Tractor Cultipackers

Food Plots

Whether you are a hunter or a wildlife enthusiast, food plots are great for your hobby. All wild animals eat whatever they come across, and if your property has the nutrition and food that they need, the animals will be spending a little bit more time at your place. Food plots are large areas, usually a few acres in size, that have been planted with the crops to give the protein and energy to the local population of wildlife, either to help the population become healthier, or to gather them in a central place for easier hunting. When a food plot is properly done, the animals will come to it almost year round to get the extra protein and energy needed to survive in the wild.

How To Plant One

Food plots are normally started with a disc harrow or tiller that loosens up what is probably compacted virgin soil, and then the fertilizer, lime, and seed are spread out on the ground. Now what you are left with is a plot of land that has been freshly broken up, and the nutrients and seeds for your crop of choice laying on top of it, now you face a new set of problems. If a heavy rain comes through the area you have planted, it can wash away all your time and effort, or a wind storm could even do the same. Cultipackers are designed to fix this problem in a single pass by compacting the ground and making it firmer, and by the v-shaped design of the cultipacker wheels, it forms trenches in the soil to give the moisture a place to pool up until it can all be absorbed for maximum efficiency. When the cultipacker passes over the soil, it causes the soil to come into full contact with the seed, and since the ridges help hold moisture in the channels, the crop will begin to grow faster than simply broadcasting it out.

Tools Used

Some experts say that a disc harrow is fine for creating a food plot, and others say a tiller is better, but the one thing they all agree on is the use of a cultipacker dramatically increases the effectiveness of the seeds, and prevents the freshly broken soil from being washed or blown away. A cultipacker also is great for a garden plot as it can break up clods after the fall plowing and allow the ground to soak in the rain and nutrients from melting snow. Cultipackers are heavy due to the use of 15" cast iron wheels, weighing around 28 lbs. each, requiring 15 for the 5' size, totalling 420 lbs. of ground packing weight in the wheels alone. There are several manufacturers of tractor cultipackers, with the best design coming from EverythingAttachments.com. Everything Attachments not only is the largest online distributor of tractor and ATV cultipackers, but recently have become a manufacturer and added some safety and convenience features that no other cultipacker on the market has. One of the best features they have added is the EZ Fold Skid Stands that are located on both ends of the cultipacker. The EZ Fold Skid Stands replace the traditional stands that have been on cultipackers for years, and give a larger area for the cultipacker to rest on giving more stability than some stand systems used in the past, and allowing the wheels to be stored off of the ground when it is not in use.

 

Types of Crops

The type of crop that you plant in a food plot will help determine how effective it is in your area, some of the most common crops planted are: soy, rape, clover, or a mix.