We finally bought our own land! It’s not much but it’s ours. We have mature timber with lots of hardwoods and about 15 acres of mostly open ground that has been row crops for a few years and pasture before that. We don’t have any cover for bedding but the neighbor logged his land about 3-5 years ago and we get a lot of traveling deer from that area. The 15 acres we are looking at working with is high ground that slopes off in all directions and has a small pond. It is wide open. I am looking at planting some crops and creating some staging areas around the perimeter with a long skinny major food plot in the center. I am thinking of doing some small clover plots and have the major crop alternating between beans/brassicas and corn. I would like to do switchgrass to divide the plots to give some privacy and bedding along the steeper slopes around the edges. Any ideas for central/western ky food plots? I’ve never had this much land to work with for a big plot. Thanks!
Congrats! Take your time with you plans, dont try to do everything right away, and enjoy it (the successes and the failures. ) The only thing i would encourage you to rush is if you lack mast trees get some in asap so you can enjoy them 10-15 years from now. Get a few expensive bigger ones but plant a bunch of the smalller forestry ones as well. Cage them up or the deer will kill them and dont buy more than you have time to protect and water. Keep adding more every year till you figure things out. Other than that i wouldnt make too many permanent decisions because it will take time to figure things out and you are going to change your mind a lot.
Thx! About the only food we have right now is mast. I have about 20-30 extremely large white and red oaks that produced last year. They are all 24-36” trees. We are looking at planting a few ridges with some new fruit/mast trees though for future growth. It’s super exciting to plan for your own land. I’ve always had to lease prior to this.
Also, Get a soil test and get a plan to improve it before worrying about what you are going to plant. The soil test might help you decide what to plant. Landino Clover is good for building your soil and likely bring some turkeys in in the spring, but start with a soil test.
Congrats on your land. I’m bout done with food plots to be right honest. Clover is good and I’ve got a clover plot on my place. Weeds over take so I just mow it once a month. I’m not so certain I’m not gonna just quit that. I’ve tried bout everything like wheat oats turnips and idk what all. Really has made no difference. I’ve got crops around me on the neighbors. To me corn or soybeans is where it’s at. That’s the only 2 I’ll mess with from now on. Neighbor plants winter wheat. Deer don’t touch it much. I planted corn last year and I’ll bushhog the rest bout March. Just 2 cents
Congrats on your land. Figure out your goals and your budget and as said do not try to do everything at once. Mother nature will kick your butt sometimes, other times she will bless you. Be prepared for those ups and downs you can't control them. When she kicks you, your plots will suck, when she blesses you they will be awesome. Plan for late season food, carry over food for the deer is the most important thing. This year I am going to fence off some portions of plots from the deer early on. Last year with the drought they ate mine to the ground I had 3 plots that had zero in them for the deer by Nov 1st. It hurt my movement. So I'll fence off some and not open it til later in season.
Someone lease the AG rights last year and did probably 10 acres of corn but of course they harvested it. I’ve been going back and forth as to whether to let someone lease the fields again. Free crops?
My suggestion......yes !! this allows you to work on other aspects of habitat improvement and provide plenty of food. You can always do the crops yourself down the road.
I agree with above, why not lease the crop ground? They'll likely be in a corn/soybean rotation so you will have a good amount of food until harvest (and after harvest with corn remnants). You can then use the lease money to help pay for the property or to fund habitat improvements.
