Author Topic: Food plots (Read 1005 times)

jhm · « **on:** July 22, 2003, 04:24:33 PM »

Has anybody been working on their food plots yet this year or am I the only one on a tractor already, replanting so the deer will have decent food products to choose from this fall and winter, what are you planting this year? anything different than has been planted in the past? I tried the high dollar fancy named products last year and wasnt overly impressed am going back to may old standby of corn, beans, and peas, I seemed to have had a better crop, with that and seen more deer over the years on it.

JIM

Clay Boone · « **Reply #1 on:** July 22, 2003, 05:10:49 PM »

Hello jhm,
I'm with ya on that high dollar stuff. Tried it last fall and this spring. Zilch, nada, zero, nothing great. Thanks to about 17 inches of rain this month, my spring planting of sweet sudan is still cruising on up. Will be planting oats for deer / hogs come September 1 or there about. On tractor now though getting some shredding done in between the rain. Best of luck to ya this year.

TScottO · « **Reply #2 on:** July 22, 2003, 05:26:52 PM »

Here we plant twice a year once around May and once in October. You can check with your local Wildlife Dept and they can tell you the best seasonal foods to plant for your area. Even though here in the South our deer have natural brows up until middle to late January we still plant twice. We also find it productive to fertilize natural browse such as honeysuckle, saw briar and other natural species of deer food.

To be quite honest, the best year we ever had for deer hunting was when we planted sweet potatoes. It's a lot of work maintaining these. It's not unusual to have to water these with buckets of water to get them to grow well. It turned out to be ALOT of work for us the year we tried them but I think it was worth it. Once you potatoes are grown, once a week during deer season we would go plow up a row or two. The deer wouldn't bother to dig them up alone. By plowing one or two rows a week it keeps them coming. Our property is surrounded by an industrial park. The year we planted sweet potatoes the park was covered in soybeans in one section and corn in another and we still pulled plenty of deer.

This is just my experience.

Scott

jhm · « **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2003, 02:14:55 AM »

Fully understand the natural food supply and the fertilizing of all the plants we have a small cattle opperation and the use of good food practices and fertilizing is well worth the cost and the work, have owned this place for over 22 yrs and have watched the deer population and the quality of the deer also has increased but it is a lot of work sometimes.

JIM

acearch72 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 26, 2003, 04:19:19 PM »

To Scott:

You should be careful about the sweet potatoes. We have leased out our row crop land to sweet potato farmers the past 3 years. We have all the deer in the county it seems, only problem we have seen a major decrease in antler size. Potatoes are carbohydrates and not good for antler growth like the higher protein stuff. Lots of deer, but little horns.

Also, given the way the potatoes are harvested, there are so many potatoes left in the fields that the deer seem to become totally nocturnal and extremely hard to pattern.

TScottO · « **Reply #5 on:** July 27, 2003, 10:05:14 AM »

Hello Ace,

The way we worked our sweetpotatoes they were plowed up later in the year long after the dear are out of velvet. I would belive, as you said, if this was a deers main food source during the time periods of antler shedding and going through the antler development stages I could see how it would affect antler growth.

I think many factors lead toward deer being nocturnal other than food sources. I guess anything aiding in nocturnal behavior isn't good.

I don't know about your state but here in Louisiana the average age of harvested whitetail is 2 1/2 years or younger. This makes me wonder where all of the +3 year old deer are. In 16 years of deer hunting I have only taken two bucks +3years of age but I know they are out there. I'm sure the relates to my skill as a deer hunter and not having the time to hunt everyday though I'm continualy trying to do things to increase my odds of taking older deer. I just haven't found the magic formula YET :? . Any helpful hints?

I know several people who harvest their fair share of older deer and I use the same methods as them but its not working for me I guess I just smell bad or something. Hopefully one day the moons will align for me on a more regular basis.

Thanks for you insight. Peoples experiance are always welcome :-) .

I'm also looking forward to taking my first deer with a handgun. Maybe next year I'll add bow hunting to my bag of tricks.

Thanks,
Scott

Luv2hunteup · « **Reply #6 on:** July 30, 2003, 04:14:01 AM »

The food plotters in the upper peninsula have been hard at work preparing the seed beds. Some of the guys I have talked to have alreaky planted for the fall but I have not.

My spring planting (mid-June) of buckwheat is waist high with lots of signs of foraging by the local deer herd. My spring forage pea planting was eaten as soon as it came up. We had very little rain after I planted it so it could not outgrow the deer usage.

I'll be planting the starting 8/9/03. I'll be planting dwarf essex rape mixed with Imperial Whitetail Clover in 2-1 acre plots, a 1.5 acre plot of Biologic Maximum/clover, a half acre plot of tyfon turnips and a few other small ones with dwarf essex rape alone..

Snows come early and stay late where my camps at so I have a real short growing season. We have the shortest growing season in Michigan, 6 full months of snow cover going into this spring. Food plots help the deer alot when they are out of the deer yards. My hunting would not be nearly as good without them. Clover for spring green up and brassica is the fall.

jhm · « **Reply #7 on:** August 01, 2003, 11:06:54 AM »

The corn is up, the beans are up, the peas are shinning, life is good.

JIM

longwinters · « **Reply #8 on:** August 01, 2003, 05:32:21 PM »

Nothing like sitting out at daybreak or dusk and watching the deer out in the fields...The only thing better is sitting there with your favorite "tenderloin taker". :yeah:

longwinters

grouper sandwich · « **Reply #9 on:** August 02, 2003, 05:31:55 PM »

Heading out in the morning to get the plots in on one of our properties. My brother-in-law is doing Bio-Logic clover mix on his two and I'm doing soybeans one and iron clay peas on my two. We'll see who's plots do the best. :lol:

jhm · « **Reply #10 on:** August 03, 2003, 03:35:43 AM »

Grouper : I wont mention the name brand but I have in the past had more deer activity on the regular food products such as corn,beans,peas than I did with the other stuff, good luck and be careful.

JIM

grouper sandwich · « **Reply #11 on:** August 03, 2003, 04:06:56 PM »

This one got iron clay peas in two strips down the edges of the trees. It's about 75 yds from end of the clearing to other. In the back you can see that it opens up just slightly. I have a stand back there that gives me about a 20-25 yard shot as they enter the plot from the left corner. This is my "bow" plot! :lol:

jhm · « **Reply #12 on:** August 03, 2003, 04:13:40 PM »

Grouper: Kinda makes you want to be there in the AM dont it.

JIM