Food plots for feeding deer

[BenAllgood]

They will provide only a small fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet.

I think everyone could be in agreement when we set the same parameters for scale. Food plots can provide a LARGE fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done on a LARGE scale. Food plots can only provide a SMALL fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done only on a SMALL scale.

 

[Baker]

I think everyone could be in agreement when we set the same parameters for scale. Food plots can provide a LARGE fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done on a LARGE scale. Food plots can only provide a SMALL fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done only on a SMALL scale.

Bout sums it up. I applaud your brevity, something I'm not good at.

"LARGE" is relative and could use some definition. I offer my perspective in my quote in the original post:

Certainly if plots are only an acre or two of small grains and maybe some clover primarily for hunting then agreed that will not have much impact on a deers diet. However many folks plant both winter and summer plots, certainly here in the south. I propose that food plots can provide a significant portion of a deers diet and profoundly improve the nutritional plane. This being true even with the best managed timber and habitat in conjunction with the plots.

I believe this supposition holds true when plots are large enough to handle grazing and both summer and fall cultivars are planted. When these circumstances are in place my experience is that the plots can provide a significant amount of a deers diet over the course of a year. Granted with spring green up and fall acorns, plots are used less but still not abandoned. Much of the rest of the year deer will spend a significant amount of time in the plots.

I stand by the quote above and I challenge that there are managers and biologist all over the country accomplishing this as verified by:

1) the explosion of trophy quality bucks being grown all over the nation now certainly including areas of weak soil. These bucks are coming from areas where they are eating summer legumes and have food stuffs available to recover from rut and winter stress---NOT many from areas of strictly timber even if managed.
2) The millions and millions of pounds of both summer and fall seed being sold every year by countless companies packaging Buck on Bag seed. Add in the generic seed most of us use and and it is a huge industry planting uncountable acres. Deer are eating these crops and flourishing.
3) My own personal experience managing property in multiple states and two countries.

Food plots can and do provide a significant portion of a deers diet in many circumstances and the benefits are profound.

 

[SwampCat]

I plant 35 acres for deer on 400 acres - most is a combination of wheat and durana clover - but also some summer bean/pea mixes. After our summer heat and usually dry weather - the clover can be pretty suppressed early fall so I seed wheat into my clover to give a quick boost of green. The deer utilize my plots in the summer much more than they do fall. They are pretty hard on them in winter - depending on availability of native mast. I dont know how much poundage a deer is able to consume in two hours - but deer commonly feed for two hours straight in the summer in my plots. I hog hunt a lot in the summer, so I observe this on a regular basis.

 

[yoderjac]

I think everyone could be in agreement when we set the same parameters for scale. Food plots can provide a LARGE fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done on a LARGE scale. Food plots can only provide a SMALL fraction of a deer's 24/7/365 diet if done only on a SMALL scale.

I completely agree, that if one has an unlimited budget and sufficient land for scale, we can do a lot of manipulation to benefit deer whether it is food plots or native habitat management. My contention that an unlimited budget is a rare exception not the rule. Given that, food plot scale is limited and they represent a small fraction of a deer's diet. So, for most of us, food plots will be a strategic tool applied in the 10's of acres at most. Timber management on the other hand can commonly be done on the 100's acres scale providing profit and the necessary resources for food plots while positively impacting the quantity of quality native foods via sunlight.

I would rephrase you statement a bit. I'd say that food plots can only provide a LARGE fraction of a deer's diet if a huge budget is available and they are planted on a very large scale like agriculture.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I plant 35 acres for deer on 400 acres - most is a combination of wheat and durana clover - but also some summer bean/pea mixes. After our summer heat and usually dry weather - the clover can be pretty suppressed early fall so I seed wheat into my clover to give a quick boost of green. The deer utilize my plots in the summer much more than they do fall. They are pretty hard on them in winter - depending on availability of native mast. I dont know how much poundage a deer is able to consume in two hours - but deer commonly feed for two hours straight in the summer in my plots. I hog hunt a lot in the summer, so I observe this on a regular basis.

That is roughly the scale I was working on with some "cooperating" neighboring properties pushing the influence area to a bit under 1,000 acres total. I'm currently planting 20 acres or so but I'm changing how I'm planting. I'm more focused on soil health the yield and selecting a mixture of compatible crops that do well with my native soil fertility and am becoming much more weed tolerant. I'm using less fertilizer and less herbicides. I'm tilling less frequently and less deep or not at all. I'm finding that 10 years of farm like food plots had much less impact on my local deer herd than a couple year effort of hardwood clear-cut, pine thinning, and controlled burns. That does not mean that food plots are not an important part of my plan, just a smaller contributor to objectives and a larger contributor to cost.

One interesting note is that while this habitat management has clearly had a positive impact on deer quality and biological carrying capacity, it has made deer less visible and harder to hunt. More choices for deer makes them less predictable and harder to hunt, so even though the deer densities may be higher, harvesting them can become more difficult. I'm finding that deer are responding to hunting pressure much more than they used to.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[BenAllgood]

Ok, so if scale determines whether or not we can contribute a major portion of a deer's 24/7/365 diet with food plots, then how do we make one doe (or doe family group) eat mostly on our plots?

Another question coming, but I'll save that.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I just heard that 20% of all private property across the US is used STRICTLY for deer hunting. Don't know what that number would have been 30 years ago but I would bet it was less than 5 percent. With that being said, I would ASSUME that there is a fair amount of food plots being planted on that "hunting" property. If this is the case I see it being a strong likely hood that food plots are contributing to good portion of a deer's diet and a believable reason for the increase in B&C bucks recently.

 

[FarmerDan]

Great contributions. Well written and thoughtful. The science of deer management is sparse compared to other established bodies of knowledge. We often take what little (don't take that the wrong way) we know and apply it as best we can to achieve our objectives. It can get complicated. Here I thought I was the champion of taking a simple concept and twisting it until every letter fell out of every word of every sentence! Laugh, damn it!

Isn't it as simple as this? What we are trying to do is to supply the herd's necessary nutritional needs in abundance in a timely manner? And, doesn't preparing an answer to the question depend on the size of the herd? Or, do we determine the natural nutrition available and trim the herd to a level where habitat can do the same?

You can throw food plots and crops at your deer herd and hope for the best, or you can take a moment (or three) to learn more about the nutritional needs of a deer. Maybe, maybe that's as or more important than understanding soil fertility. I guess I'd be splitting hairs if I suggested soil productivity is more important than high soil fertility - which is part of the productivity equation. Temperamental soils with enough other positive characteristics can produce abundance, too.

For those that are not faint of heart....
http://roberts.agrilife.org/files/2011/06/what_dodeereatwhy_15.pdf

 

[ksgobbler]

I just heard that 20% of all private property across the US is used STRICTLY for deer hunting. Don't know what that number would have been 30 years ago but I would bet it was less than 5 percent. With that being said, I would ASSUME that there is a fair amount of food plots being planted on that "hunting" property. If this is the case I see it being a strong likely hood that food plots are contributing to good portion of a deer's diet and a believable reason for the increase in B&C bucks recently.

I think the bigger reason you are seeing the increase in BC bucks is they are living longer. People have become more selective. Quality of deer in my state has decreased drmatically but thats another story for another day.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I think the bigger reason you are seeing the increase in BC bucks is they are living longer. People have become more selective. Quality of deer in my state has decreased drmatically but thats another story for another day.

That very well could be true. I do know that (through trail cam observation) the deer on our properties have been sporting bigger racks since I started planting a winter food source for them.

 

[SwampCat]

When i first started planting food plots on my place - it was a one acre plot on the first 12 acres I bought. If you were patient - every big buck within a mile radius would end up in that plot. I have added on for a total of 400 acres and maybe ten food plots. Now, your chance of sitting in the right food plot when the right buck comes through is slim and none. They have a lot more choices of food plots to visit and I have a lot more choices of places to hunt.

when I first started planting food plots on my own place - it was fall and winter plots only - wheat, rye, brassicas, etc. we killed some decent deer - but there was actually a decline in population. My camera surveys in 2014 show four does. I had retired in 2012 - and had plenty of time to do more habitat work. I wanted to increase my deer population. I read a lot about creating a “doe factory” - by planting summer legume or high protien food plots. Most of the recommendations by the northern deer managers were you dont want to create a doe factory because you soon will have too many does and bucks wont stay on your place. I tried to create a doe factory. I have food plots scattered over my acreage - up to eight acres in size. This past years camera survey showed 26 does. I have got pictures this fall of around 30 different bucks. Counting fawns - I am right around 60 deer USING my land - of course they dont stay on it all the time. All my neighbors have seen their deer populations remain the same - while I saw mine increase five fold. I planted high protein summer plots and we laid off the trigger when we saw a doe. I think deer are basically lazy creatures. We have a bumper acorn crop right now. Deer wont eat corn in the bait piles now - but they will still hit the food plots. Summer food plots were a game changer on my land.

 

[yoderjac]

Ok, so if scale determines whether or not we can contribute a major portion of a deer's 24/7/365 diet with food plots, then how do we make one doe (or doe family group) eat mostly on our plots?

Another question coming, but I'll save that.

That brings up a whole new consideration which is arrangement. In my case, doe groups do anchor there home range on small harvest plots distributed across my property, but don't get the major portion of their nutrition from them. It seems there is a strong seasonal shift in food sources in my ares. When acorns fall, my plots are abandon regardless of what I plant. When the acorns are gone during the dead of winter, doe groups tend to ignore their anchor fields for the most part and hit my feeding fields. They are planted with warm season annuals in the summer and followed by a cover crop mix in the fall. It seems to be the turnip bulbs that are available in high quantity in my feeding plots that get most of the attention in terms of planted crops rather than the anchor plot for the family group. During this entire period, native foods in our early succession clear-cuts get a lot of attention as well as native foods in our thinned and burned pines. When early spring rolls around, my doe groups spend more time in the anchor plots (largely weedy clover) but then disappear. I believe this occurs as they are establishing fawning areas. During this time they stay in thick cover and eat almost exclusively native foods which are high quality and abundant at this time of year. Once the fawns are on the ground and up and moving around, they hit the large warm season annual plots very hard. If I plant ice cream crops like soybeans, depending on deer densities and number of acres planted, they can be wiped out. With my current mixes like sunn hemp/buckwheat/milo, deer use but don't abuse them. They are also using native foods like poke berries and such during this time. As our summer heat begins to limit the quality of native foods, they put more pressure on these large feeding plots. When September rolls around they seem to go back to the anchor plots until the acorns fall.

I find that I can hold more doe groups on my place by have small distributed plots planted in clover and allowed to slowly revert to weeds over years before replanting.

I think the take-away from this is that food plots are one tool in the box. They can be used strategically in an overall context of the general habitat picture. Thinking that one particular food plot strategy maximizing yield trying to make them the lion's share of a deer's diet is pushing boulder up a steep hill. How big the boulder is and how steep the hill is depends on your location. It is kind of like saying, I can build a house just using a saw. Perhaps it can be done but there are a lot better way to build a house using the full tool box.

In my area, timber management is by far the most efficient tool for improving total nutrition for deer. Food plots are the perfect tool for filling the gaps that are caused by seasonal changes in native foods and for providing anchors for doe groups and for doe harvest to keep herds in balance with the BCC.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Not saying you are wrong Jack, but..... For me time is my limiting factor. It is much easier and cheaper (my time is worth something to my employer and 5 dependents) to plant a few acres of food plot plantings twice a year than to spend the amount of time on TSI work. I still do TSI work but at a much lower scale because of time constraints. It takes me much less time to plant an acre of plot than it takes me to do an acres worth of TSI.

 

[BenAllgood]

While I know it can be done (Baker does it, Fort Perry plantation did it, certain areas do it purely based on ag crops, etc), I don't have the time or money to devote the amount of space it would take to provide a majority of the deers' diet using my place with foodplots. I have the open space, but not the other requirements necessary to plant the amount of food it would take. So, in my case, I'm going to do the next best thing. I'm going to manage the habitat to provide quality food. I may not get the tonnage per acre that devoting that acreage to foodplots would give, but I'll get it close. Well, if it works out, I may have about 12-13% of my acreage in a red clover hay mix. But, that won't cost me any time or money of my own. Then, 30% of my property will be in old fields that will provide a good bit of food in cover.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Lets all remember it doesn't cost a penny to have a little trigger restraint. That one second decision will go a lot further than any benefit us smaller managers will ever have on the herd.

 

[yoderjac]

Not saying you are wrong Jack, but..... For me time is my limiting factor. It is much easier and cheaper (my time is worth something to my employer and 5 dependents) to plant a few acres of food plot plantings twice a year than to spend the amount of time on TSI work. I still do TSI work but at a much lower scale because of time constraints. It takes me much less time to plant an acre of plot than it takes me to do an acres worth of TSI.

I do very little TSI work. The timber management I'm referring to takes less time than food plots for me. Most of my personal contribution to this is planning and coordination. For example, we interviewed several foresters until we found one we like. That was a one shot deal. We met with a wildlife biologist and the forester and developed a long-term plan that balances timber profit with wildlife benefit. He drafted an initial timber sale contract. Our role was to review and modify it to meet our needs. He then told us the likely impact of your clauses on the sale, and we would then reiterate until we had a contract we liked. He then conducted the sale, flagged trees, and oversaw the timbering to ensure the loggers worked to the contract.

We then used that forest stewardship plan as a basis and worked with USDA to apply for EQIP. That took several meetings with USDA folks. EQIP covered firebreak installation, herbicide application, and controlled burn costs. We had the option of doing the physical labor ourselves and keeping the USDA money or contracting out the labor and we chose the latter (because of time and expertise).

My time expended for all of this was probably about 60 hours spread over two to three years. I did participate personally in the controlled burn crew because I wanted the experience and I did spend a day on the dozer the prescribed burner brought to do some other tasks since it was there.

That 60 hours of time provided 3 to 5 years of high quantity/quality native deer food impacting about 130 acres. Upcoming thinning and controlled burns will refresh this early successional habitat and impact an additional 150 acres or so. Since we have been through the process once and now have more connections, I would expect this to take less than the 60 hours it took last time. Rather than a loss, we broke even on the EQIP program which equates to free wildlife benefit, and generated around $50K in timber sale.

Compare that 60 hours to the ballpark 500 hours a year I spend on planted food (food plots, mast tree planting/maintenance) and a net cost of around $4K.

Don't get me wrong, I've messed around with hinge cutting and other TSI techniques that require my personal labor. I would put them on a similar cost/benefit scale as food plots. I also realize that the economics will be different for others based on their existing habitat. It also requires scale. Folks often don't want to buy small stands of timber. We will be trying to coordinate management units so while one is having its first commercial thinning, another stand is having a second commercial thinning.

Future-Cast: We are looking hard at taking some management blocks of timber and converting them to savanna type habitat.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SwampCat]

Not saying you are wrong Jack, but..... For me time is my limiting factor. It is much easier and cheaper (my time is worth something to my employer and 5 dependents) to plant a few acres of food plot plantings twice a year than to spend the amount of time on TSI work. I still do TSI work but at a much lower scale because of time constraints. It takes me much less time to plant an acre of plot than it takes me to do an acres worth of TSI.

i am the same way. TSI work is labor intensive - and expensive. A lot of my deer that use my food plots come from surrounding land that has been thinned or clearcut. Not sure that adding acreage to the hundreds of similar acres adjacent to my property is going to have as much positive effect as me adding more food plot acreage - which no adjacent landowners provide.

 

[SwampCat]

Lets all remember it doesn't cost a penny to have a little trigger restraint. That one second decision will go a lot further than any benefit us smaller managers will ever have on the herd.

that is the easiest, cheapest management tool in the book. Whether or not it has any positive affect may rest in the hands of your neighbors.

 

[yoderjac]

While I know it can be done (Baker does it, Fort Perry plantation did it, certain areas do it purely based on ag crops, etc), I don't have the time or money to devote the amount of space it would take to provide a majority of the deers' diet using my place with foodplots. I have the open space, but not the other requirements necessary to plant the amount of food it would take. So, in my case, I'm going to do the next best thing. I'm going to manage the habitat to provide quality food. I may not get the tonnage per acre that devoting that acreage to foodplots would give, but I'll get it close. Well, if it works out, I may have about 12-13% of my acreage in a red clover hay mix. But, that won't cost me any time or money of my own. Then, 30% of my property will be in old fields that will provide a good bit of food in cover.

This is not significantly different from me. I too plan to keep "wildlife openings" which are the equivalent of old fields. I'll keep a few soft mast trees in them, start them in clover, and let nature take its course. When they start to get too big for my equipment, I'll go in and mow and knock them back.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

We all Have different situations. I would give my left foot to have 560 hours to dedicate to deer related tasks.