grandpa's food plot 2010

[jigglestick]

I built a food plot on my father in law's property this summer.
it's almost 2 months old now.
I had a friend come in with a dozer and clear off what used to be pasture but had long grown over into trees and brush.
4 hours and he had 3 acres nicely cleared out and root raked.
we then disked the plot and drug it with a spike tooth drag.

then, we tossed out some barley, some oats, some soybeans, and some sainfoin seed, all in segregated areas of the plot.
that only covered about 1 acre total, so two weeks later I bought a nice mixe of five different varieties of clover and mixed in some rape seed.
the beans are about 6-8 inches tall, the oats and barley the same. the sainfoin which is a lot like alfalpha but a bit higher in protien and my cold weather hardy is like a carpet now. they aren't paying any attention to it yet.
the rape seed and clover planted together worked out very nicely. the rape shot up quick and the clover is close behind. the rape made a nice cover over the clover and the deer are just working the rape plants to beat all.

every thing came up nicely with all the rain we have been having.
once I noticed the obvious browse, I set a camera, just a week ago tomorrow.

the first picture was a doe and that was no surprise.
but the second picture the kids were hooting and hollering.
I thought it was pretty cool too..


then a few pictures later, we see this...


and a few more pics we see this...


look close you'll see the pic in the back ground has a pretty nice rack too!

we didn't get much for pictures during the day, but we did get this one. actually got a few pictures of this deer in different poses.
my daughter said, "he's cute, I'd blaze that one"


that would be a great first deer dont'cha think?

all this on a property my father in law goes away from to hunt in the fall. when he see's these pictures he will have no problem sitting in the blind with the grand kids.

[solocam88]

yep. Nice looking plot and pics.

[DEERSLAYER]

Sweet! Putting in a food plot and then getting those pictures is an awesome feeling isn't it. Congradulations on a nice plot. What brands of seed did you use or did you buy all the individual varieties seperately and then mix them?

I think think you will be getting pictures of bigger bucks than that during the rut. Maybe sooner. How do like that Wildgame innovations camera? Also, I would be carefull not to pollute the area with scent by going to check the camera. It sure can be easy to do when you have a camera on a nice food plot that you put in yourself. In fact you may want to try to check the camera during or just prior to a rain so your scent gets washed away quickly.

...my daughter said, "he's cute, I'd blaze that one"...

I really love that one!

[ramblinman]

nice good luck

[jigglestick]

the wildgame inovations camera...the is an IR camera. it cost 89.00
I have three other cameras and this is the most reliable of them all.

the leaf river camera was very good but it has been back to the factory twice and needs to go back again.
difficult to use until you take a two year course at the community college.

I have another camera...a browning I think. junk.
then a third which is a wildgame inovations, flash camera. reliable but hard on batteries.

this IR camera has a remote outlet for an external battery. a good idea and in a different setting I may employ it.

I only brought it in because my son and his grandpa wanted to "go check the plot".
grandpa is a pain in the neck.
can't tell him he can't go trapesing on his own property.
any way my son didn't know the digital display goes into power save mode. he thought since he couldn't see the numbers on the display that the natteries were dead. then he told me him and grandpa tried to turn it back on...egads.
that's why I told him to go retrieve the camera today.
I think as much as they've been back there, the deer would suspect something more if there wasn't any smell.

I'll try to reinforce this on my son and maybe he can keep grandpa preoccupied in another area.

this whole thing came about because of what they did last year.
they had permission to hunt at a large hay field of a friend of his.
there is a nice enclosed box stand with sliding windows and a heater.
grandpa's getting up there in years, so this is a way to keep him going.
he brought my daughter kate out there and wouldn't you know, she got a shot at a nice doe, but took hair off the brisket. not a drop of blood.
we searched the whole next day and found only a couple tufts of hair. no blood no body.

the next time they went out, the land owners nephew, came and kicked them out of the stand, proclaiming this was their night to use it.
they had specific permision to use it that evening even though the land owner wasn't going to be home.
not being his land he and my daughter had no choice but to leave.
it kind of ticked him off and he kept grumbling about it.

I told him, he had 40 acres of his own and there was no reason that if he wanted to he could have a nice set up just like that to hunt on.
he talked about it all winter, and then this spring he kept bringing it up, but never did anything about it.
finaly one day I called my friend and explained the situation. he agreed to bring the dozer down to the farm and knock this out.
I just needed to get the nod from the old man.
while todd was on his way, I had my wife call her pop to get his graces.
she said," dad, I have a guy coming to make a food plot today, is that alright"?..well he couldn't say no so he said well, sure.
an hour later todd was unloading the dozer before grandpa could change his mind.

he couldn't have been more pleased with the way it turned out. and he doesn't even know what we found on the pictures today!

this is for him and the grand kids.
the only thing I will do there is maybe video the hunt from time to time.
I have about $800.00 roughly into this plot, including the lumber for the stand.
that's next weeks project, building the stand.
it'll be nice. stairway a grandma could climb. I'd even like to get a recliner out there for him.

[huntinfool14]

food plots are alot of work and sometimes, depending on seed, can be expensive but they are well worth it come opening day bow season