Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Food plots

With clean farming practice, you will leave very little for deer to winter over on, this is to give back a little, and save some of the crops that guys are trying to make a living on. The whole country is not prairie, we are about 50/50 forest to fields, but they count yards as fields too.

The food plots on my land are browse and forbs. Corn, beans and alfalfa are for my livestock and deer use of them are incidental. I leave most weeds grow on non-tillable land and do not graze cattle in my woodlots. I log to promote young timber growth that creates a browse understory.

When the cold and snow hit the deer can find plenty to eat in my plots to carry them thru.

I guess food plots are good if you don't know how or are just too lazy to hunt. They're nothing I'd ever bother with myself. Tractors, plows and seed are the tools of a farmer. Hunters don't have a need for them.

There's other uses for food plots than hunting over them.

I plant food plots for the animal's benefit. And they do...

Not been accused of being lazy or not knowing how to hunt either.

The row crop and the alfalfa would be the food plot.

A bit different for us since our 47 acres is about 41 acres of hardwood timber and the other 6 or so would just be a weed patch if we didn't keep it in clover and wheat for the deer and turkeys. Otherwise the mast crop is the biggest source of feed for them.

The surrounding 500 or so acres is probably 50/50 hardwoods and cattle pasture. When our plot is going real good it is surprising how many critters you can see feeding in it all throughout the day.

When we hunted farmland that had some row crops tossed in we never bothered with plots.

There is no edible agriculture here, so "food plots" are for not, as deer are not trained to eat them. Disking (breaking) and fertilizing the native blackberry and greenbriar works best.

No agricultural planting in my area either but it didn't take long for the deer to start hammering the cereal rye and clover I put in.....they ate it to the ground......no training needed.

I reckon we should recognize that "food plots" are not "killing plots". Creating habitat and baiting animals are not the same thing. For the record, I'm good with both.

Come on out in February when it's 20 below, and you'll see that there is no such thing as "clean" farming. The fact that not only deer but often herds of cattle find plenty to eat in already harvested fields of corn and soybeans would disabuse you of that notion.

I have no idea where South Peyton Place is but appears to me you're on the right track if you're anywhere around my neighborhood. In the southeast usa oats with clover is hard to beat if you want to bring deer to your field.

If this is land that you will be hunting for the next ten, or twenty, years, plant chestnut trees. Deer love chestnuts and they are high in protein which is hard to find in the woods.

http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/store/c/31-Dunstan-Chestnut-Trees.aspx

Best to plant these in the fall. It will take about 10 years to start getting a lot of nuts. Of course, once you have your chestnut orchard, you can plant clover in the field under the trees.
So you have high protein clover in the spring and summer, and chestnuts in the fall.
Lots of deer clubs are planting chestnuts and the results are good.

My brother and I have planted 25 Dunstan Chestnuts four years ago, they are now 12 feet high and are beginning to produce nuts.

Unlike your clover or other food plots, once your chestnut trees get going they need little if any maintenance. Maybe dump some fertilizer at the base of the tree each spring.

Question: Do deer readily eat sunflower plants? If so I will plant some for warm season food plots. I have found that I cannot get okra to survive where deer have access. Brown cow peas have worked for me and can stand grazing. In the winter it is hard to beat a wheat, oats, and clover combination. This is North Louisiana so what I do may not work in Montana et al. Rape seed is a waste of money for me, our deer won't eat it.

That's the way it is in my part of the country. There are so many crops growing.......corn, soybeans, winter wheat, hayfields, woods full of acorns, and other browse.....that a deer doesn't have to look very hard to find something to eat. I have put in food plots because my CRP contract called for me to, but they were a total waste of money and time.

Rape needs a frost to sweeten up, we get plenty of that. As for the sunflowers, once they get up about knee high the deer eat the heart and all of the leaves leaving you, nothing but a field of stocks.
We have about a dozen chestnut trees spread around and a couple acre orchard with 20-25 apple trees next to a couple of ponds that add up to a small amount of grassland add to that, a six acre field that I am planting, 4 of in corn the rest, will likely be oats and clover, the rest of the 150 acres is mostly hardwoods, made up of soft maple, cherry and oak. I cut hundreds of the maples down each winter to open the canopy and create browse, but by January/february foods getting real thin, and the snows getting deep and they really hit the corn.

As stated by others in snow country, browse in the form of bushes and shrubs are what is needed for winter food for deer. This assumes one is talking of a place snowfall is measured in feet rather than inches. Grasses and forbes are covered by snow and take more effort and energy to access than browse. The metabolism and digestive enzymes also change in the fall to make use of browse and that is virtually ineffective in the digestion of grasses/forbes.

Corn is a good filler but less than desirable as a primary feed for deer. In fact, corn can be toxic depending on the metabolic state and condition of the deer which could be counter productive. Basically, it is kind of like bloat where the deer cannot digest the corn quick enough and it causes intestinal blockage and eventually death. It seems most common here in MN in the late fall and early winter when deer metabolism so are in the final stages of changing to browse.

I would continue with the thinning of maples but would also consult with a forester regarding the timing of the cutting. Up here maple saplings are not a great browse and cutting during a different part of the year can reduce the number of shoots coming up later on. This reduction in competition allows better forms of browse such as dogwood, bush hazels, alder, aspen, high bush cranberry, and a number of other bushes and trees to grow. You may also find that taking out some of the larger cherry and chestnut trees would be beneficial to reduce shading.

Deer existed pretty well for a long time before food plots. Mimicking what they have evolved to meet is the best, easiest, and usually cheapest method of "improving" their lot. It also provides more benefits in the way of cover and protection for deer as well as many other creatures. A planted food plot provides little more than just food while a natural one will provide food, cover, shelter, and breeding areas for creatures of all sorts all year long.

n

Well I guess if you have no need of making your deer herd healthier ,with larger bodies,larger racks and able to go through tougher winters with a higher survival rate.You are right.I spent about $2500 on seed,lime and fertilizer this spring and have to still put in my fall plots in late July.I probably have about 40 hours on the tractor so far this year.What I do benefits all wildlife in my area,just not deer.As far as being lazy and not hunting hard you are talking stupid as you have no clue as to how I hunt.