Food plots
- Thread starter Drake1
- Start date
Mason Brubaker
Member
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.
remy3424
Well-known member
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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remy3424
Well-known member
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.
SDinWI
Active member
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?
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?
remy3424
Well-known member
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.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
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.
SDinWI
Active member
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.
Don't want to use with a mixture of seed types.
Can’t find a photo of the lower part of this food plot which is millet and sunflower… but this is the top of this 30 acres with my favorites for fall and winter groceries…I’ll burn down the sesame in late August/September and it will sprinkle seeds until March….it the Milo is too thick I might run a combine pass or shredder to make it “huntable”..
The lower 10 acres are millet (brown top and proso) are early producers and the very top and bottom are native grasses and brush lines…
I don’t know if that works for pheasants in a “wild bird” setting, but it holds released pen raised survivors pretty well…. I know it works great for quail but mainly a huge dove result once I spray the sesame and top out the Milo…
I think this is all planted 71/2” spacing but I’m doing 30” these days
The lower 10 acres are millet (brown top and proso) are early producers and the very top and bottom are native grasses and brush lines…
I don’t know if that works for pheasants in a “wild bird” setting, but it holds released pen raised survivors pretty well…. I know it works great for quail but mainly a huge dove result once I spray the sesame and top out the Milo…
I think this is all planted 71/2” spacing but I’m doing 30” these days
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Forgot to answer the OP questions….i pre-emergent treat with Dual Mag, but I have to wait for a good heavy rain before I can plant the sesame in that pretreated dirt, if I don’t the sesame will get burnt post emergence if under 4 true leaf pairs on the next rain. I will spray over the top of the sesame to control grass pressure with Select (Clethodim) after 4-5 true leaf pairs. The Milo gets nothing besides the pre- emergent.
I will get broadleaf understory growth in the sesame and some native millets like barnyard grass in the Milo late in the year when the foliage browns out.
Sesame is indetermiate so once it has most of the seed pods near ripe I will hit it with glyphosate…. The idea being I want bare dirt under the sesame stalks/pods for doves. Notice in the above photo, these are planted in roughly 30’ alternating strips down the field to provide cover and travel lanes for ground birds. The quail don’t have to be in the sesame for more than 10-15 minutes to get a crop load….. and they prefer to roost out in the open sesame. The stalks provide good cover for fast movers like falcons, they don’t want to poke an eye out, the slow movers like northern harriers get their bag limit with some difficulty…. Down on the low end the bugs and seeds are already producing in proso millet (panicum) and native grasses and forbs against the heavy cover where any nesting is occurring.
I use this strip method mid field rather than seed blends in general to have secessional food and cover for the birds, although the fringes are often mixes.
I might do this 2 years in row swapping the Milo and sesame then plant soybeans (liberty) to reduce weed pressure and put some more nitrogen down, and make a little money.
If I get lucky on the sesame I’ll harvest most of it, but few strips left go a long way in terms of quality slow release bird food….I never harvest the Milo in a food plot because my grain quality is rarely worth the effort because I don’t use any insecticides/ fungicides in food plots.
Another poster asked where these things happen…..well I’m on the middle Gulf Coast in Texas a mile or so inland from the bay….So I don’t worry too much about snow just 20 inches of rain in 48 hours in flat land…or hurricanes laying everything down…and if not that no measureable rainfall for 60 days
Then I replant
I will get broadleaf understory growth in the sesame and some native millets like barnyard grass in the Milo late in the year when the foliage browns out.
Sesame is indetermiate so once it has most of the seed pods near ripe I will hit it with glyphosate…. The idea being I want bare dirt under the sesame stalks/pods for doves. Notice in the above photo, these are planted in roughly 30’ alternating strips down the field to provide cover and travel lanes for ground birds. The quail don’t have to be in the sesame for more than 10-15 minutes to get a crop load….. and they prefer to roost out in the open sesame. The stalks provide good cover for fast movers like falcons, they don’t want to poke an eye out, the slow movers like northern harriers get their bag limit with some difficulty…. Down on the low end the bugs and seeds are already producing in proso millet (panicum) and native grasses and forbs against the heavy cover where any nesting is occurring.
I use this strip method mid field rather than seed blends in general to have secessional food and cover for the birds, although the fringes are often mixes.
I might do this 2 years in row swapping the Milo and sesame then plant soybeans (liberty) to reduce weed pressure and put some more nitrogen down, and make a little money.
If I get lucky on the sesame I’ll harvest most of it, but few strips left go a long way in terms of quality slow release bird food….I never harvest the Milo in a food plot because my grain quality is rarely worth the effort because I don’t use any insecticides/ fungicides in food plots.
Another poster asked where these things happen…..well I’m on the middle Gulf Coast in Texas a mile or so inland from the bay….So I don’t worry too much about snow just 20 inches of rain in 48 hours in flat land…or hurricanes laying everything down…and if not that no measureable rainfall for 60 days
Then I replant