already have plenty of grass and clover forage.

I am a fan of green when everything is brown.....plant late or perennials and fertilize and renovate. Check pH, lime. I prefer rye, rapeseed, red clover - something that can take some frosts and stay green.

Plant cereal rye for a nurse crop with durana clover. If I cant buy locally I use seedworldusa.com

You also need to start crabapples and persimmons for the deer, its a killer combination.

http://sinclairvilleseed.com/

Huge following around here, great people.... I also grew up with the family

They also have a Facebook page, scroll through it

Thanks for all the tips folks.

I have about a third cleared of what I want to do down there but I am getting there . My right arm won't let me do more than a couple of hours a day fighting 8 foot tall weeds and shrubs. So I just get out there when I get a break in my other projects.

https://www.ernstseed.com/