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I raise alfalfa for my cattle, and clover for plowdown. This is how I do it 'here' in MN: Plow the field in fall, after harvest. In spring the winter has mellowed & softened the ground. Fertilize properly. Disk it once or twice (easier to fertilize if you disk once, fert, then disk or harrow it in), then seed it with a grain drill with grass seeder attachment. I seed oats as a cover crop in the grain compartment, 1-2 bu per acre. The alfalfa or clover seed is TINY & goes in the grass seeder, let it just fall on top of the ground, it should only be planted 1.2 inch or less deep. A 50lb bag plants about 5-6 acres for me. Harrow (drag) it once (twice if I want a real level alfalfa field). I would imagine for small food plots, and not a crop you want to live off of, you cam make some shortcuts. You could probably seed with a spinner seeder. You probably wouldn't need to worry about fertilizer, altho the right ph (lime) is important in some areas, and P & K would help - low N is good to get it started, but inocculated seed will produce it's own N once it gets growing. If you want a mixed field of the current grass & alfalfa/clover, you could just burn off, or roughly disk up the ground, spin on some seed, and harrow a few times. About 1/2 your seed will go to waste, but in 2 years you should have a good mixed stand. If you want a solid stand of clover/alfalfa, I would plow, disk, harrow. If you only want 2 implements, I'd skip the disk & harrow a lot to level the ground. If you have any hills on this ground, I would plant in a little oats on bare ground, which comes up early & protects the soil & yung alfalfa/clover from heavy rains/wind. Your young plants will look kind of poor for 6 months, that is just the way they come up, first fill out late in the year. Also, it is important to have good rains after planting, these crops are shallow & need moisture to start out. Again, that's how a 'real' crop of solid alfalfa/clover is grown in southern Minnesota. Lots of other things work for just making a light stand for a food plot, so you probably can't go wrong. There is a FAQ on pasture, and another one on haying available on the internet, good advise for how to get these crops going. I forget the address, but a search for 'frequently asked questions hay pasture' has turned it up for me.... Disks - well, I'm not real impressed with the new 3-point models, too expensive & too light to actually do anything. Most disks have solid blades, serated go a little deeper (because they built the disk too light?) but don't rip all the ground over. You should be able to pull 7', but smaller works good in your case. I'd want one as wide as the tractor of course. --->Paul
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