Should I abandon foodplot at my house?

eclipseman

5 year old buck +
All,

This was my father's and my 3rd season food plotting at our two properties (both between 120-150 acres in size in NY). My father's property (8 miles away) is a hunting paradise for the area. Tons of deer and some pretty nice bucks for the area while my house is poor compared to his but mediocre compared to neighboring properties. I am looking for some advice so please read the entire post before commenting. Since we started food plotting his property has just gotten better and better with regards to hunting. We see more deer and more bucks cruising through. Even with a bumper crop of acorns, we still had a decent year at his property in the food plots.

My concern is with regards to my property. The first year I moved into this property we did not plant food plots and the hunting was not all that great (4 years ago). The previous owner did not hunt the property but let anyone hunt there so im guessing the deer herd was hit pretty hard by locals. There was not a ton of deer sign when i tried some early scoutting even though locals in the area said the deer herd in the area is nice compared to others. The property contains two 4 acre fields that were just wild grasses and then the rest is hardwoods (120 acres). We hunted mostly in and around those fields but did some deeper woods hunting as well and did not see much at all during that season. I did a lot of scouting that winter and as I guessed there just was not a ton of deer sign. The second year we decided to plant food plots. I planted both the fields in clover and brassica. We saw a surge of deer compared to the previous year, especially early in the hunting season which was great for bow hunting but then the deer mostly disappeared closer to rifle season which is mid November. The second year for the food plot was even better. We saw more bucks than the previous year hanging around which was great. We harvested a buck and two doe. That brings us to this year. We planted the same way and had a steller crop of oats, brassica mixture and clover. Through out the summer I was getting some great pics of some decent bucks just like last year and doe as well. We hunted behind my house the first weekend of bow season (October) and saw some of the younger bucks and a bunch of doe but the older bucks were only coming at night (I checked my cameras in that field after my hunt that night). We only hunted that one time because we started hunting my father's property pretty hard chasing after a couple nice bucks. That is where things went weird. In the later part of the hunting season (late November) I said to my father we should hunt my house because no one has been hunting there so all the pressured deer from the neighboring properties must be hanging on my unpressured land especially with the food plots there. I was wrong. We didn't see any deer after multiple sits except for one spike buck. I figured, maybe we just were not sitting in the right places. After the season was over I went and checked my camera cards. I have 7 cams out in the same spots as the previous 3 years in good locations and that is when I realized something was wrong. A week after that first time we hunted there in early season, the deer basically disappeared. The few that did show up, did so later at night. This was quite the change compared to the previous 3 years including that first year we didn't plant food plots. I just checked the cameras again and some more deer have been showing up but not nearly as many prior to the hunting season. Almost like they got wiped out by neighboring hunters maybe? Or maybe they moved elsewhere? Pretty strange. I feel like the deer are not bedding anywhere near my property and are maybe traveling there for a final food destination. So now im second guessing whether we should even plant it at all. Maybe we just use the property as a backup property to hunt occasionally while relieving pressure from my father's awesome hunting property?

As an FYI, My property is pretty old hardwoods which haven't been logged in about 25-30 years. We had a logger and forester come visit this past summer and they both suggested doing a thinning logging in 3-5 years and then a more drastic logging 10 years or so after so I really don't want to go around cutting things or hing cutting things and possibly mess things up for our timber sale. They said to just not touch anything until they get in there 3-5 years from now. While I know you have to watch your back with loggers the Forester is well known in the area so I do trust in what he was saying. What are all your thoughts? Should I keep up with the food plot? I do
 
I think the answer may be somewhere in your last paragraph. Sometimes logging for profit and wildlife have to reach a common ground. Maybe someone close by had some logging done that created more cover.
 
I think the answer may be somewhere in your last paragraph. Sometimes logging for profit and wildlife have to reach a common ground. Maybe someone close by had some logging done that created more cover.
that could potentially be true as I do not really know my neighbors BUT I only have a few neighbors and I would think I would have heard something about someone doing logging. I am definitely not certain on that though.
 
Mature hardwood forest typically has a very limited understory. Deer live in the understory.
 
If a neighbor is baiting you could see a similar reduction in deer numbers as the season progresses.

In our area the type of properties deer like in the early season are different from those they pick later in the fall. The open woods are fine in the summer, but once the leaves fall the deer prefer thicker areas. Once the deer are pressured they also spend more time in the thick stuff.

I wouldn't wait 3-5 years to make the property thicker. I would go through and drop a bunch of low value trees in a few pockets with the goal of creating some ground cover with the downed trees as well as letting some light hit the ground. Could you ask the forester what species are of little value and start there? I'd also take down any deformed trees or some type of lesser trees that are competing with adjacent high dollar trees. You could really improve the deer cover without significantly decreasing future logging value if you cut the right trees.
 
Do you have wolves?
Neighbors baiting?
Neighbors put in their own plots?
Disease?
Change in ag? Did someone's bean field not get cut due to wet fields?
Did a neighbor start leasing or bring in an outfitter?
Poachers? My dad had a guy rent the neighbors place for a while. He was selling deer jerky in town year round. Heard shots often. Caught him trespassing once. He finally moved (there might have been some pressure) but the herd and hunting was affected for much longer than I thought it would be.

Personally, I wouldn't get to alarmed at a single season change. It's concerning but might not actually be a big deal. I say keep planting the plots that were so successful for the first 3 years and hope it goes back to normal next year.
 
Just throwing this out there. Your story is like the 5 or 6th story I have heard just like it from guys in our neck of the woods. I'm across the border in western Mass and your story sounds exactly like what I experienced and what some others have experienced...."like the deer got wiped out." I had, hands down, the WORST deer season I have ever had in 33 years of hunting. I saw exactly one spike and 2 does over the course of 2 and a half months of hunting.

I can't explain it. Maybe the deer pop. is down? I had good bucks on trail camera...but very few does. It was a banner acorn crop this year. I think perhaps in my case the deer found the acorns and where just completely vacant from my property for the duration of the fall? I have no mast for miles. Not sure.

I'd give it some time. Probably just an anomaly this year. In contrast, the year after the 2008 December ice storm my deer numbers went through the roof! With 75% of tree tops snapped, toppled, and on the ground, I had tons of cover and lots of sunlight on the ground. It was amazing to see how in just one year the deer responded to that event.
 
Drive the area for say 4 miles around your area mark everything on an areial map,food cover etc.Then look at what is missing from your area and the closest areas around you.I am betting it's cover and waiting to do logging may be a decision you have to pick between hunting or logging.Maybe only do a 1/3 next to your food plot if it allows you to get in without spooking deer in new bedding area.With 120 acres you may not always hold deer but if thick enough they will feel safe moving through which it doesn't look like thats the case now
 
I wouldn't wait 3-5 years to make the property thicker. I would go through and drop a bunch of low value trees in a few pockets with the goal of creating some ground cover with the downed trees as well as letting some light hit the ground. Could you ask the forester what species are of little value and start there? I'd also take down any deformed trees or some type of lesser trees that are competing with adjacent high dollar trees. You could really improve the deer cover without significantly decreasing future logging value if you cut the right trees.
This is what I would do if you don't have them bedding on your place. The forester may even help you mark a few 1/4 to 1/2 acre areas for micro-clearcut bedding pockets. If it's spots of low value timber, it wouldn't affect future timber value, and you could possibly have some of your best hunting by next season. Keep your plots and add bedding without messing with your timber value.
 
Any chance of a localized ehd problem? If not, I'd guess something has changed with neighbors around your land. It could be many things but I'd be waking the fence lines looking for clues. If you had low to no pressure and good food, the deer should have been there if they were still alive. It makes me question if someone else was putting the pressure on your land?
 
Couple things I might try before making big changes.

*Pull all your cameras out and stay out far as cam activity is concerned.
*Plant a cover-food plot mix. Heavy on sorghum for cover and food, some sudex or tall sorghum for cover, clover to feed sorghum, barley to fill the gaps, maybe some forage beans, sunflower and buckwheat for dessert. A little gypsum will get you a 5-star flavor rating.
 
You need cover plain and simple, followed by browse and edges/diversity. Abandon the plots and start plating conifers, and switchgrass in those areas to thicken your property up. A bunch of these habitat donkeys just cant understand that the deer can live, survive, and eat just fine without plots. Food is NOT the most needed ingredient in a lot of properties. Give me the bedroom over the buffet 10 out of 10 times. Food plots are good for does, fawns, social pressure and creating nocturnal bucks in the absence of cover. If a mature buck could talk do you think he would say food or cover is more important???
 
^Pot calling the kettle black.
 
What is in the 3 mile circle around your place? Any agricultural fields?
If someone has crops and cover you won’t pull deer to open woods.

Though there is something going on beyond just this. With food there should be at least a few lazy does and a button buck bedding close by.
 
Couple things I might try before making big changes.

*Pull all your cameras out and stay out far as cam activity is concerned.
*Plant a cover-food plot mix. Heavy on sorghum for cover and food, some sudex or tall sorghum for cover, clover to feed sorghum, barley to fill the gaps, maybe some forage beans, sunflower and buckwheat for dessert. A little gypsum will get you a 5-star flavor rating.
I check my cams once a month if that and now ive gone to cell cams so that is definitely not an issue.
 
What is in the 3 mile circle around your place? Any agricultural fields?
If someone has crops and cover you won’t pull deer to open woods.

Though there is something going on beyond just this. With food there should be at least a few lazy does and a button buck bedding close by.
Yes there is some AG around but this change is only this year. Why the previous years were good?

I do understand that pulling deer to open woods is difficult and will consider doing some limited cutting. That being said, my concern is with the fact that the deer were there all summer hitting the food plots and acorns in my woods hard, then suddenly hunting season rolled around and they all but disappeared, including the does and immature bucks. A very limited few have come back since. I am getting cell cam pics of 1 older doe, a couple sub 2 year old doe and one spike but nothing like before hunting season AND previous years.
 
#1 Build a relationship with your neighbors to find out what they are taking in terms of deer every year. There were a lot of mature deer taken in my area this year.

I doubt any of the properties butting up to yours were logged since you've owned the property. Usually if someone comes in to log they contact all the neighbors who have property adjoining the one they are logging so they can get the most logs the most efficient way possible. If it were me I would cut every non marketable tree down and drag them out of the woods and cut them up for fire wood. I wouldn't even leave the tops because they will be in the way for the loggers and you will get a flush of new growth next spring anyway where the sun is able to reach the floor.

As mentioned with the wet year there are plenty of fields that have either been recently harvested or are still standing. I have noticed my plots have not been getting much use recently due to the snow that we had being mostly melted and the deer are eating left over acorns like crazy. If there were fields harvested and not tilled under because of frost the deer will be foraging in those fields until the waste grain is all gone or you get a heavy snow.

In each of those 4 acre plots I would make sure to have one acre of beans and one acre of corn in each. Plant a 20 yard strip of a clover chicory mix all the way around the plot wherever it is bordered by trees. You could also mix some late dropping apples in that clover/ chicory area. Your first several rows of corn and soybeans will not produce much up against the woods anyway plus it will allow for better shot opportunities if you choose to hunt the plot. In the remainder of the plot I would plant half of it in a pea and awnless winter barley mix and the other half in a brassica mix. Flip flop the corn and beans every year and the peas and brassica every year.

I would go along with some of the others when they say 1 year of poor land use isn't enough time to make any firm management changes so changing nothing could also be a decent option.
 
If there was an ag field standing for one reason or another you are going to see a change in the deer pattern....especially if the deer are not bedding on your place. Or a place that was heavily logged a mile away even can impact those patterns if food is that difficult to find. My first logging came after my Forester said "you need to wait another 5 or 10 years".....Ummmm, nope. I brought a logger in to take a look and the stuff I wanted gone and the stuff I wanted kept was ready to go then and there. Buzz-buzz went the saws. The hard maple in particular can be worth money if it's the proper size. I had ANY maple, ash, cherry, poplar, beech, elm, hickory, hackberry, cottonwood they wanted cut. We removed over 700 trees from roughly than 50 acres of timber. It needed it. I felt sick to my stomach at first (it's quite a shock), but I now look forward to the next cutting. I could have made more money by waiting, but I made money and had an impact on my habitat now...not 5 or 10 years from now. Yes, your timber may not be in PRIME condition for a cutting, but if you can see 100 yards thru your woods .....it's time to at least consider it. You can do a select cut and keep those trees you want. This will open up the canopy and your property will thicken up and you will start holding deer. You can even plan small clear cuts of areas with lots of low value trees as well. Those can be cleared for additional plots or allowed to regen into thick areas of cover and browse. Nothing wrong with planting conifers and or switchgrass either. I would still plant the plot and see what happens. That potential food source that pulled them away this year may not be there next year. The only constant is change....
 
Yes there is some AG around but this change is only this year. Why the previous years were good?

I do understand that pulling deer to open woods is difficult and will consider doing some limited cutting. That being said, my concern is with the fact that the deer were there all summer hitting the food plots and acorns in my woods hard, then suddenly hunting season rolled around and they all but disappeared, including the does and immature bucks. A very limited few have come back since. I am getting cell cam pics of 1 older doe, a couple sub 2 year old doe and one spike but nothing like before hunting season AND previous years.

It's never a bad idea to have the best thick bedding cover and the best food in the area. Keep the food plots and make portions of your woods thicker. A few 1/10 - 1/4 acre thick bedding areas can make a big difference. You're not going to get rich off the timber value of a few small areas like that, so I'd bring the saw in there and go to town.

I'd guess that you have a neighbor who is baiting, but even if that's the case having a good bedding and feed area is still better than not.
 
Where I'm at there have been a couple houses built in the neighborhood over the years and it seemed that one of the homes was built in a place that changed the deer travel patterns and it changed the way deer came onto my property more than I could have ever imagined. Anyone put up any new structures around you in the last year?
 
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