Hey guys I am looking to plant for next year a food plot in Gonzalez county (Southeast of San Antonio). It is pretty dry and will not be irrigated. This will be for whitetail. I am able to disk the field and plant. Water will be the issue.

Wanting to plant 2-5 acres

Thanks in advance.

Try "Buck Buffet" from the Co-op in Cuero.

Check with Douglass king seed in San Antonio. They have a south Texas legume blend that does well in dry conditions. Have a few other blends too. Our place is between flatonia and LaGrange-so not too far from you. I've moved to soybeans and iron clay cow peas. They've done well with dry conditions...and are fairly high protein.

Spring or fall? What equipment is at hand? What soil type? Gonzales County has one of the greatest diversities of soils in the state. There's a reason NRCS saved it for last to map......
Gonzales is within my area of consulting and expertise........

Probably fall, but wouldn't mind rotating for the spring if there is something kept them around. As far as I know we have a disk harrow and seed spreader. Not much

It is Nixon to be specific.

Already cropped, or fresh ground?

Fresh ground

Got a sprayer?

Throw and mow might be your best bet depending on the type of soil it is.
What type of soil is it and whata on it now?

B-1 83 said:

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Got a sprayer?

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I am sure i could rent one

Try Sunflowers. I know dove hunters complain about the deer eating their crop. If the deer don't show up, hunt dove

Look into leucaena if you can find it. If you shred it every year it will stay a bush and provide plenty of forage. It's high in protein and drought tolerant. The deer love it but u need to keep horses off of it due to it being toxic for some.

We've done oats and sunflowers over in Sublime. Has worked well.

OP, are there any cattle on the place? If there is you need to fence it first.

Y'all still planting down there?

Hunted south of D'Hanis last weekend looked like a lunar landscape - crazy dry

B-1 83 said:

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Got a sprayer?

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Curious why? Watering in?

Going to need some water for the roots to get established.

To be able to kill the grass thats already there...
You couldn't put enough water on a food plot with the sprayer if you had to...

tamc93 said:

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B-1 83 said:

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Got a sprayer?

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Curious why? Watering in?

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Spraying the current vegetation in the spring/summer before tillage for a fall plot

Quote:

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Gonzales County has one of the greatest diversities of soils in the state. There's a reason NRCS saved it for last to map......

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Just looked up the soil survey report for the county. 743 pages!!!!

Here is the link to the NCRS Soil map

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx

Pretty useful to know what soil type you're working with and what it's potential is.

Someone mentioned it already, but the throw n mow method is really useful for dry areas. Check out habitat talk as well, good forum with lots of good info

Man! They look great. I can't keep deer off of mine in Fayette County long enough to get that tall.

Post another update when they produce pods.

I think I'm just lucky we had a wet April. Still tons for them to eat. Once everything dries up, I am sure they will start hitting it hard.