Anyone try planting iron clay cow peas?

I do not have the ability to fence them off, but I do have the land to plant them. I do not mind planting 20 acres or so.

Anyone have experience planting cow peas in high deer density areas? How many acres are needed to "overwhelm them" so they do not graze them down during the first few weeks?

How about some electric fencing and a solar charger?

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzttttTTTtt!!!!

Seriously Wendell, with out a fence I don't think you'd be able to overwhealm them.

Some farmers here use shooting simulators. I do think game gets accustomed to them after awhile. Maybe they will work in the short term if you don't have close-by human neighbors.

Nope, electric wont work, they just hop over it. I guess I could do an 8' tall electric frence with strands ever 6" ... that might work!

You can plant enough to overwhelm them, but I can't.

Anyone try the plot saver tape? I am sure it works on deer, but I wonder if Red Deer or Aoudad will respect it.

If it can keep Aoudad out, It will keep a Moose out!

I may try it. I can buy enough to protect 10 acres for about $300. Posts clips and all, then in the future, all I will need is the concentrate to spray on the tape.

Interested in hearing others opinions about the tape.

I saw a discussion on another forum where it worked on deer for one guy. Not much of a statistical sample size. I have no clue about the aoudad.

Those Aoudad are funny critters. Pushy animals. If they don't like something their answer is to head butt it ... no matter what it is.

We shot one this year that had a forehead full of porcupine quills.

For others information, I got a reply from the "Plot Saver" guys:

We have had a lot of success on exotics. But you will have to make a couple of adjustments.

1) You will need to put more then one ribbon up. Figure on placing the ribbon at muzzle height, so with different size animals, you'll need to put one at 18", one at 30" and if you need it, one at about 40"

2) If you don't want to do do that, you can try using plotsaver plus. It has electric ribbon that hooks up to a charger to repel by smell and shock.

Hop that helps!

Customer Service

I think I may try this. Plant about 10 acres and put up the ribbon for 45 days until the peas have a chance to mature enough to withstand heavy grazing.

Wendell, By the time you pay for the fuel seeds and fence, wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy em by the can?

Rich Elliott

Rich, that is what I am doing now .... buying it by the "can".

Only problem is that the "can" holds 23 tons, has 18 wheels and required one arm, one leg, and the promise of my firstborn each time it shows up at the ranch ... which lately has been way to frequently.

And they don't even let me keep the "can".

The Plot Saver website says:
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RECOMMENDED USES
For use on axis, moose, elk and all other deer. For use on hogs, cows, sheep and other livestock. For all crops, orchards, vineyards, reforestation, food plots, nurseries and other large growing areas.
--------------

It is cheaper to grow it than buy it.

An acre of Cowpeas can produce 2 to 3 tons of dry forage over the growing season. Protein level is very high (16-20% up to 24%, depending on the time of year.)

Spending $500-$700 as a first time investment to protect it is certainly worth a shot. This tape should last 5 years or so. The posts will last a lot longer.

The first year, 10 acres will cost me around:

Per acre -
Seed $17
Fertilizer $30
Diesel - $10
Plot tape - $50 ($500 for 10 acres)
total - $107

Look at a round number of $100/acre = $1000

4000 lb/acre dry forage = 40,000 lbs for $1000 = $.025/lb
6000 lb/acre dry forage = 60,000 lbs for $1000 = $.017/lb
Protein feed @ $240/ton = $.12/lb

So, with decent rain, cost is 1/10th of buying it.

This tape will then be used in the fall for the clover, and again next year. So the next year you can subtract $50/acre and it becomes more appealing.

In a perfect world ... we will see.

quote:

So, with decent rain, cost is 1/10th of buying it.

I think that part is always the kicker. I was doing my rain dance for South Texas and it fell here. Instead of getting the stock tanks filled up I got sheetrock falling in my house.

You have bad aim with your rain dance. We got 2" at the ranch this weekend. It was so dry, my cactus were dying.

True, rain is the kicker. Cow peas are pretty drought resistant so if we can just get some rain, it will work.

Some years are better than others.

Two inches should do you a lot of good. In South Texas the stock tanks are drying up (or were already dry in November) and a small tropical depression would be a big help.

I need to re-think or re-design the rain dance as it is not working as it should. Ten inches here and one inch or less in South Texas.

Remember your old dance, cause I will need it after planting the peas.

I plant cow peas unprotected in a mixture of about 2/3 standard summer wildlife mix and 1/3 cowpeas. Assuming you've got half way decent soil and get some moisture, I haven't found the deer overgrazing them. Obviously bigger plots work better for this than the more commonly recommended smaller scattered plots.

There is an electric fence system using 3 wires developed by someone in the Tx Farm Bureau or NRCS or similar agency that works nearly perfectly according to them (I haven't used it, I was going to but changed my mine) and is not hard to put up. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but you use 2 wires on one post and one on another. I suspect you'd have to monitor the wires for breakage for the first week or so. If you want the actually ht above ground figures, I can look them up. It is available on the net, try "deer proofing gardens" or similar.

My critter density would probably prevent anything under 50 acres or so of cow peas growing very productively. Maybe that is what I need to do though. I do not think 20 acres would withstand the pressure of the Red Deer. Whitetail ... probably, but not the hungry hungry Hippos I call Red's.

I have some good soil and the ability to irrigate 20 acres or so.

The plan is to do cow peas now, take another 20 acres in August and put it into a nice perennial (chickory and clover) that can be watered. Hopefully this will reduce the dependence on the supplemental protein and give them something to munch on 11 months of the year .

Wendell,
I would be happy to thin down your Aoudad population!

Aren't those Aoudad cool? That is the one animal that I will personally hunt on my ranch. I have plenty of Whitetail and other ranches that I hunt Whitetail on for myself, I have shot Red Stag in NZ and Axis in the hill country, but that Aoudad is a special critter in my eyes.

Any 300 lb animal that runs up a verticle cliff like it was flat commands respect in my eyes.

Wendell, Have you tried feeding cottonseed? We are doing cottonseed and protein. With the dry year we are having the supplemental feed is going fast. Cottonseed is your area should be pretty reasonable. I just got a quote of $167 a ton but freight down south is a killer. We have gone through around 20 tons of cottonseed and about the same amount of protein so far this year.

quote:

Ten inches here and one inch or less in South Texas.

I was down at the ranch when the rain came through. We got eight inches. Eight inches between drops that is! I heard a few drops hit the roof but that was it. Hope you did better toward Asherton. Bummer on the sheetrock.

quote:

Originally posted by M16:

quote:

Ten inches here and one inch or less in South Texas.

I was down at the ranch when the rain came through. We got eight inches. Eight inches between drops that is! I heard a few drops hit the roof but that was it. Hope you did better toward Asherton. Bummer on the sheetrock.

Eight inches between drops -- I have to remember that one. Intellicast.Com shows a little more at the lease, from less than a quarter inch to an inch in the general area, but it really needs a long rain to fill up the tanks.



I only lost a small section of ceiling in a kind of bay window area -- the problem is I have no idea why it got wet. We have an estimate in the works to patch it up once we figure out where the water came from. Of course it seemed to be coming from everywhere since it was blowing so hard outside but there were no visible leaks in that spot.

Wendell,

That's going to be tuff. We planted them one time several years ago in an area that doesn't have a dense population by any means and they ate them all by the time they had sprouted a few inches.

I have heard about a new product for keeping deer away from gardens. It's in granule form and you sprinkle it around the edges of your garden and it supposedly will work for three months. They had some brocures at the feed store a while back but I can't remember the name of it. Might be worth a try but it's so new I've haven't heard any reports yet.

Good Luck

Reloader

Charles/M16,
If you guys were anything like me, up North, the ground was like a sponge. 2" didnt even start to fill the new tank dam I built. There was very little run-off.

M16,

I am in the middle of cotton country up there, I might consider it, I need to research how it would effect the sheep though. They might not tollerate it.

Reloader,
I will look into that option. I have decided to try the Plot Saver Tape. I will double it, one low and one higher. I might even run a hotwire between them. It is a small investment ... shoot, everything I do is a gamble anyway.

Charles,
About your ceiling. You are not alone. My wife said to me (on the phone) I hear dripping in the wall. Got home and water was coming in both chimneys, and in the chase by the chimney.

The roofer was called, he came by and said he has 120 leak calls on Sunday alone!

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
The roofer was called, he came by and said he has 120 leak calls on Sunday alone!

At least the weather was good for someone.

Good luck with your chimney -- I heard a similar story from someone else. They had water pouring down their chimney also.