Clover plots and doe factories
- Thread starter J Kuch
- Start date
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
Agree with Dan to a degree.. Although if strictly hunting was my #1 priority, it would be a nice field of standing soybeans!
If year around habitat and nutrition were the primary goal, I'd choose clover or a clover mix due to the many benefits it provides to bucks, does (and their soon to be born fawns) in those late winter, early spring months before most "plots" are developed.
1) Thick cover and 2) Lack of human intrusion are much bigger factors for keeping bucks on a property than available food if we wanted to propagate the "doe factory" myth.
If year around habitat and nutrition were the primary goal, I'd choose clover or a clover mix due to the many benefits it provides to bucks, does (and their soon to be born fawns) in those late winter, early spring months before most "plots" are developed.
1) Thick cover and 2) Lack of human intrusion are much bigger factors for keeping bucks on a property than available food if we wanted to propagate the "doe factory" myth.
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
I agree with dan on the clover. In Minnesota during rifle season the bucks don't really care about the food. I found at my property I have a lot more deer sightings hunting back off of the plots instead of directly on them.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
My buck and deer activity overall have gone up the more I've built out my food and cover. When I started I had zero bucks and a few 2am mid summer pics. Now, I've grown to have forks and baskets regularly visit the property during season in person, and we even had a bruiser encounter last year. That info is dated though. Don't run cams in the woods anymore, so I'm going by on-stand observations and annual counts on rubs and scrapes found.
swat1018
5 year old buck +
Uh, no. Doe factory is a myth. Lol.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
.....probably deserves its own thread somewhere
who came up with that term,anyway?
bill
ghilliehunter
5 year old buck +
Probably Sturgis around 1999.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
Only way to create a doe factory is by not hunting
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Someday isle
5 year old buck +
I love my clover trails. I don’t know about what kinds of deer I’d see and/or harvest without it. I know it keeps deer using my small piece of property. I’m happy harvesting does or bucks though so I don’t know that on my 35 acres it makes much difference one way or the other - but It’s nice to look at and the deer seem to use it.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
I'll also mention, I get tons of pics of deer feeding in my clover year round, although May thru nearly Sept I don't get big bucks. Does that mean I have a doe factory? I believe most the bucks live out in the fields, half mile and much beyond, during the summer. Either the little ditches they drink from tend to dry up in Aug, or it's just the changing of the seasons, but something happens to send them back closer to the timber. Right on script, mine are starting to show back up this past week. I'll get pics of them feeding on clover now until next spring.
Bill
Administrator
man that looks good. My clover is brown and crunchy. Send some rain up north.....
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Clover is the anchor of our program! I completely agree that clover provides more months of quality deer food per dollar and labor hour than any other crop I've used.
I also think the concept of a doe factory is flawed. Bucks and Does have the same general requirements. Food that is good for a doe is good for a buck. I don't worry at all about attracting does. In fact in our location, we get a lot of immigration and need to shoot a lot of does to keep the population in balance. We also have never had more bucks and mature bucks using our land.
The real issue is not the good things you do to support does. It is having insufficient sanctuary for mature bucks. Does will tolerate more human activity than mature bucks. If you don't maintain sanctuary on your property, especially during the season, you can have a problem with bucks, but it is not because of the does.
That is just my opinion...but I'm not trying to sell anything...
I also think the concept of a doe factory is flawed. Bucks and Does have the same general requirements. Food that is good for a doe is good for a buck. I don't worry at all about attracting does. In fact in our location, we get a lot of immigration and need to shoot a lot of does to keep the population in balance. We also have never had more bucks and mature bucks using our land.
The real issue is not the good things you do to support does. It is having insufficient sanctuary for mature bucks. Does will tolerate more human activity than mature bucks. If you don't maintain sanctuary on your property, especially during the season, you can have a problem with bucks, but it is not because of the does.
That is just my opinion...but I'm not trying to sell anything...
DiSc0Rd
5 year old buck +
i have a planting like this in mind on my place. it has never had clover on it but we have a water tank that the deer drink from and then wonder off to wherever they please, but im planning on making a "clover path" from that water to a stand i have on a field edge to try and guide them either coming to or going from the water past me. there is nothing in the field they care about right now so no reason to stay around or any reason to take a certain path. i hope to use clover like you did as a runway to help direct their movement. How wide is that path and how did you seed it TNM?
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Love, LOVE, LOVE clover... of all sorts... crimson for early spring beauty (red flowers), arrowleaf that follows the crimson mid-spring, and a regional ladino called Ocoee (I'm in FL) that I have growing in shadier spots from spring until late summer, the combo of clovers feeding deer across the entire time span.
As for "doe factory" I have deer of both sexes and across all age ranges eating on it at various times. Mature bucks feed heavily on it during early horn growth and cameras I have over clover spots are very useful in seeing what bucks I've got in the area mid-summer. Does also like to bring the fawns into it shortly after birth and I get lots of videos of their interaction.
Living on the land I hunt and tracking deer year round, I can say that I consistently see and often time harvest mature bucks I've identified (and sometimes followed for years) visiting both to chase does in fall plots that include clover, as well as to feed in the plots as rut is winding down (still "huntable" season-wise for us as our gun season is very long running from Nov to mid-Jan).
By the way... did I mention I LOVE clover?!
As for "doe factory" I have deer of both sexes and across all age ranges eating on it at various times. Mature bucks feed heavily on it during early horn growth and cameras I have over clover spots are very useful in seeing what bucks I've got in the area mid-summer. Does also like to bring the fawns into it shortly after birth and I get lots of videos of their interaction.
Living on the land I hunt and tracking deer year round, I can say that I consistently see and often time harvest mature bucks I've identified (and sometimes followed for years) visiting both to chase does in fall plots that include clover, as well as to feed in the plots as rut is winding down (still "huntable" season-wise for us as our gun season is very long running from Nov to mid-Jan).
By the way... did I mention I LOVE clover?!
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
As for "doe factory", my experience is that THIS in late October...
... equals THIS just a few weeks later in Nov, at least at my place... so I don't personally put too much stock in the "doe factory" concern.
... equals THIS just a few weeks later in Nov, at least at my place... so I don't personally put too much stock in the "doe factory" concern.
DiSc0Rd
5 year old buck +
I love European mounts
Someday isle
5 year old buck +
They’re anywhere from 8 to 15 feet wide in some places. I started four years ago (this will be our fifth season). When we bought our 35 acres it was all woods and overgrown logging roads. Some areas had had a very select harvest a few years prior (I’ve heard anywhere from four to seven years). I added two water holes (stock tanks we dug into the ground). We cleared the roads by hand and then just sprayed, disced, and planted rye, oats and clover. At first we had a mix of red and white clovers. We used the rye as a nurse crop. The first year they did “ok”. They needed then, and still need now, lots of lime. The second year the ladino clover really took off and we frost seed Kopu 2 into It every spring. Each fall I add a little more clover seed and broadcast some cereal rye in to help with weeds and add an attractant. I feel like it helps the clover in the spring, although that’s just a hunch. The last two years I’ve worked at hinge cutting the edges which both let’s in light and adds side cover. I have four trails like this, each about 1/8 acre total area. Then we created three harvest plots between 1/4 and 1/3 of an acre. They’re all connected in one way or another. One important note though. Like you I envisioned the deer ”following” the trails from one location to the next. They really don’t seem to do that very often. Usually they will enter the trails perpendicular to the trail, feed along it part way and then cross it, or they’ll follow parallel to it. One thing I’ve tried to do is close off spots with hinge cuts and open up spots in Strategic stand locations - but mostly the deer, being deer, go where they want, when they want. I’ve found they’ll often enter the trail a Little ways from the mouth of the Harvest plot and then follow it the rest of the way into the plot. These Have made productive stand locations. In fact all three of my bow harvests last year were in these Type of locations. Again, nothing to hang on a wall, two antlerless and a seven pointer. But it exceeds my goals and expectations so I’m happy with it.
