Food plot design?

[Mattyq2402]

Looking for some advice. I have 6 acres to work with, it’s a dead end field due to a chain of ponds and then a road. I was planning on having big food, over 8 acres but got pulled back to 6.

Do any of you compartmentalize your plots, say like Tony Lapratt approach? I have 5 acres of RC big rock and I’m planning on doing some screens. Been following Don Higgins approach but devoting field to a large single plot will allow for road view. What’s your thoughts on breaking up sight lines and breaking up plot into small under quarter acre sections screened off by switch?

 

[Turkey Creek]

No reason in my opinion to make it all 1 large mono culture crop other than for the simplicity of planting it. What is your goal for the plot?

 

[Mattyq2402]

No reason in my opinion to make it all 1 large mono culture crop other than for the simplicity of planting it. What is your goal for the plot?

Looking for max draw power and holding a mature buck or more. Likely devote it to fall planting for now, haven’t made up my mind yet on what exactly I will plant but likely run same seed throughout. Was thinking the vitalize rotation or something similar.

last year was year one, added 25 fruit trees and adding more this spring. I had two mature bucks this year and a good 3 year old, the property has had 160-170s in past which is solid for SE Ohio.

There’s limited food in the area, no one within 1.5 mile that’s planting for deer. Def no switchgrass in area. I’d like to be the place to be or herd influencer in the area. Will be doing a couple minor timber cuts to aid in bedding.

 

[Turkey Creek]

If you are the only ag crop or food plot for a good distance you are going to attract a lot of deer, a lot of deer eat a lot of groceries in a short time. 6 acres is not going to feed many deer year round. So then it becomes when do you want the deer to really focus on your property and for how long of a window of time each year? If you only hunt the rut, then you can focus on having crop just prior to the rut to pull in the does and therefore the bucks. The window immediately following the rut as the bucks look to put back on body weight. You might have to exclude deer from a portion of your crop with an e-fence to extend its availability.

 

[Mattyq2402]

If you are the only ag crop or food plot for a good distance you are going to attract a lot of deer, a lot of deer eat a lot of groceries in a short time. 6 acres is not going to feed many deer year round. So then it becomes when do you want the deer to really focus on your property and for how long of a window of time each year? If you only hunt the rut, then you can focus on having crop just prior to the rut to pull in the does and therefore the bucks. The window immediately following the rut as the bucks look to put back on body weight. You might have to exclude deer from a portion of your crop with an e-fence to extend its availability.

Copy that and thanks for the insight. I’m working on planting an additional 2 aces on my uncles piece that connects the two properties, permission pending. If I am able to do this, it will be great for housing deer on me/us as topography between the two would be ideal and teaming the two properties together should/will allow for a couple mature bucks.

Curious if you were to plant a few more fruit trees on a budget, what’s your top recommendations? I’m looking to strengthen the food with more fruit. Do you reccomend any fruit in isolated areas say bedding in small numbers or are you strictly placing them at destination or kill plots?

I live in Arizona so for the next 6 years till retirement I will be hunting primarily rut timing for now.

 

[SD51555]

One idea: break it up so you have lines and patches of cover throughout your food. Up by me, 6 acres is too big to get a deer in it in daylight. Also, no straight lines and right angles. Make the deer walk around stuff and give them lots of edge to scoot along. Think egg carton type design.

A good mini pocket of cover might be an apple or oak at the center, spruce around it, and spread out enough so u can alternate with plum, dogwood, etc. let it fill in with grass and wildflowers.

I wouldn’t buy any pre-made seed blends because you won’t be able to learn what your deer want and when. Instead, I’d make 3 different preference and timing blends to learn from.

A+ forages: beans, corn, radishes, alfalfa

B forages: clover, chicory, sorghum, turnips, wheat, oats, pumpkins

C- forages: rye, barley, Japanese millet, rape, plantain, collards, white sweet clover, squash, ragweed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Turkey Creek]

Copy that and thanks for the insight. I’m working on planting an additional 2 aces on my uncles piece that connects the two properties, permission pending. If I am able to do this, it will be great for housing deer on me/us as topography between the two would be ideal and teaming the two properties together should/will allow for a couple mature bucks.

Curious if you were to plant a few more fruit trees on a budget, what’s your top recommendations? I’m looking to strengthen the food with more fruit. Do you reccomend any fruit in isolated areas say bedding in small numbers or are you strictly placing them at destination or kill plots?

I live in Arizona so for the next 6 years till retirement I will be hunting primarily rut timing for now.

I think soft mast trees work fine anywhere you can plant them and they have decent soil and at least 6 hours of sun or more per day. Depends on if your just planting them to feed critters or if you are going to hunt over them as to what varieties to plant. I do get a little nervous when people plant them in and on the edges of food plots only from the aspect of herbicide drift if you plan to spray your plots for weed management. Apple varieties Pristine, Williams Pride, Chestnut Crabapple, Liberty, Galarina, Enterprise, Arkansas Black and Yates. Those varieties give you fruit from early August through November. Most pears are going to ripen in September.

 

[bigboreblr]

Sounds like you have limited time to work on these plots. So, you might not be able to do multiple plantings.

What equipment do you have to work with? Some equipment has trouble doing alot of turns. I'd keep the big spots big, just focus on making them seem smaller. Brushy edges, little pennisula plots on the sides and edge of bigger plots.

Aerial photos would be very helpful. Also, where is the spot. IS this in Arizona too? Arizona habitat can vary alot. The USDA zone, soil type, and prevaling trees would be helpful too.

A pic of those ponds would be be great. Over the years you hear of a deer hunter getting this and that buck. Many of those shy mature guys just like to be left alone. Deer think wit their noses. Alot of them like to be near, around, or even in the middle of water to conceal their scent. I wonder if bucks use their nose during the rut to chase a fight instead of a doe. Many nice ones are taken near water. Deer feel more comfortable hiding their scent trail. I think this is why deer are seen alot during rain events. I try hard to avoid the temptation to not hunt in the rain.

You might consider using the ponds / swampy areas to your advantage. Perhaps making little bedding spots during a dry spell when you can get a tractor in there. Even sectioning out a spot by digging a shallow drainage channel to isolate a small brushy spot. Maybe make these ponds more brushy with dogwoods or another riparian shrub.

Rural woods hunting is very focused on sources of water.

 

[jsasker007]

Copy that and thanks for the insight. I’m working on planting an additional 2 aces on my uncles piece that connects the two properties, permission pending. If I am able to do this, it will be great for housing deer on me/us as topography between the two would be ideal and teaming the two properties together should/will allow for a couple mature bucks.

Curious if you were to plant a few more fruit trees on a budget, what’s your top recommendations? I’m looking to strengthen the food with more fruit. Do you reccomend any fruit in isolated areas say bedding in small numbers or are you strictly placing them at destination or kill plots?

I live in Arizona so for the next 6 years till retirement I will be hunting primarily rut timing for now.

Honestly, If you're only hunting the rut I wouldn't worry about trying to hunt the plot at all. That's the time of year when normal deer patterns go right out the window and nothing is easy to predict other than the bucks will be after the does. I would just plant something as maintenance free that the deer will use as much as possible(clover&chicory). Bucks don't like to be on display out in the open so screen might be more important than food. jmho

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have an 8 acre field I’m planting this spring for the first time as well. It’s in pasture grass so it’s going to be a pain to fight that back. Getting my farmer to do the initial burndown for efficiency standpoint. After that I’m going in with clover on the whole plot for a couple reason. Number one I don’t have the equipment for beans, I don’t have the budget for alfalfa this year, and I need a monoculture I can control grasses in. I have a feeling I will have to spray Cleth at least twice this year to knock back grasses. Next year I will tackle alfalfa. You may want to consider weed control in your planting.
Also my take on fruit trees. I think they are more for the land manager than the deer. Obviously they will eat them but they are a luxury with leftover time and money in my opinion. So many more valuable uses of both if you goal is to attract and hold mature deer. To me they one of those I’ll mess with after everything else is perfect…which is likely never. Had a ton of apple and pear and sawtooth and persimmons on a farm I hunted for 3 years and sold. Can say I did not help hold or attract mature deer.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

If I was only hunting a week during the rut and I lived on the other side of the country, I'd pay a neighbor to plant (and spray) all 6-8 acres into soybeans. Write him a check and you are good to go for the year! When the neighboring crops are picked, you will have the best food in the neighborhood and a pile of does will be there. The does will drag the bucks out.

If you lived on the property (and had lots of free time) and were looking for a full season draw, I agree that planting multiple species would be a good idea. I live on 40 acres and plant about 5 acres into just about every different food plot type imaginable. It works pretty well, but it is very time consuming since every different plant type has different fertilization and spraying needs, maintenance requirements, planting dates, etc.

I really like planting apple trees and they can be an excellent draw for deer, but that is more of a long term plan. I prefer planting standard rootstock so the trees get as large as possible for maximum fruit production. Those trees take a while to produce though, so it might be a decade before they produce enough fruit to change the deer patterns.

 

[Brian662]

I have an 8 acre field I’m planting this spring for the first time as well. It’s in pasture grass so it’s going to be a pain to fight that back. Getting my farmer to do the initial burndown for efficiency standpoint. After that I’m going in with clover on the whole plot for a couple reason. Number one I don’t have the equipment for beans, I don’t have the budget for alfalfa this year, and I need a monoculture I can control grasses in. I have a feeling I will have to spray Cleth at least twice this year to knock back grasses. Next year I will tackle alfalfa. You may want to consider weed control in your planting.
Also my take on fruit trees. I think they are more for the land manager than the deer. Obviously they will eat them but they are a luxury with leftover time and money in my opinion. So many more valuable uses of both if you goal is to attract and hold mature deer. To me they one of those I’ll mess with after everything else is perfect…which is likely never. Had a ton of apple and pear and sawtooth and persimmons on a farm I hunted for 3 years and sold. Can say I did not help hold or attract mature deer.

I would at least mix some chicory in? Are you nurse cropping with oats or similar?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I wasn’t going to because I envision a multi year battle with pasture grasses at best and lord knows what else at worst. These are old hay fields. I will disc them cause I’m not a believer in throw and mow being nearly effective enough to get a plot started and I don’t own a drill cause I’m a poor. I wanted something I could spray and take care of broadleafs and grasses. I THINK you can possibly hit chickory with 2-4db so that may be an option. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise this field will be alfalfa next season anyway.

 

[Brian662]

"I'm a poor" Haha

How many acres is your farm(s)?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

"I'm a poor" Haha

How many acres is your farm(s)?

That’s why I’m poor!

 

[Mortenson]

I think I'm with Jsasker. If you can only get back there for rut hunting until you retire in 6 yrs, just put it into a good clover mix and forget it. That'll keep plenty of does happy and you can hunt on it or near it. When you're back there full time then address subdividing the plot. Switch screens can grow in one season. It can happen getting a big boy on a plot during the rut, but I wouldn't bank on it. Soybeans wouldn't be much of a draw in Nov IMO.

 

[Mortenson]

We planted 3 orchards primarily for a bunch of people food, but also for deer. They're still young and I can't gauge yet how they'll contribute to trophy buck hunting. Part of my thinking is that tyrannical Illinois will someday ban food plots, so orchards might come in handy. We do have a couple 50 yr old apple trees up in the old yard. Mature bucks will be photographed whenever a decent crop is dropping. Not every buck will come in, but some will. This year for example, a 7.5 old buck never came into them. The 5.5 I got never came into them. Another 5.5 came into them fairly regularly. A 4.5 came into them fairly regularly. Then younger bucks came in also.

 

[BenAllgood]

If you can find a farmer close, you might could work with them. I don't have much ag around me. I found a farmer willing to plant my field in a way that benefits both of us. It's worked out so far. I'm an absentee land owner that has to make every trip count. My work on the property is getting the other 90% in prime native habitat. It makes more sense for me to spend my time on that rather than spending 90% of my working time on 10% of the land. I like it more than farming, which I've done my fair share of in the past.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I think I'm with Jsasker. If you can only get back there for rut hunting until you retire in 6 yrs, just put it into a good clover mix and forget it. That'll keep plenty of does happy and you can hunt on it or near it. When you're back there full time then address subdividing the plot. Switch screens can grow in one season. It can happen getting a big boy on a plot during the rut, but I wouldn't bank on it. Soybeans wouldn't be much of a draw in Nov IMO.

That’s interesting your deer don’t like standing beans in November. In Minnesota and Wisconsin I’ve never seen a better draw all year than standing soybeans. That is until they are all eaten, but in my area a couple acres usually lasts until December.

I plant every type of food plot imaginable and soybeans are consistently preferred over everything else.

Each area is different though, so if always takes a little trail and error to see what works best on a property.

 

[Mattyq2402]

I appreciate all the insight. I’ve already purchased 4 acres worth of Switch so I’m going to move forward on that plan, probably not to the crazy degree I was thinking but definitely get some screening in and section off food into quarter acre chunks. My buddy is frost seeding clover in the morning on about an acre and half, focus on the fruit locations for clover. also putting out mineral in morning. Made a mix mineral out of cattle mineral, trace mineral salt, molasses powder, and a little garlic. Deer are hammering cut corn now and got a good group of bucks showing daily still carrying. I’ll be there for a week in mid June to get some work done.

Anyone ever run corn and beans together? Just curious, heard a consultant praising it. Beans 70/corn 30