A few questions from a first time food plotter

2. Kudzu is actually a very good forage for deer It's great cover and nutrition. Would not mess with it unless it's totally out of control

Thanks for the informative reply. We just purchased a property last summer so didn't have time to do a real spring/summer food plot last year so this is our first go at it. based on trail cameras, i would say there are 25-30 deer that live/use our 70 acres. They spot i originally planned on doing soybeans is right at 2 acres. I will look at AJV!

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Also the MSdwfp said it was good for doves as well. That would be ideal in my situation. Do you have any experience with it attracting doves or dove hunting over it

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No go on the doves. I am sure that theoretically it might attract some. But there are about 15 things I would plant before I would plant AJV for doves.

The only thing I have ever mixed with AJV is sunflower. Which may seem like an odd choice. But it goes down like this: AJV is very shad tolerant. So, it actually does well under the sunflowers.

Sunflowers are a big seed. So, they jump out and put on a lot of green leaves really fast. Like, plant the first of May and youve got heavy green browse by the first of June. The vetch will barely be noticeable. But, the herbicide you use over the top of the sunflowers to control grass (Select) will be ok for the AJV too.

Sunflowers drop their leaves about the end of July. (planted the first of May). So, that will "open up" the canopy and let sunlight hit the AJV, which will then "release" and really start spreading.

If you want, you can move the sunflowers sometime in August and that will help with some doves and release the AJF at the same time. You may have some doves. But I wouldn't count on it. Sunflowers are cheap. $40 for a 50# bag that will do fine on your two acres.

Disk the ground good. While it is still clotty, spread your sunflowers and some DAP 18-46-0 fertilizer. Then cover your sunflower seeds with a drag harrow until the ground is smooth. Then, come back with your vetch seed planted over the top. one #25 bag will do 2 acres fine. Do not harrow it in. Just leave it. A rain will plant it. It is a really fine seed, like clover.

Once the sunflowers are up about a foot tall, spray with Select or Poast. The deer will find them. Once they start getting brown and hard looking, mow them down with a clipper to release the AJV. You can leave 1/4 acre or so of standing sunflowers for the doves to see if you can attract any.

In October, just use a No Till drill to drill your wheat directly into the AJV. No need to disk it. A frost will kill the AJV and the wheat will come right up through it. That's your winter food plot.

How much i owe ya

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Add a spice garden in the middle of your food

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Nah. Ole Miss football team would sniff it out and trample the place down to the dirt.

I don't doubt that at all...well gives a heads up if you come to a baseball series and i got ya covered on the left field refreshments

man do it! i watch growing deer and the hunting grounds but both those are in the Ozarks so it's more for entertainment purposes than anything else. I would seriously watch every episode of a video series set in the south on food plots and deer management

It's actually in South Georgia. The wife and i are moving this summer. Thanks for the offer though

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I have about a 1.5 acre patch that is pretty wet, but gets lots of sun

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It should. AJV needs water. It can tolerate standing water much more than it can drought. It is not worth planting on tops of ridges, such as old logging decks in red clay pine plantations. But if you can find a bottom that retains moisture and has decent soil, then it should work. AJV is very site sensitive.

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With 70 acres, you probably aren't going to make a tremendous difference with a summer plot.

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Well. When bucks are stressed and need palatable protein browse in August and September, they will be hitting the AJV hard. I have bucks on camera on my AJV that will end up getting killed 2 miles away from there during the rut.

But usually every year the biggest deer we kill on the farm is the first week of Nov. We target one of the big bucks that spent the summer on the AJV. Then we drill wheat in the first of Oct and when the youth season opens the first week of Nov, theres usually some big ones still hanging around. My 15yo nephew killed a 158" that way at 4:30 on opening afternoon of youth season this year. Almost wasn't fair.

It definitely increases the number of big bucks that we kill. And it would work just as well on 70 acres as 7000 acres.