Latest / Outside TG / Episode 62: Justin Beck and Cody Dziekan - Food Plots

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Episode 62: Justin Beck and Cody Dziekan - Food Plots · Outside TG

0:10
Hi, this is Charlie. And this is Jeff.
0:11
And this is Tanya. And welcome back to we're going
0:15
to call this ATG Buck Pool Podcast.
0:18
It's outside TGI. Guess what?
0:20
It's a. I'd say we call it outside TG.
0:22
I'm going to put my foot down on that because there's food plots
0:25
not just for deer. OK?
0:27
We're going to learn all about that today.
0:29
OK, question number one, what are people planting food plots
0:32
for if not for deer? Butterflies.
0:36
Bees. Turkeys.
0:38
Turkeys. Bear, do you guys well, should
0:42
we? Well, let's introduce our.
0:45
Jeff, you want to? Let's have Jeff do it.
0:46
What do we got? We got the the what is a tweak
0:50
gear? It's best fisherman Justin Beck.
0:53
Arguably best dude. Hunter, too.
0:54
Arguably, yeah, a best outdoorsman.
0:57
Something trying chop. Him, yeah.
1:03
And then Cody Dezekin, is that how you say your last name?
1:08
No D. No D The D is silent.
1:10
Zeekin. I hear people say it.
1:13
Not going to lie, that's why I asked you to.
1:15
I know introduce, I don't want to mess up this last name.
1:21
Now everybody's going to know. The whole company watches this
1:23
stuff. There's going to be like 20
1:25
people that know how to pronounce your name now.
1:28
I've heard all sorts of ways to pronounce it, so yeah, it's all
1:33
good seeking. So yeah, we got these two guys
1:36
to talk about food plots. Very exciting.
1:41
Definitely something I've never heard of, so I did have to
1:45
Google it. Well, let's start.
1:46
We talked about it for for deer, butterflies, turkeys.
1:49
What? How would you define a food
1:52
plot? Somebody, any of you?
1:54
I would. I guess I would, yeah, I would
1:59
have grounded. This.
2:01
Anybody but Tanya, Let's say. Yeah.
2:08
Yeah, I, I guess I would define it as something planted with
2:11
the, the outcome that you're looking for.
2:15
You know whatever you're hunting or targeting is is going to come
2:18
there, right? Get them to come to you.
2:21
It's a lot easier, yeah. Kind of sounds like a pig out.
2:25
OK, can I jump right into what might be a controversial
2:28
question then? Is a food plot just a really
2:30
good way to circumvent baiting laws?
2:38
Well. There is classifications of what
2:42
is bait and what is a food plot. Yes, there is.
2:45
I think it comes down to if it's just growing, it's not bait.
2:51
I think it says that in the book.
2:52
I thought I read up on that a while ago.
2:53
We have to look into it. It's kind of a good question.
2:56
Thanks. Is a water hole considered
2:58
baiting? I don't know because a lot of
3:00
guys do that. A watering hole.
3:03
That's, I mean, because the way I look at it is people who put
3:06
the time and the effort into making up I'm, I'm looking at it
3:11
from a deer hunting angle. That's all I've ever really
3:13
thought of it as. It is, you know, for deer
3:14
hunting that you're, you're finding a way to use food or, or
3:19
some, I mean, it's food. It's called a food plot, right?
3:22
To bring in an animal. It it really is sort of a
3:25
legalized way to bait essentially.
3:29
Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean they've they've regulated
3:32
the way that you can I guess harvest or lack of harvest your
3:38
food plot, right. If you had a, a cornfield up,
3:41
you can't just go and and mow down 5 or 6 rows and let it
3:45
spread all over the ground. Then that's considered baiting
3:48
because you're purposely putting seed down for, for consumption.
3:52
So it's. Weird.
3:56
I got I do have a couple little facts that it says here, bring
3:59
it. What typically makes a plot
4:01
cross the line in the baiting? Adding mineral licks or corn
4:06
piles, nearby plots under a certain acreage threshold, and
4:12
harvested or mowed plot material piled in one spot.
4:17
Yeah, I know there's a couple of spots.
4:18
I know that I don't know where they are.
4:20
Maybe it's the whole state of Wisconsin.
4:21
You can only technically put 2 gallons down in a certain amount
4:25
of acreage. I don't know what that acreage
4:27
is, but there is rules behind it.
4:28
I mean, obviously there's, I think there's a lot of guys that
4:31
be different. Yeah, yeah.
4:34
In the past it was per 40 acre parcel.
4:37
OK. And I also see here that with
4:40
chronic wasting disease that starts getting some of these
4:44
places even banned for. Yeah, it's kind of a rabbit hole
4:47
if you start digging into it, if it's even a thing really.
4:49
But. See, and I didn't know anything,
4:50
I just started reading. We talked about.
4:52
The experts talk about it. Sweaty Uncle Teddy, I'll tell
4:54
you, there's a big thing he's always in Congress talking
4:59
about. That the.
5:02
Nudge the nudge, uncle. Teddy, Yeah.
5:07
So, but I mean really like, so you, you're putting, you are, as
5:12
far as I'm concerned, if you're putting in the time to make a
5:15
food plot, then you've earned the right to call it baiting or
5:19
not. You've earned the right to like,
5:21
hey, it's in the ground. I planted it.
5:23
It's not something I went to a store and bought and threw on,
5:27
you know, dumped, put in a bucket and dumped under a tree.
5:30
Like I, I put in the work here. I feel like you've earned the
5:32
right. Yeah, I think the the thing for
5:35
me that differentiates it the most, Charlie, is when you're
5:38
doing an actual bait, you're pinpointing whatever you're
5:42
targeting to a very specific location, right.
5:45
Maybe be a 5 foot circle. If I'm doing a food plot now, I
5:49
have about an acre or a half acre, whatever the size is, and
5:55
I have to still play the wing and figure out where the animal
5:59
is going to come from that I'm targeting.
6:02
So it's not just one spot. They could come out on the other
6:04
side of the field and not be within range.
6:06
So there's still a still a game, but I'm I'm trying to create
6:09
predictive movements. Sure.
6:11
I like that. Good description.
6:14
So sorry. Go ahead, Zeke.
6:17
Cody. Wow.
6:18
I called you by your last name like we're best friends.
6:20
Go ahead, Cody. Yes.
6:22
No I was just going to say like a food plot is just more meant
6:25
to provide a long term nutrition and more natural feeding over a
6:30
day pile. For sure.
6:33
Right. I've always thought of it as
6:35
like by me when they harvest all their corn, the soybeans are
6:38
gone. I'll have my plot and that's
6:40
like the only food source in the area.
6:42
So that'll keep the, you know, strategic and I'll keep in the
6:46
the critters near you have a reason to come to your your
6:49
property. Yeah.
6:52
So maybe I'll go straight to Cody with this one.
6:55
I mean, man, I wish I had the list in front of me of the
6:57
nicknames that Justin gave you for your legendary food plots.
7:02
You sounded like Apollo Creed, the master of disaster.
7:08
Whatever. I am not a food plot whisperer
7:11
or a myth in Buffalo County. I'm no farmer, by no means.
7:18
I'm going to take Justin's word for it.
7:20
Yeah, you don't want to talk about your blends.
7:23
Well, there's, I mean, they're not my blends.
7:26
You know, we, we use a lot of domain seed and just through
7:31
trial and error and what's worked and what hasn't, and
7:34
every area is going to be different.
7:36
The soil's different. Deer are, you know, the deer act
7:41
or eat differently. I think you know compared to 11
7:45
county to the to the other. Right.
7:47
So do you have multiple plots? We do, Yep.
7:52
And can I ask how many What is? Is that multiple?
7:56
Could mean 2 or 100 I guess. Or would this incriminate you in
7:59
a court of law? Oh, no.
8:02
Oh, so just I guess what we hunt, you know, between me, me
8:09
and my brother-in-law are are kind of the ones that do the
8:11
planting and then the group, there's a big lease chunk.
8:15
So through everything, there's probably 8-8 or nine different
8:20
plots. They all range, you know,
8:23
different sizes. One or two of them are probably
8:29
maybe pushing more of a acre, acre and a half.
8:31
The rest are fairly fairly small.
8:35
And are they all different, like versions of your famous blends?
8:41
Yeah, yeah, to a point. You some are, you know, like 1-1
8:46
in the valley to the other end we might plant the same stuff,
8:48
but in we're looking just in a certain area.
8:51
They're all going to be different, different blends.
8:54
So I'm going to kind of make this simple here.
8:55
So let's just say I'm I'm getting into hunting and I want
8:58
to do this. What is the first thing you do
9:01
when you have a piece of property?
9:03
Like say you have 160 acres, what do you do?
9:04
What's the first thing steps you know well, how do you know what
9:08
to plant and where to plant it? What do you guys, what do you
9:10
guys think about adjusting to go first?
9:15
Whoever, sure. First thing I'm going to look at
9:19
is kind of way out of the property.
9:22
So you understand where you want to put the food plots if you
9:25
have that choice, right? Like on my property I didn't
9:28
have that choice. There's some pre-existing ones
9:30
and they happen to be in the Northwest, which is terrible for
9:33
winds and, and how you're going to be able to hunt it, right.
9:35
But if I had a bear, 160 acres, I would try to figure out what
9:39
the prevailing wind is and then try to pick, you know, food plot
9:44
locations on The second thing I would do is depending on the
9:48
area that I'm in, I would do a food or a soil test, right?
9:52
There's certain parts of the state where it's not incredibly
9:56
necessary about anything grows as Cody will talk about, too,
10:00
but those are really the two things that I'm looking at.
10:06
Interesting. I like the fact that you're
10:08
saying it's all about the wind and stuff I mean because you're
10:10
you're really hunting against your own smell really when you
10:13
think about it, some of the good hunters here, which you guys
10:16
are, I think somebody that's getting into it.
10:19
You have to think about your smell is the most I mean, the
10:21
deer's nose is unbelievable they.
10:23
Want them to smell the food? Right.
10:26
Oh, that too. I mean, they could smell the
10:27
food, but. Was that was that?
10:30
Right. That's mostly you though.
10:32
They know you're there, they're not going to come in.
10:35
So can I rewind for one second? How?
10:39
How do you get a soil test done? Oh, do you want to take that
10:45
away? Yeah, so there's AI, don't I
10:49
guess. I don't know what the tool's
10:50
called. It's like a plunging tool that
10:54
you kind of stick in the ground and if you take a take a half
10:59
acre plot or something like that and you're kind of going to kind
11:01
of cross divide it and just keep taking samples throughout that,
11:05
put them all in separate bags and then send it in.
11:09
We sent it in to a place an outbound over by us and they'll
11:14
go through and test it and tell us what that ground, how healthy
11:19
is that ground nutrients? Why is it what's it that you
11:21
know? Does it need lime?
11:22
Does it need fertilizer? When you do that.
11:26
You might be. Yeah, when you do that, do you
11:28
have to tell them what you're thinking about planting?
11:30
Because certain plants taste certain things right.
11:33
Yep, Yep, we do. Yeah.
11:35
And they, and they'll, they'll even come back and say, hey,
11:37
just maybe just go in and plant, you know, plant some Clover for
11:42
a couple years, bring that nutrients back up naturally.
11:45
And and then you can go back in with a protein after that and
11:49
like beans or something, you know?
11:52
OK, interesting. Because I, I this is all
11:54
actually new to me too, because I just kind of plant whatever.
11:56
I don't really think about any of that.
11:58
Clover grows anywhere usually, you know.
12:00
So thinking of this planting, you know I'm thinking of a
12:04
garden, right? Like you don't have to go out
12:06
and till this stuff up every year, right?
12:08
You're just going and putting stuff out.
12:11
There or. Do you?
12:12
Sometimes you do, sometimes you do.
12:15
OK, OK, so I'm not alone, you know, I'm not totally crazy.
12:19
No, I mean there's multiple ways that you can plant like a, a
12:22
broadcast over a hard surface. So if somebody has bare minimal
12:26
tools and they're able to get their hands in some Roundup
12:29
containers and, and clear the ground and wait about 3 weeks
12:32
until it's all gone. There's a lots of different seed
12:36
types that you can just broadcast on top of the soil and
12:40
they'll, they'll take a hold, but there's also no till
12:44
planning. So you, if you got a planner
12:46
that goes on the back of a tractor, it uses the way to the
12:48
tractor to push the disc down and then drop the scene in.
12:51
And then there's usually a Packer wheel behind the seat
12:54
plate that'll pinch the soil back together so it doesn't have
12:57
contact with with the air. The seat doesn't.
13:01
Or you till it and then you can basically do whatever you want
13:04
and grain drill or broadcast or roll it in all sorts of fun ways
13:09
to do it. So can we walk through it?
13:16
Let's say you decide, like Jeff said, we I decide I want to put
13:20
a little food plot. The the soil test came back.
13:24
I can plant what I want to plant What, what time of year is the
13:27
best to like get started and and then what's the process?
13:35
Depends on what your plant. Yeah, depends on what you want
13:37
to put in the ground. Your favorite?
13:40
Your favorite thing to put in the ground?
13:42
What is it? So for me, when I go to a grain,
13:48
it's soybean cause soybean can grow just about anywhere, right?
13:52
It soil, soil is important, but not as important as corn.
13:57
Like corn is a pain. You have to make sure you have
14:00
nitrogen in the ground. You have to make sure your, your
14:02
rolls are spaced out, your, your kernels are spaced out.
14:05
Soybean is pretty unforgiven. So when it comes to a grain, I
14:08
like soybean. When it comes to some type of,
14:11
you know, winter, I like a, a Brassica blend.
14:16
And the, the nice thing is so like I like to do soybean plots,
14:19
then I go round them up in the middle of July and kill all the
14:23
weeds out. And then I'll oversee the
14:25
soybeans with Nebraska mix and Nebraska just pop up in between
14:28
the rows. It, it works pretty well.
14:31
So those are my, those are my two things.
14:33
See, from the looks of your pictures from last year, those
14:35
are that was a pretty cool food plot you had.
14:37
I think Brendan got that. Buck.
14:38
I think you had pictures in writing a lot.
14:41
That was a really good looking plot you had there.
14:44
So like, like that was a new area that hadn't been worked up
14:47
yet. So all I did was I took some
14:49
roundup, I cleaned the area up. That was the the soil had never
14:54
been broken there. So Cody and I were actually
14:56
talking about this earlier. We did take a little drag and
15:00
went over and kind of worked up just the top inch or so.
15:04
And then I literally just broadcast it over the top.
15:07
That happened to be domain, some Brassica blend that they've got
15:13
so. What time of year did you do
15:14
that? Middle of July to the end of
15:19
July is kind of like when I like to do brassicas, I like to do
15:23
soybeans any time the soil gets above 50°.
15:27
You don't want to go earlier because you'll stunt them.
15:30
I've done that and but I've planted soybeans as late as you
15:36
know, end of June too, so they got plenty of time to, you know,
15:41
to grow mature corn should be done right about now.
15:46
The second weekend in May gives you enough days to grow through
15:51
its cycle. I you're going to have to ask
15:55
Cody about clovers and stuff because I apparently am no good
15:59
at it right now. So.
16:01
That's what I'm So what I have going on, I have a kind of like
16:05
a butterfly bee garden thing with fields and whatever.
16:08
I planted a flower garden last year.
16:10
It's like about an acre and a half and it came in pretty good
16:13
and I went through last night and it's kind of mowed a lot of
16:15
it down when it got me triggered into doing this.
16:17
And you drive around the countryside.
16:18
I mean the farmers are going crazy right now planting.
16:20
They're huge tractors are out there.
16:21
I'm assuming that's all for corn.
16:23
That's what it is right now. But if I want to go on there and
16:26
plant, I want to do a Crimson Clover so all the red flowers
16:29
come up, butterflies and then deer lead it too and bees and
16:32
all that. What would you guys recommend I
16:35
do? I think I think I might have
16:36
should have did that in fall. I think I should have planted it
16:38
in fall. It sounds like you know, I kind
16:41
of read up on it. You Google stuff and it says
16:43
planted in fall. But you can do it.
16:46
Hurry up and do it right now. Type thing like this is the time
16:48
to put that in. You can, you can.
16:50
I mean, some of, I'd say most of our Clover Nebraska mix is all
16:54
planted and you know that end of July or the August range.
17:00
You know, the thing with that Clover is, you know, you, we, we
17:03
keep it mowed. I think it's to like 6 inches.
17:05
So we're kind of right when it flowers out does when it get, we
17:09
mow it down unless, you know, sometimes the, you know, it's
17:13
the deer population's heavy too. They'll they'll keep it mowed.
17:17
So why do you mow it down to keep it growing?
17:22
Is that I? Think that's probably the big
17:23
part. I really, yeah.
17:25
Because I'm trying to get the field to look like, you ever see
17:27
a Crimson Clover field that's absolutely gorgeous when you see
17:29
all the flowers all blooming like that?
17:31
That's what I kind of want. My daughter wants to take senior
17:33
class pictures, so I want to try to do that.
17:35
That's kind of a reason why I'm doing it and trying to get deer
17:37
to come in, you know, and leave it there for the rest of the
17:39
year. So when when clovers in alfalfa
17:43
get tall like that, the the stems also get woody and they
17:47
don't like to eat it as much. So that's why they mowed all the
17:50
time. That's why they have 2nd, 3rd,
17:52
4th crop. You see these guys bailing hand,
17:53
That's why they're doing that. OK, Yep, that sounds kind of
17:57
stupid, but I always wondered why they do it so much.
17:59
You know them. The air gets winky.
18:02
Interesting. And I've been hunting in a while
18:05
and I guess I didn't even realize that.
18:08
So that's why you notice like after a fresh rain and and
18:12
alfalfa field is cut. Yep.
18:14
They get all the shoots that are popping up.
18:15
Those are very attractive to your that's.
18:18
What I'm kind of going for? So what should I go through and
18:22
round up that whole field right now after I mowed it?
18:24
Or I just kind of, can I work up the ground a little bit with the
18:27
disk and plant it that way or what?
18:28
What's the next process for Clover?
18:33
It wouldn't hurt to work it up a little bit.
18:34
You know, the clover's so small and you know, like a lot of
18:37
ours, we just let the rain drive it in.
18:39
You know you only need you don't need much ground cover with it,
18:43
if any. I mean, I heard of this whole
18:45
frost, the frost seed, and you can go in there when there's
18:47
snow and throw your seed in it. I don't know if you guys have
18:49
ever done that before. That'll work the seed down
18:52
itself. You know, I don't know if you
18:53
guys want to explain how that works.
18:54
That's kind of interesting. I just kind of write up on that,
18:56
I think, Justin. Was talking.
18:57
About that's pretty good at frost seeding.
18:59
Yeah. Well, I'm waiting on five acres
19:03
to actual. Like.
19:05
I frost seeded before that last snowfall and the soil
19:09
temperatures haven't been quite warm enough so I'm waiting for
19:12
him to germinate and pop right now.
19:14
So I told Cody I basically think I'm going to till everything up
19:17
and. Just start the way I.
19:18
Normally do. When you told me that, I was
19:21
kind of thinking, I know the grounds got to be a certain
19:23
temperature for certain things and maybe it was too cold, I
19:25
don't know, but. Yeah, it's like 50 to 60° I
19:30
think is the germination temperature for that type of
19:35
seed. OK.
19:37
Well, now in Wisconsin, I mean, we, we still have frost warnings
19:42
going off right now. When we, when, when was our last
19:45
snowfall? I thought I was going to have
19:47
snow on my birthday or something.
19:48
You know, it's like. Even right now, you go out every
19:50
morning, I'll take the dog for a walk and it is frosty.
19:53
I mean, there's white on the ground.
19:55
Yeah, and there's a, Cody showed me an app that he had last year,
19:59
a website that you can just type in, you know, soil temperature
20:03
and it's through one of the seed companies and it'll tell you the
20:07
soil temperatures throughout the nation and it'll give you like a
20:10
10 day average what it currently is at.
20:12
So there's obviously some testing stations around those
20:15
areas, but I'm just trying to pull it up here so I can give it
20:18
to you guys. OK.
20:20
There's always someone. We'll share that, Yeah.
20:23
What's the name of that? Green cast online, it's just on
20:27
web. It's so like right now currently
20:31
over by our property, the current soil temperature is 55°.
20:35
Gives you an average. Gives you a 5° average.
20:37
Interesting. It's close, right?
20:41
So for for individuals that aren't sending everything in
20:44
like just try to get it close. OK, well, I'm going to put the
20:47
tiller on my tractor and go through and kind of do a soft
20:49
till and then let it sit for a while, then plant some seed, see
20:51
what happens. I don't know when that's going
20:53
to be flowering. What How long does that take to
20:55
grow that Clover? A month?
20:58
Two months. Oh, I'd say a month.
21:01
You probably have a good base. OK, yeah, I got it.
21:05
Quite a bit of it. Soils.
21:06
Soils, right. And you get some rain on it and
21:09
it's it'll go OK. Clover is easy.
21:12
Yeah, I'll give it a try and let you guys know how it turns out.
21:17
Yeah, the Crimson closer Clover is a little more picky.
21:19
Is it though than than the White Clovers?
21:22
Yeah, that's what I'm hoping it comes in.
21:24
It's just as beautiful flower field probably go through
21:28
another picnic and. Picnic.
21:31
Nice. Maybe a date or two with the
21:33
wife you know? We're talking about food plots
21:36
here, OK? See, everybody's got a different
21:39
reason for a food plot that, but it'll bring the deer in too,
21:43
because it's Clover. That's what I'm going after
21:46
here. I might put a different little
21:48
plot in somewhere else. And I only have 10 anchors to
21:50
work with, so it's not like I have a lot of room to play with
21:53
here. So I'm curious, you guys clearly
21:57
know a lot about this. How long have you been sort of
22:00
experimenting with food plots? I would say probably 15 to 20.
22:09
Years for me, Cody. Yeah, I'm probably around there.
22:15
I know it was prior to having kids.
22:17
So lanes, lanes 11 now. We did a lot more way back then.
22:24
Is it, is it for sure? Has it just been Internet
22:28
research then? I mean, if you are like, are you
22:30
guys buying books? How are you?
22:32
How you guys know a lot? How are you learning this?
22:35
Trial and error. Yeah, it helped.
22:39
Like I I grew up on a farm too, so my dad cashed cropped for
22:42
years from all sorts of grains. So that's kind of where I
22:46
learned. Yeah, I know that you guys are
22:48
talking about Roundup and all that stuff and all these
22:50
chemicals. I'm trying to not do that stuff,
22:52
but I'm starting to figure out you almost have to freaking do
22:54
it. You know what I mean?
22:56
Is there another way to do to get rid of all the shit without
23:01
worrying about it growing back? I mean just keep telling until
23:03
it dies that way or just stays pissed on and just spray
23:06
everything I'm trying not to use.
23:08
Chemicals, I mean like the what the Clover, you know, if that
23:11
Clover pops off quick, you know, and that gets to a certain
23:14
height that can drown out the weeds.
23:15
That's on its own. In.
23:21
My opinion if if if you're going to till anyways, just till
23:25
because anytime that you work soil up, there's dormant seed
23:30
that's laying in that soil already.
23:32
So when you expose that up to the right height, it's going to
23:35
start new weeds. So even if you sprayed and
23:38
tilled. Yeah, because I have a lot of
23:39
rye. It was a lot of rye that I had
23:41
in there, and that's how it has a lot of seeds on there.
23:43
I mean, you should see the birds that come in there throughout
23:45
the day. Right now.
23:46
It's just crazy. Until I mowed it.
23:48
I mean, they're all pecking away at those that ride stands.
23:52
You know, I'm worried about that growing in and choking out all
23:55
that seed that I bought that I plant then I'm going to plant
23:57
soon. You know, I don't know if it's
23:58
going to ruin it. So I don't know.
24:00
I guess it's a trial and error like you said, find out what it
24:02
works and. Yeah if you see it start choking
24:05
it out. Just get your a lift kit on your
24:07
mower and clip it off. Oh yeah, I suppose, yeah.
24:16
I see a question on this list I'm curious about.
24:19
Are you using trail cams then to to sort of track this or are you
24:24
actually going there in person to sort of walk the fields?
24:28
Both. Both.
24:31
Yeah, it's, it's kind of for me, it's kind of fun and exciting to
24:35
see it actually work, right. So like I'll put cameras on
24:38
fields that I've planted so I could see if, hey, are they
24:41
getting moisture? When are, when is the seed
24:44
popping, right? If I put in soybeans, is it 3
24:46
days? Is it 5 days before you see them
24:49
all pop out? It's kind of a something,
24:53
something fun to do in the offseason that's exciting.
24:55
So. How much time are you guys
24:57
putting into this do you think? Total I guess.
25:06
Like, let's say right now, like how how often are you checking
25:10
in on it? Are you going out there?
25:13
Yeah, let's start there. I don't know, maybe you know, a
25:20
couple times a month, you know, I mean once you know, like when
25:23
we do ours end of July or the August, it's it's about two to
25:29
three weekends full. I mean those are 10 hour days
25:32
just getting, doing food plots, you know, turning, turning the
25:35
earth and throwing seed. Right now, I know there's
25:40
different seasons too. When you're doing this, you got
25:42
your early plots. Do you guys kind of start over,
25:45
clean slate and do fall plots then for the winter, like how do
25:47
you guys do that? I guess certain spots will be a
25:50
good candidate. For that, yeah, some and then
25:53
some are just, you know, the early season plots are mainly
25:57
all Clover, you know. So year after year I think up
26:01
to, you know, it's like a three-year rotation, you know,
26:04
where that seed just comes back naturally, you know.
26:09
So a lot of our, you know, the access trails and those of all
26:13
been planted in Clover. And then a couple of the larger
26:17
plots just stay in Clover year round.
26:20
And then, you know, like a three-year, we'll go through
26:22
three years with them and then we'll, we'll flip it, you know,
26:25
and get something else in there for the fall.
26:30
That you make the soil work for you, right, Not against you.
26:33
Yeah. That's interesting.
26:37
Certain things need different things.
26:38
That corn needs nitrogen. Alfalfa, Clover.
26:41
That'll give you nitrogen. That's why you guys alternate,
26:43
right? Every three years or so.
26:45
Keep the soil healthy. That's interesting.
26:52
What else you guys got for questions, Tanya?
26:58
I want to go back to the first. There was one up there, the
27:01
first food plot planted. Let's cover that one.
27:05
That one, yes, that one that I did did want that one.
27:08
Yeah. Yeah, well, they don't.
27:11
OK. We'll have to say what the
27:12
question is because us just saying yeah, that one.
27:16
Well I mean he did just say first food plot.
27:19
And how did it turn out? OK, Yeah, you're right.
27:21
OK, my babe. Cody, you want to take my first?
27:27
Yeah, my first first food plot was over by Haig, Wisconsin.
27:34
It was on top of a Ridge. I had borrowed the farmers
27:39
little Ford tractor plowed up a little area.
27:42
Me. It was me and Dustin Sievers.
27:45
And we planted like an eighth acre of soybeans and it looked
27:49
so good. And they popped up about two
27:53
inches. And the next picture on the
27:55
trail camera showed every one of them mowed right off.
27:59
So that was our that was our first food plot.
28:02
Oh, it worked, the dude. The animals liked it, right?
28:05
Yep. Then they killed it.
28:07
They killed it. So what do you do to combat that
28:09
then? I mean, how do you stop them
28:11
from doing that? You guys put fences around your
28:12
food plots, Let them grow. I've seen that on some of the
28:15
leases I've had. I've never done that because
28:19
that seems like a a lot more work to put it up and take it
28:22
down. And I figure it was so I've got
28:26
on my property of like 4 1/2 acres of food plot and I figure
28:31
if they if they eat it, it did its job.
28:34
So I'm just trying to figure out how to get multiple seasons
28:39
throughout the same food plot all year round.
28:41
So. Right.
28:43
How about you, Cody? Well, yeah.
28:46
Well, the fur I, it wasn't really a food plot.
28:48
It was more of a garden. It was in my yard.
28:51
I had planted like 8 rows of sweet corn and I had, you know,
28:58
it popped up and then I had went in and sprayed with a weed
29:02
killer that was supposed to be safe for the sweet corn.
29:07
So it didn't harm that. I don't know.
29:12
Well, I know what happened. I had basically mixed up the jug
29:15
and I had sprayed Total Vegetation Control and it took
29:20
it to the dirt and it was dirt for three years.
29:23
It never grew one. Weed totally killed everything
29:27
off you idiot. Yes.
29:30
Yeah, that was the first one. Yeah, you learn the difference
29:34
really quick between a a glyphosphate and a barrier real
29:38
quick. We use it once and you find out
29:41
it. I mean it, it turned yellow
29:43
within like an hour and before the end of the week it was, it
29:47
was dirt, it was all powder. Yeah, yeah.
29:49
Yeah. So that was that was cool.
29:56
Lesson learned. I've tried that with gardens,
29:58
with sweet corn food plots type stuff.
30:00
But then, you know, you got to put a fence around it.
30:02
I'll bite me in the field for mostly for raccoons and they'll
30:06
come in and just destroy everything.
30:08
You know, you got to think of all the critters that's that are
30:10
going to destroy it. Oh shit, my computer's going to
30:13
die. Oh oh.
30:15
Boy, so, well, I guess this is a hard one to answer probably, but
30:19
so you put all this work in and it sounds like there's a lot of
30:22
trial and error based on what you just said.
30:25
And you get it right. You bring the deer in at the
30:29
right time while you're in your stand and you harvest your first
30:33
buck over a food plot that you looked over, that you put all
30:37
the work into that you planted. How does that feel to you?
30:42
I love it. Oh, that's awesome.
30:43
I love it. It's yeah, to see everything
30:48
come through, you know, you, you work all summer and you know,
30:52
the food plots and trail management and stuff like that.
30:56
And then to to see it close and you know, you close the book at
30:59
the in the season with it. My plots only attract 3 1/2 year
31:03
olds, so I haven't I haven't figured out to get to that next
31:08
level of beer. Right.
31:11
I think the cool part is too for you, both of you guys, your kids
31:14
have been successful on the plots you guys in planting.
31:16
So that's got to be pretty rewarding.
31:18
You know, you guys have both sent pictures with your with
31:21
your boys then it's pretty cool. So do you guys.
31:24
For me, it's, it's more about cracking the code with with the
31:29
deer. You hear some, some of the other
31:30
guys talk about that, right? Like how do you trick them and
31:33
figuring out which food plot, what time of the year and what
31:36
they like. So when I get that trail camera
31:38
picture in daylight hour on that plot, that's almost as
31:43
rewarding. Like that's, that's the, hey,
31:46
I've got a four or five year old using a food plot that I put up.
31:50
Now that deer is targetable. Like not a three-year old.
31:54
The three-year olds, The three-year olds, we 7.
31:58
Times they just, they come to me.
32:01
I mean, for the non hunters that are that might listen to this, I
32:03
mean, there is a big difference between a three-year old and a
32:05
four and five year old deer. They're just so much smarter,
32:08
you know? Yeah, it's just, I know I'm the
32:13
same way. The lemon Cody's boat here.
32:15
I know, I know what you're going through.
32:18
It's hard to get those big bastards to trust it and come in
32:20
and make feel comfortable on your property, you know?
32:24
Can't you just put up signs and say yeah, we're we're.
32:27
Maybe they can read at that age, I don't know.
32:30
We're here to help you. This is a buffet only for 4 1/2
32:34
year olds. Yes, throw up a white flag.
32:37
You're OK here. Eat.
32:40
Eat, Papa, Eat. Do these, do these food plots
32:45
then become sort of a part of QDM?
32:47
Like do you have a community of other people in the area, like
32:50
other land owners who are also doing the same thing where it
32:52
turns into like the entire environment becomes better for,
32:57
you know, now a lot of animals are being fed and, and getting
33:01
bigger like this. Is that how it would work
33:04
ideally? Are you just doing this kind of
33:06
like I'm trying to attract them to my property and this this is
33:10
purely for my own satisfaction here.
33:14
Yeah, I think it's definitely a group effort, you know, if you
33:17
got other neighbors on board and just improving the the herd as a
33:23
whole, you know, nutrients wise and body, body weight, body
33:28
health. Is that how it's happening for
33:30
you or are like do you talk to the people on the neighboring
33:35
properties? Do you know what they're doing?
33:36
Like are they in on the plan or is this kind of just you?
33:41
No, we talked to, there's a couple that we talked to, some
33:44
don't want to talk at all, you know, and then it kind of, you
33:50
know, you don't want to all plant the same thing either, you
33:53
know, you want to be different to a point, you know, because at
33:57
the end of it you're just trying to attract as well.
34:01
Justin, how about you? Yeah, so, and, and I know Cody
34:06
kind of lives in a similar area where there's so much egg around
34:09
us that my bigger thing that I try to find out is what the
34:13
farmers are doing. And, and then I'm going to try
34:17
to figure out how to combat like that food source or, or to
34:20
provide something different. I have neighbors that do food
34:24
plots as well, but I kind of feel like everybody's doing
34:27
their own food plot to figure out how to get them into their
34:30
area so. The survival of the fittest.
34:35
I guess so, huh. I mean, maybe, I guess to me a
34:38
positive side effect would be again sort of the health of the
34:41
herd and the, you know. Oh, absolutely.
34:45
But yeah, at the end of the day, you're all still trying to get
34:48
that five year old into your food plot, not the neighbors.
34:52
That is true. Trying to I'm.
34:54
Trying to. How about what's your biggest
34:58
failure? Oh, mine, yeah, mine was very
35:07
actually very, very similar to his.
35:09
I was in a hurry. I ran out of glyphosphate.
35:12
I ran the Tractor Supply. I grabbed what I thought was
35:15
glyphosphate. It just happened to be a jug
35:18
mixed in and I hit the middle portion of A2 acre field with
35:22
barrier. But mine didn't have like a
35:24
three-year effect. Like it it naked, everything
35:27
right down the center and where? You can put.
35:31
That's where you can build a stand then.
35:34
Well, for for me, like I said, it didn't wreck the soil
35:37
completely. It did take it all down the dirt
35:40
and then I tailed it in and I actually stripped soybeans then
35:44
down the middle of it. And it kind of was a blessing in
35:47
disguise, but but the failure was seeing everything pop up.
35:51
I'm going to hit it and I'm going to spray it and I killed
35:54
it. Yeah, Hong battle.
35:58
You guys talk about that. I know I talked about the
36:00
chemical thing before. Do you know what?
36:01
I don't know if this would work or not, or if I should even keep
36:04
worrying about it. But the reason I don't do it,
36:06
it's like you got this chemical that kills pretty much anything,
36:10
the soil this dormant for three years.
36:12
Do you guys think that that shit works all the way down to the
36:15
groundwater and that you know what I mean?
36:18
Or does that just suddenly, suddenly dissipate?
36:21
You know, it's got to go somewhere.
36:22
I'm just only trying to think of the health of everything, like
36:24
where does it all that go? That's why I don't like the
36:26
chemical thing. Like what did they do before?
36:28
I'm sure it gets down to the water table.
36:31
I know it makes you wonder, like it can't be good for everything,
36:35
you know, That's why I'm trying to do an alternative, trying not
36:38
to do it. But I'm finding out it's so hard
36:40
to to control everything, so much work.
36:43
That's probably why they did this, you know, But it's like,
36:46
you know, but. Is there anything we didn't hit
36:51
that you guys wanted to bring up?
36:57
Well, we went over different different styles of planning and
37:00
things that individuals can do kind of the what times a year to
37:05
plant things and what works the best.
37:07
Cody, what's your favorite food plot mixture like?
37:12
What do you like? Like I have some go to's that I
37:15
really like. What do you?
37:16
What's yours? Well, wasn't Cody going to?
37:18
Doesn't he have an like his blend?
37:20
What is his famous blend that he's talking about?
37:22
It's a secret. Is that the secret that you want
37:24
to say or is this, are we going to hear it?
37:27
I don't have any like secrets. No, you know, and so we use a
37:31
lot of domain seed. They actually just moved
37:36
offices, but they're, you know, Wisconsin based.
37:38
They were were in Hudson here earlier this this year.
37:42
Now they're I believe it's set up shop in Baldwin.
37:46
OK, they got a lot, they got a lot of cool names for their seed
37:50
too. I mean, you got anything big
37:51
sexy hot chick. There's a no BS.
37:56
I can't remember what's in that one.
37:57
You got to love creative names like that.
38:01
Well, Green Green Machine that's got some winter peas and stuff
38:04
in there. I That's been very well, very
38:07
good for us. Yeah, we have something similar
38:10
up by us Extreme custom food plots.
38:12
They got their own seeds and then like Double Nickel is
38:13
another company out here. There's the Deadly Dozen, it's
38:16
called that I've been using. It's all sorts of brassicas and
38:19
turnips and radishes. And I did that one year and that
38:22
turned out really good that that was easy.
38:23
I just planted it and it grew. I didn't even do anything.
38:26
It's like some of that stuff was pretty, pretty amazing.
38:29
The deer loved that stuff. But it's expensive.
38:31
You know it can't. It can't get pricey.
38:37
Yeah, 30 bucks for 1/4 acre, half acre worth of seed, right?
38:40
Yeah. Yeah.
38:44
Not to check into this domain. Is there a website?
38:48
There is. Yeah, I wonder if they did they
38:49
ship it all over? Yep.
38:52
OK, I'll. Get into it.
38:53
I think even fleet army even carries.
38:55
It really I'll have to look into.
38:57
That what's cool is they have some really good YouTube videos,
39:00
like the one that I think Cody had shared with me a couple
39:03
years ago was batting lineup for Domain.
39:05
And it goes through like if this was the batting order of a
39:08
baseball team, here's the products that they would use and
39:11
then kind of the applications it was that's that's a really
39:15
informative video for sure. Like the food plot that Brendan
39:19
took a picture with his buck in. That was a domain Big Sexy.
39:23
Wow, that was that was probably the best food plot I've ever
39:25
seen. I mean that was a pretty pretty
39:26
cool looking food plot it did bring.
39:28
Just so lush. Why it's called Big Sexy.
39:30
I know it's like. Yeah, you can just see it.
39:37
Well guys, to me, this has been amazing.
39:39
To me, I've I've loved every second of this.
39:41
Thank you guys for coming on and sharing this.
39:42
Yeah, I, I have AI. Have a closing question for you.
39:46
OK, What's the one thing you wish someone had told you before
39:52
you planted your first plot? Thinking of people who are going
39:56
to be learning from you on this. Oh boy.
40:08
Don't. For me it would be don't get
40:10
caught up into what you're seeing on TV and what they're
40:13
they're blasting out there. For me it's keep it simple, easy
40:17
grain, easy brassicas, something that doesn't need to be
40:23
maintained as much. Yeah, I kind of agree.
40:28
Keep it simple. Keep it simple.
40:31
How, how many, how many products have you bought, Cody?
40:34
I I couldn't even count how many that didn't didn't work.
40:37
You know the throne grows or whatever it might be, right?
40:41
A lot of a lot of that stuff don't work.
40:43
Yeah, a lot of the bag stuff, it doesn't have the the right
40:46
amount of seed in it or it'll actually have some weed seed in
40:50
it. Yeah, I, I stick to products
40:55
that are pretty good or go to a feed mill and get get products
40:58
directly from them. Yeah.
40:59
Buy a local, yeah. Yeah, even, like I kind of
41:02
always thought like a lot of that big stuff, you know, the
41:04
throw and grow and Lee and Tiffany's got some stuff there.
41:07
I think it has some shelf life and you just don't know how long
41:12
it's been sitting there and you buy it and you try to use it.
41:15
Just doesn't do nothing, doesn't grow.
41:19
Yeah, I know. The big thing for me, like as
41:21
far as me planting butterfly gardens and whatnot for my wife
41:25
and family to enjoy, I did that one year, spent a ton of money
41:29
on it. I planted like an acre of it.
41:31
You know, you want to see these yellow, all these different kind
41:33
of flowers going there. The only thing that really grew
41:36
is the bull thistles, those big freaking pickers.
41:40
I mean, it was unbelievable. I mean, the, the the bees and
41:43
everything loved them. But it's like, who the hell
41:44
wants that on their property? I mean, it's just nasty.
41:49
And it keeps planting itself because of the seeds in it.
41:51
You know, it's like, damn it, read the package.
41:56
What's in it? Well, thank you so much you.
42:00
Guys, yeah, thanks for coming on taking time.
42:01
Yeah. Thank you, guys.
42:03
That was fun. Yeah.
42:04
If anybody has any questions or anything, Cody's got just a ton
42:08
of time to answer those types of questions.
42:10
So come on anytime between October 21st to November 15th.
42:18
He's pretty free and available. Yeah, I'll even, I'll send you
42:21
pictures, live pictures. Live pictures there.
42:24
You go no and serious if individuals do have questions,
42:28
like we're not experts, but we've tried a lot of stuff and,
42:31
and, and some things work and some things don't.
42:33
But if you get our numbers from the website, then give us a
42:37
shout. It's all good.
42:39
Awesome. Appreciate it you guys.
42:40
Thanks a lot you guys. Thank you SO.
42:43
Much good luck to you. You got to do bye.