BSK
Well-Known Member
Just wanted to clarify that my actions are based on the VERY unique situation of my property. I don't want others following my lead unless they have a similar situation.
Because my ridge-and-hollow hardwood property is surrounded on three sides by massively large river bottomland agriculture (somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 acres), the local deer population lives in and around those bottomlands all summer. Once those crops are cut in fall (usually mid to late September), that huge deer population shifts up into the nearby hill country to access the acorn crop. From what I can gather from some preliminary summer census work I conducted last year, it appears I may have only 10-15 deer using my property during the summer months. However, by late October, my place can become flooded with 80-100 deer.
With such a massive disparity in deer density from summer to fall, I'm now questioning the time, energy and cost of producing high-quality summer food plots. Why spend that amount of time/effort/money when I'm not really feeding/influencing many deer? I may try a different technique for next summer. I may try to maintain my plots as just annual clover plots for the summer months. This would provide some food but also help keep the plots somewhat weed-free for the critical fall planting process. Because of this odd pattern of huge numbers of deer shifting into the property in late September and the remainder of the fall months, maximizing food production with our fall plots is absolutely critical. Most landowners are trying to feed deer high-quality nutrition during the fawning and antler-growing months of the summer. The local deer I have to hunt are already getting that in the neighboring bottomlands. My focus is on providing attractive and high-quality foods for the fall (hunting season) months, and then primarily only in a poor acorn year.
Because my ridge-and-hollow hardwood property is surrounded on three sides by massively large river bottomland agriculture (somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 acres), the local deer population lives in and around those bottomlands all summer. Once those crops are cut in fall (usually mid to late September), that huge deer population shifts up into the nearby hill country to access the acorn crop. From what I can gather from some preliminary summer census work I conducted last year, it appears I may have only 10-15 deer using my property during the summer months. However, by late October, my place can become flooded with 80-100 deer.
With such a massive disparity in deer density from summer to fall, I'm now questioning the time, energy and cost of producing high-quality summer food plots. Why spend that amount of time/effort/money when I'm not really feeding/influencing many deer? I may try a different technique for next summer. I may try to maintain my plots as just annual clover plots for the summer months. This would provide some food but also help keep the plots somewhat weed-free for the critical fall planting process. Because of this odd pattern of huge numbers of deer shifting into the property in late September and the remainder of the fall months, maximizing food production with our fall plots is absolutely critical. Most landowners are trying to feed deer high-quality nutrition during the fawning and antler-growing months of the summer. The local deer I have to hunt are already getting that in the neighboring bottomlands. My focus is on providing attractive and high-quality foods for the fall (hunting season) months, and then primarily only in a poor acorn year.
