Georgia Friday, food plots coming............

[GeorgiaDave]

Hello Everyone,

   It is now geting close to the dog days, and I'm getting ready to start plowing and preping the food plots. I have planted a lot of different things, but I feel that iron clay peas are among the best. They will draw deer like magnets ! So, what do you guys feel is the best deer drawing plots. Clover ? Greens ? Soybeans ? I have had good luck with rye late in the season, but usually not early.  Also have a few rifles that will send some rounds downrange. I have a .280 that will get inserted into the hunting rotation this year, and hopefully will do well with the 140 gr. Hornady SST rounds I have just pressed. Have a safe and great weekend.  Dave

[AtlLaw]

Hey Dave!
We've never planted food plots since we hunt in an agricultural area.  Often thought about it though.  But, where we hunt is either planted pine of so thick no light gets to the ground!

So, I'm just talking here since I know nothing...    If I were to plant food plots it would seem reasonable to plant a variety of items as deer browse along when they feed and I would think this would keep their interest more.   

What do you usually do?

[CannonKrazy]

For years I hunted farm land with plenty of food on the ground like corn ,soybeans or peanuts. The land owner decided that only family members were to hunt his land (sons and grandsons) so we lost the lease.
I now hunt several wooded tracks of land. The best stands I have are within seeing distance of old fence rows with lots of oak trees. I usually see deer every time I hunt in this area. Sometimes before season comes in I collect buckets of pairs and apples to use as a lure to get deer moving to a less dense area. Once deer establish a good trail usually they will continue to use it unless something disrupts the area.
The second year I hunted on the property I tried planting peas and oats. The deer ate most of the food plot while I was at work or asleep. This year I'm thinking of planting it again if timing works out. This fall my plan is to plant several fruit trees in the areas I hunt the most.

[mechanic]

IMHO deer will eat anything they are not supposed to.  I would plant some nice rose bushs, perhaps some other flowering plants, and instead of using one of those fancy deer feeders just accidentally let the corn fall off the ATV in a big pile in the road.  All those things have worked very well.   In the areas where we actually had stuff planted, like peas or millet, for the deer, they only browsed at night and went beddy bye before we took to the stand.   

I know I'm not much help, just passing along recent experiences..........................

[Roy D]

Hello all.

I have tried to plant a food plot for the past three years but had no luck.

I planted some Biologic winter peas last year and they never really did anything. Tried the mass marketed clover blends, but the drought killed 'em.

This year I went another direction. I planted 1/2 acre in cheap white clover seed from the local hardware store. Then I planted another 1/2 acre in various garden veggies, also from the local hardware. It is mostly bush beans (green beans)and purple hull cowpeas. I also have some kale, carrots and mustard greens growing.

I planted the clover 4 weeks before planting the vegetables, the plots are 10 yards apart, so they would hopefully let the garden grow and start bearing before they started hitting it. And it has worked, they stay in the clover. Just now the deer are starting to get in the bush beans, the cowpeas are a little behind because of an aphid problem but they should bounce back soon. They haven't hit any of the greens yet, but that's why I put out more than one thing, to see what they take to and when.

All of this was really easy to plant with a 4-wheeler and harrows. Best of all, it was cheap. I had less than 10 dollars in seed, 13 dollars for the milorganite I put out, which works well by the way, and just a little time.

[CannonKrazy]

I can tell you one thing they wont eat. Horse feed. While sitting in a resturant one morning listening to some out of town hunters talking about putting horse food in feeders. They were talking about how much cheaper it was than corn and the deer liked the molasses. I looked in the parking lot and sure enough there were Florida trucks sitting there with maybe 20 bags of feed. Needless to say I bought a bag to try it out aswell a few friends tried it too.............................. The ants didn't even eat that crap.
I poured a small pile out in three places and the only thing that was eaten was the kernels of corn.

[dpe.ahoy]

Don't know about the southern deer, but the northern ones like clover, barley, oats, alfalfa and corn.  Back on the farm I don't remember them in the soybeans to much, they liked the other stuff better.  Also a plus on fruit trees, apple for sure.  Good hunting this year.  DP