Should I do a food plot or not?
Whitetail Deer
Greetings! New member, been lurking for awhile and really enjoying the site. This year I acquired hunting permission on a new property. Location is central Indiana, agricultural and hardwoods. Property is around 60 acres with about a 12 acre upper elevation ag field and a 400 yard long by roughly 25 yard wide lower elevation field. The lower field used to be an ag field but the farmer can no longer get his equipment into it and with it being completely surrounded by woods and in a bottom, production was not very good anyway. So the last few years it has been just a weed field that they bushog once a year after the upper 12 acre field has been harvested. They only do this to keep saplings from growing in it. The only way to get to the lower field is through the upper field.There is a small stream running alongside the lower field and the lower field is shaped sort of like an eyebrow with the length of it running NE to SW. It is really flat from end to end and appears to me to probably not drain very well. I do not believe that water typically stands throughout the lower field but just slow to dry out. The lower field is near the east border of the property and one landowner borders our east side. This east landowner has about 200 acres, probably 80 acres in woods and the rest is ag fields. This neighbor does not allow any hunting on his property.My property owner has given me permission to do food plots in the lower field if I wish. I have never had the opportunity to do any plots so I am excited at the possibilities. Should I leave this lower field as is in weeds which I assume will be bedding or should I make parts or all of it a food plot? If a plot, since there are ag fields everywhere in the vicinity, should this be some sort of late season plot? If needed, I could probably get an aerial together with some topo lines posted. If I have left out any critical info, please advise and I will fill in the details. THANKS in advance!!
Here is a quick aerial of the property. The south property is around 100 acres combination of woods and a large weed field that I am sure was once an ag field and now probably in some sort of set aside program. There is someone hunting that property.
Yes...but you know the first step to planting is getting rid of the turkeys...hint hint.
I would for sure try something......you dont have to plant it all ....even a couple.small plots in the weed field will draw deer.
Id look into a clover plot with a strip of brassicas for late season food once crops are gone.
Sky is the limit, but you dont have to shoot for the stars to be successful and have fun!
First thing.....do a soil test!
Good advice from CAS. Poorly drained soil screams clover to me. Probably a good early season draw only, but you can plant a variety of crops for deer. I'm not sure about your area, but someone with more knowledge of the North is sure to comment.
One other thing.....dont put a plot close to your main entrance way for morning hunts.....been there, done that......bad idea!
Turkeybowmaster, there are a ton of turkeys running around this place for sure!
CAS HNTR, I hear you on the morning entrance thing. Got busted a couple of times this fall. The established entry to the lower field is on the south end. There is a good ridge leading down to the north end of the field and I could use the north side of that ridge to approach the area from the north. In May while looking the property over some I did find numerous groups of beds on the ridge tops to the west of the lower field about the midway of the length of the field.
My latest thought is to do a narrow strip in the center of the field along most of the length of the field leaving a weed buffer on both edges of the field.
Really appreciating the feedback fellas, please keep it coming!
One thing I have been hearing a lot is to never put a food plot in the middle of a field. Some deer want to be close to cover. So depending on how wide the weed field is I'd stay close to the woods. Instead of right in the middle. If that makes since
Rideblue14, That makes sense. I would estimate that the weed field averages around 25 yards wide so not sure if I could get too far in the middle in this case.
We plant small plots of turnips and have had a ton of luck with them. We try to keep them close to cover, and if possible we plant 8 rows of corn or switch grass between the plot and any visible road. The deer are just a lot more comfortable then, plus people stopping on the road to try and glass wont spoke the deer.
I would definitely plant some type of plot on your property to draw more deer to it.
Maybe even plat plots in different places for a couple of years to see if the deer respond to any location better then others.
Best of luck!
Tons of options here...
You could create cover... you could create a funnel for your hunting stands... you could plant a kill plot... you could plant a year 1 soil builder to set yourself up for future success... you could do all of the above...
My first thought would be weeds. Weeds will probably be your biggest issue year 1. I'd plant a smother crop that grows quick. I'd plant berseem clover and mix it with buckwheat. Plant it Early May, and give the deer some early feed, while building up some green manure. The berseem will fixate nitrogen for you.
Then burn it down with glyphosate around the 3rd week of July. Let it rest for 1 week, then disk it down. August first plantwinter triticale mixed with crimson clover and radish. The triticale will give you a higher protein and mineral content than rye, wheat or oats. The crimson will fixate nitrogen and it stays green later than berseem clover. The radish will loosen the soil, scavenge nutrients and more...
THANKS so much for the ideas nutritionist!! Your suggestions simply cause me to have more questions! I have no idea how to create cover or the funnels. If I were to follow your suggestion of the berseem clover in May...Do you think I should leave a buffer of weeds on both ends of the field and completely fill in between with the plot?
Another question that comes to mind. If I do a food plot in the weed field, I will have to access any stands on the east side of the plot from the west and either via the north or south ends of the plot. The weeds are fairly tall but I do not believe they are tall enough. Is there anything I can plant to create a screen in that wooded environment?
If you can STANDING CORN! Provides the deer w/ cover and food.
I have a similar situation with a field that was left to grow up with weeds. I have had a lot of success with letting majority of field grow high with weeds and then mowing a section down in late July or early August as low as I can - like 2 inches low. Then I bring an aerator in and run over the area mowed down. Then I seed with turnips, forage oats, winter peas and clover. I also mow narrow trails in the grow-up weedy portion of the field leading to an entrance point to the field I have planted so that the narrow trails mowed in pass close to a treestand. Deer seem to be more comfortable coming in to a more secluded area like this.
My annual cover mix options include wgf grain sorghum, a blend of millets to match the soil types and some forage sorhum.
My perennial cover mixes include the big 5 of native grasses with the blend depending on area of the US.
I created a unique funnel inside a funnel this year. My deer stand is a natural funnel for many deer that flee the friends and neighbors in the surrounding mile from the east, south and west.
In the area of cannamaize and eagle beans that i planted that was drowned out completely, i came back in late June and broadcasted before a rain, a blend of sorghums, millets and radish. The deer used the corn for food source and then they transitioned and began to use a travel corridor that was created by the cover mix. That moved the deer directly into the perennial clover plots that lead to the brassica plots. So, i had deer instead of using 3-4 areas to cross into the woods down to a main travel corridor.
What i intend to do now it turn it into an annual cover area and i'll include a few new things every year to give some soil and nutrition boosing. Throw some annual clover, some rape, some cow peas, or some sunflowers rotating every year. I think i'll put buckwheat and berseem clover in a mini pocket more in the middle of the major cover blend of millets and sorghums.
HM, Frigid Forage sells a product called Plot Screen that will ( if planted 25' wide ) hide you on the way to the stand. I think it's mostly Egyptian wheat, and you may be able to get that seed cheaper than using their product. That said, I've been using the same bag three years now for a screen next to a road on my place. It doesn't take much seed to plant 25' and 300' long. Very effective, gets tall and thick in about a month. I would plant it last of July to middle of August depending on moisture. Most of the deer feels secure enough that I can scoot by this plot on my cart and they just look 'til I'm past.
nutritionist, THANKS for the thoughts and PM's. I will be contacting you via email soon to discuss this more.
Drycreek, I have been eyeing the EW but I cannot figure out if the EW will grow well in shaded areas? It will not be in the heavy canopy of the woods but along the north and south ends of the small field in the photo above.
Thanks so much to everyone for the thoughts and suggestions. I am a total newb to the plot and property enhancement game, I don't know what I don't know if you know what I mean! :)
Egyptian wheat can grow in some semi shady areas and it's in the experimental mix that i used to create a funnel inside my larger funnel...
Egyptian what is tall growing sorghum. Some companies put different names on it or put it in with mixes to add value or $$$$ to the price of their screening products.
Egyptian wheat can lodge if people don't put down the right fertilizer package. Most wouldn't know the different between Egyptian wheat and a couple of the forage sorghums that i sell tons of. Yes, i sell a lot of EW every year but why i'll be doing another year 2 trial on a couple other annual as well as a perennial screening option.
Does anybody know of some kind of soil amender that will help make Kentucky clay more growth friendly. I have several food plots on my 500+ acres in North Central Kentucky that grow well and attract a lot of deer but some of the plots have really dense clay soil that doesn't let the plants root well. My land is quite hilly so I am limited to where my plots can be. I've thought about adding some straw and disking it in real well and even thought about perlite but the cost would be out of site. Any ideas?
Thanks JimG
From what I have read, alot of people are planting buckwheat early and discing it under to create organic matter.
If you plant in springtime you can get 2 rounds of buckwheat in before fall plantng. That will really help to built the organic matter which will soften the soil and help improve it.
Grandpa Ray probably build the farm on buckwheat. Heck, he even ate buckwheat pancakes almost every day....
But i'd plant buckwheat mixed with berseem clover. Clip that at 45 days and then let the berseem take over and do it's thing. Nothing fixates more nitrogen than berseem clover. The berseem gives a quality forage a tad better than alfalfa. I had great feedback from some who did this approach in 2014.
