The crimson clover field is really starting to show itself now. Its slower to establish but well worth it later on. Again this is a much heavier clay soil in this area and why I chose to plant it in clover like this. Soil type makes a HUUUUUGE difference with clover.

What do you reckon a granola crunchin hippie from California sees when they look at a clearcut? What do YOU see when you look at a clearcut? I imagine each one of you are seeing a vastly different picture even though you’re both looking at the same clearcut. What do you see when you look at the picture of my foodplot below? Do you see an ugly mess the way the granola cruncher likely sees the clearcut?.....Or do you see erosion control…..moisture retention…..improved water infiltration….soil temp regulation…..a home for soil critters and microbes....etc……What do your eyes see? I’ll admit that this one is taking even me a little getting used to and making me have to recalibrate my own eyes.

I see a good place to put a feeder.

We did 6 spots this year with no tillage. We had a few load out spots from loggers and the waste piles they left about 3 years ago. Ran a dozer over them in the spring and just crunched all the rotten stuff I could up. By late summer they were covered in briars , dog fennel and whatever else could pop up. We seeded and bush hogged them last month. Been 3 weeks and they are coming up well.
The 3 other spots we did were on powerlines and basically nothing but sage grass. It seems to be the only thing that grows there anymore after the power co sprayers have come thru for the past 15 years. Seeded them, came back a week later and cut. Now 2 weeks later and its starting to show thru the thatch.

So far looking good. Used cereal rye, diakons, clovers, purple tops, kale and rape.

That's a clearcut?

I’m just now about to put a feeder out as the acorns stop falling. I’m not gonna put it in the food plot for a couple reasons…..1) I don’t want the deer to wear out an area in my plot where I’m trying to build soil and grow grains. I’ve only got two acres to do that in and I don’t want an eighth to a quarter acre circle of it to beat down to dirt…….2) and the second reason is because I’m gonna strategically place my feeder. I’ve found that wise old bucks during the rut will stay back in the cover and watch the does as long as they can still see them and keep tabs on them. When the does get out of their sight though is when they get antsy and commit mistakes. If I put the feeder in the middle of my field they’ll just stay down in the woods/cover until after dark. If I place it up in the front of my property though and draw the does up there where the old bucks lose contact with them….it’ll hopefully make them have to come out of the cover and expose themselves.

Good deal...Glad to see more folks having success with it.

No, that's my foodplot….maybe I should have been more clear. I'll edit that post a little.

I see waste potential.

How so? Explain...…..

Looks good to me Harold my fields look great

Thanks….I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and say that he’s talking about the grain that’s growing in under all the dog fennel possibly not being utilized. I think that’ll take care of itself though as the season progresses. Right now I’m just looking at it as banked forage. A couple years ago….or maybe it was 3… ..or hell maybe it was last year….I don’t know… …..anyways….it came a good snow late in the season that blanketed the ground for several days. I noticed after a couple days of the ground being covered that the deer started pawing through it in under my water oaks and basically rooting out any old acorns they could find. Once they got hungry enough they did what they had to do to get the food. I’m betting that once they eat the easy to get to forage in the field then they’ll do what they gotta do to get that forage that’s being protected by the laid over dog fennel. We'll see though....that's why you experiment and failures are always an expected part.

Now….while we’re on the topic of waste…..one thing we’re not wasting as compared to many tilled fields is fertilizer and topsoil. Having your field covered over with hay and debris like this greatly improves water infiltration and helps to prevent runoff. That means that the water is going down into the soil instead into the ditch…..and where the water goes….so goes much of your fertilizer….especially during heavy downpours.

You're not maximizing your crop if something else is taking up its nutrients.

The only fertilizer I’ve added this year is a little bit of nitrogen. My next step in this process is to see if I can go fertilizer free. I just don’t know if I can do it with the challenges of feeding this many deer on this small of an area. To your point though, there’s nothing else growing in the field right now. The dog fennel is done. It’ll be zapped here in a couple days when this freeze hits. Even it was still growing I’d be ok with it because this is a nutrient recycling process anyways. Much of what the dog fennel takes up will be given back to the soil later in an organic form. I’ve actually got a lot of organic nitrogen built up in the soil from doing this for so many years now. Many of the "weeds" I allow to grow in the summer are nutrient miners as well....preforming tasks like bringing up P from the subsoil and recycling it the surface as they die and decompose. I’ll have to see if I can find where I read about organic N building in the soil as organic % rises.

You'd be better off replacing that dog fennel with something beneficial.

Why do assume that the dog fennel is NOT preforming a beneficial task? Do you believe dog fennel was put here on Earth with no purpose? Do you fully understand the role dog fennel is playing?


“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

--- Aldo Leopold


I’m good with the dog fennel….It provides me with one hell of screen and buffer for free and the deer seem to like the increased "stems per acre". Its also bringing in a woody long term type of biomass that I don’t get from hardly any other plant. Not only that but its massive root structure is further stabilizing my sandy soil like big pillars holding up a large structure. One other thing I’ve noticed about dog fennel is that there’s some type of symbiotic relationship going on between the fennel and clover. Its very hard to grow good clover in soil this sandy but the one place I see it thrive is at the base of dog fennel plants. Another person suggested that it could be due to mycorrhizal fungi interconnecting the two and I believe he may be onto to something there. I also believe that the clover is providing the dog fennel with N while at the same time using the m. fungi connection with the dog fennel to gather moisture, The semi-shade it gets from the dog fennel also helps.

Deer tracking must be very slow right now

If you're good with not maximizing the potential of your space, then that's cool. Good for you with not chasing the best and being happy with average.

I’m not sure what all is growing here, i did the throw and weed eat method and I planted oats and a cheap mix with a lot of wheat it . But I know it’s coming in good and green. And doing what I hoped for...


There’s not a lot of deer in this area so it looks to be growing real tall already. I’ve debated on weed eating it late November to new make tender growth.. but hey idk maybe after all those acorns are are up on neighboring properties they will start to hammer this spot...

As long as it's staying good and green then just let it go. Youre just growing banked forage for later on. They'll eat it when the acorns run out. Just don't let it start running N deficient and turning yellow. That's what the deer don't like