Winter food

jlane35

Well-Known Member
When laying out winter food plots and late dropping fruit trees are you guys trying to concentrate them in 2-3 areas of your property? Or spreading them out?

A few of my thoughts.
Pros of concentrated food supply:
When food is limited, a concentration of food will increase our success rate.
Deer won’t have to move as far.

Cons
Deer are concentrated.
Other predators success increase.
The few really good food sources could be fought over by the hunters on that parcel.

Why I’m asking is because I have fields I’ve been planting shrubs and trees into. I just don’t want to make deer travel all over the property for a desired winter food if I have them spread all out. And hurt hunting chances if I can’t pin point a late winter food source.

Early season food I don’t think matters as much because there is already so much available.
 
Your pros are spot on. Your cons haven't been seen by us. I've seen large numbers of deer killed by predators at a concentrated food source, but only because the owner had a deer fence that the coyotes used to trap the deer with. You are thinking correctly, we concentrate all habitat work around prepicked hunting stands. If your hunters are squabbling over stands it's time to make changes. More stands or less hunters.
 
Your pros are spot on. Your cons haven't been seen by us. I've seen large numbers of deer killed by predators at a concentrated food source, but only because the owner had a deer fence that the coyotes used to trap the deer with. You are thinking correctly, we concentrate all habitat work around prepicked hunting stands. If your hunters are squabbling over stands it's time to make changes. More stands or less hunters.

It’s my Father and Uncles place and my cousin and I are the two main other hunters, with the occasional friend/kid.

My father and I are very flexible and seem to kill deer no matter where we sit. My cousin on the other hand can’t seem to kill any. But back to the point. Sticking trees in the ground always throws me for a loop. Everything being done has pros and cons. And I always think my cons are hurting our hunting opportunities.

Will I create a destination somewhere it shouldn’t be? Will I spread the deer out to much? These are always my main concerns. I have a decent amount of old hay field acreage which are a blank canvas for shrubs/fruit trees/food plots. But I worry I’ll do more harm then good, for hunting purposes.
 
It’s my Father and Uncles place and my cousin and I are the two main other hunters, with the occasional friend/kid.

My father and I are very flexible and seem to kill deer no matter where we sit. My cousin on the other hand can’t seem to kill any. But back to the point. Sticking trees in the ground always throws me for a loop. Everything being done has pros and cons. And I always think my cons are hurting our hunting opportunities.

Will I create a destination somewhere it shouldn’t be? Will I spread the deer out to much? These are always my main concerns. I have a decent amount of old hay field acreage which are a blank canvas for shrubs/fruit trees/food plots. But I worry I’ll do more harm then good, for hunting purposes.
You are definitely thinking correctly, you should have a hunting plan for your property showing stand locations before you start logging, hinge cutting, making fields, and planting trees. I like to have multiple stands per hunter, and every habitat improvement is based on those locations off of the hunting plan. Hunting stand locations on the map are determined by low impact access opportunities, existing fields and also bedding cover. We then place most deer food plantings within sight/ shooting distance or off a travel corridor from those stands. Our plan is designed for our preferences, based on past hunting experiences, to hunt close to food sources, whereas some hunters prefer to hunt away from food sources ie. big timber. This plan is then tweaked every off season after careful consideration of the past season's deer movements and hunter success, then new trees are planted, stands are moved, trails opened and closed, bedding cover is optimized, fields redesignated etc.
As far as stand allocation, if we have a hunter that struggles to get a deer we let them pick their stands first, and those will be theirs for the duration of the season/ hunt so that there is no complaining about everyone else getting all of the best spots, and so that this one person isn't going around cherry picking everyone else's spots after burning out their own.
 
We have 5 distinct plots (two 6 acre complexes, a 3 acre home plot we don’t hunt (except for turkeys), a 11/2 acre plot and a 3/4 acre plot. The latter two were located near bedding areas/travel corridors and were primarily designed for bowhunting. With that in mind, stands/blinds were located with predominant winds in mind. The two 6 acre plots are adjacent to bedding areas (swamp or extensive hinge cuts). Theses are our rifle areas and we rely on Redneck blinds to help contain scent.

If we didn’t have the trespassing problems we do, I’d have put in another plot or two. My thinking is the number of plots promotes movement as deer congregate on our place in the fall. The Mature bucks are constantly cruising (primarily down wind of the plots) scent checking does. Our biggest challenge is fickle winds and limited access routes to the various plots without blowing out other spots.

We have enough natural apple trees on the property so I’ve never planted a tree. If you’re a bow hunter, I’d encourage your putting in a number of micro plots along travel corridors located to promote access and located with predominant winds in mind. Clover/late planted grains are easy and can take lots of pressure. Unfortunately, up here, they’re of less use when the snows pile up (which coincides with our rifle season).

One additional thought about plots. Yes, they can concentrate predators...but they also concentrate does which are the number one buck attractant. Again, it facilitates movement. Will the neighbors benefit? Inevitably. However, unless you are high fenced or have thousands of acres, that will always be the case.

This habitat addiction is about having fun. I get as much enjoyment out of watching wildlife as I do harvesting one. Do what will promote your enjoyment.

For us, seeing deer is never an issue. A typical sit in one of the plot complexes Is seeing 20-30 deer a sit. The challenge is with the exception of the height of the rut, the 41/2+ year old bucks stay in thick cover downwind of the plots and do their thing at night. Each year, I’ve set additional stands closer to these areas but I really try to treat them as sanctuaries so will never hunt in them. I don’t want fickle winds blowing things up.

We’ve maintained a high quality experience through limiting numbers. 4 hunters is the most I’ll allow and 2-3 is much better. For the few people we allow to hunt, we spread out in different seasons.
 
All great information. My father and I are normally the last to pick our rifle stand for the year because like I said it doesn’t seem to matter where we sit, we see deer.

That makes sense with the micro plots and tree plantings. I’ve just always been concerned that if I plant trees in different spots. If I sit on a trail leading to one the deer will go to the other tree/plot in the nearby location. We don’t see tons of deer. The most deer I’ve had on camera in a field at once was 16. So we have deer but we aren’t overrun.

I’m not trying to take any fun out of this for anyone. Just trying to improve our land and hope it helps people harvest their deer. I guess I just overthink a lot of stuff and never actually can make up my mind on what to do.

The only thing I’m trying to do is have my cousin stop archery hunting on the field edge of our archery plot. I hope I can get him in the mindset of killing deer and not just seeing deer. And then sit in an enclosed blind overlooking the field during rifle.
 
I think more plots spread out will promote buck movement during the rut. You are probably gonna have different doe groups (families) feeding in different plots. A buck on the hunt will check all of them, thus making him more visible on the entire property. One or two big plots will allow that same buck to scent check or visually check, then if he doesn’t find anything interesting he’ll be on his way to the neighbor’s property. A lot of this may take place at night, but enough will take place during the day, and the small plots will get more attention from bucks as far as staying around and actually feeding, IMO. They don’t like to be far from cover, and the safer they feel, the more they will feed in daylight. That’s my $2, (adjusted for inflation and covid19):)
 
I think more plots spread out will promote buck movement during the rut. You are probably gonna have different doe groups (families) feeding in different plots. A buck on the hunt will check all of them, thus making him more visible on the entire property. One or two big plots will allow that same buck to scent check or visually check, then if he doesn’t find anything interesting he’ll be on his way to the neighbor’s property. A lot of this may take place at night, but enough will take place during the day, and the small plots will get more attention from bucks as far as staying around and actually feeding, IMO. They don’t like to be far from cover, and the safer they feel, the more they will feed in daylight. That’s my $2, (adjusted for inflation and covid19):)

That makes me want to start planting some small plots in the woods again that we have gotten away from!
 
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