Do you prefer 1 large food source or mutiple smaller ones

[BJE80]

The other discussion got me thinking about a decision I will have to make in the future. Would you rather one large main plot with 1 or two seperate kill plots. Or several mid sized plots?
For example:
1- 2 acre plot and a 1- 0.2 acre plot.
vs
1- 0.75 acre plot, 2-0.5 acre plots and a 0.2 acre plots in fairly close proximity hopefully creating some travel and funnels between them.

My goal would not be to feed deer through winter. They will go to the AG for that and I can't compete anyway. But for attacking and killing deer during the season. Which would you rather have?

 

[wiscwhip]

o_OJust noticed something funny BJE, are you really "attacking" all these deer or is your auto correct messing with "attracting" those deer? PETA might be a bit upset if they start hearing of all these deer "attacks" in your neck of the woods.;):D

 

[Terrific_tom]

Smaller plots/kill plots have their place as deer tend to visit them more in daylight. These smaller plots can get completely wiped out in a very short time so you need to plant something that can survive high usage or be prepared to fence it. Larger/destination plots are able to with stand heavy browsing and last longer into season. I have a 5 acre piece that I divide into 3 different plantings and a 3 acre piece that I divide into 3 different plantings. This enables me to rotate plantings each year and have a good source of food for the deer until early January. This year the deer both bucks and does were out in food plots at all times of the day. I don't know if it was because of the early snow or that the only time I was at land this summer was to plant or spay food plots, which was only 4 times. Seeing that you use them for both bow and gun season I would go with 2 bigger plots and divide them up into different plantings. This seems to work for me.

 

[j-bird]

I don't have a choice - my property layout and agriculture fields I spread my plots out. I have 150 acres and I simply break it up into 3 chunks - I then try to provide bedding/sanctuary area and a foodplot per section. I feel this not only helps that particular area for hunting, but also promotes the bucks to roam a wider area on my property. I don't hold mature bucks currently so holder smaller doe groups is important to me as the bucks I'm after come calling. Even if I had a choice I think I would still prefer to spread out the food sources on the outer edge of the property with the interior core being the security/sanctuary area. You just can't spread the deer out so much that you have a difficult time identifying a true pattern.

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Ideally both! In a perfect world we would want one large food source right in the middle of a huge farm with hunting plots on the travel routes to this but it dont always work like that! I planted my first large destination food plot this year an I will tell you this. It brought allot of deer in BUT this made it extremely tough to hunt. I think I only hunted in once without getting busted. Deer literally came from every direction so my wind was gonna hit ones nose at some point. I was getting daylight pics of some great bucks early season an thought I was gonna nail a 140 no problem. Wrong!!! I have yet to fill my tag. My deer especially mature bucks dont take pressure an when I started hunting this plot an bumping deer an getting winded they went nocturnal on me. An this was hunting only once a wk at most. My plan for next year is to keep the destination plot but to add at least 3 hunting plots to focus on during bow season then hit the big plot during rut/gun season. Im sure my farm is different that yours but if I was you I would focus on keeping pressure minimal. You can do this better by having several plots an bouncing around an playing the wind. Plus mature bucks an hot doe's feel more comfortable in these environments I think. Just my 2 cents. Im just learning as I go

 

[Bucks&Ducks]

I prefer my main food in one area whether it is together or split. Any food outside of this area I want small enough the deer do not plan on staying long. The thought process is the I want to know generally where the deer are going to every evening and coming from every morning.

 

[tooln]

I think property size also has a lot to do with it. On my 40 I have one plot.

 

[Freeborn]

I currently have one primary plot but will be adding two kill plots. The primary plot is hard to hunt around particularly mornings. During morning hunts when I need to pass near the primary food plot I have to pass very early so I am pass the plot before deer feed in the plot. This is particularly problematic when there is no wind and the area is very quite.

I’m adding the kill plots so I can segment the doe groups and have hunters focus on the deer in those groups.