Anyone have experience with chufa foodplots?

[Mike Honcho]

I'm planning on taking about 3-5 acres of farm ground out of production for deer and turkey hunting and was considering planting chufa. The ground has a strip of trees on one end that deer and turkey use to pass thru and the turkeys do feed on my ground...just would like to get some more cover and feed going for the game.  I'll plant some cedar or evergreen trees in it too for additional cover. Oh and the 3-5 acres won't be all I hunt there...we are usually in winter wheat and one half of the field (80 acres)  is already in alfalfa...it's 160 acres total.

Just curious what peoples experience has been with chufa. 

Mike Honcho

[g8rvet]

It is expensive.  Sounds like a massive plot (3-5 acres), but a good idea because of the other animals that love it-our plots were more like 1/2 acre each.  It does feed the turkeys.  Hogs LOVE it and destroy in quickly by rooting.  Every patch we had ever tried planting was ruined by hogs on two different leases I was in (both with a mess of hogs).  We were planting smaller plots and that may have hurt us too.  Deer also eat it.  I have not actually planted it myself as I was always harrowing or bush hogging elsewhere when they planted it. 

[Mike Honcho]

Thanks for the info...no hogs this far north yet but there are probably coming!  I'd be glad if deer used it too...it's the 3-5 acres at the end of a field I usually shoot a buck on.  Cheapest I have found seed was about $ 72.50 a bag for a 50 lb bag.

[Curtis-UGA]

Turkeys absolutely love it and it will wold the birdsin your area. I planted a small 1/4 acre plot and the birds have been in it for nearly a month. Killed a nce gobbler out of it last Saturday and watched 3 jakes dig in it for 3 hours on Sunday. Too bad they ran off a gobbler that was coming into it!

[g8rvet]

Holy smokes.  I remember wanting to kill every hog I saw because it was $50 a bag back then.  I would talk to your extension agent about planting times, tips and soil testing.  Want to take care when planting something that expensive.