No Equipment Food Plot

Cut it with lawnmower as low as you can.
Spray it with roundup with a backpack sprayer.
Plant a mixture of wheat oats and elbon rye at 50# for tbat half acre right before a rain in the last week of sept or all of Oct.

Spray with backpack sprayer sometime in August or early Sept.

My preferred mix would be wheat, but also lots of clover. Because clover is a small seed and doesn't need to be covered. It will come up in the mulch of the dead grass.

Put it on thick. And use plenty of fertilizer. It's a small area so don't worry about cost per acre if that makes sense. I would put a minimum of 200# of triple 13 fertilizer on that hald acre. Don't spare the seed either

I have a 2 small plots that I take care. I pretty much did with No Colors suggested. Fertilizer made my plots look amazing last fall. I do plan to just buy clover seed to mix in with some premixed plot seed.

It’s hard ground, that was part of my concern. I can mow it down and spray it for sure, but breaking up the ground would be a tougher task. Wanted to attempt last year but didn’t due to the drought.

Definitely appreciate the advice, I’m going to give it a shot.

For the hard pack areas, you can rent a walk-behind tiller with a plow attachment. They are self propelled, but still takes a lot of time going back and forth and zig zagging and criss crossing over and over to get it broken up. After your first pass you'll think "this is a waste of time and money, it ain't doing shite". Back and forth and back and forth an eventually you'll see results. The good news is you only have to do it once. It's not something you'd have to do every single year, especially once you start planting on it. The roots of whatever you plant will keep the soil loose in perpetuity. If it's heavy clay soil, stay off it when it is wet. That's what creates the hard pack. No atv's, no heavy equipment, and even foot traffic will create terracotta pottery on the surface when you walk around on it wet.

I use a 4 wheeler and Bad Dog ground hog disc. It tears the ground up really good!

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And use plenty of fertilizer.

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Something like 8-8-8?

No till planting! It’s the way to go.
If your plot grows anything - I.e. weeds - get started . Round up the plot within week - throw out seed ( after the dew dries) seed has ground contact then cultipack or crimp ( use any vehicle to pull fence , boards, metal , board ) . Roots die and aerate the soil & doesn’t kill ground organisms. Dead foliage covers seeds , retains moisture. Sun on disc ground dry rapidly.
Add fertilizer for a few years .
After a few years notill is equal to fertilization.

Only thing I'd add to Ol boy is if you had a heavy duty rake, scratch and break up the surface of the dirt before you sling seed.