STX food plots?

Anyone plant food plots in South Texas? I've tried a few times and never got any rain and the turkeys scratched and ate the seeds before germinating. Ever since I stopped planting it rains all the time.

Yeah, the ground must be well prepped before so that every drop of rain is collected and stored between the surface and clay base. Every time you work the soil, it must be packed afterward to prevent moisture loss. What really matters in South Texas is how far you are from the coast. Got to have that Gulf moisture for the afternoon thunderstorms.

I'm about 80-90 miles North/Northwest of Corpus....about 10 miles east of Choke Canyon lake.

I tried a few times and gave up. Stxranchman recommended just feeding protein and that as been working pretty well.

Your annual rainfall is a 1" more than I receive here closer to the coast. Plant immediately before the rain starts in May and then again around September 18th.

https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/canyon-lake/texas/united-states/ustx2578

You are in an area that does not get very good rains. Close to 281 or west of it makes for more dry times than wet. I have land in Northern Live Oak county(low 20"s yearly avg) and the last 30 yrs has been either to wet or to dry. I am about 65 miles north of CC. Soil types there are clay and more clay with areas of a bit to much salt. If you are along or close to the river bottom the soils quality will help some. With a place that size you will have a good deer population so you will need enough acreage to see benefit of trying to establish food plots. I would figure 3-5 deer per acre of good food plot. I have used electric fencing to keep deer off of plots with really good success but did not have turkey or hogs to deal with. I am east of you now and have success with using Iron & Clay cow peas, Red Ripper cow peas and Lab Lab or mixes of them. I plant 5 plots totaling between 10-11 acres scattered over 234 acres with deer numbers somewhere in the 40-50 count using those plots. I have some turkey in the spring and a few hogs every so often. But work on hogs ASAP when I see sign. I, like many make the mistake of planting way to early for my area. Days are to short, night to cool and ground temps to cool. I planted in late March the past 3 yrs here and this year I am waiting till last part of April till May 1st. IME in the past if I planted and it to 5-7+ days for the seeds to emerge the temps were still to cool. They just sit for 2-3 weeks putting down roots and not growing much. When I plant later into April or May and seeds emerge in 3 days. Later plantings grow faster and get as much grazing in shorter amount of days vs. planting to early. This year I am going to plant plots with Red Ripper peas and then try some Sunn Hemp in the plots I do not double up on for fall plantings. Here are some pics from the past springs of Cowpeas or mix with Lab Lab. Another key I have found is planting when the spring forb and browse are at their peak to keep pressure of the plots. Large enough plots, planted at the right time can get by without fencing for deer(not cattle). Nothing is more important than a good seed bed in South Texas that has good deep moisture. If you do not have the moisture then you are taking a chance with dry planting in this weather pattern.

stxranchman are you using a grain drill to plant your summer plots? If so do you know the spacing? Does the spacing even matter? Looking at buying a used one and I see 7.5" and 8" are pretty common on the used equipment market.

Thanks for the help.

Yes I bought an older JD Model B grain drill with 16 drop and 7" spacing's. I can plug up some of the drops to make wider rows if I want to. I like to plant all the rows to try to shade out weeds/grass. I think an 8" or wider spacing would be better in drier areas though. If you are putting 50# of seed per acre it just means that with tighter spacing's you have less seed in each row vs more seeds per row in a wider spacing drill. Another advantage to wider spacing rows is that the deer have a walking space in-between the rows. That old drill serves the purpose well for me.

Thanks for the info!

Look's good STXranchman, how much fertilizer did you apply. I'm thinking of trying the power plant from Whitetail Institute, just a little 2 acre test plot.

The first couple of years I did not use any fertilizer due to it being land that had never been planted. 2 years ago I put down 13-13-13 at 150#/acre. I will have to put out fertilizer this year but to late to do any soil tests. So will probably put down 200-250# acre of 13-13-13. Fields did well last year with no fertilizer just to many deer for the acreage of plots I have.

The soil on my place is more sandy than clay. The ground I'm wanting to plant is black soil, when its wet it sticks on your boots or tires but when dry its sandy. Another area is on a pipeline, I could go big on this one if I wanted to but gonna try to keep at 5 acres and soils is totally different, its still sandy but normal dirt color and doesn't stick when wet as bad as the black ground. My plan is to pretty much the same as last time disc it and apply #300 of 17-17-17 per acre and disc it in then drag with a harrow then broadcast seed and cover with harrow. Working the ground isn't an issue, I have an old 25' IH disc that I took the wings off of which shrunk it to 15', it works pretty good with two passes.

wow those plots look great.

You're killing me

Last one I saw was 4 years ago. Last covey I saw was 9 years ago.

Loaded with quail on our place, no one hunts or messes with them. There pretty tame and wouldn't be much of challenge to get a limit.
As far as the foodplots go I'm debating whether to plant or give up, we've been getting some decent showers but the heat is coming on strong. Still green but starting to get pretty dusty.

Nice plots STXranchman.

I had 3 pretty large plots on a ranch I use to own in Central Texas - average rain around 30-35 inches.

What I found was you almost have to HF the plots in order to give it a chance to grow - otherwise the deer will never let you get a good stand going. Then you need to be able to lower some of the fence panels for the deer to access once the crop is up. Of course that adds significant expense to the process.

If unlimited funds were available I would purchase proper farming equipment, HF and irrigate plots.

If forced to choose between supplemental feeding versus plots I would take plots every time.

Tecomate Ranch proved that the better a farmer you are the bigger your deer will be