N2turkey��.You said awhile back that you were afraid your plots may be too wet for this method. Unless your talking about just straight up flooding, I actually think the wetter plots will be the ones that do the best with this method. The reason being, the more soil moisture you have�.the better germination you will get. Here�s a pic of a low area in my field that stays moister than other areas. Look how well the turnips are germinating. That has to be nearly 100%. The other areas of the field are doing well but you can tell a difference where there is more moisture. This is a rate of 2 lbs/ac.

Here�s another pic showing the turnips filling in the understory and casting a canopy over the soil surface. This area was a leave row from last fall where the standing thatch was just too thick and didn�t allow anything to establish. No harm, no foul though. I now see my �too thick� threshold.

It'll be awhile before I can get into our plots. They are pretty wet right now.

The turnips in the pics as well as the milo I threw out before this rain were both planted with just my legs and a bag spreader. It just depends on the current conditions of last year's fall planting as to whether you could get by without mowing right now.

Ours still have water standing in them. The clover and chickory from my fall plots are taking off, though.

Turnips are really beginning to fill in after all the rain we've had. The Austrian winter peas are still growing and providing browse even now during May. Hopefully they will provide me with some nitrogen as well. There's a pretty nice crop of 'em across the field.

Got a pass today and was able to check my buckwheat. The timing was good and I got two solid days of rain on my throw and mow test plot. As you can see, my thatch is very thin but I'm working to change that. I did notice there is more germination in my tracks but it's also coming up outside of the tracks. Per CNC's suggestion, I will sling some 17-17-17 as soon as I can. Half acre plot. Total work time 35 minutes.

That ground looks broken. I hope it works for you not matter how you did it. Keep us posted.

The neighborhood hog gang has taken an interest in the throw and mow concept too and decided to rough up a few spots after it was planted. The plan was to simply throw it, mow it and see what happens. I was pleased with the 7 day results with such little effort. I'll be sure to keep you posted going forward.

Nice!.....I think you're off to a good start bambam. If the plot is only 1/2 acre then throw out 1 bag of 17-17-17 now and another one in about a month...rather than two upfront. Soils with low CEC values can only hold and deliver a small amount of nutrients. The more you throw out beyond that holding capacity, then the more fert-$$$ that's just sitting out there waiting to be washed away. Be sure to get a soil test at some point. Right now we can take an educated guess and pretty well assume that you are deficient in most areas but once you get things turned around you don't want to just blindly throw out fert and lime.

That grass I see in the plot is going to jump on you eventually. That is not a bad thing right now. Of course its going to mess up the orderly look that some will think makes it a failed planting.....but to turn around the soil OM, that grass is what we need right now. We can't just keep perpetually producing that thin thatch that we had for this planting. If we do, then a year or two years from now, we will be no farther along than we are right now. Thin thatch = very little OM. Keep us posted.

I grow buckwheat all the time using this method. I let it go to seed and bushhog it down and the seed sprouts and grows again. In Alabama, we can triple crop it, really helps when your wanting to build your soil.

A lot of what we are doing these days, from a food plot perspective, is a direst result of the marketing strategies that have been used by the commercial BOB seed market. For years now you have heard pH and proper seed bed preached over and over and over. Now I�m not saying pH and soil surface conditions aren�t important as they most certainly are�.but just thinking those two aspects are the keys to successful food plots is being very short sighted. It�s kind of like if you took the stance that wind speed and humidity were all one needed to consider when prescribed burning. There�s just a lot more to it than that. With that being said��

I think the role of water is the most under appreciated aspect of food plotting and is likely having a bigger impact on your field than either of the two prior mentioned. I see folks go to all kinds of lengths to get lime into a field or to make a pristine seed bed�..but rarely do you ever hear someone talk about managing for soil moisture. It�s like folks just don�t even give it consideration and rely strictly on the hope and prayer method when it comes to water.

Take what has just happened this spring as an example. It�s been rain, rain, rain up until this point. Now folks are starting to throw down seed to grow summer plots and what has all of sudden happened??? The rain shut off just like someone cutting off a water hose. The long range forecast I saw on the news last night was nothing but sunshine and rising temps. It�s not like this is an unusual pattern either. In fact it seems to be more the rule instead of the exception��Same thing happened last fall.

So how did you manage all of the moisture that fell this spring? Where is that moisture now? Is it in your soil for your plants to utilize or is it in the creek or lake? Has your soil been freshly tilled and drying out for weeks or is it covered over and conserving soil moisture? Does your soil have structure and allow rainwater to infiltrate the ground or does the water just runoff?? Are you only relying on the rain that might fall after you plant or are you efficiently utilizing all of the rainfall that we receive even prior to planting? Just some things to think about.

Consider this too��Where your water goes, then so goes your fertilizer.

Our plots are still wet. It'll take alot of dry, hot weather before I can even bushhog our plots.

Wow, you must have some low lying area's full of clay.

Probably right on the river is my guess....

There really shouldn�t be a whole lot of need for most folks to do much in their fields before mid May. I experimented some this spring but had I not smothered part of last fall�s planting then I would have just watched it grow all spring. There might be a need to throw out some fert during early spring but that can usually be done by hand or with a 4-wheeler.

The crimson clover is still not done blooming and the vetch and peas are just really starting to bloom. Still plenty of food in the field at this point and I want all of this stuff to reseed itself. The natural transition of crops occurs here during mid May when last fall�s mix matures. We all tend to want to plant as soon as possible so lots of folks start doing things in April or even late March but really about mid May is when you want to transition to summer stuff.

You can see here that the deer are just hammering the clovers right now.

I'm a long way from the river.

Our fall plantings are producing on into June, at least. I usually start bushhogging about June, just to keep it from getting too tall.

Are you growing any durana clover in your fields? If you've got that kind of moisture then it should thrive and possibly even last all summer for you. I'm fortunate here at home that I have all kinds of soil conditions to play with across a very short span. Where I have my really moist areas the durana is growing like mad.