My property had 20 acres of corn unharvested right next to it. The deer have browsed everything in our 80 acres. Could someone or something keep the deer out of the corn? Every time I went out to check for deer sign, would see <100 turkeys, with maybe 4 or 5 deer tracks.
corn use
- Thread starter wildfire
- Start date
D
dipper
Guest
Deer can do a ton of damage, seems like you have to do some reduction work. Deer are browsers by nature, the corn likely drew them in, and your wood lot took the brunt of it.
However, I have found deer seem to do just as much browse damage in the summer, than winter. It is easy to just blame the corn field for the excessive deer population, but it is likely a longer term problem.
However, I have found deer seem to do just as much browse damage in the summer, than winter. It is easy to just blame the corn field for the excessive deer population, but it is likely a longer term problem.
Riggsgwp->
5 year old buck +
The only thing that kept deer from eating all my corn was 6 ft of drifted snow through half of it. Once they ate what they could they then began browsing other stuff. I'm glad most of my tree plantings were buried under snow.
j-bird
Moderator
I have never had an issue with the deer not eating corn. Some years I have some left in the spring, but I also have a low deer population. I have heard that in some cases deer andturkey do not get along - but I have never seen an issue, but I don't have many turkey either. There is a chance that the deer used your woods more for cover over the winter and the corn held them there. Deer will browse much more than feed in a field in most cases. Is there a chance that something else was going on to make the deer not feel safe in the corn? Oter deer hunters, dogs or just ATV traffic?
