Better food = more day sightings........

[bigboreblr]

For many years just done clover peas n grain mixes and let it go until it got too weedy orjust redid it the next year. I moved to my current home did that a year or two, then tried better stuff like turnips and brassica mixes. Then EHD hit, then my nieghborhood changed with covid. more city folks staying here all week on their computers. After EHD beei doing the rye n clover thing, which I get deer here everyday.

My neighborhood as some corn n wheat atleast 3/4 mile away. some hayfields 1/4 mile away. The old town dump 1/4 mile away loaded with oak trees. Also, area used to be ochards everywhere, so there are abandoned or wild apple trees growing in the area here n there. Lost a cornfield about 2 or 3 years ago 1/4 mile away just weeds now.

Foodplot is my backyard here. About 60 yard from the house. But I get home, they're in the plot 30 yards from my car and often dont even look up at me. Even when its light out.

Been happy with rye n clover with a bit or brassica mix put in 2lb/acre. Just wondering if you put better food out do they show up during daylight more often? I knocked over almost all of my orchard, it was on its last legs. 40 or so apple trees 2-3 years old planted, so that alone might be my good food. Had several old ones still putting out some apples before/around EHD too.

 

[Stubborn1VT]

I have some of the best food in the neighborhood with 130 acres around it with little to no pressure, and I don't see many deer during rifle season. At a certain point they feel pressured and only feed at night.

I have the same rye mix as you're talking about, a successful batch of brassicas, and a strip of decent clover. Good food helps, but I mostly plant it for the post season. I get surviving bucks that show up when the hunting seasons close and they almost always come back the following autumn.

With that said, my plot could use much more screening. I hesitate to add screening because I still want to see the plot from my picture window.
Silly, but true. I get a kick out of watching deer after I have filled a tag elsewhere.

The vegetable grower (he isn't a farmer. he doesn't know how to build a fence) has thinned out the does/fawns in the neighborhood with unlimited nuisance permits, so I hope my 1 acre plot and my TSI helps he local herd a bit.