Bait vs Food plots

[4wanderingeyes]

“Baiting is no different then a food plot”

I see this question, argument a lot amongst hunters. I use to think it was about the same as well. But after doing food plots for many years, you learn how different it really is.

Those that make a food plot start their prep early spring, planning on what they will plant, and buying the seed. Then we prep the plot, spray, disc, plant, pack, fertilize, and sometimes spray again, and fertilize again, just to feed deer in the spring and summer. Lots of time, money, and equipment needed. All of this, and some plots, we just start over in late summer for a fall crop for the deer, to eat throughout fall and winter months.

Baiters start prepping about a week before season, then drive to a store, buy a bag of corn, then go out to their deer stand and dump the bag of corn. Total time invested, less then an hour, and about $7.50 tied up in it.

Results, most deer leave the food plots, and go out and eat the corn piles.

The obvious, food plotters while their main goal is to attract deer during the hunting season, feed deer for months of the year, if not the entire year. Baiters feed deer until the deer show up on their bait pile in the daylight. Food plotters have hundreds, if not thousands of dollars invested in their food plots, baiters $7.50.

So there are many differences between a food plot, and a pile of corn. Another obvious point I was told recently, is that those who do food plots are just dumb, compared to those who bait, when you can get a better draw when you want it, and for much less time and money, why would you do a food plot? My answer was, because it’s fun!

The reason that brought on this post was, each year I get 100’s of pictures each day from my cameras from food plots, and just hanging out on my land that had some TSI work done, thicker, and available food year around, that is until about a week before bow season starts, then I get a few random pictures.
Sure you could argue acorn drop, but I have lots of oak trees, and I have spent time opening them up to give them room, and they are dropping like crazy right now.
Even the bear are gone right now.

Baiting is illegal in my area, but many do it anyhow. About a 1/4mile across my neighbors land is hundreds of acres of state public land, and if you walk through it now, there is a pile of corn about every 100 yards. But like all the other years, after about a month, the deer will return to the food plots.

 

[ethompson]

Wrong. I feed deer year round with 3 spincast feeders using 50lbs bags up a ladder and dump . Each feeder will hold 6 bags of corn. . I also put in food plots. So not only am I feeding the critters that eat out of the plot, I’m also feeding numerous other critters who eat corn year round. The feeders are stationed 75 to 150 yards from stands. All feeders are homemade as are the stands. We all put in the work to be able to enjoy the out doors. During the dry years there is always corn for the critters to eat.

 

[homerj1]

Baiting and foodplots both serve the same purpose. To attract critters to a specific area with the intention of harvesting them. Getting into which is easier or more altruistic are simply side arguments used to justify why any of us do what we do.

 

[ethompson]

Then again we have roughly 4 million deer in Texas.

 

[j-bird]

All I will say is that foodplots have a far greater impact on not just deer but other wildlife as well. I will also say that for many of us....foodplots are like a "gateway drug" into habitat management. As such wildlife in general tend to benefit even further.

The one thing we can learn from baiters is that there is value in a high demand food, in a safe location, with little human disturbance.... We foodplotters and habitat managers tend to put plots where WE want them, we sometimes are too active on our properties and can almost be counter productive in some cases.

Baiting is illegal here in IN as well. It doesn't stop folks however. The shelves of the stores are lined with it all year and then a week before our general firearms season opens....it's all gone!

 

[Mortenson]

Baiting is illegal here, unless you're a government contracted sniper. Then it's the only way. I put in several foodplots that won't get hunted a single time. It's just to help keep some deer away from the snipers so that they don't kill them all. I only shoot 1 or 2 a year, but I'd like to see more than that protected.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Wrong. I feed deer year round with 3 spincast feeders using 50lbs bags up a ladder and dump . Each feeder will hold 6 bags of corn. . I also put in food plots. So not only am I feeding the critters that eat out of the plot, I’m also feeding numerous other critters who eat corn year round. The feeders are stationed 75 to 150 yards from stands. All feeders are homemade as are the stands. We all put in the work to be able to enjoy the out doors. During the dry years there is always corn for the critters to eat.

You are more into feeding deer, not baiting. Baiting is to just draw them in during hunting.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Baiting is illegal here, unless you're a government contracted sniper. Then it's the only way. I put in several foodplots that won't get hunted a single time. It's just to help keep some deer away from the snipers so that they don't kill them all. I only shoot 1 or 2 a year, but I'd like to see more than that protected.

I am the same. I have a couple food plots I dont even monitor with a camera, or have a stand near. I plant them to keep deer away from neighbors. I also have a jungle mess all around the area, for deer to hide in. Along with a 10 acre sanctuary, that I have been in about 3 times over 10 years.

 

[Gator]

What about feeding protein pellets from January until Sept and then remove them because baiting is illegal. My purpose is not to attract them to harvest them. I also have plots. Next


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[Bassattackr]

Baiting and foodplots both serve the same purpose.

LOL.. Couldn't disagree more. Many (especially on this site!) prefer to take a more wholistic approach to habitat management.

- Baiting during a specific time frame, at a specific location serves a singular purpose - to shoot a deer (bear, etc) like fish in a barrel. Baiting offers a 2 week sweet spot for concentrating game for the sole purpose of harvest, with no benefit to herd health.

- Food plots (especially larger ones) offer a significant bump in herd health and habitat for the entire year. They help in concentrating deer to a general area, but not to the specific degree like a pile of corn does. A "food plot" in fall generally turns into great fawning and nesting cover in spring. Food plots with the right approach and management can offer an entire year worth of food and cover with multiple benefits to herd health. They also benefit all forms of wildlife, not just the specific game you're after when/while baiting.

I don't see how you could possibly compare the two.

 

[ethompson]

Don’t think this topic is going to work out. This has been an heated argument for ages.

 

[Bassattackr]

All I will say is that foodplots have a far greater impact on not just deer but other wildlife as well.

 

[SD51555]

I don't get too bent outta shape about this anymore. Feeding deer is getting really expensive. You can't get a bag of corn up here for under $10 now. And even so, if a guy puts down a bag of corn, it won't last a day if you've got decent deer. Even if that guy pulls in deer, at least in my country, the small bucks won't even come to that. It'll be does and fawns scarfing it all down and more and more deer will come every day. If that's what someone wants, go for it I guess, but the cost of that endeavor is going up and up.

I can't imagine the cost of a long duration feeding program in an open herd.
Annual food plots are getting crazy expensive.
Even baiting has got to bruise the checkbook if it's going to go on for any period of time and over a few sites.

My perennial plots are expensive as hell to put in, but amortized over the life of the plot, it's the cheapest and most effective way for me to up the annual food output and attract deer. Once they're in, it's $32/acre in gypsum, and $30 in cereal grains, and one mowing to keep them going. I get tons plural/year for $62, and the extra browse is free. $62 in corn wouldn't last 48 hours in two separate piles.

I'm still working on upping habitat capacity, so my plan has to feed all 12-months. I personally wouldn't put bait on my place because I don't want that many deer browsing their way through the property. It'll be chewed down to a park before winter.

 

[PatinPA]

All I will say is that foodplots have a far greater impact on not just deer but other wildlife as well. I will also say that for many of us....foodplots are like a "gateway drug" into habitat management. As such wildlife in general tend to benefit even further.

The one thing we can learn from baiters is that there is value in a high demand food, in a safe location, with little human disturbance.... We foodplotters and habitat managers tend to put plots where WE want them, we sometimes are too active on our properties and can almost be counter productive in some cases.

Baiting is illegal here in IN as well. It doesn't stop folks however. The shelves of the stores are lined with it all year and then a week before our general firearms season opens....it's all gone!

Haha it's the same here in PA. I'm even in a CWD area, so we can't even feed deer in the offseason, yet the local tractor supply and sporting goods store shelves are loaded with "deer" corn and all kinds of BOB attractants. My favorite that always makes me laugh is the one called Dirt Bag - Hard to detect but visible to deer. Wonder what that's geared toward.

 

[Bassattackr]

Haha it's the same here in PA. I'm even in a CWD area, so we can't even feed deer in the offseason, yet the local tractor supply and sporting goods store shelves are loaded with "deer" corn and all kinds of BOB attractants. My favorite that always makes me laugh is the one called Dirt Bag - Hard to detect but visible to deer. Wonder what that's geared toward.

Same here in MO. Trophy Rocks still flying off the shelves..

 

[Native Hunter]

When will you guys ever learn what it takes to attract and feed deer year round:

 

[SwampCat]

I plant about 30 to 40 acres of food plots for deer and have food available in food plots year round for my deer - usually wheat and durana clover. I also bait - or feed - whatever you want to call it. I keep two or three corn feeders out late winter through August - mainly so I can shoot hogs, but also for trapping springtime coons. But the deer also use them. The biggest buck on the place might or might not use them. I also start putting out a high protein, high fat feed in May to help the does and fawns and help the bucks with their antler growth. I keep this up through December. It is extremely expensive. This is hand spread - not in a feeder. Right now I am putting out four bags at $11.50 a bag, twice a week. That is about $90 per week. Been doing this for three months. Going to pick up another forty bags this Sat. Using this feed, we killed three bucks last year 200 plus lbs. Never, in 45 years of hunting here have we killed a single buck that weighed 200 lbs. One of them was the largest buck we have ever killed at 157” and 225 lbs. We had another buck almost a twin that was fairly regular on a feed pile that none of us ever laid eyes on - not even just riding around. My feed locations are fenced with 32” field fence to keep the hogs out. The biggest buck in the woods will jump that fence and feed in that enclosure.

That being said, we spend more time hunting food plots, see more deer in food plots, and kill about the same number of deer in food plots as on bait. We might see thirty deer on a hunt in food plots. Five deer would be a lot to see on a bait pile. Our deer are probably more nocturnal on bait than in a food plot. Typically, when we hunt a bait pile, we do it when everything is right - the target deer is regular at shooting hours, the wind is right, all conditions are perfect - we go in and hunt and only then. Not like a food plot where we might hunt several days in a row.

For us, if we wanted to kill a two yr old basket racked 8 pt - it would be just as easy in a food plot as a bait pile. In our state, where much of the hunting land is leased commercial timberland where no food plots are allowed - baiting is what allows the hunters to keep the deer herd in check. For me, hand spreading “bait” is very time consuming - and expensive. So is planting and maintaining thirty acres of food plots. As with most things, they are not as simple as they first appear.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I guess, I differentiate baiting, as putting down food to hunt in front of. I dont group feeding long term, and not put out during hunting season as baiting. So, if you feed 9 months of the year, and not during hunting, that is a feeding program, not baiting, at least in my eyes. If you go out 2 days before hunting, throw down a bag or two of corn in the woods, with intent to hunt over it, that is baiting.

 

[SwampCat]

I guess, I differentiate baiting, as putting down food to hunt in front of. I dont group feeding long term, and not put out during hunting season as baiting. So, if you feed 9 months of the year, and not during hunting, that is a feeding program, not baiting, at least in my eyes. If you go out 2 days before hunting, throw down a bag or two of corn in the woods, with intent to hunt over it, that is baiting.

I guess I do both - and food plot.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Then again we have roughly 4 million deer in Texas.

Inside or outside a zoo fence?