j-bird
Well-Known Member
I'm hoping that the wide scope this forum reaches I can find some folks who have some experience in what I am going to be looking at.
In my area we have one of the largest dairy farms in the state....and they are nearly doubling their size. As such lots of corn has been and will be cut for silage/chop. My area is grossly dominated with corn and soybeans fields, but it's grown for the grain, not the forage. As such come fall harvest fields are left with combine thrash and spilled or missed grain that provides food for deer and other critters. With the expansion of the dairy down the road they have placed a premium on silage corn and many farmers in my area are getting on board. This means those fields will be harvested to the point that what is left is bare dirt and a couple inch talk corn stalks sticking up out of the ground. This isn't going to leave much food left for the critters. I also know they will be injecting manure into those fields which even further makes the field bare dirt. I look for some farmers to plant a cover crop of winter wheat and radish, but not all will. This may help with the food issue and get deer more familiar with radish (my deer almost refuse to eat it currently).
Has anyone out there had or have experience in how fields used for silage has affected or impacted how the deer use the area?
I'm not overly concerned as long as cover crops are used and I know there will still be fields grown for grain, but because of the scale this change will have and if cover crops are not used - I can see this having an impact on a localized scale.....and it just has me thinking.
In my area we have one of the largest dairy farms in the state....and they are nearly doubling their size. As such lots of corn has been and will be cut for silage/chop. My area is grossly dominated with corn and soybeans fields, but it's grown for the grain, not the forage. As such come fall harvest fields are left with combine thrash and spilled or missed grain that provides food for deer and other critters. With the expansion of the dairy down the road they have placed a premium on silage corn and many farmers in my area are getting on board. This means those fields will be harvested to the point that what is left is bare dirt and a couple inch talk corn stalks sticking up out of the ground. This isn't going to leave much food left for the critters. I also know they will be injecting manure into those fields which even further makes the field bare dirt. I look for some farmers to plant a cover crop of winter wheat and radish, but not all will. This may help with the food issue and get deer more familiar with radish (my deer almost refuse to eat it currently).
Has anyone out there had or have experience in how fields used for silage has affected or impacted how the deer use the area?
I'm not overly concerned as long as cover crops are used and I know there will still be fields grown for grain, but because of the scale this change will have and if cover crops are not used - I can see this having an impact on a localized scale.....and it just has me thinking.