Think you need a tractor and heavy equipment to plant and maintain food plots? Many tasks that are required to prepare a seedbed, plant and maintain forages, keep trails clear and do a host of other jobs on your hunting property can be done with an ATV and ATV implements. Don’t make the mistake, though, of looking in your next hunting equipment catalog and buying every ATV implement you see. You’ll be a lot happier (and have a lot more money left) if you approach your ATV equipment selection in an informed way. And that’s what I hope this article will help you do.
In this article, I’ll tell you about some ATV implements that we use here at the Whitetail Institute. Links to the manufacturers mentioned are also provided in the sidebar to this article.
ATVS FOR FOOD PLOT WORK
Before you even start thinking about ATV implements you’ll first need something to pull them with: an ATV. Generally, I suggest you get a water-cooled, 4X4 ATV that has an engine of at least a 300cc for food plot work. If you already have an ATV and it’s a less robust model, that doesn’t mean that you have to trade it in for something else. Less powerful ATVs can often do quite well for food plot work. Just be sure that the equipment you ask it to pull is not as heavy and that you don’t tax it as hard because heavier jobs such as disking can prematurely age any machine if it has to regularly operate near the upper limits of its capacity.
I still use the same 400cc 4X4 ATV that’s over a decade old for all my food plot work, and it still does everything I need it to. Also, my ATV is water-cooled, and that is a big help when the machine is running for extended periods under a heavy load and at slow speed.
Now let’s take a look at ATV implements for food plot work. There are two general categories: seedbed-preparation implements and forage-maintenance implements. As you’ll see there is some overlap, as you’ll use some implements in both roles.
ATV IMPLEMENTS FOR SEEDBED PREPARATION AND PLANTING
(Including sprayers, lime spreaders, plows, disks, cultivators, harrows, seed and fertilizer spreaders and cultipackers)
Seedbed preparation equipment is needed when planting perennials (forages designed to last for more than one calendar year) and many annuals (forages designed to last for part of one calendar year). These implements are used to get the seedbed “ready to plant” (adjust soil pH by incorporating lime into the seedbed when soil pH is below 6.5, till the soil, fertilize, smooth and firm the seedbed) and to plant the seed.
ATV SPRAYER
Perhaps no other ATV implement offers as many potential uses for the hunter and food plotter as a spray rig. In fact, if you’re planning to work up a fallow plot site with an ATV, your spray rig may be the very first implement you use.
The biggest advantages tractors have over ATVs are weight and power. Comparatively light ATVs can have a hard time disking fallow sites covered in thick grass or weeds because they may not have the weight and power needed to pull an implement capable of cutting up those roots. In such cases, consider spraying the site with a Roundup-type herbicide a few weeks before you plan to till. That can help kill the roots, allowing comparatively light ATV disks and tillers to dig into the ground vastly more easily. (Remember that glyphosate herbicides enter grasses and weeds through their leaves, so it must be sprayed after spring green-up, when the plants are actively growing).
Features: ATV sprayers are fairly straightforward and are available at competitive prices through mail-order catalogs, from box stores and from local farm-supply stores. They consist of three main assemblies: (1) a tank to hold the spray solution, (2) a transfer mechanism powered by the ATV’s battery, and (3) spray nozzles mounted to a boom. Some sprayers mount to the ATV, while others are towed.
Get a sprayer with at least a 15-gallon tank capacity. You can get ATV-mounted sprayers with larger tanks, and that’s fine too, but if you are going to only spray an acre at a time, you won’t need more capacity than 15-gallons. You can get much larger tanks with tow-behind units, but the drawback with them is that they are not as easy to maneuver. Two great options are a folding boom with shut-off valves, and a hand-wand attachment.
The folding boom and shut-offs will allow you to turn off all the spray nozzles except the one directly behind the ATV, fold the boom up and out of the way, and spray trails as you ride along.
This is a great way to keep trails clear and does not leave them muddy the way disking them can. A wand attachment will allow you to stop and spot-spray.
LIME SPREADER
In the vast majority of cases, the soil pH of fallow ground is acidic (below 6.5), and lime must be added to raise it. Lime works in particle-toparticle contact with the soil’s particles. You can imagine how many dirt particles are in the top few inches of an acre of ground, and that’s why lime recommendations are often expressed in tons of lime per acre. Many farm supply stores will sell lime by the truck load and even deliver and spread it for you for a fee. Others will rent you a buggy that holds several tons of lime and let you haul it to the field with your own truck.
Neither may be a great option when the plots are a long way from the store or the plots cannot be reached with big lime trucks and buggies. In such cases, the only option was to buy much more expensive pelleted lime, which is more finely ground limestone suspended in clay balls for use with a broadcast spreader. These days, though, there’s a third choice that lets you use less expensive ag lime and put it out yourself: personal lime spreaders. One we continue to use extensively at the Institute (because it works) is the Groundbuster Lime Spreader. It’s built out of heavy gauge sheet metal for strength, comes with heavy duty tires and wheels, and is designed to dispense lime evenly, even over rough ground. The Groundbuster comes in two sizes (1-ton (for tractors) or 1/2-ton (for tractors or strong ATVs with a 2-inch ball). Groundbuster will even build a custom size for you.
TV PLOWS, DISKS AND CULTIVATORS
Plows, disks and cultivators are ground-tillage implements used during seedbed preparation. Of these, ATV disks and cultivators arguably offer the most bang for the buck for the average ATV food plotter. Generally speaking, these can be lumped into two categories, which I refer to as “lighter” and “heavier.”
Lighter ATV disks and cultivators are built with all the parts combined into a single tool that is not adjustable. An example is the fliptype disk implements that consist of a flat steep plate with fixed disk gangs welded to one side, wheels on the other, and a towing arm with a swiveling coupler on the front. The unit is towed to the site with the wheels down, and when it gets there the entire implement is turned over so that the disk blades are down.
Heavier units have a main frame to which the wheels and disk gangs are attached in a way that allows each such component to be separately adjusted. For example, heavier ATV disks often have pin adjustments for the angle of the disk blades and many also have electric motors to raise and lower the disk gangs within the implement’s frame.
An implement’s ability to cut into the soil depends on how much “down pressure” it can apply to the soil. A big factor in down pressure is implement weight, and this is the biggest limiting factor of most ATV ground-tillage implements — they must be comparatively light because ATVs aren’t strong enough to pull heavy, tractor-type implements. Kolpin’s Dirtwork’s Series is an incredibly ingenious system that overcomes this problem to a great extent by adding some of the ATV’s own weight to the implement to increase the implement’s down pressure. At the heart of the system is a 3-point hitch mounting assembly that attaches to the ATV and works much like the 3-point hitch system on a tractor. Once the 3-point hitch assembly is mounted, different components can then be swapped in and out to do lots of different food plot jobs.
DRAG HARROW
Also commonly referred to as a “spring harrow,” these are basically just a mat of heavy gauge chain-link with spring-shaped teeth extending from one side of the matt. The harrow can be used with the teeth up to smooth a disked seedbed before planting small-seeds, and it can be used with the teeth down to cover large seeds. These are inexpensive and generally available from most farm-supply stores and box stores.
(For a complete description of drag harrows see Part 4 of Mark Trudeau’s “Turning Dirt” series here: http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/info/news/Turning_Dirt4.pdf.)
SEEDERS / FERTILIZER SPREADERS
The Whitetail Institute recommends using a shoulder-type spreader for fertilizing plots that are too small to need an ATV, and for putting out seed. If you’re planting larger plots, it makes more sense to put out fertilizer with an ATVmounted spreader. Earthway makes excellent examples of both. Unlike the cheap grass-type bag spreaders with a canvas pouch you get at most lawn and garden stores, the Earthway shoulder spreader is truly heavy duty. The body, gears and crank assembly are strong, the bag is made of thick nylon instead of canvas, and the zipper is reinforced. I have two. One is six years old, the other is three years old, and both are still going strong. For larger sites where an ATV spreader is more practical, Earthway’s 12-Volt Broadcast Spreader is a super choice.
CULTIPACKER
A cultipacker is basically just a roller on bearings mounted to a frame, which is towed by the ATV. After disking a seedbed in which you’ll be planting small seeds, you must smooth and firm it before you put the seed out. That’s because small seeds are just that — “small,” and if you cover them by more than 1/4-inch of soil they likely won’t survive. A drag harrow can be used to smooth a seedbed sufficiently to eliminate cracks into which small seeds can fall and be buried too deep, and it is the optimum tool for covering large seeds. The optimum tool for smoothing and firming a seedbed before planting small seeds is a cultipacker.
One benefit of most high-quality ATV cultipackers is that they have a “corrugated”, or wavy, packing surface, which leaves ridges in the soil. These ridges can help the soil retain moisture better, help keep seeds from washing off sloped sites. Interestingly, this is one implement where the units designed for ATVs may actually be better than large, tractor cultipackers for planting small-seed food plots. The ATV units leave ridges that are shallower, leaving less chance that small seeds will be covered too deep on a subsequent pass or by hard rain. Excellent ATV cultipackers are available from Kolpin and Kunz Engineering.
FOOD PLOT ATV IMPLEMENTS FOR PERENNIAL MAINTENANCE — MOWERS AND SPRAYERS
Generally, forage maintenance is needed only with perennial forages. The main perennial maintenance implements you’ll need are a mower and a sprayer.
MOWERS
If you will be planting an Imperial perennial blend, then you’ll need to do basic maintenance starting the next spring if you want it to stay as lush and attractive as possible, and last as long as intended. One step in our suggested maintenance instructions for Imperial perennials is that you mow them a few times in the spring and maybe once again in the fall, if possible before anything in the plot has a chance to flower (make seeds). Preventing the forage plants from flowering keeps them even more lush, nutritious and attractive. Mowing can also help prevent weeds from flowering, which can help break the re-seeding cycle and help with weed and grass control.
When selecting a mower for food plot maintenance, home-type residential lawnmowers are usually not a very good option. One reason is that most are nowhere near sturdy enough to handle food plot work for very long. Another is that most residential mower decks can’t be raised high enough to leave plots at least 4-6 inches tall, which is recommended when maintenance mowing perennials. The best mower I have ever seen for food plot and trail work is the Kunz Engineering Rough Cut Mower. A while back, the guys from Kunz brought one of these mowers to the Institute, and it didn’t take long for me to be sold. I am telling you — that mower is a hoss! It is tough and powerful. I watched it go through deep, tall sedge grass and even some thick stands of tree saplings, and the Kunz mower took them down without its motor even slowing down. There may be tougher or stronger food plot mowers out there, but if there are any, I haven’t seen them.
MORE ON SPRAYERS
That’s because the minimum amount of water that should be used in a one-acre spray solution of Arrest or Slay is 15 gallons. When it comes to preparing my seedbeds and maintaining my perennials, I plan on continuing to use my ATV and the equipment I mentioned above for the foreseeable future.
Sources for the equipment mentioned in this article:Groundbuster Ton Lime Spreader: http://www.groundbusters.com/node/3?q=nod e/6
Kolpin Dirtworks Series: http://www.kolpinpowersports/. com/products/dirtworksseries. html
Kunz Engineering: http://www.kunzeng.com/
Earthway Shoulder Spreaders: http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/products/spreader/
Earthway 12-Volt Broadcast Spreader: http://www.earthway.com/category/12-volt/
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