Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No till food plots

Discing for that stuff is a waste of time if you have enough rain coming. It'll grow on bare ground if you have enough rain coming.

Kill whatever is standing, let it die and wait for a sure enough rain. Broadcast your stuff and mow or roll what you killed down over it. It works with seed as large as tillage radish.

In your case you're most of the way there. I repeated the words enough and rain on purpose. That's the key. Having done this a couple times now I won't disc again.

Not even a 24hourdumpsterfire troll is foolish enough to put ryegrass in a bait plot.

Hence the difference between cereal rye and ryegrass

BigDave, rye grass can be killed by freezing temps, where rye can stand more cold weather. I'm going by my farming days and that was 35 yrs ago.

I've been using your recipe of bob oats, winter wheat, and rye for the last few years and it has done really good.

I planted some Cowpeas but also I put some no till. Most of the no till is Rye Grass, 80% ish. Deer could care less about Rye grass, but Turkeys love it.

I forget the other stuff in the no til I put out, but it got rained on and should grow. I can see something coming up on my cell cams.

This is what I do. Buckwheat in May for a nurse crop. and then 7 weeks later, broadcast 1oolbs/ac cowpeas and lay it over with a drag, and spray it with gly. In Oct broadcast wheat to 2oolbs/ac and a few greens. You will not use any fert/lime after you get this started and your soil will be primo. Been doing this a number of years with stellar results.

Rye grass is a PITA to get rid of. Deer do not like it.

You can also use milo/sorgum as a nurse/smother crop. What ever you have on hand.

BIG RAIN is the key... I have quit using tractors/disc because it is cheaper to no till and I can control my weeds easier. Added benefit is that you can actually make sandy worn out soil, prosperous again after a few years of no till.

What a dip schidt who likes to hear himself talk

Deer are not much on rye grass after it's long and stemmy, but that young tender stuff less than 6 inches, they will kill it. In my part of the country their is not much deer like better than young tender rye and white clover. YMMV

The bob oats / elbow rye / wheat is about the cheapest $/pound seed for food plots I’ve found.

And it works well.

haven’t found a good mix that isn’t high % rye grass.


Did make a new plot earlier this fall, maybe 1/4 acre. Planted brassicas and clover. It’s doing so so.

Plant the bob oats, not the more expensive buck forage oats.

I’ve even used feed wheat when co-op was out of seed wheat.

I’ve planted cheap feed oats, they’ll tear em up after they get ankle high, especially if your acorns are on vacation that fall.

I don’t have much luck with the no-till method. I’ve tried it a couple of times, but didn’t get good results. Establishing new vs existing plots is a different process for me. On new, I chemical burn, till, plant larger seeds, drag (or harrow), then broadcast the tiny seeds. I plant wheat, oats, soybeans, chicory, clover and some rape. I then frost seed clover in February/early March in those plots because they get hammered over the winter. By the following fall, they become really nice clover plots. I maintain them through the summer by eradicating grasses with Clethodim.

I’m going to try the no-till method on a few again next year. I think the areas I’ve tried had too much vegetation to begin with. We’ll see what happens.

I've had the best luck with grains in my no-till plots. Cereal rye and oats especially. Tried some turnips this year. They are growing, but not as much as I'd like. I think all of the volunteer rye/oats from last year is out competing them.

This year I went cheap with the oats for my main plot; feed oats at Rural King for $15/50#. They are growing quite well! Wish I had a better stand of soybeans for them to be growing in, but the first batch rotted and the second seeding didn't get planted until middle of July. Still feeding deer, but doubt I'll get much grain production for late season.

Only time we use annual rye is to fill in spots later in the season. We most always do 2:1 wheat/oats. I didn't till my big food plot this year. I did till two smaller ones. I'm curious how it pans out.