Food plots

WDH said:
This really depends on what your goals are. If you are going for max winter food from the plot, any additions probably will lower total yield due to the competition. Some other factors will come into play: a good stand of milo will either shade out other plants, or cause them to elongate, trying to reach sunlight, (like the green foxtail in earlier pictures). The tall plants will go down easily with snow/wind.
If you are looking for dense cover, you can add about anything you want, but I would broadcast it or drill it.
Or skip any preemergence chemical and let mother nature fill in the blank spots with kochia/foxtail. Either case there will be less milo grain which may or may not be made up by other species.
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Good points. Thanks again.
I may just up the sorghum seed rate a little.
 
We plant a mix, mainly sorghum, but with sunflowers and millet at a lower rate on 15 inch rows. We've found that 15 inch rows can be easier to walk thru, while providing more of a canopy than typical 30 inch rows. The sunflowers and millet make it a little more covered in the late summer and fall, and the millet gives it a sort of foxtail-esque feel to it. However, I've read that foxtail seed is like 30% protein or something like that, and our birds are always full of it. It just doesn't hold seed very long, and if you get snow they never find it. However, when there's snow, that's when the milo shines. If you've got a lot of deer, they'll mow off your sunflowers, trust me. Also to note, especially if not tilling, mixes help you out in the soil health category as well.
 
The rain stopped for a couple days...that is something that hasn't been said around here for about 3 years. I got all our food plots disked and planted today, all grain sorghum. Might be a touch early, but it sounds like it will be warming-up now...hope the rain isn't finished. I still need to spray a dose of pre-emergant Prowl over the top before it sprouts to hold the weeds back for a month or so. Will need a bit of rain to activate that herbicide. A half inch would be perfect after I get it applied, maybe tomorrow after work I can get that done. Should have over 6 acres this year. Saw a ton of birds, with just the carry-over this season will be fine.
 
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I am a bit concerned that older seasoned birds will be ready to dig my seeds out....still am going to place some trail cams out to be sure of what is getting after the seeds.
 
1.4" of rain last night, hoping we got a bit on the foodplots about 8 miles away, this will activate the herbicide and get the sorghum sprouting! Still have about an acre to get the herbicide on before they emerge..maybe tomorrow ...the wife had other plan for us last night.
 
Good stuff! Haven't heard of Prowl before...the number of herbicide names makes my head spin though.

After the sorghum emerges, how much upkeep do you do on your end i.e. when will the wife's plans not interrupt work on the plot ;)? Just urea before rain just before tasseling?
 
SDinWI said:
Good stuff! Haven't heard of Prowl before...the number of herbicide names makes my head spin though.

After the sorghum emerges, how much upkeep do you do on your end i.e. when will the wife's plans not interrupt work on the plot ;)? Just urea before rain just before tasseling?
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It is on it's own after the the pre-emerge is applied. It will get weedy by fall, but this gives it a good head-start on the weeds. I think Prowl is an older seldom used bean chemical. I think Harness will work, the label only lists sorghum as an immediate "replant" option, but maybe not exactly what it is intended for.
I have a friend at the Coop researching to find a good available pre-emerge herbicide for the grain sorghum....it is not a normal crop in this region.
 
remy3424 said:
I have a friend at the Coop researching to find a good available pre-emerge herbicide for the grain sorghum....it is not a normal crop in this region.
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Same in WI. Let me know what they find out. I'm trying bird seed mix again this year (sunflower, milo, millet).
 
The pre-emergence chemicals I use for milo are atrazine and s-metochlor ( Dual or some generic brand). The seed needs to be "safened",that is tolerent of the chemicals. The atrazine works on small seed broadleaf's (kochia, pigweed...). The metochlor works on grasses. I usually apply these when I do a burndown of the field.
Don't want to use with a mixture of seed types.
 
Is the atrazine effective on water hemp, mare's tail and lambsquarter? Add a bit of velvet leaf, smartweed and foxtail and that is generally what I fight. Planting saftned grain sorghum currently.
 
It will work on some of the weeds listed. I would look at the chemical label, it will have the weeds controlled, the rates needed, size of weeds to spray, and the chemicals you can mix together.
 
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