N80
Super Member
Over the last year I've scraped up a few food plots on my poor, hilly soil using nothing but my boxblade. I've had a fair amount of success given the conditions. Got a fair stand of oats, wheat and cowpeas. They deer came to the oats last fall but they didn't seem to be crazy about it. They pretty much ignored the wheat. So far they haven't touched the cowpeas.
But, I also planted about an acre in sunflowers. Mostly just to have some sunflowers and maybe attract some doves. Well, they came up great. Got a really good crop for simply broadcasting. But, once they got up about 8 inches the deer mowed them down. Every last one. They are coming out in broad daylight with us watching them from the cabin porch about 75 yards up the hill. They seem to love these things.
The moral of the story is to plant something that you don't want the deer to eat. I won't get a single flower. But, the silver lining is that sunflowers are cheap and apparently pretty easy to grow. So I might just plant them every year as summer time browse for the deer!
But, I also planted about an acre in sunflowers. Mostly just to have some sunflowers and maybe attract some doves. Well, they came up great. Got a really good crop for simply broadcasting. But, once they got up about 8 inches the deer mowed them down. Every last one. They are coming out in broad daylight with us watching them from the cabin porch about 75 yards up the hill. They seem to love these things.
The moral of the story is to plant something that you don't want the deer to eat. I won't get a single flower. But, the silver lining is that sunflowers are cheap and apparently pretty easy to grow. So I might just plant them every year as summer time browse for the deer!