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exMember

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My dad, brother and I went to an auction yesterday and looking through all the over priced junk, I found a single ripper/plow that looked like it was for an ATV but weighs 80-90lbs easily, I struggle picking it up so it could even be more. It has a sears and roebuck sticker on it along with a 3 hole position attachment. I put it on the atv today and took it out back, That SOB was going 5-6" into the ground, ripping the hell out of it and leaving a nice soft dirt mound along the edge. Turn around, put my left tire in the ditch from the previous pull, and the next row was about 6" away from the first! I have a ton of adjustment left to go even deeper, but this seems great as it is. I did a new area across from the alfalfa/chickory/clover plot and was able to do it in about 10 minutes. It was much faster than the disc. I will smooth out the clumps with the disc if I ever plant in that area.

Best $75 ever spent!
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Not yet, its around 4 to 6 inches is places. Just not long enough to cut yet. I like to let it grow to around 9" before I mow it down and fertilize.
 
Yep, your doing a good job, you need to try some turnips and sugar beets later on. The deer won't touch them till they get a frost or too, then they turn from starch to sugar. Deer will rip up the plot like a chisel plow.
 
I have deer greens which contails purple top turnip. They did great in that plot but nothing ever touched them except for me because I was digging them up and eating them lol, they are very good.
 
That is a good ATV plow. 

Sometimes deer turn up their noses at stuff they're not familiar with.  A friend planted Austrian winter peas  for a couple seasons and the deer never touched them.   He decided to try one more time.  Last fall and winter  the deer hit the winter peas very hard.
 
we planted sugar beets one year here and they never touched them..not something they are use to I guess....but the clover ..rye...arugula...radish tops ....and broccoli they devoured...oh and alphalfa..they loved it
 
We have one land owner here that plants alfalfa. At it's peak there has to be 500 deer on his property. Some great looking bucks too. It kills me, because it's only 3/4 of a mile from where I can hunt. Of course there's no deer where we can hunt until all the alfalfa is gone. They know they're safe there, and feed all day long.

If I wanted a food plot, and they were legal in Colorado. I'd plant alfalfa.
 
yes the alphalfa is a easy crop to grow and they love it....loaded in sugar ....they smell that miles away...also the arugula and clover...thats all we plant now along with a little rye..they hit that when it seeds..
 
A farmer wanted to plant our largest food plot (30 acres) in soybeans. We let him farm it rent free so we wouldn't be out the expense for tractor rental, seed, and fertilizer and we figured the deer would probably use it. The deer ate it down so bad that he wasn't able to harvest anything. He was so mad, he actually tried to get us to pay him for all of his expenses.

At the end of the hunting season there was a beaten-down "road" around the perimeter from all the deer trampling the outer crop edge down to dirt. No local farmer ever asked us to farm it again.
 
Jon,  That thing looks like it did a great job.  I sprayed all my clover and chicory on Saturday. The weeds had really started to grow.
 
I decided to go and plant this area in about a week-2 weeks. I found 12lbs of winter rye and then bought a bag of clover rage to throw down with it as well. The winter rye grows pretty damn tall so that will offer some cover and food during the winter months. This isn't exactly a great place as the soil hasn't been worked over to well nor have I ever fertilized it. We'll see how it ends up.
 
Un-farmed soil has quite a few trace nutrients and will grow a decent crop the first year without much trouble. After that the soil gets depleted and fertilizing and adding trace elements is necessary for good results.
However, your clover will fix nitrogen in the soil which helps to keep it in good shape. In the Midwest corn is planted one year followed by soybeans the next. This crop rotation with soybeans helps to replenish the soil nutrients that were leached out by the corn. Soybeans (any legume) fix nitrogen just like inoculated clover does.

We don't grow chicory or alfalfa down here so I don't know how those plants interact with the soil.
 
we'll see how it goes. I put a good amount of 13-13-13 and then disked it into the dirt. This stuff gets REALLY hard if it doesn't stay wet. I've tried corn in the past and nothing ever pops up. Probably bcuz it can not break through cement!
 
Well, the winter rye is taking off, along with the clover. Both are slow growing due to the poor soil. I plan on lightly fertilizing it in the next couple days and see if thats help. Next summer I'll just make the rows and plant as it seems to like that better. Holding better moisture from the looks if it today.

Not bad though, plenty of growing time left in the season. Its just to offer some cover and get something planted in that soil to hopefully help it out over time. Very course sandy stuff.
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