Fall Deer Food Plot 2009

[EddieWalker]

...If you do a search for cowpeas you would think deer can't resist it, but I have yet to see a single deer in it...

My thoughts exactly. I think that in the Spring, I'm going to try a bean type plant. Maybe Soybeans, but I'm still unsure about those. I asked my feed store guy if they sell soybeans, and he said no. He said that most people plant peas for the summer months.

Yesterday, after work, I bought some 13-13-13 and lime for the food plot and my front pasture. My bermuda grass isn't doing as well in that front pasture as I would like, so I'm trying to amend that too. I spread the fertilizer and lime, then was out well after dark disking it all in. My spreader is a cheap, plastic, tow behind thing that I bought from Northern Tool about five years ago. It holds 200 pounds of seed or fertilizer. I load it up and tow it behind my four wheeler. I've had to rebuild the gears and axle connection a few times to get it to work, and even then, it's been marginal. For food plots, I figured it was fine, but I think it's about done. The frame bent on it and now it's binding at the spinning wheel. It couldn't handle the weight of the ferilizer and I had to finish it off by spreading it by hand. Not fun, but I got it done.

Today I'm hoping to get my seed in the ground. There is a 60% chance of rain on Thursday afternoon and evening. The odds have been climbing all week, so I have a chance of getting rain. My goal is to be ready for it just in case it happens.

I bought 5 pounds of hulled bermuda seed for my front pasture, then another 50 pounds of rye grass seed for my front yard and then the rest will go out next to my food plot. I don't have allot of hope for it, but it's cheap and I plant it every year for my yard anyway, so it seems like a worthwhile thing to do with the seed that's left over. I also bought five pounds of arrow head clover, one pound of purple top turnups and 50 pounds of wheat. I asked about chicary, but when he told me that it was $40 a pound, I passed. All the seed that I bought was around $5 a pound, which in small amounts is reasonable.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

It's beem 2 1/2 weeks sine I planted the seeds. I got lucky and managed to get them in before we received more then 8 inches of rain. It's been a muddy mess, but by the results, the seeds enjoyed all that water. Everything is coming up nicely, and there are both hog and deer tracks all over the place.

I'm not sure about the tracks. This is really an odd year. Since living here, when October hits the acorns drop and the animals disapear. I have areas that the acorns have been so thick that they pile up on top of each other, creating a blanket up to three layers thick of acorns!!! That's normal. This year, I'm just now starting to find a few acorns. They are just about non existant. I'm thinking that the dry spell we had from August to the end of September has caused the trees to stop producing acorns. I don't get it, but that's my guess.

The lack of acorns has me wondering what the deer and hogs are going to do. Will they become more active this year then the past years? Will my food plot become a place for them to come to make up for the lack of acorns?

I have the corn feeder going year round, so it's a well known source of food for the animals. I also just built another feeder from some 6 inch PVC that's off the ground high enough to keep the hogs from eating it. I'm not finding any deer tracks at it yet, so that's a concern. I have deer food pellets in there, but I'm not sure if wild deer care for deer food or not????

First pics are of the clover. Then the turnips and the wheat. You can see Fort Peyton in the background that also shows the wheat and the turnips. In that picture, the clover is to the right, behind the trees.

Eddie

 

[jinman]

Dang! Eddie. If you had a load of my bluebonnet "sod" you'd be set. Your plots sure do look pretty. If the deer don't come I don't see how you could do any better. I once had a "brilliant" idea to move a deer feeder about 600' and I wanted the deer to be able to find it easily. I took 50 lb of corn and made a corn trail from the old location to the new one. About sundown, the feeder went off and the deer ran right up to it. After they finished eating the corn under the feeder, they followed the trail of corn back to the old feeder location. Sheesh! It hadn't dawned on me that the deer came to the feeder because of the sound rather than the smell of corn.

 

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

Is that a new game that you are playing with the deer? Hide the feeder? or Follow that Corn? hahahaha

When I moved mine to it's current location, it took the hogs a few days to find it. But they come and go without any reason. They will be there for days at a time, maybe even a month, but then they just wonder off. Sometimes I've been able to count three different groups using it, but they always wonder off and another group takes over.

The deer are a mysery around here. There are allot of tracks, but very few sightings. I have plenty of pictures of young bucks, but never one that I'd say was four years old or older.

I'm not really expecting to see a shooter, but would really just like to see a few does and little guys out there from time to time.

Eddie

 

[Western]

I have been getting the acorns for about a week and a half, didn't think they where going to make, we watch the deer eating them, but it seems as long as I have corn out they eat it 1st.

I went out to fill my feeder and replace the lid about an hr ago, not trying to be quite I pulled my tractor up to the feeder, climbed in the bucked and went to work. I threw the old lid down and the ring (noisy). I started opening 4 bags of corn to top it off, as I was shacking the 1st bag empty, 2 does and a yungin cam running out of some tall grass mixed with hardwoods, and stood there looking at me, the tractor and the feeder. I sat there in the bucket for about five minutes watching them, they were only about 45 yards. They went to eating oats till the older doe worked her way down wind and gave the "run like ****" tail show, it tickled me here I am "caught" in the act and they didn't put 2 and 2 together, but when it hits their nose BAMB..

I bought a small bag of Chicory/ clover blend for $12 at wally world, it's up about an 1/2" and the deer are constantly checking it out. It is about 30 yards off my back porch so it is fun to watch them. It will be interesting to see how they go for the Chicory..

 

[arkansasdelta]

I've enjoyed reading the input from various areas of the country and thought I'd share what works for us in the northeast Arkansas Delta region. We've found that Buck Forage Oats are far and above the most preferred fall food plot for bringing in deer. We usually plant BF brand oats in the areas closest to our tower stands usually adding in some Austrian winter peas and a little chickory. Farther out in the food plots we plant generic winter oats, pasture wheat, brassicas, a few clovers, & small amount of chickory in heavy rates. We fertilize the BFOats and winter peas and put out a little peletized lime. I have friends in Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisianna that all agree the Buck Forage Oats, for some reason, are truly the deer magnets they claim them to be. We don't plant them until October to keep the deer from keeping them scalped down; they appear most in demand at less than 6" high. We treat grasses such as Bermuda as an invasive weed because it takes over and makes it hard to get other plants started. We're in our 2nd year of building native grass bedding areas made primarily of Alamo Switchgrass with perimeters (we call them transition areas) of tall sorghum, Egyptian wheat, and a couple of other tall, thick species we're experimenting with. The deer like to stand in the thick edging "transition areas" and check things out before they commit to feeding. Since establishing switchgrass bedding areas, we're holding a much higher percentage of deer. We have about 80 acres in bedding and food plots that join our rice, soybean, and milo production crops on one side and about 2000 acres of thick marshland that the deer stay in most of the time that it's dry or real low water. They have started moving into the bedding areas in high water and staying when left alone. We set aside a sanctuary area (about 40 acres) that we try to stay out of altogether. We're excited about the bedding areas starting to thicken up, they spent the
1st couple of years putting down roots and are just now getting good height.

 

[clemsonfor]

My thoughts exactly. I think that in the Spring, I'm going to try a bean type plant. Maybe Soybeans, but I'm still unsure about those. I asked my feed store guy if they sell soybeans, and he said no. He said that most people plant peas for the summer months.

Yesterday, after work, I bought some 13-13-13 and lime for the food plot and my front pasture. My bermuda grass isn't doing as well in that front pasture as I would like, so I'm trying to amend that too. I spread the fertilizer and lime, then was out well after dark disking it all in. My spreader is a cheap, plastic, tow behind thing that I bought from Northern Tool about five years ago. It holds 200 pounds of seed or fertilizer. I load it up and tow it behind my four wheeler. I've had to rebuild the gears and axle connection a few times to get it to work, and even then, it's been marginal. For food plots, I figured it was fine, but I think it's about done. The frame bent on it and now it's binding at the spinning wheel. It couldn't handle the weight of the ferilizer and I had to finish it off by spreading it by hand. Not fun, but I got it done.

Today I'm hoping to get my seed in the ground. There is a 60% chance of rain on Thursday afternoon and evening. The odds have been climbing all week, so I have a chance of getting rain. My goal is to be ready for it just in case it happens.

I bought 5 pounds of hulled bermuda seed for my front pasture, then another 50 pounds of rye grass seed for my front yard and then the rest will go out next to my food plot. I don't have allot of hope for it, but it's cheap and I plant it every year for my yard anyway, so it seems like a worthwhile thing to do with the seed that's left over. I also bought five pounds of arrow head clover, one pound of purple top turnups and 50 pounds of wheat. I asked about chicary, but when he told me that it was $40 a pound, I passed. All the seed that I bought was around $5 a pound, which in small amounts is reasonable.

Eddie

My brother in law bought a clamp on 4 wheeler spreader and it was junk, not made to fit his and it really dont, he has those plastic racks that are not good. Lucky my uncle has a real 3 pt spreader.

I know you want a bermuda pasture, but i would not put bermuda seed anywhere near the spots that i was using for deer food plots, you cant get rid of the stuff. Unless you can keep it sprayed out with roundup.

 

[clemsonfor]

I've started my food plot for this years deer season.

I was also impressed with how they handled dry conditions and our East Texas heat. Two weeks of 100 degree temps didn't faze them at all. No rain for a month and a half also didn't have any effect on them.

Two weeks ago, I sprayed them with a round up type spray that was about half the price. I'm not very pleased with the spray and how it worked on the grass, but it did kill the peas rather quickly.



Eddie

Some of your problem may have been the conditions if you read the label some glyphosate actually says to apply after a recent rain, so that the grass is actively growing and not dormant/just hanging in , like in a dry time. I have seen this do this first hand when i have sprayed grass in dry times, it dosent really get killed at all or half works. Its best to apply with ground moisture or a few days after a rain. 41% glyphosate is glyphosate, weather it says grass killer, roundup, spectracide, killzall or whatever its all the same active ingrediant which is 4lb/gallon of dryglyphosate added to the other ingrediants to make the 41% roundup. Forestry professionals NO NOT use roundup its $170 for 2.5 gallons at lowes, my contract herbicide guy buys it for about $37 for 2.5 gallons! You can buy it shipped to your house from agrisupply.com for $60 for 2.5 gallons. This is all concentrated mix and most professionals mix 4 oz per gallon but i think the label says on some of the generics i see either 2.5 or 3.5 oz per gallon of water. Meaning 1 gallon of concentrate will make a little over 30 gallons of spray. Herbicide is all about timing and conditions, it takes a little knowlege to have optimum effects.

-Nate

Forester

 

[clemsonfor]

Jim,


The deer are a mysery around here. There are allot of tracks, but very few sightings. I have plenty of pictures of young bucks, but never one that I'd say was four years old or older.

I'm not really expecting to see a shooter, but would really just like to see a few does and little guys out there from time to time.

Eddie

dEER MANAGEMENT is a thing that takes time and builds on the history of the land and its carrying capacity. Deer numbers as well as size and quality are also a function of not only what you do but what your neighboring property in say a 1 mile radius of you do. If i remember right do you have 60~ish acres. That is not nearly enough to think that anything you do will have an effect on the population, a small effect but like you said there movements are random and unpredictable. Ive got a 130 and untill a property change next to me and a clearcut i did not have the quality deer that i have now (you never know what the so called "trophy hunt club" next to you is killing!!)
At any one time unless your property is so thick you cant walk around on most of it you may only have at the most 5 deer. I may only have a similar number on my land, we have far more deer than you but my woods are mostly mid rotation hardwoods, open enough to see through them till the trees block you view or the terrain slopes off or up. For this reason they move just off my propery to the neighbors land in the 3-5 yr old clearcuts till they feed and move in on mine. My property is no wider than .5 miles at the thickest part with most having clearcut or young pines on either side. My neighbor has 500 acres or so and touches me on 3 sides and has very low hunting pressure.

-I can give some advice but by far am no expert but i have managed to take some decent deer on different tracts across my state.

 

[EddieWalker]

It's been well over five years of not shooting any deer off my land, and the nieghbors say they are doing the same. We all shoot hogs and coyotes, which might help a very small amount, but probably not enough to change anything. My place and one neighbor with 240 acres have been opening up the land, mowing it and creating boarder areas. The bigger neighbor, 460 acres, is pure jungle. That's where the hogs live and are pretty safe. You just can't walk through there, and the hogs go through it like it's nothing.

Right now I have two small bucks that have potential in a couple of years. I think there are more out there, but that's just a guess because I don't know of anybody shooting any of them.

Fortunatly it's not something that is all that important to me. I don't feel any need to shoot a buck, so I don't worry about it. I like hog meat a lot more, and little antlers don't do a thing for me either.

Thanks,
Eddie