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.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

The better it is the more they want to be in it but pressure can keep em out pretty easy too. Don’t know what it is, my plots usually get much quieter in Nov but they’ve been packed still now this season. Planted same stuff as always. Maybe more food is still available than most years and maybe they are just starting to feel more safe?

 

[SwampCat]

Around our place, a big acorn crop will make them leave any kind of bait/supplemental feed and food plots. A big acorn crop trumps any kind of human provided food

 

[blueKYstream]

Yes, a bumper acorn crop will leave other food sources with little activity. I usually won't see many deer food plots around November, because the does don't want to be harassed by bucks. Granted, I don't have many bucks use food plots I put in except perhaps sporadically. It's possible deer have a food source closer to their preferred bedding.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I think location is about as important as the quality of food source. Hunting pressure and a poor location will not have deer in them during daylight until maybe the worst couple of weather days each year. With that said, assuming you have low hunting pressure and a good food source in a good spot, I absolutely think you can pull in mature bucks during daylight.

With that said, deer are generalists and will eat just about anything that their body needs in that moment. You have to be doing a bunch of other things right for a change in food plot quality to be the lowest hole in a bucket or the reason you kill that target buck. People enjoy planting food plots because they are an observable change in a relatively short period of time. I'm as guilty as everyone else that starts with food plots but I nearly always wish I had spent more time on other forms of habitat work.