Deer ruin everything...

[roymunson]

Buddy planted 1/2 of a 5 acre field in buckwheat for the summer, and about an acre of beans to go with the WINA "Power Plant" mix in a 3 acre field... And the deer are obliterating the beans (kind of expected) and absolutely destroying the buckwheat. There's nothing but stalks left. the other half of the 5 acre field is clover and they can't mow that down quite as easily. I mean, buckwheat is high protein and its there for them to eat, but there is no soil to build with teh BW if these jerks keep sawing it off into the dirt...

Deer ruin everything. They are dumb, and should be shot for their transgressions.

That is all...

 

[yoderjac]

Buddy planted 1/2 of a 5 acre field in buckwheat for the summer, and about an acre of beans to go with the WINA "Power Plant" mix in a 3 acre field... And the deer are obliterating the beans (kind of expected) and absolutely destroying the buckwheat. There's nothing but stalks left. the other half of the 5 acre field is clover and they can't mow that down quite as easily. I mean, buckwheat is high protein and its there for them to eat, but there is no soil to build with teh BW if these jerks keep sawing it off into the dirt...

Deer ruin everything. They are dumb, and should be shot for their transgressions.

That is all...

Not so fast...roughly half of the OM and soil benefit comes from the part of the plant that is underground. You have a population problem. Deer will use buckwheat but generally don't abuse it unless it is a tiny plot or they have little else to eat. When 2 1/2 acres of buckwheat are being wiped out by deer, you need to start shooting every doe you can. I would forget about beans and more attractive crops until you get the population under control.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[roymunson]

Not so fast...roughly half of the OM and soil benefit comes from the part of the plant that is underground. You have a population problem. Deer will use buckwheat but generally don't abuse it unless it is a tiny plot or they have little else to eat. When 2 1/2 acres of buckwheat are being wiped out by deer, you need to start shooting every doe you can. I would forget about beans and more attractive crops until you get the population under control.

Thanks,

Jack

Been trying for the last 3-4 years. 2 years ago we took 25 deer off of roughly 200 acres. Last year they were just as bad.

It's a blessing and a curse. Fun to see the deer, but we can't keep up. We've brought in kids and folks who don't have access to lots of hunting ground, still can't get em all...

neighbors on 3 sides either don't hunt or hunt very little. And they have a lot more land than we do. Good news is this year we have some new ground and some open fields to put in a lot more tonnage of food. More big ag fields than killable plots.

I still feel all these deer should be shot, and I'd like to be the one to do it... hahaha

Tongue firmly in cheek

 

[yoderjac]

Our place was in a similar state when we first purchased it. We got in to a state program that let us shoot as many does as we could during any deer season. The guidance we gave our hunters was, if you are not sure if it is a doe or a button buck, shoot it. Button bucks will likely relocate anyway and our population problem was severe. About 6 years in, we had the perfect storm. We had a very good plot establishment that spring and a mast crop failure that fall. Does with fawn pretty much had to use our plots so they were visible and easy to harvest for our hunters. We doubled our average female harvest that fall. We then had some pretty severe ice storms that winter. There were no acorns and most other foods were iced up for a good period. On top of that, there was an EHD event in the general area. While we found no evidence of EHD on our place, fewer deer in the general area meant less immigration into our area.

In one year, we went from a posture of shooting every doe we could to restricted doe harvest. This happened to be about the same time we did a major timber operation creating a lot more native foods. This helped increase our carrying capacity. We were able to remove all doe harvest restriction the following year as deer no longer concentrated in our plots and became harder to hunt. We are now in a position of "If you want to shoot a doe, take it and if you don't, then don't".

We are over 10 years in and finally have a pretty good balance.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[MRBB]

I mean this jokingly , but sounds to me like the DUMB part here isn't the deer, as there honestly being SMART< there eating prime food NOW< when its safe to do so, making them in better shape come fall and or while raising there of spring

the DUMB< part might be when a person plants good food and doesn;t expect it to get hammered when there are a LOT of deer and other things that will move in on a prime food source when its EASY food at the same time LOL

But honestly I feel your pain, I have TRIED to plant many things on properties over the yrs that had super high deer density number, nd was amazed and chocked at how fast they can destroy a food plot, it really taught me the use of E fencing and other things to TRY and curb the fast devouring of things
on the bright side, some of these properties , saved me a lot of time mowing and or spraying things, as they ate clover so fast , it never had to be mowed
and many other things would be GONE, before need to treat for weeds LOL
sadly, I also learned that no matter HOW many deer I could kill off some of the places, it was a loosing battle and I gave up and moved onto other places, the costs trying were just now worth it in the end!
its amazing how many deer some places will hold
the one farm I managed, was nothing to see a 100+ deer in a field at a time, and add in a few different sections of the farm, would have even more deer on at same time

when I was younger I would have never though there was such a thing as too many deer on a hunting property, now I know its maybe worse than NOT having many at all!

 

[TreeDaddy]

Roy,

Please don't be an insensitive neanderthal

#deerlivesmatter

bill

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I don’t have a deer shortage by any means in my area. I just can’t fathom those kind of deer numbers though. It’s almost disgusting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Telemark]

I planted two 9' Astrakhan trees, and deer destroyed both of them. They are alive, but they have been set back a few years. I should have known better, but I thought red deer were more grazers than browsers.

They also stripped one of my new plum trees, and ate all the little pears off my pear trees.

 

[SwampCat]

I dont have anywhere near the deer numbers that you speak of, but they still are a destructive animal. I have about as many hogs as deer. The hogs will root here or there, wallow in the trails, take over a corn feeder - but the deer will destroy a sunfolwer field intended for doves, destroy and japanese millet planting intended for ducks, rub and browse planted trees, eat the peas out of my garden. When only considering what I have planted, deer are far more damaging on my place than hogs.

 

[SWIFFY]

Blessing and a curse is right. I can’t even imagine. I’ve got a couple acres of young beans growing. I put a camera in them 2 weeks ago and I’ve got one picture of a doe. That said, I know October through January they will get crushed.
At least youve got deer to hunt!

 

[Tree Spud]

Deer tell us their intentions, those who fail to listen create the deer country buffet

 

[roymunson]

Like I said, If we had all this food and it wouldn't be touched at all, it'd be a crappy feeling too... Just gonna have to kill some deer this fall.

I know it's localized, but this is why I roll my eyes at all the people howling about how the DNR allows too many tags. I cannot kill enough deer with the tags I've been given to keep up. I know there are people in Ohio who don't have deer numbers, but man, that's a foreign concept to me.

 

[roymunson]

Deer tell us their intentions, those who fail to listen create the deer country buffet

not sure what else to do. I want deer there to kill this fall, just didn't know they'd wreck the 2 acres of buckwheat before it got a chance to get up.

Wanna come kill some does?

 

[Tree Spud]

not sure what else to do. I want deer there to kill this fall, just didn't know they'd wreck the 2 acres of buckwheat before it got a chance to get up.


Wanna come kill some does?

Sat out last fall at the end of gun season. Counted 44 deer of which 10 were bucks in front of me in the 6 acres of beans/turnips/WR/clover. Deer density in our unit is 64 and even higher in our localized area. My forage ag beans never get higher than 18".

The buckwheat I planted grew to maturity and the deer never touched it.

My plan for fall is GHR/PTT that I just planted mid June, and clover this weekend, and WR late August. Around here, if I plant beans, I wait 2 weeks until after my neighbors plant them so the deer are more focused on theirs which are 2 weeks ahead of mine.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I can understand this pain on the buckwheat...I planted a 1/2 acre buckwheat/pea mix, a 1/2 acre of crimson, alsike and aberlasting clover and another 1/3 acre of an annual clover mix...it's like the clover isn't even there (I understand the annual clovers are more for soil building as these are all newly established field)...but the buckwheat field looks like someone set a sickle bar at about 8 inches high and ran over the whole field (and this is in an area that does not have a high deer density)..I figure at least they got some good nutrition right away in the spring..I just hope that even if the tops of the buckwheat are chomped off that the stalks are still doing their soil building....

 

[roymunson]

My plan for fall is GHR/PTT that I just planted mid June, and clover this weekend, and WR late August. Around here, if I plant beans, I wait 2 weeks until after my neighbors plant them so the deer are more focused on theirs which are 2 weeks ahead of mine.

Maybe I need to do my turnips now. I'm not as cold as you, but we always wait til the first/middle of August to plant them.

 

[TreeDaddy]

regional variations in planting time have always interested me

I wouldn't dream of planting anything here til late september/early october

bill

 

[g squared 23]

My plan for fall is GHR/PTT that I just planted mid June, and clover this weekend, and WR late August. Around here, if I plant beans, I wait 2 weeks until after my neighbors plant them so the deer are more focused on theirs which are 2 weeks ahead of mine.

Maybe I need to do my turnips now. I'm not as cold as you, but we always wait til the first/middle of August to plant them.

I’ve done well with the late July/early August planting date for brassicas, and I’m about on your latitude of 5b/6a.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kooch]

Zone 3a for me. I like to plant brassica in mid-July. I'll be late this year, first of August. The added growth from an early planting certainly carries longer into the Winter. I get some Boone and Crockett turnip bulbs. I do think a later planting and smaller bulbs are actually more attractive to the deer during our hunting season though. Either way, every bulb gets eaten eventually.

 

[roymunson]

I’ve done well with the late July/early August planting date for brassicas, and I’m about on your latitude of 5b/6a.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

that has always been our practice. When I see folks planting in june and early july, I keep forgetting to check how far north they are. That's a game changer.

If I could time the rain, it wouldn't be a bad idea to plant early, I think the browse will keep things from getting too big and out of hand, but banking on consistant rain in july is foolish.