Welcome Guest!
Land prepped and ready
- Thread starter Ihunt
- Start date
rattlesnake1
Senior Member
is that for food plot or production?
Food plot. Going to be putting in some peanuts now. There is about a 3/4 acre section that can’t be seen in that picture that will get alfalfa in October.
Canuck5
Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
What variety of alfalfa have you planted in the past? How much of or how many acres? Based on one of your other posts, you were pleased with it?
It’s Dekalb RR Alfalfa.
I have only planted 1/2 acre and I did that last October. And yes, I am very pleased with it. Bounced back vigorously from the drought and the deer are killing it. About to put a wireless camera on it.
I got turned on to it from a friend. He has two fields of it. One is 5 acres and the other is 6 acres. According to him, there are probably deer in it right now. It’s just nonstop.
As you know the ph is very important with the alfalfa. More so than any other crop. It will actually die in its second year if the ph isn’t correct.
From what I have been told, it will go dormant around here near Thanksgiving or so but starts to bounce back about the time our clover plots take off. Even in dormancy, the deer still flock to it. I like it so much that I am working on doing all of my plots in it. I’m sure it will take 2-3 years but imo it is better than clover by a long shot.
For weed control, it’s RR but you alternate every other spraying with 2-4-dB and Cleth. That, along with the Roundup keeps the plot weed free. Again, from what I have been told, alfalfa doesn’t deal well with competition.
If there is a downside it’s the price. I think a 25lb bag is about $400.00 or so. Pretty steep startup but my friend has a plot that’s 6 years old. Long term, I think the cost savings will be very beneficial as well as the time I save every year planting in the fall. For me, it’s my manic bean.
Good luck.
Let me know if you go that route and if so, post pics. Like you wouldn’t anyway?
Canuck5
Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Thanks!!! I am going to give it some consideration. We've had or will have, some property changes and I want to maximize one property over another ......
Just do like I did and give it a try on a small plot. It made a believer out of me.
Boy howdy you better not screw up when you plant it!
No sir. You take your time and do it correctly. I use a cultipacker
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Great looking fields!!!!
DawgDr.
Senior Member
Very interested in peanuts for food plots. Where do you get your peanuts to plant, local ag store? I guess I could research but how many pounds per acre for food plot setup? The deer love our peanut fields the farmers plant but never thought to do for food plot. thanks for sharing
I buy them from local farmers. You can also buy the leftover from Birdsong Peanuts in Unadilla. They will not sell them to you until the real farmers are done planting.
I still have a lot to learn with my planter setup but 100-125lbs per acre is good. One Row of my planter did great and he other so so. I’ll be taking it to a farmer friend for some much needed help.
You can just broadcast and harrow it in. The deer do and will eat the nuts but the tops are where it’s at as far as attraction. It’s about as good as it gets for attraction. If I can make nuts, I may get lucky and have a volunteer crop next year.
doomtrpr_z71
Senior Member
You'll have volunteers forever most likely, you'll probably have a ton of pops without added calcium, but volunteers will come up for a while.
I’m ok with that. I really just want the tops. Nuts are just an added bonus
XJfire75
Senior Member
Fields around my lease are in peanuts this year. One my property borders and have seen deer in the fields every time I’ve been to the lease since the peanuts were 4” high so I’m excited to actually have some staging areas and funnels to hunt where the deer are using my lease to get to the peanuts at dark.
