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deer food plots

Planning on putting in some food plots this spring for deer and turkeys. Mostly for deer. Would appreciate any information on what works best and not so good. My farm is in SE Nebraska and is currently all in CRP, Quail Strips and Filter strips. I would like to put in corn, soybeans and milo in strips and leave for the winter. Maybe a few areas of clover.

Artguy, we started a program like this last year in central MO. we started off with 120 acres of brome with a small pond and some timber. Every one has their own reasons for doing it so what you want to accomplish has a lot to do with what you do. What we were after was giving wildlife an area to bed, have young and food during winter months. There are also programs like WHIP which will help with costs as well.

Starting off we needed a good sign.

We later went in and sprayed the brome and replaced it with native grasses. we planted numerous plots with combination of different crops like clover,turnips, chicory and sunflowers. We later went in and dropped unwanted trees replacing them with trees which are beneficial to deer,turkey and quail.

In this field we planted both milo and beans and left in standing. We went up this last week end and discovered it was way to small, The completely wiped it out. New clover is coming up now so I guess it did last long enough.

In areas like this along the dam we simply went in and broad casted clover just using a four wheeler. Was very surprising on how many deer and turkey were attracted to just doing this.

I think this was a small plot of combination of chicory clover and turnips.

A lot of work and money but finding things like this priceless.

Great information. You have a beautiful piece of property.

Don't forget strips of winter wheat. In early spring it seems like wheat is the first place they go. The second thing to remember is to wait late to cut or burn it. This allows the little guys enough time to be born or hatched and big enough to get out of the way. I think it is neat that your doing this, I wished more landowners would do the same.

Great pics. Looks like a lot of hard work pays off. Very clean and nice looking plots you have there. What do you do to keep them looking so good?

I have a couple of small plots out but have problems with Hemlock. My first plot was a chickory clover mix and it had a good stand the first year. But then early in the spring the hemlock came in and took over. The other plot has black nightshade that was lying dormant and when I cleared the plum brush off it came in with vengence! Well gonna replant them for a couple or years or more with roundup beans and corn. I am hoping the weed seed germinate and then spray it. I am hoping by doing this it will get the weed seed population down to where I can plant the chickory again..

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