First Official Poor Boys Food Plot

After years of talking about planting food plots and never seeming to make it happen, Team Poor Boys finally made it happen this past Saturday. After borrowing a small tractor with a tiller attachment (thanks Brad!), my brother's Yamaha Rhino, and my dad's seed spreader, we headed out to the property with high hopes of creating our very first food plot.

Since the ground was old pastureland, we had to go over each plot three times with the tiller to get the soil broke up enough for good seed-to-soil contact. That made for a long day, even though we only planted about 1 acre total (over two plots). Once the ground was worked up, we sowed a seed mix that I created with a small hand seeder. The mix consisted of annual ryegrass, rape, white dutch clover, ladino clover, and red clover. We didn't have a cultipacker or drag, so after seeding, I ran over the field thoroughly with the Rhino just to pack the seed into the dirt a bit. With clover, you don't want the seed over 1/4" deep, so this should work just fine. The 10 day forecast is showing a few days of rain with 80-degree temps, so that should get the plot off to a good start. Hopefully with the timing of this planting, weed competition won't be as much of an issue.

I do have to admit that I violated the cardinal sin of food plot planting and planted our plots without taking a soil sample. We do plan on taking one soon, though, and liming and fertilizing accordingly this fall. I will keep you posted on how the plot does as we get closer to the Kentucky deer season. For now, here is a few photos of our efforts.