Forums46
Topics537,785
Posts9,729,145
Members87,042
|
Most Online25,604 Feb 12th, 2024
|
|
|
Small food plot or food patchr tractor
#7264194
08/22/18 02:53 PM
|
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455
DQ Kid
OP
THF Celebrity
|
OP
THF Celebrity
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455 |
Can a small food plot or food patch be prepped and executed with just a truck and pulling a rake harrow or disc plow with said truck as opposed to atv or tractor? Has anyone done this and how did it turn out?
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264296
08/22/18 04:10 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785
Mr. T.
THF Trophy Hunter
|
THF Trophy Hunter
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785 |
How small. I think if large garden size, you would have better chance of getting the results that you wanted buy renting a walk behind tiller.
Cabin rental in Pagosa Springs, Co. Sleeps 10, If interested please PM me.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264352
08/22/18 05:01 PM
|
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455
DQ Kid
OP
THF Celebrity
|
OP
THF Celebrity
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455 |
1-1.5 acre on one, probably 15-20 yards x 50 yards on the other, definitely too large probably for a walk behind tiller.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264506
08/22/18 07:17 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 12,861
PMK
THF Celebrity
|
THF Celebrity
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 12,861 |
might try no-till seed ... not sure how you would pulled a disc behind a truck??? wait, I have seen some tow behind disc, seeder combo units. What type of soil are you going to try to put this into?
We used plant in an old field where we watched for a cool wet front to be coming and go out 5-7 days before the front was going to arrive, put our oats in a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water then let soak for a few hours, then toss out on top of the ground, then a few days later the rain would help continue to process and had pretty good luck as long as the rain did come as scheduled. As long as the birds didn't eat all the seed, we usually had a pretty good stand of oats within a couple of weeks. We always used Feed oats (not Seed oats) since they were about 1/2 the price and still had about 80% germination rate.
"everyone that lives dies but not everyone who dies lived..."
~PMK~
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264507
08/22/18 07:18 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785
Mr. T.
THF Trophy Hunter
|
THF Trophy Hunter
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785 |
Okay, I don't have a clue if a chain harrow would work or not in making a food plot. You would have to go over it several times. I would spray to kill all the grass before hand.There are several videos on youtube about using one.
Last edited by Mr. T.; 08/22/18 08:40 PM.
Cabin rental in Pagosa Springs, Co. Sleeps 10, If interested please PM me.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264524
08/22/18 07:39 PM
|
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 60,296
stxranchman
Obie Juan Kenobi
|
Obie Juan Kenobi
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 60,296 |
If the area is to small and tight you won't be able to turn the truck around or make turns to plow the area.
Are idiots multiplying faster than normal people?
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264786
08/23/18 12:48 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 807
Russ79
Tracker
|
Tracker
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 807 |
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264984
08/23/18 03:45 AM
|
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 29,034
Western
THF Celebrity
|
THF Celebrity
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 29,034 |
What Russ said, STX said
DQ, is tractor rental out? Where in general terms is this, or county?
Problem with a 3 point disc is pulling without tipping, not to mention the wight of getting it off and on a trailer without a tractor at least for a small type 1-3, larger disc like a 18-24' tandem will need hydraulics to raise and lower the disc to use the wheels and I dont think your truck would pull one engaged with the ground, took all 150 hp on my tractor to pull my 24'.
Chain harrow may work with a lot of elbow grease on the turns if the grass is real short and you have time for a bunch of passes.
If at first you dont succeed, then skydiving is not for you..
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln Dennis
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264986
08/23/18 03:47 AM
|
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,615
MELackey
Pro Tracker
|
Pro Tracker
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,615 |
Turning around at each end without being able to lift the disk would be hard. Wouldn't take long to kill your equipment if you turned around with it still cutting.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7264988
08/23/18 03:47 AM
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 29,609
SapperTitan
Taking Requests
|
Taking Requests
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 29,609 |
I once drug a large cedar I cut down behind my truck to break up the ground enough to spread seed then drug it again to cover seed and it worked well lol
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7265333
08/23/18 04:05 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1,102
Bbear
Pro Tracker
|
Pro Tracker
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1,102 |
A lease I was on in Llano had several 1-1.25 acre prickly pear patches. During the summer, around August, we'd spread molasses on the cactus and let the hogs go at it. By September the hogs would have the entire area plowed up for us. Spread winter wheat just before a rain and we had some nice patches. I've also gone the route of using a tiller to grind it up and prepare the soil. Best to kill all of the grass off the area and rake it if it's thick to make it easier on the tiller. After planting you can either toss the grass back on top or break up a bale of hay on top.
[IMG][/IMG]
Pay it forward - Kids are the future.
Rifles are similar to boats and young women...there's no end to how much money you can pour into them without making them any more useful.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7265839
08/24/18 01:34 AM
|
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 346
Daddybigbuck
Bird Dog
|
Bird Dog
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 346 |
Call Zimmer Kubota you can rent trailer, tractor, disc, and spreader for the weekend. Or if you have the disc you can rent the tractor only. Depending on the type of ground you are trying to work a good rule of thumb is 10Hp for every foot of implement.
Good luck!
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7266232
08/24/18 02:55 PM
|
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 3,091
Always ready 2 hunt
Veteran Tracker
|
Veteran Tracker
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 3,091 |
Lots depends on what the ground looks like before starting? grass, cactus, rocks, ever been broke before, etc. I've pulled chain harrows behind 4 wheelers and trucks in softer ground in ETX and also Eastland, Taylor and Shackleford counties, pulled 4x4 and old spring bed frames and even wooden pallets after broadcasting seed to lightly cover.
My recommendation is rent equip from Zimmer and do it right the first time which will make your plot areas easier to do next year if you don't rent equip. We have also rented Bobcat with a front end tiller which worked really well but takes longer and rougher than tractor and implement.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7269399
08/28/18 12:55 AM
|
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 126
sdunshee
Woodsman
|
Woodsman
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 126 |
My buddy had me make him some super micro plots..like 50ftx100ft with my 34hp tractor and 5ft disc...wasn't too bad. No turning around, just make a pass then raise the 3pt and back up and make anther pass.They looked really good but the lack of rain and his horrible exclusion fence were the demise of his plots
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7269615
08/28/18 04:01 AM
|
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 10,988
Texas buckeye
THF Celebrity
|
THF Celebrity
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 10,988 |
DQ I did just that on two of my plots pst year just to see how they would do. On both I didn’t even mow I simply used the drag harrow and pulled it with my truck several passes until ground was loosened and then broadcast seed. I used a mix I got (I think it was some Pennington brand deer mix) but pretty much got the oats/wheat to come up and some of the brassicas but the lack of rain in the fall last year pretty much killed those off. First pic is an area I couldn’t get equipment back to so just did the drag and throw seed method. It came up but wasn’t very pretty and you can see the lack of mowing, although the drag did remove quite a bit of the dead weeds. Second pic is another area I did side by side with a plot I worked with a tiller and had mowed vs drag and throw. Again no mowing, no cultivating, just drag and throw seed. This area did receive fertilizer at the same rate as the area right next to it in the next picture below. To contrast drag and throw vs mow, spray, cultivate, broadxast and drag over seed. The picture above was taken the same day this picture was taken, so there is a definite difference. The area of drag and throw is to the back and right in this picture To give another example of how the Drag and seed method worked, this picture shows a scrape under the tree but you can see the green in the plot vs the bare dirt outside where there was no seed. [image] https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/...b7ab080b9d6.png[/img] Overall, if this is the only method you can use, the drag and seed method will work. I didn’t spray any of the plots I used this method on, that could help, but honestly it was so dry last fall I didn’t really need to kill anything off. One thing is for certain, more rain would have helped my plots a lot last year. We had a good rain right after I seeded, and then didn’t get much for the rest of fall. The drag and throw plots germinated but probably would have been much thicker with more water. All my plots would have been. For the record the ground was quite dry when I tilled and seeded, but was expectthe no rain so seeded with the hopes of rain, it came that night. Had the ground been a little softer the drag might have penetrated better, but don’t know that it mattered much as you can pretty much throw wheat/oats/rye and they will germinate anywhere.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: Texas buckeye]
#7269726
08/28/18 11:58 AM
|
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455
DQ Kid
OP
THF Celebrity
|
OP
THF Celebrity
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455 |
DQ I did just that on two of my plots pst year just to see how they would do. On both I didn’t even mow I simply used the drag harrow and pulled it with my truck several passes until ground was loosened and then broadcast seed. I used a mix I got (I think it was some Pennington brand deer mix) but pretty much got the oats/wheat to come up and some of the brassicas but the lack of rain in the fall last year pretty much killed those off. First pic is an area I couldn’t get equipment back to so just did the drag and throw seed method. It came up but wasn’t very pretty and you can see the lack of mowing, although the drag did remove quite a bit of the dead weeds. Second pic is another area I did side by side with a plot I worked with a tiller and had mowed vs drag and throw. Again no mowing, no cultivating, just drag and throw seed. This area did receive fertilizer at the same rate as the area right next to it in the next picture below. To contrast drag and throw vs mow, spray, cultivate, broadxast and drag over seed. The picture above was taken the same day this picture was taken, so there is a definite difference. The area of drag and throw is to the back and right in this picture To give another example of how the Drag and seed method worked, this picture shows a scrape under the tree but you can see the green in the plot vs the bare dirt outside where there was no seed. [image] https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/...b7ab080b9d6.png[/img] Overall, if this is the only method you can use, the drag and seed method will work. I didn’t spray any of the plots I used this method on, that could help, but honestly it was so dry last fall I didn’t really need to kill anything off. One thing is for certain, more rain would have helped my plots a lot last year. We had a good rain right after I seeded, and then didn’t get much for the rest of fall. The drag and throw plots germinated but probably would have been much thicker with more water. All my plots would have been. For the record the ground was quite dry when I tilled and seeded, but was expectthe no rain so seeded with the hopes of rain, it came that night. Had the ground been a little softer the drag might have penetrated better, but don’t know that it mattered much as you can pretty much throw wheat/oats/rye and they will germinate anywhere. Thanks Buckeye, I've got the seed so I might as well give it a try and see what comes of it. As you said, the dryness has the native grass down as it is and if we don't get adequate rain, what really matter what kind of prepping I am able to do...
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7283635
09/11/18 06:15 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 102
Birdman7
Woodsman
|
Woodsman
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 102 |
DQ do you have a 4 wheeler or utv? If so you might want to check out this disc. Groundhog Disc . I've got one and it's worked really well for me.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7283663
09/11/18 06:40 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032
Navasot
Hollywood
|
Hollywood
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032 |
all gona depend on the soil... its so wet here now im just gona mow brodcast and drag this year.. no time to mess with it anyway and the ground will take the seed well with all the moisture
if its dry your gona need to disc cover and hope for rain
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7285073
09/13/18 12:06 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,225
Rustler
THF Trophy Hunter
|
THF Trophy Hunter
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5,225 |
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7287700
09/15/18 10:41 PM
|
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455
DQ Kid
OP
THF Celebrity
|
OP
THF Celebrity
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 10,455 |
Update, went out today to "do the redneck cheapo" foodplot and to my surprise, the neighbor had plowed my field last weekend with his tractor, actually his wife had since his collarbone is broken. That made my job of seeding and dragging a rebar panel with my truck all the easier. By these pictures, I beat out the rain by a hour or so. Hopefully it will come up as it has previously and the deer will enjoy again.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: DQ Kid]
#7288798
09/17/18 12:01 PM
|
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785
Mr. T.
THF Trophy Hunter
|
THF Trophy Hunter
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 7,785 |
Got to love good country neighbors that help without being asked. Looks like a great start to that food plot.
Cabin rental in Pagosa Springs, Co. Sleeps 10, If interested please PM me.
|
|
|
Re: Small food plot or food patchr tractor
[Re: stxranchman]
#7288806
09/17/18 12:18 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,404
Bass&More
Veteran Tracker
|
Veteran Tracker
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,404 |
If the area is to small and tight you won't be able to turn the truck around or make turns to plow the area. Small and tight, that could be a problem. Use the right equipment for the size of area or you will end up wasting time and money until you do it right. You pay either way. Don't ask me how I know this.
|
|
|
Moderated by bigbob_ftw, CCBIRDDOGMAN, Chickenman, Derek, DeRico, Duck_Hunter, hetman, jeh7mmmag, JustWingem, kmon11, kry226, kwrhuntinglab, Payne, pertnear, rifleman, sig226fan (Rguns.com), Superduty, txcornhusker
|