Wondering what people are doing to both build soild health and get good rotation in their food plots for pheasants. I have sandy loamy soil in north central South Dakota that needs significant improvement. With deer you can do a Spring/Frost Seeding and Fall planting allowing for spring soil builders and fall food for deer. What are people doing for pheasants where they are usually planting Sorghum, Corn, etc. that are usually going in the ground in say June, not allowing for two plantings?
Pheasant Food Plot Crop Rotation / Soil Building
- Thread starter jocahill
- Start date
Weimdogman
Well-known member
Get your nrcs and pheasants forever biologists involved. Also S.D. gf&p has a biologist working with the public. Luke Zilverburg.
Also your local pf chapter may have some help.
Also your local pf chapter may have some help.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
I don't know the limitations in South Dakota with the shorter season and cooler climate, but you could rotate your row crop with wheat and a legume like cowpeas or mung beans. If you need more cover for winter, you could mix those same legumes with milo and several millet varieties that would stand better in snow. For brood-rearing cover, sweet clover is hard to beat! You could broadcast it into your green wheat in the early spring and bring the row crops in the following year. The resources mentioned above can sure help with a plan and also may provide seed in some cases.
BrownDogsCan2
Well-known member
One of the nc Kansas public land areas I was on this year used a sunflower millet/ milo turnip or radish mix. The pheasants really used it
Thanks for the feedback. I've been doing GF&P seed the last couple of years. Sorghum last year that didn't pan out due to drought. .25" of rain the fist month and a half it was in the ground. That was a complete monoculture environment. The year before was more of a mix that G,F&P provided with milo, turnips, radishes, etc. which was probably a better solution to get more into the soil. I have a long way to go though. May just need to rotate portions of the food plot area to get more into the soil faster with the likes of clover, peas, brassicas, etc.. Maybe get two different crops into that portion of the plot with winter rye and buckwheat or something.
Thank you for considering soil health. What I like to plant is proso millet, milo, forage sorghum and sunflowers. That takes care of the pheasants. For soil health I would put in a brassica but not turnip or radish as they present a hazard for hunters. I would add some oats, flax as well as a legume or two to add some nitrogen for next year. That is generally what I like to do but every field is unique. I take it you are in the Mobridge area, I am in between Ipswich and Roscoe.
Yes, grew up in Mobridge and have land closer to Mound City. Badly need moisture up in that area.