East Texas: His Best Food Plots in 35 Years! See Why! (644) 

Gosh this is fantastic results and proof of your hard work and dedication to the natural way of soil improvement and conservation. The next implements that I purchase for my tractor will be a no-till drill and a crimper. Thank you so much for the great information that you provide to your RU-vid audience!

We just started last fall by planting the fall release blend. About 4 acres of food plot is located in reclaimed strip mine area that has maybe "an essence of topsoil." After watching this video, I am super stoked to see how this works in the reclaimed strip-mined area as well as the other 8 acres of food plots that we have been doing traditional disc, broadcast, drag, cultipacker. 8' Goliath Crimper arrived last month.

I’ve learned so much from this channel. Keep’em coming!👊🏽

Great job grant!! Love seeing other people's results!! Thank you

Great video, love the channel. Glad to see your methods being successful for us East Texans. I know the rain has helped folks like George this year in our part of the world.

Dr. Woods, I know that this is an old video, but thank you for all of the knowledge and information you are sharing. This particular video really excites me, as we have a small property in East TX that could use plenty of work to restore the soil and improve the timber stand. Best to you and your family!

I know ive watched this video 60 + times already. And knowbi will watch again and again. Cant wait to get Grant outbto my place.

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing all your expertise.

Love these videos of nature and having everything come to life.

That’s amazing looking there! Great job!

Awesome. I am from south alabama and am looking into doing a version of this on my property. Thank you for providing this great information Dr. woods.

Awesome! Love that plot on Big Sandy! I'm in upper Michigan, and have sandy soil. My spring broadcast attempt failed miserably. Upper Peninsula had very little rain, while southern Michigan had lots of rain. Someday gettin' me a no-till. Love that George in this video... just seems like a good solid regular guy.

Great video, building soil, it works for farmers too.

Hey Grant, `we have the same sandy soils here in N. Florida. I started watching your videos about no till a couple years ago and we finally purchased a grain drill this spring and got our summer plots started with some success, compared to other summers with no luck. You have to start somewhere and thanks to you for driving it home. It's the only way to do it here in this dry sandy climate. #Provengroundschanged Us.

What works in sandy soil in East Texas also works on the same soil here in MN. In areas that get weedy I mow them in the spring to keep them short. Then when I have the temps I need & rain is imminent I just till deep enough to rip up the soil & plant Buckwheat for a summer cover crop. If the temp isn't right u will have weeds growing with dormant Buckwheat. Seems to come up quick when u have a hot couple of days b4 u plant that really warms up that topsoil but just under that there is moisture below. 3 years now after putting Buckwheat in I was able plant a high tonnage blend of 5 different seeds 10 days ago. I simply broadcast the seed while walking around in that Buckwheat that has flowers on it. I had rain 3 out of the next 4 days fall over this plot. Right after seeding I knocked the Buckwheat flat to the ground in a crimping matter. Germination is coming through pretty good. On another plot I planted the same day. In this case I used to have Buckwheat as a cover crop & I planted wheat in there this past May. I had to till that plot lightly to tear through the wheat which is now breaking down in the soil to help my seed which is the same blend in the other area. Very good germination but that soil is a little drier than the other. However when I tilled I pulled up 3 weeds all under 4"! In the summer of 2018 u couldn't walk through the weeds in this plot. This area never was sprayed once. Just patience & a good plan. I had kale up to my waist with turnips over 2 lbs. last year in early November. Deer like a variety so I cut down on the turnips to get a little more brassica & radishes in there. I agree with u on the glyphosate but I've been doing this now for 25 years & I've noticed something. Everywhere around me on my family's old homestead land that people to get their lawns perfect that they r spraying. By not spraying & introducing flowers from the Buckwheat I now have bees again. ➕️ I'm seeing a few Milkweed plants which were non-existent for well over a decade which made the butterfly population evaporate. U can have the best & well managed deer area but if u r surrounded by hundreds of acres of brown & down non-selective hunters your area will be affected by this unless u have alot of acreage. That acreage must have incredible bedding on it year round or your land is affected in a negative way. Food is important but just 1 thing that whitetails need to thrive.

You have the best video out to day love to learn from you

Great video! Once again, awesome content! I like using your suggestions for my property! I have a small property, so I learn a lot from the small land videos. But the soil health principles hold true on any size property! If your like me and can't afford a no till drill, you might be able to rent one from a conservation district or other group in your area. Archery season starts for me in about ten days! Thanks for helping get us excited for the season! God bless the family and team!

I love this method. I have studied it and others that suggest this technique but are in the farmer space. Also, small market gardeners do this method as well. My issue with this is I don't have a drill. I tried the kill and broadcast methods and some seed comes up but not as much. This spring I ran a test. I bush-hogged my food plots then I tilled two swaths on the edge of the food plot. I left the middle alone and didn't till it. I waited until I saw we were getting some rain, then I went out and broadcasted it all. The results are the till spots are all thick and lush. The middle is bare but some did come up. The spots that I disced, I didn't go back and cover the seed. I just broadcasted the whole plot. But you can see a big difference in how the two areas performed. My plots are small, all less than half an acre. It doesn't make sense to buy a drill for three plots that small.

Grant, you need some of those bibs like George has on. 👍

I'm going to have to give that summer Harvest a go next year

I’m in the pig stand and watching this video and I’m hunting in east Texas

Always appreciate this kind of content. Do have one question on trying to use the release process and yet get close to financial sustainability in regards to cost. Can you get to a point where you can get enough cash crops to get closer to a breakeven point and still maintain a year round grocery store for the deer? How do you perceive harvesting that cash crop and not having that mulch to continue the cycle?

It seems that a no-till is a highly recommended if not critical component of this system. And maybe a big hat.

Unless you've been to Grapeland Tx you ain't seen sand yet . Congrats to George on his outstanding crop

Those are some great looking food plots! Since his soil was pretty degraded at the start, did y’all have to put some fertilizer on it to get those great results?

Hey come down to my place in Alabama...give an example of the Deep South for the channel. You can do a full before and after, stay at the cabin. I’ll feed you. 😄 Seriously though, really excited this year about the Fall blend. Already talking about the summer blend for next year, because planting just buckwheat did perfect this year. Deer are eating it every day, pretty surprised about that. Seen more deer pre-season than I’ve ever seen in the last 5 years of owning the property.

This is totally off of subject sir but I trust you very much! Love your honesty. Im getting a total shoulder replacement on my left shoulder im a right handed shooter. Im getting it done after this season, I can still draw back im shooting 52 lds. Do you know anyone who has had this done and are able to shoot? Thank you and heep up the great work!!!

This is awesome! Quick question? I'm in Northern Mississippi and wanting to know when to plant and what you recommened?

How well does this work in Zone 4b, where we have very sandy soil, low pH, low nutrient levels, and have to contend with a really short growing season? I know things like sunflower and sunn hemp usually need a longer growing season. We do grow buckwheat reasonably well in the summer and a diverse fall blend, with winter rye as the base, is what we have relied on for years. We don't disc or till, but also don't have access to a no-till drill or roller-crimper, so we spray gly, broadcast and then mow and/or cultipack. It works pretty well, but is just a small subset of what you're doing, I guess.

I love your channel and the way you thank our lord and savior after every video but I have a question! my property is quite moist, can this work in my area?

In the video George mentioned he had a pig problem. The pigs on my place in Southern OK destroyed my soybeans this summer. Total loss! Is this system less attractive to the pigs? I think I know the answer but just hoping there’s a system out there that works better for property owners with pigs.

Our club has access to a drill and we no-tilled most of our plots this Fall. Want to plant Summer Release in some of our larger plots, but we have no access to a crimper. Will rolling with a cultipacker and spraying glyphosate accomplish the same thing as the crimper? Thanks, and great videos!!

Without a no till drill, does broadcasting into the Summer Release blend work?

My ranch is about an hour south of George's place near Huntsville Texas. My soil is mostly black clay instead of the sandy soil in George's farm. Do I still need to use the seed drill to plant the diverse blend and the summer release blend? Or do I modify the program? Last year I planted oats, daikon radishes and turnips. I had mixed results.

I have a conflict between a couple videos and I hope Grant or staff has an answer. Trying to figure out if it contributed to my No-Till soybeans this year getting 6" tall and basically staying there all summer. You've mentioned plants getting J-hooked roots from penetrating down a few inches, hitting hard-pack, and having stunted growth: this seems to directly conflict with NEVER tilling the soil. How will always planting No-Till not lead to a very shallow root base and stunted plants? The Proving Grounds is soil you've made on rock, but roots can penetrate gravel. This guy's farm is soil on sand, again, roots can penetrate. Our place is soil on packed clay. Out in the crop fields, that stuff is rolled over every year and the clay is "shattered", for lack of a better term. I think, in the plots, that packed clay remains impenetrable if I No-Till (based on the soybean observations this year), but if we do till, it's all giant slabs that bury the good soil and nothing grows on the slabs of clay until they weather for about 3 years. A plot we broke open in 2018 is just now getting it's 1st GOOD result 3 years later. We put Buster Radishes on it, specifically trying to "punch" holes down a foot or more and make some soil depth.

Ok,I'm sold, I bought a crimper. I'm in southern Iowa. My plots are a qtr.acre each. I'm going to round up what ever is present in late may and broadcast either buckwheat or summer release blend before a rain. In late july first of August I can broadcast fall release blend into the summer release blend before a rain . I understand the summer release blend is maturing and withering. Do I crimp it or just let it die down over the newly emerging and growing fall crop. Then the following spring there will be enough rye grain to crimp over the summer release or buckwheat to start the process over. Do I have this right. Cant wait to try it. It makes so much sense. I understand that if crimping winter wheat,rye,triticale I need to do it during the dough stage.Thank you!

Should I spray glyphosate, let it kill out the weeds, then just plant when the forecast is right? I will be broadcasting the seed in hidey hole plots with quite a bit of daylight sun.. First frost date is mid October.. Any need for cultipacker?

Did you kill the weeds first before you planted the first round of the spring release or the fall blend? Or did you just drill one of these right over the weeds?

2 things. I haven't heard as of late. Are you all still using the Goliath crimper? I see the summer release blend is soybean heavy any more. Any reason why?

I just purchased $1100 if seed from Green Cover seeds, company. I hope to achieve similar results as this fellow in Texas. I'm in Madison N. Florida. Biggest concern they are out of buck weed.The locals say clover won't do good here. The soil looks similar. I tried crimson clover, summer came it die.

Northeast Texas here. Whats you opinion of type of crimper? I can get a 10” drum crimper for my front end loader for about $1,000 less than a 16” drum 3 pt. Does the 3 pt crimper do a better job in your experience?

My property is sand and it has an old coastal field and lots of sand burrs in late summer. Do I need to spray it or can I just till it the first time, plant it and then use a seed drill after the first planting?

What's the plan if the ground's in a severe drought, and no rain in sight? Current struggle up in NW MN. I'm trying to figure out a plan to convert to no-till, so I drilled in oats and rye to try and get soil coverage once the moisture hits. Is this a good first step to no-till conversion? Follow up in spring with planting into the cereal rye and terminating it at that time?

Do y’all have a food plot blend that will work in south Texas that will grow where we only get 24 inches of annual rainfall? Or will this release process work in an area with so little rain?

Grant I have a question on The use of glyphosate. Personally I do not want to use it anymore. How can I no till with out it? In order to kill the exiting sod or aggressive weeds spraying it would be the simplest way. No till into a established sod and not spraying simple does not work. A crimper won’t do a thing to perennial grasses or weeds. Disking or plowing seems to be the only option. What are your thoughts.? Thank you Andrew

I’ve been using a poor man’s version of your no till system for about 5 years. Hogs ( which we’ve NEVER had before) showed up…destroyed my chufa and rooted big holes in no till field! Really don’t want to harrow..any suggestions? And thanks so much for your channel!

Big argument I hear is in places like Iowa with heavy black top soil. They say no till won’t work because of soil compaction. There are other reasons but that seems to be the most used excuse.

I want to use this same technique to plant cover crops as forage for my intestine rotational grazing plan for my small grass fed beef operation in south Texas. No till drills are pretty expensive and big for typical AG use ones. Is there one anyone recommends for use on about 100 acres?

I've got 2 four acre foodplots on 100 acres. The clover has done very well. The wheat and oats are tall now. What's the best way to lay it down? I don't have one of those rollers. Can I spray clethodym or cut it? I lost a good bit of topsoil from tilling. Don't want to do that again.

When do you prescribe cereal rye to be planted as a cover crop? Is the summer release a replacement?

do you have to buy a no till drill to get these results? I don't have the money for one

Will this work in an area that averages less than 10" of rain per year?

I love it but how many people can buy one of these no till drills?

I can rent a grain drill but can’t yet afford a crimper. Can i use glysophate instead of a crimper?

What. Type plants for east Texas crockett fall plot and spring

love the mix, hate the Glyphosate

What’s the cost for something like this, including planning with you?

All this sounds great but 85percent of us can’t get a no till drill. How do we do it then?

What is that tall green plant next to you in the sunflower field ?

Can I use a John Deere van brunt drill to plant summer and fall release blend??

What about the people that don’t have access or the funds to get access or buy a drill?

I really want to try this method on my property, but the heavy price tag of a no till drill is a huge deterrent. Can you guys post a video showing the process of doing this without a no till drill, or potentially without any equipment? I already have pretty decent soil on my land and I don't want to kill it with over tillage, but the soil has a tendency to get too hard and when that happens the seeds can't break through.

How can you do this without a no-till drill?

So ragweed is good, and your ok with native grass. He said that last year he had weeds as tall as his food plot. If this is true why is the food plot better then just letting it be weeds?

How well will this work around cows

What brand or seed mixture did you use?

I’m in west Texas and I guess I’m still skeptical it would work in our arid climate.

I wanna free no till drill

*No Till Drills are too expensive for me.* I just scracth, seed, roll, and/or crimp. Just don't have the time for No Till Drills.

So you want that blend to go to seed? Why?

Any chance you can connect me with George? I'd like to see if a co-op order from Green Cover could happen to save a bunch of money on shipping cost. Our 50 acre farm, FredNeck Acres, is also in east Texas.

What about west texas

Why use glysophate to kill all that growth? Don’t you just crimp it again or burn it? Thanks!

600 hrs bs that's 6 weeks at 100 hrs a week Really guys