Optimum size? Eleven on the lease but seldom more than a half-dozen make it to the lease at the same time.
Your thoughts?

The most you can do works best. Once you get the equipment out there it's nothing to do extra. Seems to me there is no such thing as to much food for the doves

I have a 70-acre field that we have been dove hunting but by the time most of the serious dove hunting is over, it is almost impossible to get the ground prepared and get wheat planted for the deer. Plus, getting wheat in that late doesn't give it enough time to do much good before deer season is over. Thinking about leaving part for dove and doing land prep on the rest for wheat. Trying to get a feel for how to divide it up.

Planting wheat needs go be separate planted in strips among sunflowers or stand alone wheat fields. Have planted wheat last week of August for 50 years. You can count on an early September rain religiously, only way you can count on for wheat for OCT 1. Besides if you don't get it up early, a lot of times it won't rain again till Oct,Nov. And you are sol for getting wheat up for deer season. For better dove hunting you can alternate annual strips of wheat, providing wheat/sunflower combination for dove when you now strips giving unbelievable dove hunting. You will hear every excuse in the world for not planting last week of August, army worm,s etc. We are managing wildlife not harvesting crops. Plus come Sept 1 you are done. Can drink a cold beer, dove hunt, and watch your neighbors work their [censored] off and praying for rain. Only way to know if it works for you is try it. 😀

I've heard that for dove hunting, it's best to plant the sunflower seeds on August 31st. By opening day, the sunflowers aren't very tall, but the hunting sure is good!!

Before I get a bunch of replies, I'm kidding of course!!

22-25 acres is plenty for 11 guys. 15 acres is good for 6 guys. A good guide is 2 acres per hunter minimum. I drill my wheat in the end of Sept due to worms and grasshoppers, always works good for me. Wheat is up good by Deer season, you drill to early out here and it's liable to burn up before it's cools off and gets a good second rain.

Throckmorton County. We plant wheat for cattle. Graze it all, no combines. Fields plowed in strips when moisture available in July. Plowed again down to smaller strips of sunflowers first of August and then shred some strips of the standing sunflowers 10-15 days before dove opener. Hunt first two weeks in September that way then plow it all and sow wheat usually by Sept 15. Usually tons of dove pre sowing. Plenty after sowed. Dove like plowed ground. Kill new late September/October birds as wheat seed in ground and coming up and ready to graze by mid November if we get rains. Can't control that. Dove know when you sow. Deer know when it's coming up. Works for us. And we like bacon wrapped dove almost as much as beef!!

So it's not baiting to sow your wheat the last week of August, whether practical or not? Is that what y'all are saying?