Food plot or Bedding?

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I just started hunting in the 2024-25 season. I have a question about quality deer habitat management and which route to take for more success. I have a 20 acre rectangle shaped field that leads backs up to 40 acres of hardwoods.. Residential is surrounding one side of the field with different blocks of hardwoods spread out behind the main 40 acre block. I've noticed mainly does bedding in the block of hardwoods behind my field and plenty of Buck sign. My 20 acre field does get mowed once a year for hay around June or July usually.. my question is, to keep the bucks closer to my field and the block of woods behind it, should I leave the top half alone completely for a bedding/staging area after coming out of hardwoods, and start a food plot in the middle of the field? Or should I mow the top half like past years as well, and keep the food plot back there on the edge of the woods? It's bow hunting only due to the surrounding homes and a school on another side. So keeping the deer at the top half close to the Woods is ideal, but it's just hard to get multiple hunting setups with it only being 1 entrance and exit, and that's coming from the bottom of the field, walking to the top half where I do my hunting. Any advice or tips is always appreciated thanks for reading!
 

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I would leverage the woods as your bedding. Good terrain to work with. You could put a food plot on the left side next to the woods. You could let the right side grow up next to the woods. It could hold some deer bedding especially in the winter.
 
Assuming the picture is oriented with north at top, and assuming you're not married to hay, here's how I'd set it up. Gona be a long read.

First I'd step out about 10-12yds from the right side tree line and plant a screen of switchgrass, miscanthis, or something similar all the way from the bottom tree line up to the larger tree just below the right side of your little wood lot at the top. The idea is to give you hidden access while hunting. Easterly wind is the least common with a westerly wind being dominant, so you'll be able to hunt most days of the season. Opposite/left of the screen you'll want to sporadically plant some trees or shrubs. I'd stick mostly with fruit such as kieffer pear because it's self polinating and is able to withstand the abuse bucks are sure to give them. Protect the trunks with a fence/cage or tree tube, and leave a shooting lane open through the screen so you can hang a stand in the eastern tree line for a 20yd chip shot. Bucks will travel along that screen to get the does in the plot and bedding in the southern half of the field. At each opening in the screen put a sturdy post in the ground that you can attach horizonal branches to so bucks can make scrapes. That is critical. That gives them a place to stop & focus on something else while you're drawing your bow.

Second I'd plant a good sized plot in the bottom of the field, but far enough away from any of the tree lines to ensure full all day sun plus allow blackberry & weeds & such to grow in the buffer, separating the plot from your yard. You want deer to be comfortable using it in daylight so make it impossible to see from your house, the school, or the houses to the east.

Immediately north of the plot for 50yds or so let nature have the field back. Plant a few randomly placed, fast growing conifers and let the rest come back in golden rod, milkweed, pokeweed, wild flowers, blackerry, etc. You want it to be thick with weeds & warm season grasses. There are seed blends specifically for that purpose. Plant them & then stay out except winter to kill any volunteer trees trying to pop up. This is where your doe groups will live and the bucks from the north will be regularly visiting all season long.

Last but not least is the space of field between the bedding thicket and your little wood lot in the top. Plant an orchard of chestnuts, hazelnuts, late dropping but disease resistant apples, mulberries, cold hardy figs, cherries, peaches, whatever your family likes to eat. Protect the trunks or bucks will destroy them. Mow it as needed to keep any other tree from growing. You want it to be wide open minus the fruit & nut trees. This area will get a lot of use so be sure you have a stand/stands in the northern & eastern tree lines to capitalize on it. Be sure to pick fruit varieties that pollinate one another, especially the apples, or you won't get any fruit.

Not my property but you asked so that's what I would do. Within a couple years you could have a dynamic hunting spot plus a fun property for your family to play on & pick fruit from. The biggest things are east access, consistent food, cover immediate to the food, and a clearly defined line running consistent through each habitat transition. That line is what bucks will relate to as they use the property. And you'll be just a few yards on the other side of it, out of sight and out of their wind.
 
Similar to what Ski and bloodtrailing posted...Think diversity. The hay field adds little to no value...Food plots can be fantastic but so can old field growth.
As its been said many times (where its lacking) "cover is king". Let portions go to old field type habitat....then mow or burn other portions to keep it in early successional type growth....even disk sections or strips to open seed bank...and if you own or manage the timber area, open the canopy and get sunlight in there...again, mix it up and think diversity....create multiple edges, etc.
 
Assuming the picture is oriented with north at top, and assuming you're not married to hay, here's how I'd set it up. Gona be a long read.

First I'd step out about 10-12yds from the right side tree line and plant a screen of switchgrass, miscanthis, or something similar all the way from the bottom tree line up to the larger tree just below the right side of your little wood lot at the top. The idea is to give you hidden access while hunting. Easterly wind is the least common with a westerly wind being dominant, so you'll be able to hunt most days of the season. Opposite/left of the screen you'll want to sporadically plant some trees or shrubs. I'd stick mostly with fruit such as kieffer pear because it's self polinating and is able to withstand the abuse bucks are sure to give them. Protect the trunks with a fence/cage or tree tube, and leave a shooting lane open through the screen so you can hang a stand in the eastern tree line for a 20yd chip shot. Bucks will travel along that screen to get the does in the plot and bedding in the southern half of the field. At each opening in the screen put a sturdy post in the ground that you can attach horizonal branches to so bucks can make scrapes. That is critical. That gives them a place to stop & focus on something else while you're drawing your bow.

Second I'd plant a good sized plot in the bottom of the field, but far enough away from any of the tree lines to ensure full all day sun plus allow blackberry & weeds & such to grow in the buffer, separating the plot from your yard. You want deer to be comfortable using it in daylight so make it impossible to see from your house, the school, or the houses to the east.

Immediately north of the plot for 50yds or so let nature have the field back. Plant a few randomly placed, fast growing conifers and let the rest come back in golden rod, milkweed, pokeweed, wild flowers, blackerry, etc. You want it to be thick with weeds & warm season grasses. There are seed blends specifically for that purpose. Plant them & then stay out except winter to kill any volunteer trees trying to pop up. This is where your doe groups will live and the bucks from the north will be regularly visiting all season long.

Last but not least is the space of field between the bedding thicket and your little wood lot in the top. Plant an orchard of chestnuts, hazelnuts, late dropping but disease resistant apples, mulberries, cold hardy figs, cherries, peaches, whatever your family likes to eat. Protect the trunks or bucks will destroy them. Mow it as needed to keep any other tree from growing. You want it to be wide open minus the fruit & nut trees. This area will get a lot of use so be sure you have a stand/stands in the northern & eastern tree lines to capitalize on it. Be sure to pick fruit varieties that pollinate one another, especially the apples, or you won't get any fruit.

Not my property but you asked so that's what I would do. Within a couple years you could have a dynamic hunting spot plus a fun property for your family to play on & pick fruit from. The biggest things are east access, consistent food, cover immediate to the food, and a clearly defined line running consistent through each habitat transition. That line is what bucks will relate to as they use the property. And you'll be just a few yards on the other side of it, out of sight and out of their wind.
Wow thank you so much for that information! I really appreciate the response. I can tell you're very well educated on this and I will take these points and definitely work some of them in the best I can. You rock!
 
Similar to what Ski and bloodtrailing posted...Think diversity. The hay field adds little to no value...Food plots can be fantastic but so can old field growth.
As its been said many times (where its lacking) "cover is king". Let portions go to old field type habitat....then mow or burn other portions to keep it in early successional type growth....even disk sections or strips to open seed bank...and if you own or manage the timber area, open the canopy and get sunlight in there...again, mix it up and think diversity....create multiple edges, etc.
Thanks for the info! I agree I think it lacks adequate bedding. I had multiple shooter bucks in velvet, long story short, the back half wasn't suppose to be cut for hay I wanted it overgrown, but it got cut and a couple of the bigger bucks rarely returned. Some did stay though.
 

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Hard to say without seeing the area in detail, but two important points:

1) When it comes to smaller properties and holding deer, COVER IS KING. High-quality cover is your most powerful habitat tool - far more powerful than food availability. Deer will travel great distances at night to find food. But during daylight, during deer season, deer are going to be in or near high-quality cover.

2) Food sources like food plots will see much more daylight usage if they are directly adjacent to thick cover instead of open-understory forests.
 
Thanks for the info! I agree I think it lacks adequate bedding. I had multiple shooter bucks in velvet, long story short, the back half wasn't suppose to be cut for hay I wanted it overgrown, but it got cut and a couple of the bigger bucks rarely returned. Some did stay though.
Some good looking bucks!
 
Generally open, mature hardwood are not good bedding areas. You'd do better to leave some of your field to grow up thick adjacent to the woods at the end most opposite from residential or plant/grow some bushes or young pines to create a thicket for bedding and protection from winds & weather, especially during months when hardwood don't have their full leaf-out.

Also if you have control over what's in your field, try to sow in several varieties of clover (good for hay too) - ladino for early, red for mid/late-spring season & crimson for summer. These varieties mixed with grasses make excellent hay and provide great forage for deer too. You will need to cut the field in late fall, very early spring or late winter and very short & then sow your clover by broadcasting or drill if you have access to a drill that can handle small clover seed. The good things about this approach is you won't have to renew your plot every year, just cut short in late winter & the clover will return for 4-5 yrs before needing another planting.
 
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