I am new to food plots. I would like to plant some that are not hard to keep up. I have heard of some that arent hard to keep and keep growing year after year. I bought some stuff called throw and gro that is clover, brassica and ryegrass. I would like to plant something soon to have for them to eat all year round. Do yall have any ideas on something i could use? I dont mind plant again later in the year if i have to. I just have no experience with any kind of food plots and need some advice for a small and simple food plot. Im not going to be making anything near a quarter acre like the bag i bought says it will plant. Im thinking maybe 15 foot by 15 foot or something. Also, if there are cows out there, do yall think they will eat it up? what about hogs? I dont want to make a fence around the plot as ive already spent enough money on pens around my feeders. THIS CAN BE AN EXPENSIVE SPORT.

Look at the content of that stuff. Pretty sure it's like 70% rye grass. Which means, it'll grow and be green, but it's almost all rye grass. Learned that from a yankee that all he does is plant food plots. More than likely, cows and pigs will both get into it.

well what kind of seed would u recommend? I dont have a tractor or anything but i will take out the existing grass and turn over the land with a shovel, a hoe and whatever else. What would be a good seed to plant? Is there anything that will last all year? Could someone give a short(or long if you feel like it) education on food plots for texas(preferably south east texas weather) lavaca, colorado counties?

Can't help you past that, no personal experience.

I hunt and plant food plots in lavaca county but what ever you plant will be eaten by cows.If you do put up a fence you can plant soybean, lablab,or clay&iron peas.

Your first priority, task, will be finding an area larger than 15'x15' to put your plot. An area this small will serve no benefit to you or the deer. Are you wanting to put in a food plot for supplemental feed, an attractant for harvest opportunity, or both?

Rye grass is not much nutrition for deer only an attractant. Without a fence a food plot will be a waste of money with cattle. With amount of deer in those counties you will need more than a few square feet and something along the line of 3-5 acres to start. You can use elecric fencing to keep cattle and hogs out. If you do not have farm equipment then you are again wasting your time IMO. If you do not own the land then is the landowner going to let you fence off acreage to plow up cattle grazing to feed deer? By the time you figure in what little your deer will get for what you have invested you would be money and better off putting in a feed pen and feeding protein. Your results will be the same-better nutrition and an attractant to see and hold deer on your lease.

I read once that one of the best things for deer is to run a disc harrow around the pasture . Don't go deep with it just break up the soil around the grass so the weeds and forbs will get a chance to grow.

Anyone here ever tried a small food plot and had some success? If so what kind did you use?
Hey Her-man, how big are your food plots?

Think of small food plot this way, a deer eats 3.5% of it live body weight daily. So a 100# deer will 3.5 lbs of forage everyday. One small plot won't last a couple of days with 3 or 4 deer eating on it. It will never get a chance to get established much less produce enough for you to see any benefit.

An ATV and disc will go a long way to planting food plots that will grow and be of use. Fertilizer, ph and rain are keys to success.

i gotcha stxranchman... so what do you think is the smallest size food plot that can sustain itself. At least an acre?

Depends on how many deer are going to use it. A really good food plot that gets a chance to grow can support around 5 to 7 deer per acre. But you will need to keep cattle off of it for it to do that. You have to remember that any legume type plant (cowpeas, clover, alfalfa, soybeans, lab lab) are slow to grow above ground for about 3 weeks as it establishes a root system. This 3 weeks means it is vunerable to grazing and it can kill new plants or not produce the foilage for you.