Curious what a go to for fall deer hunting?? Couple smaller 1.5 acre pieces I've mowed out . Planning on putting some plot start on the ground this weekend and seed after I burn the grass left behind that I mowed earlier this year . Cedar trees surround one side of the property so trying to get soil to the best it can be . Thoughts on clover and chicory?
Food Plots New plot
- Thread starter boonencrockett
- Start date
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
They make great fall plantings. Add in rye grain for your fall plot, and you should have a good draw this season.
BSK
Well-Known Member
My best advice is to experiment. It never ceases to amaze me how different deer's tastes are from location to location (and even between plots on the same property). Every plant species I can think of will be preferred or ignored depending on the situation. Two species I see the most variance in preference for are chicory and brassicas. I've seen deer go wild over both and seen deer completely ignore both.
348Winchester
Well-Known Member
On one of the properties I hunt the deer will readily consume brassicas. On another, they moderately consumed it and yet another they barely ate it.
Chicory is consumed lightly on all the properties. I have noticed that when it is very dry that deer will eat more chicory than normal.
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
Have tried a couple different brassicas mixes over the years, and deer just didn't seem to care for them. Aside from immediately following the first hard frost, deer here pretty well ignore it. They would walk through a pretty plot to get to pasture grass, and drop their heads and graze as soon as they got to the grass.
BSK
Well-Known Member
When brassicas first hit the food plot market, the first testing of them in TN was on my place. I planted dozens of varieties in test strips running across each plot. It was amazing to see how deer would progress through different sub-species. They would hammer just one strip for a week, bypassing all the others. Then a week laer they would switch to a different species. The problem was, no species would interest them for long. To produce a food plot that was attractive over the whole fall/winter would have required a mix of 20 different species.
Once the final mixtures came out for sale, I used them. They saw some use - some very intense use - but only for short periods. Eventually I moved away from brassicas for this reason. Other cheaper, easier to grow mixtures saw heavy use all season.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Interestingly, in the Far North, brassicas are a summer crop. I observed the most insane use of brassicas by deer in these areas, and peak usage was August. There would be a field of brassicas the size of tobacco plants, and the deer would come in and wipe them out down to just the main stalk. Crazy usage.
backyardtndeer
Well-Known Member
I came to my own conclusion that the sugar content in the greens likely peaks immediately after the first hard frost, making it somewhat attractive. After that here deer just wouldn't touch it. I heard so many stories of deer digging up purple top turnips, they rotted in my plots. The mixes I tried for the most part were custom mixes from a grower in Wisconsin that had proven results all over the country. He was shocked that the deer weren't hammering my plots. Only commercial brassicas mix I ever tried was a biologic product. Pretty well the same results.
Pfft you're guess is good as anyone's. I've tried just about everything and have found that I have to find balance. If I plant something they really like then it's gone, eaten to dirt before it ever becomes effective. If I plant something they don't like then the plot will look fantastic but useless as tits on a boar hog because deer won't use it. What I'm learning to do and seems to be effective so far is not planting a plot all at once. Rather I'm planting in phases, some seed now and over seeding several times all the way up to season. This has proven thus far to keep a fairly consistent attraction as there's always something new & fresh.
Creek bottoms
Well-Known Member
Durana clover and oats.
BSK
Well-Known Member
This year, I suspect I will be planting in stages. With 9 total plots, I'll do a couple one week, a couple the next week, until everything is planted. This should provide lots of stages of growth at any one time. I've already experimented enough to know deer will eat everything I plant.
BSK
Well-Known Member
When it comes to fall/winter plots, I've got the species mix down to a science. It's spring/summer that is still a mystery to me. Not only the species mix, but the planting technique.
Creek bottoms
Well-Known Member
We get another rain or two, we'll have plenty of acorns. That'll be good for a change.
What's your mix for fall/winter?
What is ur fall winter plot mix? that's what I'm striving for seems they hammered the red clover in my last planting but the oats timed out and the soybeans got ate by turkeys before they could grow
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
We mix wheat and oats. Adding cereal rye to our mix this year. We have corn and beans already. Also have several acres of clover. We drill that mix in every fall. Have tried many pretty much all fall seeds and this is our best. Our deer will not hardly touch brassicas have tried them in different plots planted them different time periods tried for probably 4 or 5 years and never had any luck out of them. As bsk said I know and have seen on other people's places they eat them like crazy but never had any luck with them. Experiment. We really like wheat and oats for the how easy it is to grow and how many deer you can feed with it. We have high deer densities and for us it works out great. On our places we haven't notice deer wanting one or the other they seem to eat then pretty equally. We always add wheat because of the tolerance of just about everything tennessee usually throws at it in winter time. Oats tend to struggle more sometimes with cold that lasts.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Soil test NOW. Lime asap per pH results of soil test.
This fall, bushhog 2nd week of Aug, then burn down 3rd week of Aug. Drill a mix of grain (wheat, rye, or oats), plus a brassica (turnip, radish, or rape), plus a clover (crimson or balansa) just before a good rain event anytime from last of Aug thruearly Oct. Throw in a bit of buckwheat if you like. If disking prior to planting, a rain event is even more critical, as well as either dragging or cultipacking after seeding. Fertilize after plants just come up and you know you got good germination.
This fall, bushhog 2nd week of Aug, then burn down 3rd week of Aug. Drill a mix of grain (wheat, rye, or oats), plus a brassica (turnip, radish, or rape), plus a clover (crimson or balansa) just before a good rain event anytime from last of Aug thruearly Oct. Throw in a bit of buckwheat if you like. If disking prior to planting, a rain event is even more critical, as well as either dragging or cultipacking after seeding. Fertilize after plants just come up and you know you got good germination.
BSK
Well-Known Member
For my thin, poor soils, Buckwheat (as a candy attractant until the first freeze), Austrian Winter Peas, Wheat, and Crimson Clover. Deer start hitting it as soon as the Buckwheat comes up, and they're still using it in March.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
This fall for us will be a mix of wheat, oats, crimson clover, purple top turnips…and some soybeans as a candy crop for when they start coming up.
I agree with others how brassicas are so funny to your local herd. We've never planted purple top turnips, other than in a mixed bag, so we shall see.
I agree with others how brassicas are so funny to your local herd. We've never planted purple top turnips, other than in a mixed bag, so we shall see.
First yr id just sew wheat
