When to start food plot
Best Time To Plant A Food Plot
now we are in early May and man there's
got to be a lot of food plots going in
the ground right now but really is it
the best time and I want to talking
about planting late summer fall
especially when it comes to food plot
you know right now the property we're
buying in Minnesota the farms are
actively being worked up that manure on
the fields they were tilling the fields
and then they just put in corn that's a
matter of four days I mean so they're
really hopping on things right now in
the AG world and and so everything's
getting in the ground so it just seems
like a lot of people are pulled into
food plotting this year and of course if
you're planting beans they have to go in
the ground soon if you're planting corn
they have to go in the ground soon so
that's a little bit different but if
you're putting clover in if you're
adding perennials if you really want to
have a really good ability to influence
the herd and I'm not even just saying
influence your hunt because if you're
not influencing your hunt you're not
influenced I heard you're if you're not
influenced in the herd you're not
influenced in the hunt those both go
together you can't influence the herd in
April May June July no the deer in your
local neighborhood don't need your
groceries that you put out for them in
the summertime there's plenty of food to
go around in most of the north half of
the entire country in fact there's
usually several times more food than the
deer need in the north half of the
country so think about that different
than the arid Southwest and some of the
very southern portions where there's so
much drought during the summertime it
really is a time of need in the
whitetail world that's completely
different the North or what most you are
watching this nothing against the south
but there's a lot of deer numbers when
you get up into Pennsylvania and
Michigan Wisconsin Minnesota Indiana
Illinois and New York just some big
giant deer States up in this area in
Ohio you know I know I'm gonna forget
more Missouri or whatever but think
about the fall so when I mean about the
fall I'm talking about late summer and a
lot of my crops are going in the ground
anywhere from August 1st to September
1st Labor Day even up in the mid sub mid
mid September mid September is great
timing for certain crops certain food
plot forages such as oats wheat rye
layering crops over failed crops at that
time is great for winter rye just
throwing it over your plots that have
failed at that moment a lot of crop
failures I see it still
number one crop feelers on ten I was on
ten client properties in twelve days in
Michigan over the last couple weeks
and in that trip I'd say half of my
clients had all had failed bean
plantings it's something because they're
not making it to the hunting season and
there's hardly even any food here in the
middle of summer so yeah there's certain
crop certain food plots that you have to
plant this time of year corn would be
number one in my book in fact I have
some corn going into my new land that'll
probably be going in over the next month
fall consider it
late summer there's several reasons that
that is the best time to plant now bring
up one there's a lot of crop failures
out there and I'm just trying to make
you guys have great food plots I have no
agenda other than I was interesting
someone said something the other day
about I had an agenda for my sponsors or
whatever else but I'll tell you what if
a sponsor wouldn't let me do things the
way I do it by by sponsor I don't need
them that bad I love my partners I have
some incredible partners I wouldn't be
working with them and I'm very very
blessed to do so but no one tells me
what to say online YouTube anywhere
Instagram Facebook social media online
did your content anything what that's
simply what I talk about is what I've
seen work times a thousand people's
property that I've gone to since 2005 my
own experience the experience from when
I was awarded that 2004
el brothers deer manager the Year award
from the Q DMA it all goes back a very
long time I just want you guys to be
successful purely in this first point
when you plant late summer moisture is
on the increase what do you think about
that a second if you get a crop
establish one of my only crop of fail
crop failures going back to 1995 was in
the early 2000s when I had a great
clover crop that was established in May
up in the upm Michigan light soils we
ended up in nine weeks we got less than
an inch of rain clover can take a whole
lot especially when it gets up into that
five six seven inches high and it's
becoming a little bit more mature stem
stems or rut systems then fully
entrenched into the ground and taken
hold but it can't take drought and and
that's why from that point on I never
planted clover in the spring other than
to frost he didn't some holes
might already establish Cloverfield the
best time to establish clover is in the
late summer that August September
timeframe because moisture is on the
increase
another thing weeds are dying at that
time they're not thriving
it's pretty crazy during that drought
where there was less than one inch of
rain and nine weeks up in the U P it's
amazing how the weeds still thrived all
summer long on those same plots when you
get into the fall the weeds are drying
they're trying crispy I had to deal with
a lot of ferns up there they're turning
Brown at that time of the year really
good time to get a crop established and
not only are weeds dying at that time
and they're turning brown but you've had
all summer then to take care of the
weeds and to take care of your plots get
any kind of sticks and debris and rocks
out of new plots get the weeds out of
your plots and no weedy plots are not
good during the summer time someone can
show a video of deer going over a clean
plot to a weedy plot well sure they like
diversity during the summertime but
let's go back to what I just said
weeds are dying at that time not
thriving so those weeds are not
available in food plots so the food
plots become extremely low volume after
you get those weeds out of there and
you're left with a field of open stems
and poorly formed and matured food plot
crops with nothing else available in
October November December and you're not
gonna be influenced any hurt at all
so think about that weeds are dying
they're not thriving moisture is on the
increase
also perfect time like I said with the
clover to establish a perennial base if
you want it if you want to establish
clover at that time chicory L thoughtful
whatever it might be great time to get
those combinations of perennials on the
ground
I really don't often like where it's a
total straight clover blend alfalfa
chicory I do like combinations if I am
going to put a perennial in just to go
back to that diversity bass great time
to put it in at that time because the
moisture is on the increase you have low
weed competition you've been able to
take care of your weeds all summer long
you get a great shot of winter dormancy
with a lot of moisture in the ground you
go into the springtime with another
round of great moisture and then
the moisture is on the decrease as you
go into the following summer and if
there's drought what I found even in
light poor soils that your perennials
will establish they'll establish well it
is almost impossible to kill those
perennials out the following year when
drought hits when you've actually
planned to them during the late summer
and got that shot a fall moisture winter
dormancy then spring moisture so by the
time they get they become established
and they're growing the following summer
and drought hits that rut system as well
into the ground and matured so that you
can withstand even the greatest drought
at that time also great time for in
timing for putting those perennials in
when you actually have a cool season
cover crop because the coolest even
school season cover crop is actually
what's going to define your hunting
season that cool see as I start blending
brassicas and clover in the end of the
90s together in the fall and the reason
I did that I added the - there were no
mixes available at that time there was
nothing online of course no one talking
about that I wanted to do that because I
wanted the power of the cool season
annual of the brassicas up in the upm
Michigan followed by the clover the
following year because I was building a
deer herd and so until that deer herd
was fully built - what I thought the
carrying capacity was in 2006 then from
99 to 2006 I was in herd building mode
and that meant perennials every single
year and those perennial location
rotations so that was a great time I
could I planted him with oats in clover
bird's foot trefoil chicory and then I
planted those with winter rye the oats
died out during the winter that was kind
of nice about the oats but they were
also brown even cold hearty oats in
November in December so they didn't
offer much in the fall at that time so I
found I really migrated towards just
purely winter rye and then I'd either
used cuffing them in the spring which is
a grass specific herbicide and I'd kill
the grass out in the spring or I'd mow
the Rye down to just expose the clover
and kill the Rye and allow the clover to
come in so between Braska oats rye and
huit you can establish that pernil base
in the fall you can have a great food
source for the fall and then you have
that carryover of the perennial the
following year and lastly but not least
a great time to plant late summer
because you can target purely specific
cool season annuals the cool season
annuals or even summer annuals give you
the best bang for your buck during that
time of the season so say for example if
soybeans were appropriate and you're
trying to build the deer herd on your
land I really only like to plant summer
food sources you know you see a lot of
stuff on online that it's inaccurate one
of those things and people someone said
I don't like summer food plots well I
don't normally but if you're building a
herd you're trying to establish a
pattern of use on new food plots summer
food is certainly appropriate but so
many properties that go to have way too
many dough's because of that summer food
so the first way to reduce your deer
population if needed is to reduce or
eliminate the summer food sources not
trigger control the first step is just
get them off your land in the first
place so you don't have to shoot and let
your neighbor shoot them
don't create such a vacuum on your land
but bottom line is great time whether
you are going for a summer annual let's
say sunflower seeds Sun hemp soybeans
whatever it might be you're going to get
more volume more growth in more
nutrition for that period of time if you
use a summer annual as opposed to clover
or some other type of perennial and then
if you go into the fall you're going to
get the most volume per month in the
amount of food per month
and diversity per month if you plant a
combination of cool season annuals and
you don't plant those cool season
annuals like brassicas oats and rye or
wheat or peas or late planted beans in
the springtime or early summer you plant
them during the fall so that you can get
the most amount of volume through your
food sources and guess what if you are
hitting that fall timeframe and I'm
talking about September October November
December into the winter into January
maybe even February if you're offering a
lot of food during that time and you're
offering a lot of habitat and a lot of
cover a lot of stem come
regeneration then you're going to be the
hurt influencer if and this is a big if
we can talk about the best time to plant
a food plot we can talk about how to
manage your habitat like I do on this
channel all the time then we can talk
about all those strategies that work and
that I've seen worked on hundreds of
clients land lands literally hundreds of
clients land client lands but if you do
all that and you don't manage your
hunting pressure then it's all for
naught in fact if you do it all right
with habitat food cover and you actually
go in there and pressure the deer herd
too much you let the deer pattern you
more than you can patter them then all
those great habitat improvements are
going to be for naught you're actually
gonna make it harder on yourself than if
you had planted those habitat forms of
cover and food in the first place so
always think about that your hunting
pressure and how you manage your hunting
that's always the low lowest hole in the
bucket it doesn't matter if you're on
public land or private land you have to
manage that first everything you do when
you're creating habitat when you're
playing food plots it doesn't matter if
it's at the right time or not if you're
not managing your hunting property
you're not managing your hunting
pressure on your property then you're
going to spook more deer for your
habitat efforts and it's always the
lowest hole in the bucket think about
that the best time to plan a food plot
isn't right now it is for some very
specific food plot varieties but you
might want to even question if you
should be planting those in the first
place everyone wants to get out right
now and plant again it's early May I
believe it's May 3rd today so we're
right at that point where so much is
going into the ground but farming is not
food plotting food plotting is not
farming completely different think about
that as we're going in throughout the
summer getting your food plots ready I
have about 6070 food plot strategy
videos and my food plot playlist I
invite you to check those out I talk
about this stuff a lot but when it comes
to the best timing of when you should be
planning your food plots consider that's
probably right now we're still a few
months away it's just around the corner
though and deer season crazy I think
it's four months away if I'm doing the
math right in my head right now early
September in a lot of states crazy crazy
it comes fast
and don't be acting too fast when it
comes to your food plots this year the
best time is still yet to come
