Fertilizing Food Plots

[fregienewbee]

Depending on who you read or listen to,they recommend 150-200 pounds of 12-12-12 for 1/4 acre food plots, and more nitrogen if planting corn or sunflowers. Can you reduce the 12-12-12 to say 100 pounds and add a bag of urea 46-0-0 if you disk it in right away?

What do most of you plant? My plots are for quail primarily. I plant corn, grain sorghum and this year plan to add cowpeas, soy beans and brown top millet.

Larry in Michigan

 

[randallinMo]

Using 100 pounds of 12-12-12 on 1/4 acre gives you the equivalent of 48 pounds of actual N on a per acre basis. Adding an additional 50 pounds of 46-0-0 will add an additional 92 pounds of actual N on a per acre basis. You're total actual N (on a per acre basis) will be 140 pounds. I'd think for a food plot this would be more than adequate. The soybeans and cowpeas will not need much if any of this, but the millet, corn and milo will definitely benefit from the nitrogen. Apply all the fertilizer at once and then incorporate as soon as possible.

 

[paul]

I think 200 lbs on a 1/4 acre is _way_ too much.

I think 100 lbs of 12-12-12 would give you just about the right amount of P & K per acre.

Adding 25 lbs of urea to the mix would give you about the right amount of N as well for a top yield, but I doubt you need to try for that? If you are intermixing soybeans & cowpeas - those crops fix nitrogen in the soil for free, and you can expect them to supply free N to your corn later on in the year, and you would not need any additional N over what the 100 lbs of 12-12-12 gives you. Without those legumes, 25 lbs of urea would help you if you really think you need it.

Who is recomending you put 200 lbs of fertilizer per 1/4 acre???? That is effectively 800 lbs of fertilizer per acre! If I tried doing that on my farmland, the EPA would be fining me for pollution runoff. You shouldn't be putting more than 50 lbs of P per acre out per year, unless you have a soil sample showing a need for such high rates. Aside from who can afford that much fertilizer bill?

Then we get reports for the tree huggers, how farming pollutes the Mississippi river so bad, going to have to control farming.... Even if study after study shows most of the runoff comes from city lawns and stuff like these food plots. Kinda hit a burr under my saddle.

--->Paul

 

[randallinMo]

Paul, I enjoy your posts and think your thoughts are valid. In reading past posts by you, you seem to be located in an "EPA Hotbed". What have you seen in your area in terms of regulation regarding fertilizers? Have there been fines imposed in your area? How do "they" monitor these areas?

 

[Fergienewbee]

Paul;

The Missouri DNR in their "Private Land" DVD recpmmends 1/4 acre as minimum for a food plot and 25-50# of N, especially for corn or sunflowers. Maybe they meant per acre. To get 50# of N using 12-12-12 would require 400# or 1600 per acre. I'll try 100 # and add some urea. Maybe I'll check with an agronomy service.

Thanks for the advice.

Larry in Michigan

 

[paul]

Minnesota is kinda run by abundant folk living in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, altho I am in a rather conservative area of the southern part, there is much regulation of pollution, ag feedlots, and farming practices. I know a few that got checked out for pesticide application laws - the county cops have wind meters in the trunk.

If you have much of any livestock, you need to be registered with the state - which is enforced by the county. Once you are registered, you need to have manure plans, and do your own soil tests to prevent the buildup of P, and so forth.

Enforcement is spotty, but it is out there if you try to get by with too much.

I have 22 head of cattle, and I was inspected & permitted last summer because I have a ditch on my property, got to be careful the manure doesn't hurt the ducks you know. I live in a wet area, ditches run every 2 miles or so. Pretty hard to get away from the regulation. It's easier if you have no livestock.

It's not all bad, with no regulation some bad things happen too.

Kinda tough tho when the hobby farmer on less than 10 acres has over dozen horses and no bother at all for his manure pile that is 5 years old & growing, but I need to be inspected for less than 2 dozen cattle on several 100 acres. Town folk seem to apply more regulation to farmers than to themselves, for the same issue. The U of M did a study where the city folk were putting 60% more fertilizers & weed control on their lawns than farmers were putting on the fields. So Minnesota has tried to ban P in lawn fertilizer, bags of it are 9-0-9 or whatever now. But for a new lawn they can sell P fert - they never move a pallet of the x-0-x fertilizer, town folk all buy the 'new lawn' fert.

Funny.

--->Paul

 

[randallinMo]

I'm concerned that your math is wrong. If you put 100 pounds of 12-12-12 on ONE acre, you will have 12 pounds of actual N on that one acre. If you put the same 100 pounds on 1/4 acre, you will have the equivalent of 48 pounds of N per acre. Think about it.
One acre is 43,560 square feet. 100 pounds of fertilizer spread out over one acre equals .0023 pounds of fertilizer per square ft.
1/4 acre is 10,890 square ft. If you put the SAME 100 pounds on 1/4 acre, you now have .0092 pounds of fertilizer per square ft. 4 TImes as much.