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Are your deer hungry?

I'm from northeast Kansas. I've planted food plots for about 15 years. This year I've planted plots from western Missouri to central Kansas for myself or buddies of mine. I've planted plots long enough to be able to get good looking, lush food plots. I soil test, get the PH right, and fertilize. I plant a lot of different stuff. Brassicas mixes, clover mixes, cereal grains, and soybeans& corn. This year I seen very little usage of any of the plots I planted. Granted, deer numbers in my immediate area are down some, but we still have a decent amount of deer. I was wondering if others in the Midwest were having the same problem? The deer just don't seem hungry. We did have a messed up weather pattern this Fall. November was terribly mild. Are your food plots working the way they use to? What's your best food plot for November?

Tough to beat corn and soybeans in November. I didn't see any decrease in usage by the deer here in Iowa.

Sounds like you may have had sufficient natural food growth and they weren't drawn to the food plots.

I agree with LKH's post. Mine in East KS/West MO were infrequently used until the cold later December weather set in.

In SE OK it sounds like pop rocks walking thru the woods. Acorns have been thick the last two years. Deer are eating good.

Always a good baraometer of deer numbers and stress. May be best to re-evaluate after march. C

In NW Oklahoma mine didn't get hit hard until about the second week of December on.

They are hungry now I bet with having over an inch of ice on the ground the last few days.

"Granted, deer numbers in my immediate area are down some, but we still have a decent amount of deer."

Kevin, this seems to be a re-occurring theme...what's a "decent amount"? I think you are seeing what the rest of us are seeing...less deer...much less deer.

I'm in Kansas too. I'm seeing deer graze through my plots but they aren't staying in them. If you weren't watching closely you would think there was very little activity at the plots. They are spending a lot of time in cut bean fields! Otherwise, I think record and consistent rainfall have native browse at a high level as well as better cover than most yrs. Pasture is tall right now, food is plentiful, and deer don't have a lot of reasons to be in the open much. Whatever the reason, logic, or etc. I want to see deer in my plots all the time so it's a little disheartening when I don't.

Million dollar business selling speciality seeds for deer plots. Find a farmer in the area and have him plant his corn and bean in your fields and let him work it and then come hunting season when he takes it down you have food plots for very little output and even make a few bucks with selling your share. Corn and beans for winter plots are hard to beat.

I chalked it up to the amount of natural forage this year. We had plenty of moisture and one of the greenest years of late. (least it seemed so). It not only allowed for plenty of feed, but cover as well and the deer didn't need to travel far to feed either. By mid December however the fields were getting hammered once all else was gone or dwindled.

I have found also that while brassica plots got hit hard early and heavily browsed when green I never had much luck with deer hitting them latter in the year. Clover / wheat / milo / beans have faired much better in comparison. Next year will be all milo and beans :)

X2 tacklebox. I went with a broad brush on one of my farms this year to attract deer all season: Winter wheat, Red Clover, Radish, Turnips, Kale, and Beets. This farm is in East Central IL, the fields always had deer in them from Sept to now and when I hunted last week I had 26 in one field and 15 in the other. My other farm had soybeans and I broadcast in red clover and radishes and the deer hit them in Sept and didn't start hitting them again until the temps hit freezing. Now they are pounding them on a regular basis. With such a warm fall, the deer had a ton of natural browse to eat this year so they really didn't need to eat anything else. I had two very different extremes on my farms and both have heavy deer populations.

Thanks for all the input. I've been giving pretty much the same reasons to my buddies. #1 Deer numbers are down. #2. Mild Fall, plenty of moisture = plenty of browse. #3. Too much hunting pressure = nocturnal deer.

Kevin: I am in Kansas also and this year was very different from previous years. I saw lots of deer in the agricultural fields during the early to mid summer. Then they disappeared. I seldom saw a deer in the fields during hunting season. I believe as Sito, Catscratch and others have said that there was abundant food and the deer simply avoided the open areas. I have never seen as many acorns as there were this year.

Your comment twoDogs rings so true when I owned my place in Woodson County. On banner acorn years, we always ditched the plots/feeders and hunted the woods hard. So true of a statement.

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