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Posted: 5/18/2015 11:00:45 AM EDT
I'm gonna plant a small dove field this year, about 4 acres.  I've never done it before.  I have started disking to make sure the ground is good and broken up, and try to get out as much grass.  I have read to plant about 30lbs per acre for brown top millet, but that seems light to me.  I will be broadcast spreading, and I don't have access to any chemical sprayers and such like that.  This field runs with the gravel road going into the place, and is near two ponds.  I plan on planting towards the end of June.  Any tips or ideas?
Link Posted: 5/18/2015 1:48:31 PM EDT
[#1]
If you are broadcasting, that is light.

I would go with that much brown top, and mix in 10+'lbs each of sorghum and perhaps another millet. That will give you a staggered maturation and more hunting days across the season.

Being near a gravel road is great. Throw in a few decoys on a decoy tree and perhaps a motion or mojo dove and you should be good to go.
Link Posted: 5/18/2015 1:55:30 PM EDT
[#2]
Gravel road is good. Provide water too. Water, food and gravel. OMG!!!
Link Posted: 5/18/2015 6:03:40 PM EDT
[#3]
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Quoted:
Gravel road is good. Provide water too. Water, food and gravel. OMG!!!
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Plus power lines along gravel road.

Before opening day, should I cut/till lanes in or leave it all up or what?
Link Posted: 6/2/2015 8:27:47 PM EDT
[#4]
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Quoted:


Plus power lines along gravel road.

Before opening day, should I cut/till lanes in or leave it all up or what?
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Gravel road is good. Provide water too. Water, food and gravel. OMG!!!


Plus power lines along gravel road.

Before opening day, should I cut/till lanes in or leave it all up or what?


You want to mow some lanes very close to the ground as dove like open ground. You can mow more as the season progresses to put more seed on the ground. Your rate seems light to me as well. I would go with 40-50 lbs/acre if broadcasting.
Link Posted: 6/2/2015 9:05:40 PM EDT
[#5]
Is there water there too? Some of the best dove hunting I ever had was on a plot of millet planted by a friend of mine. Out in the center he had scraped a small depression he could flood. The water was only about 1 to 2 inch deep and he knocked the millet down around it but it was amazing hunting.
Link Posted: 6/27/2015 1:37:56 PM EDT
[#6]
The dove fields up here that the ODNR sets up on public grounds are usually a couple of rows of corn down the middle of a field of sunflowers.  A week or two before the season starts, they harvest most of the sunflowers leaving behind an open field with a lot of sunflowers seeds on the ground and a few rows of corn stalks down the middle of it.

Set decoys out in the open field in front of you, and sit in the corn.

Link Posted: 7/6/2015 2:06:24 PM EDT
[#7]
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Quoted:


You want to mow some lanes very close to the ground as dove like open ground. You can mow more as the season progresses to put more seed on the ground. Your rate seems light to me as well. I would go with 40-50 lbs/acre if broadcasting.
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Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Gravel road is good. Provide water too. Water, food and gravel. OMG!!!


Plus power lines along gravel road.

Before opening day, should I cut/till lanes in or leave it all up or what?


You want to mow some lanes very close to the ground as dove like open ground. You can mow more as the season progresses to put more seed on the ground. Your rate seems light to me as well. I would go with 40-50 lbs/acre if broadcasting.


If you didn't spray anything to control the weeds or grass I would consider discing up some bare dirt.
We always a plant full field of sunflowers then another field with milo and millet. The milo and millet is mainly for winter forage for a small but growing quail population. But the doves love it, too.

A lot of the corn fields I have access to have had a great start and already have ears developing nicely. I am hoping for an earlier harvest so I can start hunting them sooner this year.

Our field has a low spot that holds water when it rains but the lake is a little too far to set up a pump to fill it. However, if Mother Nature gives us a timely rain it really pulls in the birds.
Link Posted: 7/9/2015 12:54:45 PM EDT
[#8]
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Quoted:


If you didn't spray anything to control the weeds or grass I would consider discing up some bare dirt.
We always a plant full field of sunflowers then another field with milo and millet. The milo and millet is mainly for winter forage for a small but growing quail population. But the doves love it, too.

A lot of the corn fields I have access to have had a great start and already have ears developing nicely. I am hoping for an earlier harvest so I can start hunting them sooner this year.

Our field has a low spot that holds water when it rains but the lake is a little too far to set up a pump to fill it. However, if Mother Nature gives us a timely rain it really pulls in the birds.
View Quote View All Quotes
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Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Gravel road is good. Provide water too. Water, food and gravel. OMG!!!


Plus power lines along gravel road.

Before opening day, should I cut/till lanes in or leave it all up or what?


You want to mow some lanes very close to the ground as dove like open ground. You can mow more as the season progresses to put more seed on the ground. Your rate seems light to me as well. I would go with 40-50 lbs/acre if broadcasting.


If you didn't spray anything to control the weeds or grass I would consider discing up some bare dirt.
We always a plant full field of sunflowers then another field with milo and millet. The milo and millet is mainly for winter forage for a small but growing quail population. But the doves love it, too.

A lot of the corn fields I have access to have had a great start and already have ears developing nicely. I am hoping for an earlier harvest so I can start hunting them sooner this year.

Our field has a low spot that holds water when it rains but the lake is a little too far to set up a pump to fill it. However, if Mother Nature gives us a timely rain it really pulls in the birds.


Right now there is very very very little grass.  I planted 200lbs of millet and 50lbs of sunflower mixed in, then went over the field with a culti-packer to smooth out clods.  It looked like a smooth desert.  Now, the millet is coming up great, and I can easily pick out the sunflowers as well.  It's been too wet to fertilize, the tractor would tear up the field going through.  A week before opening day, I plan on discing most of the field very lightly to knock down the plants, and going over again with the packer thing to break open the seed pods and tear up the trash.  I'll put up some pics at some point.

Link Posted: 7/9/2015 1:01:08 PM EDT
[#9]
This is from about july 1, a week and a half after planting. It's at least 5x fuller and taller now.
Link Posted: 7/12/2015 11:46:09 PM EDT
[#10]
And today. Gotta get some fertilizer on it this week. Deer have been bedding in it also.
Link Posted: 8/19/2015 9:52:19 PM EDT
[#11]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
And today. Gotta get some fertilizer on it this week. Deer have been bedding in it also.
http://50.6.73.68/picit/1436758973.8414.iPicit.jpg
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I'll be on my bucket at the base of that power pole, thanks.
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