Well I planted alfalfa a year ago last October.The first year there wasn't alot there so didn't pay much attention that the deer seemed to feed on the wheat more.But again this year and not alot of moisture so whet was slow coming up.But no worries still lots of green wheat since it's been mild but deer walk right by it to feed on whats left of the corn and a few bites of wheat.I may have more action in early season but right now I am looking at either working up in fall and plant wheat or drilling wheat right into the alfalfa.How has everyone elses alfalfa success been
Alfalfa
- Thread starter buckdeer1
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Smallplot
Active Member
Always a lot of activity around our alfalfa. It is good from spring green up till dormancy. One has to take into account the surrounding habitat and available browse and get a realistic picture of what to expect. Too many times people expect to see deer file into food plots like feeding time in a dry lot cattle pen. Sometimes it may happen but mostly it does not. Not saying the deer don’t consume large amounts from food plots but remember this, a food plot is only going to be about 10 percent of a free range deer’s diet unless available food is not to be had.
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j-bird
Well-Known Member
The only time I see deer really use alfalfa in my area is after it has new growth after being mowed. Now I live in farm country so there are 100's of acres of corn and soybeans around so the deer are by no means limited on food. I know in some places alfalfa is a great draw for deer. I am a firm believer in listening to what the deer are telling you however. As long as the alfalfa has been given a fair chance to prove it's worth - then listen to the deer. If the deer love it, fine. If the deer want something else....then you need to cater to what they want and when they want it to have the best results. Maybe even keep some of it, just reduce the amount....diversity is always a good thing. Sometimes I also think deer need time to adapt to a new food if they have not been exposed to it before as well.....
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Alfalfa is a great deer food here. A farmers forty acre alfalfa field borders our property on one 1,000 ft. long edge. It consistently has deer in it just before dark(the alfalfa borders the road so the deer are disturbed often when they come out into the alfalfa much before dark). They are still even feeding in it this week after many freezes and a couple of light snows. Soon though likely any day now it won't be used again by the deer until spring. It is not the case here of it is all there is to eat; there is about every type of food available to the deer here in quantities except for acorns.
Smallplot
Active Member
All good info might I just add a couple additional thoughts. Taking about large averages and alfalfa there are a couple differences over a typical food plot. While they will have one similarity of being a constant food source available which brings deer to the same area day after day to feed. Deer are creatures of habit more than we give them credit, they get used to feeding in the same area year after year.
Now the huge difference comes into play with doe groups during the spring and summer. Having a large area lessens the conflict between doe groups as they have a lot larger area to spread out. With smaller food plots they may get ran off by a bully doe and find substance elsewhere. This is really visible during fawning times as well when they spread out to birth and hide the young until moving back into doe groups as the fawn ages where safety from the group takes over the sent-less hide in place behaviors of fawns.
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Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Those are some good points Smallplot. There are often many groups of deer in the alfalfa field at the same time. Deer within each group may be close together but as you surmised there are fairly large spaces between the groups themselves. Behind the alfalfa field in less than a twenty acre finger of property is thick, very thick cover, a hundred or so apple trees, an array of food plots plus an oak tree and a bunch of hickory trees which they also are drawn to yet they leave the safety of those hidden spots to feed in the alfalfa near but usually before dark. The alfalfa field has been an alfalfa field mostly there since 1987 that I have seen. The few years it wasn't alfalfa it was corn.
For various reasons except for poachers I have not seen evidence of a deer shot in that alfalfa field although I have seen as many as fifty-six deer in there at once early in the evening during hunting season(back when the deer population had exploded). They have trained themselves that it is a safe place to feed. That single alfalfa field has possibly helped raise 600 to 1,000 deer over the years. Food plots that I have planted on the other hand simply due to their smaller sizes can't accommodate so many deer at the same time nor produce enough tonnage to stay ahead of a large number of deer. This field being so large not only feeds a large number of generations of deer but the farmer also gets five major cuttings off it each year. For the deer it produces significantly more food available to them for a longer period of time than corn does; that is especially so for silage corn. For anyone renting their AG fields out to a farmer that grows alfalfa instead of just corn is worth consideration even if it needs to be rented a little cheaper. This alfalfa field acts like an anchor store in a mall. A great anchor store draws a lot of customers to the stores around it. This alfalfa field does the same for the woods around it. It is located on one end of the two mile long property. The deer are very thick on that end; deer sightings are probably four to one compared to the other end of the property which has no anchor store(giant alfalfa field).
So yes it's more than a pretty good thing abutting a forty acre alfalfa field for this property. Thanks for getting me thinking on that more Smallplot.
Edit a day later--just want to add that I have not seriously planted any alfalfa food plots, had mixed some in with clover somewhere or other over the years but can't even remember where. Thus I am not in position to recommend it or not for food plots. From what I have seen here though, I do highly recommend it for long term plantings rented to farmers that cut it regularly. It does have two downsides--I see no winter use of it and the farmers first cutting coincides with fawning time. Still it is considered an integral part of what helps make this property tick even though it is on an adjoining property and not under my complete control. I only control two sides of it which happens to be the only cover bordering it and it is thick cover at that.
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Bullwinkle
Active Member
Spot on chainsaw
A great alfalfa field is about as good as you can get. Even right now -12/8 in WI. The alfalfa fields are filled with deer
A great alfalfa field is about as good as you can get. Even right now -12/8 in WI. The alfalfa fields are filled with deer
Jason Broom
Well-Known Member
Is alfalfa one of those low-growing types of plant where an exclosure is very important, if you want to really know how much use it's getting?
I've been preparing a 5 acre field for 2 yrs to plant in alfalfa. It is the best drained soil on my property though not very fertile. So I've been rotating sunn hemp in summer and heavy plantings of rye in the winter. Next spring I'm planting it in sunn hemp and cow peas then come fall alfalfa. It's an experiment to compare alfalfa to the clovers, joint vetch and beans that are also planted in the area.
Along with experimenting to see deer summer usage its easy to note that many of the biggest whitetails in the nation come from areas with extensive alfalfa. High quality food especially valuable during antler growing and fawning times..
Along with experimenting to see deer summer usage its easy to note that many of the biggest whitetails in the nation come from areas with extensive alfalfa. High quality food especially valuable during antler growing and fawning times..
Smallplot
Active Member
If it only gets a foot tall in the summer either one, deer are keeping it ate back, or two: your in need of adding nutrients/balancing PH. Both very important for healthy alfalfa.
Looking at just how much nutrients are removed on average can shed some light on just how important nutrients are with alfalfa. Makes no difference if harvested or consumed by deer for this. The following numbers are from AG PHD Nutrient removal tool for one acre of alfalfa with 1.5 ton removed, and in harvesting we would look for even more removed per acre in a healthy stand just to make this a little more realistic. P-18 lbs per acre, K-73.5 lbs per acre, and Ca-28.31 lbs per acre. This is the amount of nutrients removed from your soil.
I also know some say deer poop back in these areas so it really is not removed. Nutrients going in one end of an animal does not equal the amount of nutrient coming out the other end of an animal. Considering. In looking at chicken litter just as an example without testing, we use an average nutrient percentage content of 3-3-2. This means an average ton of poultry litter contains 60 pounds of nitrogen, 60 pounds of phosphate (P2O5) and 40 pounds of potash (K2O) per ton of litter. The amount of manure scattered by deer will be considerably less in “applied weight”.
Later on in the summer ours may only get about 1.5 to 2 foot tall but that is with regular cuttings (like once a month with dryer conditions on not great amended soil).
One can look at the stems and conclude they are being ate off but a cage may be a better way to visualize just how much deer are consuming.
Buck, not trying to argue your post, just felt I needed to add to it.
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dogghr
Well-Known Member
The secret of alfalfa food plot for deer is keep it within reason in size so deer will do your mowing if you aren't wanting to sell it. And the second is to mix in combo of clovers and chicory. As one gets over browsed, the other is available. If I didn't have and exclusion cage on my plot, I would deem it a failure by its appearance. And don't assume since it looks dormant in winter that deer don't use it, they do. Mine are there daily despite enough hard mast to feed twice the herd. It and chicory are 2 feet tall in the cage yet almost bare outside it. Also, as anyone knows, you have to have multiple plots with different buffets. Deer just don't eat the same thing all the time, they go form one food to another depending on their wants/needs. Alfalfa is very easy to do if you get your soils up to speed and don't plant a monoculture. I believe mine is going into its 5th year and I doubled its size this past fall. For a dry hot ridge top area, alfalfa and chicory just hard to beat.
What variety of alfalfa are you going to plant down there. I have planted alfalfa a couple times on a small scale at my place and it just never did that well. I probably never have it a fair chance.
Smallplot
Active Member
Couple questions after reading your original post and a few comments. 1) what area do you live in? This can make a huge difference on times which leads me into the next question because it may be a good time to plant alfalfa in your area. Why did you plant it in October? Alfalfa usually needs to get well established enough the crows are set to protect the young plants from freezing. Around here, West central Illinois, this calls for a late summer planting.
And the last question you mentioned mowing now. Do you mow it in December? The plant needs to be able to store enough sugar to make it through the winter. We usually don’t touch it much past September just to make sure growth is sufficient to get a good start the following spring and survive the winter.
Hope I am not sounding like I am downing your methods as this is not my intention. But re-reading did bring up some honest to goodness questions which may all be answered by the first question I just posted.
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In my opinion, alfalfa is perhaps the single best crop you can plant for deer forage... assuming you don’t reside in a high agriculture area where the other browse options are impossible to compete with.
Search this forum for my previous posts on the subject, including a very useful link to a PDF that will tell you everything you need to know about alfalfa.
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Search this forum for my previous posts on the subject, including a very useful link to a PDF that will tell you everything you need to know about alfalfa.
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Smallplot
Active Member
Yes mine is still green down low with the mild temps we have been having also. (at least it was the last time I looked at it).
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Chipdasqrrl
Active Member
Thoughts on RR alfalfa monoculture vs alfalfa-Clover-chicory mix?
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