TxsOaks, I was going to go with LabLab in one area and cowpeas in another and for sure oats for the fall. Any suggestions/recommendations? You know, there are alot of farms in the area - some of the farmers/ranchers starting peanuts again. My Rancher grows coastal hay on the land that I lease. One section he totally keep cattle off of and that is so he can bale it later.

This is the first year that I have done any food plots. I have been doing year round feeding however - corn - big deal right?

Cover crop, I would go with Buckwheat (fast growing but short lived). Hybrid Red Seeded Milo if its not going to be in the shade is drought resistant and will give something for peas to grow up on. Our experience with peas is if you cant keep cows off of them, don't plant them. THEY NEED TIME TO GROW. We have never tried Lablab, if you plant it, let me know how it goes. I would also get a couple of mineral sites going. 25lb bag at Golden Oak Mill for about $7. Corn will not bring the protein and minerals needed for deer in the summer. Its all carbohydrates. I would also thiing about planting next winter some native sunflowers, drought tolerant, high re-seeder and high protein content (we planted some in January). We meet with James Edawards with TPWD on the 19th.

Oats has the highest conent of protein of the cereal grains

Hopefully you have access to tractor and implements. It makes planting food plots so much easier.

We are taking the strategy of increasing the amount of clover we plant in the fall because the clover will make it late into summer when they need it the most if you dont let it go to seed (Late April Pic):


By emb0036 at 2010-03-09

Some advice given to me from the QDM Forums:

For a good example though, one of the ranches I have helped consult and plant on, west of kerrville, had
chicory, madrid yellow sweet clover, and hubam white sweet clover growing up until the time the plots got
disked for fall preparation mid august. The few spots that didn't get disturbed have grown into and some
through this past fall. All with very very disappointing rainfall.

Well we made a mad dash to the Farm this weekend to do a food plot. We planted about 1 acre total - I know that is not much, but that in itself was a big undertaking. We were fortunate that the rancher that owns the property was willing to plow the hard to get to areas or it just would not have been possible. He did a great job of just getting the ground plowed. 1 area is about 1/2 acre sendero which is quite long. This area he never lets his cattle onto because he grows coastal for hay close by on the other side of the tree line. We planted a mix of soybean, summer peas, corn & milo in this area. It was a food plot mix from Evolved Harvest. The owner of the property thought it should do well there.

The other two areas is where we have been unsuccessful of keep cattle out of with an electric fence by itself. The cattle just plow through it. Before we left we ran a strand of barbed wire in the same path of the electric wires hoping that would slow the cows down long enough for them to get spanked by the electrified fence. We may need a second strand.

If this is successful, I beleive we will have some nice plots if we have good rains this spring. They are calling for rain this week so lets keep the fingers crossed.

Im praying for rain too buddy. Sounds like you did a good job.

Thanks - nice looking kiddos!

Previous rains has everything real green right now and I actually cut back my corn feeding times as they don't seem to be wanting alot of corn right now.

All the stock ponds are full right now but looks like it has been drying out over the past few weeks. Praying for rain....

http://www.longrangeweather.com/weather-forecasts/US-City.aspx and then type Abliene, it's the closest for our area (for me anyway)

http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange/TX/Fort+Worth

TxsOaks - How is your plot(s) looking? I wanted to get mine in March but just could not get there. The Binghams were great - they had the food plot area plowed in no time for us. They were kind of excited to see how everything did as well.

He even recommended peanuts but I did not have time to get them before I left.

That is great they did that for you guys. That makes all the difference. Fall plots are looking great. We are going out this weekend, so I will take some pictures of them. We are just planting some warm season grasses for cover / bedding, no spring plots this year. We are planting, Indian grass, blue-stem little, blue-stem big, Alamo switch grass, Blackwell switch grass, and side-oats. I hear peanuts need a lot of water, maybe hard to grow for dry-land planting (non-irrigated). Keep us updated on how the spring plots go and get us some pictures.


By emb0036, shot with Moultrie Game Camera at 2010-03-28

This was our project from last time:


By emb0036, shot with BlackBerry 9630 at 2010-03-30

The activity you have is great! I guess the fall plot will die at soon? The forecast are showing good rains for the week. Unless you have irrigation, the plots & farmers in general are at the mercy of rains.

The grasses you are planting will be around your food plots? I am interested in that as well to plant along the edges of the tree lines.

We noticed that corn was barely touched right now for all the forage around, but hopefully these spring plots will bring the nutrician they need and keep them close to our place.

Oats will go to seed in May if we (by mowing, deer and cows eating)keep them from doing that or otherwise it will be earlier and then brown out. The clover should got into June.

The grasses are going to be in open areas / open woods. They would definitely work along tree lines to give that needed transition from the food plot to the tree line.

I was looking at the pricing of that Indian Grass - kind of pricey huh?

I have a couple areas like the treed area around the plot you showed me that I think would be great for high grasses.

I guess the TPW guy told you all this? I think we have a lot of good bedding areas with briars and such but maybe not exactly what they like...these grasses would make it nicer - I am sure...

Talked with Turner Seed and National Rescources Conservation Service - Comanche Office. Also, did some research for native grasses in Texas.

Good article:

http://www.qdma.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/variety-matters-article.pdf

Thanks for the information - may make another trip next week for that.

Hope this rain gets my food plot going but it looked like the rain just stayed away from Comanche most of the day today. From my radar - it looked like they got a good (but quick) rain shower around 7:00 tonight. They still have a good shot of rain tomorrow.

70% today through Sunday. We are still planing to go out this weekend and try to turkey hunt I forgot to answer you question about prices. The seeds ran anywhere from $7lb to $12lb but a grass mix only needs around 6-7lbs an acre.

Beattie got right at 2" this weekend.

Hi LuckyCatch, Perfect information on the rain amountfor the Beattie area - that should kick start my food plot -

TxsOaks, Thanks for the information on the grass. I am ordering it today! I am going up the weekend of May 1st!

I got most of ours in the ground on Sunday. Then I broke our tractor, look like I busted a fitting connecting to the transmission pan. I will post pics when and if it grows All the food plots need to be mowed but I ran out of time. I also didnt get to take any pics of the food plots but we have one camera up watching this one and he is a photo (There is a deer in the back making a scrape) :


By emb0036, shot with Moultrie Game Camera at 2010-04-19

I like it! You won't get bored sitting here watching the deer come around! I am chomping at the bit to get back there myself - so that tractor broke for you could get much done? That stinks. Hopefully you can get it fixed quickly.

Do you have cameras at the other food plots?

We don't. I am blaiming my brother and dad for not helping on this We do have one camera across the river going on another plot but we havent gone across to check it. It should have a bunch of pictures on it. The other plots dont have any cameras on them. My dad is going out next weekend to try and fix the tractor, because we have a lot more work to do. Hopefully it wont be to much troulbe fixing it.

I grabbed a couple pics with my phone. We needed to mow but the rain kind of delayed that for another time.


By emb0036 at 2010-04-20


By emb0036 at 2010-04-20


By emb0036 at 2010-04-20


By emb0036 at 2010-04-20

Nice Pictures - do you guys have any tree stand blinds or regular blinds?

We have 7 tree stands, 3 tripods, 1 tower box blind for bowhunting, and a popup blind. (2 other tower stands for gun hunting)

Here's one tree stand over a feeder and food plot:

Nice - enjoyed the view. Excited to go back next weekend. Looks like we got some rain today!

Grow Sun Flowers Grow - pictures were taken a few weeks ago:





The river has been up:

I have been on a lease with 5 buddies for 3 years now. We are 5 miles north of Comanche on 2247. We love it there. Don't see alot of deer, but usually see some everytime we go. I shot a 130 9 point opening weekend last year. Two years ago, my buddy shot a 150 23 point. Have alot of turkeys and some hogs. Yotes and cats everywhere. Even kill a few ducks on the tanks. The guy that own Miguel's restaurant, said he has 80 acres 1 mile north of town on 2247 and that he had a mountain lion on his place. He had a plaster print of a track in the restaurant. Been feeding protein and it seems to work. Just hard to get out there and keep the feeders filled.

Hey snoball, we are in Beattie - north of Comanche. We have our first food plot installed although I think this year there will be plenty to eat. We normally don't see a lot of deer either but we did have our best year there. We let a lot go this year hoping that we can see our population grow.

I am going up next weekend to check our plot.