Have made the decision that this yr, i am definitely gonna scale back the food plotting. The past several yrs, i tried different plantings only to come up with same conclusions- cover is king (let it grow up), deer hate brassicas and only mildly tolerate clover, rye is good, but wheat is just good but cheaper. I can buy a mega sack of wheat from a farmer for 180.00 a ton. Also will wait till late september to put a seed in the ground,,,,,,, and pray for rain.
Food Plots scaling down the food plots....
- Thread starter redblood
- Start date
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
Simple is. Better imo. We have our clover plots. The rest are drilled in mix of oats and wheat. You won't regret late September time frame. We haven't. Cover trumps all of it of course.
A man might be forced to scale back this year with the cost of everything skyrocketing. I had my spring seed stockpiled already but sure won't enjoy buying fertilizer this year.
I talked to farmer who row crops my farm. He said hes lucky to have 8 chicken barns for fertilizer do to nitrogen prices right now. I pray they still plant corn instead of beans
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Just curious....why would you hope for corn instead of beans?
Do you have turkeys? I'm sure I opened a can of worms.
Yes lots of them
one of my former students is a ph D candidate at UT and has worked on the link between chicken litter and reduced turkey populations.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
From a deer standpoint....Just curious....why would you hope for corn instead of beans?
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
We like our places on beans years better then corn as well. Ideally its split but with commodities the way they are its not anymore.
I'm scaling back as well but for slightly different reasons. I'm tired of wasting a bunch of time and money on plots then doing a rain dance in hopes I didn't just waste time & money. Even when the stars align and plots look amazing, the deer will walk right through them to fight over whatever soft mast has fallen to the ground. I've chased my tail for too long so this year I decided to redirect my food plot budget toward fruit trees.
So far I've planted a dozen or more varieties of apples and crabapples, peaches, pears, several varieties of plum, figs, five different varieties of service berry, three varieties of cherries, mulberry, currants, black and raspberry, and probably something I'm forgetting. Also have two more apples in pots and waiting on two more shipments of trees. My plan is to have fruit from the ground up to the canopy and falling from June through January. If half of it works out I'll have orchards that draw deer for decades to come, all from one season's food plot budget. Time will tell if it was a successful experiment but I can always go right back to plots. And I'm still going to have the plots, just not as extensive nor as critical. If they grew up with native weeds it wouldn't hurt my feelings.
So far I've planted a dozen or more varieties of apples and crabapples, peaches, pears, several varieties of plum, figs, five different varieties of service berry, three varieties of cherries, mulberry, currants, black and raspberry, and probably something I'm forgetting. Also have two more apples in pots and waiting on two more shipments of trees. My plan is to have fruit from the ground up to the canopy and falling from June through January. If half of it works out I'll have orchards that draw deer for decades to come, all from one season's food plot budget. Time will tell if it was a successful experiment but I can always go right back to plots. And I'm still going to have the plots, just not as extensive nor as critical. If they grew up with native weeds it wouldn't hurt my feelings.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
What conclusion did they come to?
Yes it's addictive!!! But I enjoy it. And at the end of the day if it doesn't result in the enhanced hunt, there's still going to be orchards of food for my kids and grandkids and so on long after I'm gone and forgotten.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
I'm still doing the plots. Need to do more fruit trees. I've got about 40 chestnuts in the ground as of last fall. Fixing to pot seeds and plant this fall another 50 or so chestnuts. I'll probably be done with chestnuts after that. Unless I can find more open areas. I love it all!
I've got several chestnuts in a couple years ago from mbuck and I've got several started in pots that I'll be planting in fall. Unfortunately for just about every tree I plant, I have to cut a tree first. The land clearing is what's taking the longest but I'm using the logs in a barn build so there's dual purpose, plus a decade worth of firewood. I love all this stuff too!
She says that the greatest decline seemed to be in counties that had high chicken barn numbers - usually Tyson. But last i spoke with her, they have not established what the link was .
obviously beans are a better summer draw. But we hunt in the fall. Corn brings doves and really holds deer after cutting. Beans are great, but due to our deer density, they often fail. Last yr they gave up on them after replanting twice. Weeds took over and they ended up bushhogging them down in october. Corn will make.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
Interesting how different places are. We arent that far apart either. Our farmers lose plenty of beans due to deer. But our best years are beans years. Its not a day and night difference but enough we noticed it. We usually add our own corn. But with this years fertilizer prices we will only do that with one farm. I dont have access to all the places that gets planted around us and on beans years we seem to be able to hold more deer due to our habitat and food. I'm corn years around us it scatters them more and seem like deer have bigger home ranges. Probably just me over thinking it but that's how it seems.
Bean years are the years I usually kill my biggest deer.
We helped our farmer with a depredation permit last summer and will again this year just to try to get the herd manageable.
Granddaddy
Well-Known Member
My experience with fruit trees is that if you don't grow the young trees in tubes (at least 5'), the deer will eat the whole trees down the first year.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
I have noticed this exactly...
After the beans turn yellow, and esp after they are cut, the deer avoid the fields.
When corn is cut, it is a major attraction for deer, and they stay in those fields much longer than after beans are cut.
Oh they need protection. If possible I use tubes and fence. That's the most expensive part of having fruit/nut trees. But it's necessary and pays dividends.
Or scape them to death making rubs…..
When we bought this farm in 2015 theold man who owned it was riding me around the crop fields and there were deer bones/skulls everywhere and i mean everywhere. He told ne that it was from a depredation permit. Tye problem was half of them were bucks who had died during velvet. When we bought it, we wouldnt alllow it and the farmer cut the lease in half
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
I dont love depredation permits. But we help our farmer if needed to. But the rule is no bucks killed. We also kill a lot during season to help. Im sure you like your farmer. But many will pay you well regardless of if permitted or not.
The deer still haven't eaten all the corn I planted last year and I have extremely high numbers. Took these pics a couple days ago.
Yeah, they don't hit the corn as hard as beans. They can be devastating to beans. Our farmer told us that he had leased about 100 acres to grow beans. That landowner was a hunter that did not keep his herd down. Our farmer wound up planting a food plot for the landowner's deer. He lost the entire crop. Needless to say, he dropped that lease.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I'm going to keep planting my 7 acres of food plots. It's expensive. I probably spend $5,000/year doing it, but they have proven VERY effective at holding deer on the property year-round. Plus, they are a huge bonus during deer season. A lot of "bucks checking out does near the plots" goes on. I don't think I'm seriously improving deer nutrition in the area, but they are a major attractant.
