A recent rough estimate based on visual count at my place gives me a density somewhere between 100-125 dear/sq mile. I only have about 6 acres total of plots. EVERYTHING I plant gets hammered out of the ground except annual clover and oats. When I try to plant summer crops in April, used to kill or turn the clover. This year I let the oats and clover go untouched. Had awesome biomass for the first time in some of theses plots. Decided to wait and plant summer crops in August, since we may not see frost until late November.
My dilemma is that I still have deer feeding on the clover, which is growing nicely due to a lot of rain. Some of the plots have become weedy with bad weeds and some are torn up due our installation of irrigation lines. I could just keep managing with clover and oats, but that's so boring! I like planting other stuff. Have to justify all the equipment I have :-). Gonna leave clover where I can and plant around it this year. Gonna try to massively overseed and let the herd thin it for me. Also gonna put out HEAVY milorganite this year.
Had the pines, which make up 50% of my upland acres, thinned 2 years ago and this year have a ton of stuff growing in the woods, so hopefully my deer candy plots will have a chance this year. Not quite ready to do the intelligent thing and do what has proven to work! May take a few more years of failure, but I do love to look at a field of beans or sunflowers. If the candy gets mauled, I'll have time to get out the oats and clover in October.
My dilemma is that I still have deer feeding on the clover, which is growing nicely due to a lot of rain. Some of the plots have become weedy with bad weeds and some are torn up due our installation of irrigation lines. I could just keep managing with clover and oats, but that's so boring! I like planting other stuff. Have to justify all the equipment I have :-). Gonna leave clover where I can and plant around it this year. Gonna try to massively overseed and let the herd thin it for me. Also gonna put out HEAVY milorganite this year.
Had the pines, which make up 50% of my upland acres, thinned 2 years ago and this year have a ton of stuff growing in the woods, so hopefully my deer candy plots will have a chance this year. Not quite ready to do the intelligent thing and do what has proven to work! May take a few more years of failure, but I do love to look at a field of beans or sunflowers. If the candy gets mauled, I'll have time to get out the oats and clover in October.
