Crimson Clover Usage

phil@thesidehill

5 year old buck +
I planted crimson clover at the very end of April. Some parts of the plot came in very nicely and others no so much. That i can live with and was pretty much what i expected. What i am really wondering about is the lack of usage by the deer. I have an exclusion cage that i placed just after germination....and the clover in the cage is the same size as the clover outside of the cage. I also have a cam on a tee post in the plot...which has shown far more deer passing through than browsing around....in fact i think i have one pic of a deer with its head down in the plot.

I know deer everywhere take to different plantings...differently, but what is everyone else's experience with crimson clover? I planted it with hopes of it feeding deer as well as helping my soils out.

Secondarily and mostly anecdotal....
I also planted some Medium Red Clover along the margins of plot that i attempted soybeans in last year (i came across some free beans...i knew the plot was too small for beans but i wanted to see what would happen, couldn't help myself.) the MRC is doing very well...I do not have an exclusion cage in them...but I see literally zero nipped stems. I have had other clover plantings in the past WI's Imperial and a Ladino/MRC mix, and none of them have really shown a whole lot of deer usage according to the exclusion cages. Typically June and September have been the months that seemed to get the most usage. I have plenty of agriculture in the area....a good mix of corn, grass/clover hayfields, and some alfalfa.

Anyone else seem to have deer that aren't too hot to trot over clover?
 
The deer were hammering my clover in the early spring, now that everything in the woods is green I think the usage has dropped off. I need to get a camera back on the plot to confirm that though.
 
Clover toward pond.JPG I have some of the most beautiful spring planted clover up on our 80 acres I planted this spring that the deer are not touching... I blame it on lots of native browse and the deer have never seen clover up in these big woods areas...
 
Clover over pond.JPG From the other direction...
 
Durana White and Barduro Red along with some Millet, Milo, Corn, Sobeans, Sunflowers, etc... No crimson because I couldn't find any local when I planted it back in March...
 
Clover.JPG Closer...
 
This is my second year planting crimson, I guess I'm not sure about deer using it because I planted it for a plowdown and not for a plot. I am seeing the same thing Kabic said about the deer using clover earlier and not so much now.
 
Our crimson has already gone to seed and is done for the year. We are a lot further south than most here too. Our crimson is in its prime in March before most anything has started to green up and it gets lots of usage then.
 
This is my second year planting crimson, I guess I'm not sure about deer using it because I planted it for a plowdown and not for a plot. I am seeing the same thing Kabic said about the deer using clover earlier and not so much now.

my crimson planting is going into a strip plot starting in July. My intent was to get some roots in the soil, get some nitrogen in the soil, build OM, and...hopefully feed some deer in the process.

It seems like most times i have had clover in plots I see alot of attention on it in late may/early june....then the heat of the summer kicks in and the clover shrinks back. Then in September things start to cool down and we get rain from tropical storm systems and the clover starts to get lush again...and then the deer start on it again. This is based on utilization cage, trail cam and personal observation. I just guess i'm used to hearing how clover is the "backbone" of food plots and provides "darn near 12 months" nutrition and attraction....but yet i see about 8-12 weeks usage max in my plots.
 
my crimson planting is going into a strip plot starting in July. My intent was to get some roots in the soil, get some nitrogen in the soil, build OM, and...hopefully feed some deer in the process.

It seems like most times i have had clover in plots I see alot of attention on it in late may/early june....then the heat of the summer kicks in and the clover shrinks back. Then in September things start to cool down and we get rain from tropical storm systems and the clover starts to get lush again...and then the deer start on it again. This is based on utilization cage, trail cam and personal observation. I just guess i'm used to hearing how clover is the "backbone" of food plots and provides "darn near 12 months" nutrition and attraction....but yet i see about 8-12 weeks usage max in my plots.
I guess what I was trying to say was I didn't put any cams over these plots so I have no proof either way. Here's a couple pics of my crimson clover last year



After tilling and yes it does add to the OM



These pics were taken labor day weekend last year when I tilled them under for the LC cereal grain mix. Good luck with your crimson!
 
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