aimfirst,
Obtaining your own equipment would be nice, and is the ideal solution if you can afford it.
However, you don't need equipment to create a great food plot!
If you'd like to plant landino clover (a whitetail favorite), I suggest finding the wettest site on your property -- such as bottomground -- or a site having a north or east aspect slope. Collect soil from several random places on the selected area -- from a depth of 4-8 inches. Mix the soil and take it to the county exension office for a soil test. When you get it back in a couple of weeks, ask the extension office for his/her advice on lime/fertilizer requirments for growing ladino based on the soil test. You can get the soil test right now and have a nearby farm coop apply any needed lime or fertilizer for you before it snows.
Next spring -- along about late April -- contact your local farm coop again and have them come to your place and spray (Roundup) over your selected area(s). This may cost you $30 per acre or so. Then -- immediately before a predicted rainy period -- broadcast ladiono clover at a rate of 10 pounds per acre over the dead sod (ladino seed costs about $3.50 per pound from farm coops, etc.) The oncoming rain will germinate the seed. This foodplot should last 3-5 years with proper maintainence, which involves mowing a couple of times per year (to reduce weed intrusion), and, possibly, spot application of Poast or a similar non-broadleaf impacting herbicide, again for weed control. (Note: you don't have to kill the sod first to grow clover but it is definately preferred. You CAN just frost seed clover (spreading seed over frozen ground) over closely mowed sod in Feburary and obtain decent results. Planting this way, though, will definately result in a mixed stand of clover and weed, instead of pure clover).
If you don't have a moist site (ladino favors moist sites), then you can do the same thing with red clover. Red grows very well even on droughy soils (though deer don't favor it quite as much as ladino). Another option is to comine ladino and red -- this gives you hedge against one or the other failing under poor growth conditions.
The only equipment that is necessary for any of this would be some sort of mower (I just use my 14 hp garden/lawn tractor for mowing my 3/4 acre, backyard plot and it works fine).
Either method will work for a plot next spring.
The ideal no-till clover seeding method, though, is to FROST SEED the clover over dead sod. Frost seeding enables the seed to work its way into the soil via freeze/thaw cycles and enables it to take advantage of prime germination conditons at the earliest possible point in the spring. Spreading over dead sod, obviously, reduces weed impact competition. However, using this method, would mean you'd need to wait another year to plant. (spray next fall -- frost seed the following late winter).
You can do somthing similar with a winter rye/winter wheat planting. Broadcast 2.5 - 3 bushels per acre over dead sod immediately prior to a rain anytime between early September and mid October (the eariler the better for more forage to sustain heavy browsing over winter). Rye grows just about anywhere; wheat likes moist soil. I suggest rye if you are in doubt or you can mix the two.
It's not to late too try this: spread rye seed over your area at the above rates prior to a rain. Since rye has an alleopathic effect on weeds (it, in effect, out competes them and sheds them off with a toxin it produces). If your area is lucky enough to have at least average temperatures this fall, the rye may grow enough to provide deer attraction and forage this fall! Then, this Febuary or March, after most snow melts and over bare, particall frozen ground, frost seed ladino or red clover over the rye. The rye will, hopefully, shed away many of the weeds and will shade the clover from intense sun. Then in early June -- mow the rye -- which will kill it, and, with any luck, you should have a nice clover plot growing underneath. The point of this is that the allepathic effect of the rye will deter the weeds long enough for a good clover stand to develop. And then you can keep up with the weeds via mowing or spot application of appropriate herbicide. (The alleopathic effect of the rye on legumes -- such as the clover you plant -- is not as significant as it's effect on competing weeds, fortunately. But I'd suggest planting clover at a high rate of 10-12 pounds per acre to compensate for this effect.)
When planting rye or wheat, you'll get the best results if you can drag the seed into the soil a little bit. You can make a drag and just pull it behind a garden tractor or pickup truck. (You can make a drag out of a piece of chain link fence; a 2 x 8 with lag bolts tapped into the bottom, etc, put 3 or 4 cinder blocks on top of either for added weight). Dragging seed into the soil somewhat is preferred since it enable seed to avoid burnout if predicted rains are missed and, of course, because it put the seed into the best contact with the soil for surest germination. But you DON'T have to drag if an extended period of rain is eminate. Rye will germinate and grow much better than wheat if you elect not to drag. Deer love both and both are cheap ($7 per bushel or so from farm coop). You will find that deer and turkey will flock to rye and wheat plots from November through early spring.
Hope some of this helps! Having equipment is definately the preferred way to do things -- but it ain't the only way! These things will work -- keys are plant high densities of seed and plant right before a rainy period! The best part about these techniques is that they are cheap and easy to carry out -- plant it, and they will come!
Good luck and good hunting.....
Raven
