The farm we hunt as well as the surrounding properties has hundreds of acres of agriculture fields. Obviously this is for income so they are all picked, with the obvious scattered left overs, and again, another obvious, the deer come to all of them on a regular basis to feed. The primary problem that I have seen is, because of the vast amount, and wide distribution, of feed in my area, and most likely any agricultural area, is, the deer can feed one place one evening, and another place that may be a half a mile, or even a mile away, the next evening. So I was wondering about planting a food plot.
My question is, with all of the other food sources around, would this be a waste of time?
If so, we can stop there, if not, what type of food source/plot would you recommend, and how large would be sufficient, etc. Also, any other tips for this situation?
I would tend to think that a new plot, with young green growth, would be more appealing than an older, harvested and dried out food source, on the other hand, from what I understand, during the winter months - November and December - deer are attempting to load up on carbohydrates to pack on fat for the winter months, so if that is truly the case, it seems like plain old corn would be preferred over just about anything. But it has been my experience that the deer seem to prefer cut soybean fields over cut corn fields.
One unusual situation that I have noticed in Kansas is, even with all of the agriculture available, a good old fashioned pipe feeder filled with corn, seems to work very well, even attracting mature bucks. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but it is what it is. I mean, where I hunt in NC, the habitat is easily 95 percent hardwoods, pine thickets, and some open pasture, hayfields, or meadows. So a corn feeder is easily very attractive to deer, but in contrast to Kansas, it is pretty rare to see a mature deer visit a feed station, unless it is in the middle of the night. However, in Kansas, I would tend to think that a deer would greatly prefer natural grain fields over the artificial supply that pops up just before fall. And with this said, though my question is primarily concerning an actual food plot, what do you guys think about a corn feeder? Any tips on when to start feeding, what type of feeder, or again, any advice is appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
