Pre-Season Food Plots
Posted By
Ben Koopman
at
9/6/2011 12:00:00 AM
Northwest
Well up until just a few days ago the temperatures in Northwest Iowa have been very high with very little rainfall. This has really hit my Pure Trophy Clover fields hard and hasn't allowed me to mow them for fear of really burning them, which in turn has let the weeds really take hold of them. Now finally the heat has broken and we are seeing cooler temperatures and some much needed moisture, I can already see my clover sprouting back to life! Now I need to get in there and get those weeds mowed off and then hopefully have a nice stand of clover to hunt over this fall. As far as my Big n Beasty goes, I waited pretty late this summer to seed it in and I did it right before a rain so it is coming along nicely, I also overseeded about an acre of beans with it again this year so I'm really excited to see how that turns out. It is a very deadly tactic and the deer love it.
-Brandon Lafever
Central
The heat and lack of water has been horrifying for our crops this year. On my farm in Madison County our acreage is surrounded by corn and soybeans. The soybeans actually seem to be doing fairly decent with the lack of moisture this season, however the corn, well, it isn't doing that well at all. Each day seems to grow worse. If I had to take a positive out of the bad crop this year it would be that the larger field that is comprised of corn is going to be harvested fairly early this year and being that our 4 Corner tree stand location hovers on the perimeter of this field, this location is going to be a terrific hunt, earlier than later, with the fallen picked corn and soybean field to the east.
All in all, with the local farmers encouraging us to help their crops out by taking more back straps to the dinner table this year, this is going to be a terrific season for Midwest Whitetail Iowa.
-Ryan Rood
North Central
We planted a lot of Soybeans this year and they are holding out pretty good despite the hot temps and lack of rain. The plants are covered with pods and should make great hunting locations. The lack of rain throughout August has made it pretty hard to over seed my smaller soybean plots with Big N Beasty, but we were able to get them in with the last storm that blew though. I have found that as the deer thin out the soy beans, I come back and broadcast Big N Beasty into the bare spots. Since the Round-Up has taken care of the weeds, and I do not disturb the soil, there is no competition for the seeds. All that is needed is a good rain to germinate and place the tiny seeds into the soil. They seem to shoot up and grow very well. Big N Beasty and beans have been a great combo for me in the past. The rape and turnip tops provide greens well into late winter and the high protein beans seems to draw the deer in from miles around. Now with lows in the 50’s this week it makes me wonder how long until the first frost?
-George Dean
Northeast
Rain in the Northeast has been scarce this summer so I was pretty timid about putting seed in the ground. I decided to wait quite awhile for rain to hit the forecast. We planted Big N Beasty by Frigid Forage on the 20th of August. Patience paid off. I checked on it ten days later to find a sea of green about 3" tall without spraying or fertilizing the ground with minimal weeds. We have roughly three acres of Big N Beaty in and one acre of Trophy Clover and they are all doing well.
We also put in two acres of corn. A few months later, after it tasseled, I broadcasted turnips in the corn rows which will allow them to grow up under the corns canopy. We had just enough rain at the end of the summer and the plots are good and green. However in a month or so they may take on a blood red tint….
-Brennan Welsh
Southeast
In general Southeast Iowa has been short on rain the last couple months coming off of a very rainy June. My particular farm is worse than many with only 1.5 inches of rain the last two months. My corn and turnips have been fair. Winter wheat and cold tolerant oats really need rain to get going. After looking at the forecast for the next week I am worried about how they will turn out. Hopefully rain is in all of Iowa's near future!
-Larry Zach
