Food plots

[carpguy01]

Morning,
Tring to gather information on food plots. Type of seed or mix of seeds that might work up hear near Moscow Idaho. I have farming equipment and a lovely canyon that I can plant next to the timber. There is already a crp grass planted on about 500 acres +or-. there are elk, deer, moose, and turkeys taht wonder around the property is posted with gates. I have only been up here for 2 years. Any help? A lot of the seeds I have looked at stated that if you can grow soy beans you can grow alot of different stuff but the growing saeson is to short up here for soy beans
Gary

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Wish I could give you some pointers. Unfortunately my first and only attempt at getting a couple of plots to grow ended up as dismal failures -except one. My best advice is NOT to do what I did. lol!!
We've got terribly rocky volcanic ground on my northern California property near the Oregon border at 7,500 ft. The only sources of water are 3 cistern springs, so irrigation isn't much of an option. Soil ph was 8.2 -slightly acidic. My only option was to dump seeds in the runoff from the peat bogs on the side of the ridges.
Tried to till what soil there is with handtools... a total waste of time and effort. Too many rocks.
Anyway, I bought some Imperial Whitetail alfalfa and clover mix and handsowed them in a wet location (from the spring runoff) and another in a flat, dry area that was well established with native ryegrass. 2 months later the un-irrigated seeds hadn't grown at all (figured as such, but the advertising on the box said "suitable for dry locations"), while the seeds I sowed into the runoff (irrigated) grew plants 2 to 3 feet tall.
Get this: I set a trailcam up the day I planted in the wet location. 2 days later (before any seeds sprouted) 2 bucks in velvet visited the area. After that, they never showed up again. What the...??
What can you take away from all my rattling on? I can't stress the importance of adaquate irrigation in getting a plot to take off. I found out that just because local grasses grow just fine, any seeds that are just tilled into the ground simply don't grow. If you can't get water to your seeds when they need it, you're wasting your time. Rocky, grainy soil makes for poor plots also.

 

[TheTone]

Alfalfa is always a deer magnet in the palouse area. Good contacts in the area would be the NRCS/Fish and Game farm bill coordinator, the last few years they've really worked with the CRP mixes in the area to be wildlife friendly. He is in Moscow and can probably give you some good info all the way around on wildlife habitat and private land. How do your neighboring landowners feel about wildlife? I know we deal with quite a bit of depredation issues year round on the palouse, so that is something to consider. I'll be sending you a PM as well.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

That's right. Everyone stresses the importance of matching the plot to the local, wild species of native plants. The idea is to make them compatable. There are alfalfa fields to the northeast of us, and clover is native to the area -so I tried to do it so I didn't introduce any wierd plant species into the area. I have no idea if any any of the stuff I planted survived the winter. Probably not. There's 8-10 feet of snow covering everything up right now.

 

[carpguy01]

Morning,
Thank you for the responce. Dave I thing your area is alot different than mine. Your growing season is just not long enough and soil condition are not that favorable to crop type production. I would think all you could do is plant native stuff and improve quanity.
Mr. Tone sounds like your in the area. I think if I could fine a mix that has some kind of peas and alfalfi, you know I wonder if I can just make my own mix. My neighbors are all farmers. I only have a few. There out look on wildlife is good. they like watching and like seeing them. They do complain about them in there vegtable gardens. With the moose population growing they seem to get in to everything and the deer make there mess. The elk seem to stay away from them. Is thatcrp guy located above the post office down town?
Gary

 

[TheTone]

I actually don't know for sure where the NRCS office is in Moscow. Elk love garbonzo beans, might be an ok thing to plant with alfalfa. Moose do have a tendency to be territorial and "take over" food sources.