Diminishing Return & Investments For Food Plotters & Farmers

Cover crops for farmers and food plotters is a important tool to use to improve soil health and increase your return in investments.

I see a lot of hunters and farmers crops and they always want to know how they can improve soil health and have a better crop. My advice is to always start with a soil test with a added micro nutrient panel so that way we can start off in the right direction. We can see soil PH levels, NPK levels and also look at the micro nutrient level. The micro nutrient panel is often over looked and honestly most people don’t even know about it. Its not that expensive and can be a game changer not only for the crop but also for the health of the wildlife.

Spraying winter wheat with micro nutrients!

Some main micro nutrients are Iron, copper, manganese, zinc, boron, and molybdenum. These are usually in very small amounts in the soil and not at adaquate levels. I have never seen a soil test on a clients property or a farmers property that has good micro nutrient levels. Once you make them aware of this they usually will go get a test and correct it over time. When you have a certain nutrient in the soil weather its a major or a minor it binds up the other nutrients so nothing works. When one is low it throws off everything else.

When you plant the same crop in the same spot year after year after year you start to see a diminishing return. This is paticualry true with farmers. A lot of farmers are old school and don’t believe in soil tests or adding the correct amount of lime or NPK to achieve better results. When this happens they see a dramatic decrease in corn and bean production. Certain crops give to the soil and certain crops take from the soil and this is why soil testing at least twice a year is so important and this leads to my next point.

Cover crops are also a important tool to use not only in farming but also food plots. This is for many reasons but main reason is to just help improve the soil over time. Having a crop growing in the soil year round is so important to help transport nutrients with a root structure. Cover crops also help to protect the soil from erosion during the dormant season. This will also prevent weed growth and prevent overuse of herbicides. Some good cover crops for farmers would be winter wheat and or winter rye. A good cover crop for deer hunters would be buck wheat during the spring and summer months and also wheat and rye during the fall.

winter wheat acting as a cover crop

As a food plotter planting winter wheat in the fall does 2 things. Deer love it and they cant clean it out. The wheats job is to create a seed head. Meaning when a deer takes a bite it continues to grow so it can keep up with browse pressure. keeping up with browse pressure is so important with food plotters because they are planting small food plots. The smaller the plot the less tonnage you have per acre. Winter wheat will go dormant during the winter months with temps below say 36 degrees. You get sunny days above that temp in the winter and it perks right up.

What happens also is in the spring time typically about 4-6 weeks before spring green up the wheat comes to life and stands tall and is green as green can be. This provides so much forage for the deer way before spring green up. While this is feeding deer its also preventing weed growth and sets you right up for planting a summer crop with the use of less chemicals.

As you can see cover crops and soil testing is vitally important in increasing your crop production and also improving soil health and feeding the wildlife. Think of winter wheat as a cover crop and to feed deer. when soil testing as for a micro nutrient panel and correct it. You will see major results in the near future.

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Check out the video below on a farmers field i was looking at.