FOOD PLOT YIELD RATES

[Moe Shetty]

Has anyone else researched food plot rates/yields? At the surface, I am seeing that an average whitetail consumes about seven pounds of vegetation a day.

Comparing that to population estimates makes me think that food plots are unsustainable unless they are very large and high germination rates, fast growth, et cetera.

I have planted some areas, they have grown well, only to be decimated within days of the herd deciding it was "time" to enjoy it. Not to mention they seldom forage on my spots when it suits me. I suppose it's the risk of the exercise.

Thoughts?

 

[yoderjac]

In general, I don't strive for yield in any food plot. It is lots of expense and work for little gain. If you are having plots decimated, either you need more acreage, a less attractive crop, or fewer deer (which is often the case).

 

[jsasker007]

Where I'm at in Minnesota beans,peas,sunflowers or turnips don't stand a chance of keeping up with the deer unless you've got 5 acres or more. Rye, wheat, oats,clover and chicory I broadcast about twice as much as recommended to allow for the deer consumption and still have good plots with things growing and feeding deer. Clover and chicory have been the backbone of my plots lately. This year I did about 4 acres worth of alfalfa and radishes as an experiment to see how it will do. Also threw in some kale. Hoping to establish alfalfa long term. We'll see.

 

[MarkDarvin]

To sustain a herd, you need natural foods, and the juggernaut is browse. The keystone to making browse happen is the chainsaw. Consider the stump sprout. I've got ash regen that'll throw up 2-3' of green growth in a couple months. Other species do the same like basswood, diamond willow, aspens, etc.

Go back to the beginning. When do you want to hunt? Figure that out, and then figure out what order your deer eat things. I've figured out my area in normal year.

September: Acorns and alfalfa
Early October: Brassicas, chicory, plantain
Later October: Clover
November: Cereal grains, pumpkins
After: Browse

For absolute tonnage per acre, nothing can beat pumpkins. Commercial growers can top 20 tons per acre. Corn would be second. 150 bushels of
56 lb/bu corn would be 8,400 lbs/ac. Green forages are 2/3 water, so deer have to eat way more than 7 pounds to hit 7 pounds dry matter.

There can be some real genius in not joining the beans and brassica race if you're not hunting at that time. Many guys get that wrong and blow their stockpile on foods so good they get cleaned out before showtime. I hunt late October and into November, so I rely heavily on clover and cereals. Since I figured this out, I've never run out of food. If I put it all to beans and brassicas, I'd be out of business by October 10th.

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, there are two main reasons for food plots. One is for attraction to improve hunting. Those should be focused on having the crop peak during the period you plan to hunt. The other is for QDM. For QDM you need scale which most of us don't have. Deer generally range much further than the amount of land most folks own. For QDM, food plots are supplemental to native food. The purpose is to even out stress periods. Plots should be designed to provide food during periods when native foods are in a poor quality state. This is generally winter in the north, summer in the south, and a little of both in between.

In most cases, when food plots are decimated, there are simply too many deer for the habitat, or the plots are too small. It is much better to increase the amount of acreage rather than trying to maximize yield.

 

[MarkDarvin]

Yes, there are two main reasons for food plots. One is for attraction to improve hunting. Those should be focused on having the crop peak during the period you plan to hunt. The other is for QDM. For QDM you need scale which most of us don't have. Deer generally range much further than the amount of land most folks own. For QDM, food plots are supplemental to native food. The purpose is to even out stress periods. Plots should be designed to provide food during periods when native foods are in a poor quality state. This is generally winter in the north, summer in the south, and a little of both in between.

In most cases, when food plots are decimated, there are simply too many deer for the habitat, or the plots are too small. It is much better to increase the amount of acreage rather than trying to maximize yield.

No jack. A wiped out food plot does not mean you have to kill every deer you see until a quarter acre brassica plot goes the distance. If you had 2 DPSM, and a quarter acre plot of radishes, deer could come from all around and blow that out in a few days.

It takes more thinking and a broader view before you decide to kill the one thing for which you bought the property.

Up your native browse production
Lower your plot attractiveness a little
Release mast producers

Once you have perfect habitat and that is getting destroyed year round, then you have too many deer.


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[yoderjac]

No jack. A wiped out food plot does not mean you have to kill every deer you see until a quarter acre brassica plot goes the distance. If you had 2 DPSM, and a quarter acre plot of radishes, deer could come from all around and blow that out in a few days.

It takes more thinking and a broader view before you decide to kill the one thing for which you bought the property.

Up your native browse production
Lower your plot attractiveness a little
Release mast producers

Once you have perfect habitat and that is getting destroyed year round, then you have too many deer.


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Mark,

I'm sure there are a few places where the habitat is so poor that deer from a large distance would be attracted to a 1/4 acre brassica plot, but they are not the norm. In most cases the deer density is too high for the habitat. In fact, I would suggest that if deer are coming from miles for a 2 acre brassica plot, they are doing it because their habitat is insufficient to support them in most cases.

Either way, the better answer is increasing the size of the plot rather than increasing the density placing more demands on the soil and requiring more inputs.

There are some places where 2 DPSM it over populated and others where 20 DPSM has room for more deer. It is a function of what the habitat will support. Deer coming from many miles away or roaming many miles away is the reason it takes a lot of acreage for QDM to increase body weights or antler size.

Another approach is to decrease attraction. In some big woods areas with a closed canopy, deer will, as you say, come from miles for quality food. By avoiding ice cream crops and using crops that deer don't often abuse can be a solution. In areas like this, you need less attraction to draw deer to a plot than in better deer habitat.

 

[victory]

Moe I highly doubt deer eat 7 pounds of food per day. There just to lazy to do that. If they spend a half hour in a plot there moving on. I weigh double a deer and no way could eat although I might like to 14 pounds of ribs a day.

 

[LetThemGrow]

Moe I highly doubt deer eat 7 pounds of food per day. There just to lazy to do that. If they spend a half hour in a plot there moving on. I weigh double a deer and no way could eat although I might like to 14 pounds of ribs a day.

Is your doubt of scientific research based on any facts or research?

 

[yoderjac]

I think how much deer eat per day doesn't really play into food plots much. The very large majority of a deer's diet comes from native plants. Our food plots are either supplemental (for QDM) or for attraction, (to improve hunting) or some combination. I find yield to be much less important than acreage. When plots are being wiped out by deer, there are generally larger habitat issues or tiny acreage plots, not because yield is too low.

 

[victory]

Let them grow if you believe a deer eats 7 pounds of food a day great, then you must believe you can eat 14 pounds a ribs a day. Sorry I find this research to be absolute garbage.

 

[victory]

Yoder deer have lived many years without food plots and don't need food plots to survive. Your summation is spot on.

 

[cutman]

Let them grow if you believe a deer eats 7 pounds of food a day great, then you must believe you can eat 14 pounds a ribs a day. Sorry I find this research to be absolute garbage.

This is a stupid analogy. Deer are ruminants, people are not. Completely different gastrointestinal tracts.

This took me 10 seconds to find:

What Do Deer Eat? A Deer Diet Breakdown by Season

deerassociation.com

 

[yoderjac]

This is a stupid analogy. Deer are ruminants, people are not. Completely different gastrointestinal tracts.

This took me 10 seconds to find:

What Do Deer Eat? A Deer Diet Breakdown by Season

deerassociation.com

Beyond that, deer are eating salad, not ribs. I certainly believe the research. I've personally been involved in some necropsy studies years ago. And, the research is not that exact as 7 lbs a day. It is generally expressed as a percentage of body weight. It also depends on a lot of factors like age, season, food availability, temporal nutritional needs and more. I would think that 7 lbs may even be low as a generalized proxy for an average deer across the country.

Having said that, I still don't think it matters when it comes to food plots. Deer are considered concentrate selectors, but I've watched them feed on 20 different kinds of plants as they meander along. I believe yield is a good term for farmers, not deer managers.

 

[Mennoniteman]

To sustain a herd, you need natural foods, and the juggernaut is browse. The keystone to making browse happen is the chainsaw. Consider the stump sprout. I've got ash regen that'll throw up 2-3' of green growth in a couple months. Other species do the same like basswood, diamond willow, aspens, etc.

Go back to the beginning. When do you want to hunt? Figure that out, and then figure out what order your deer eat things. I've figured out my area in normal year.

September: Acorns and alfalfa
Early October: Brassicas, chicory, plantain
Later October: Clover
November: Cereal grains, pumpkins
After: Browse

For absolute tonnage per acre, nothing can beat pumpkins. Commercial growers can top 20 tons per acre. Corn would be second. 150 bushels of
56 lb/bu corn would be 8,400 lbs/ac. Green forages are 2/3 water, so deer have to eat way more than 7 pounds to hit 7 pounds dry matter.

There can be some real genius in not joining the beans and brassica race if you're not hunting at that time. Many guys get that wrong and blow their stockpile on foods so good they get cleaned out before showtime. I hunt late October and into November, so I rely heavily on clover and cereals. Since I figured this out, I've never run out of food. If I put it all to beans and brassicas, I'd be out of business by October 10th.

The OP is thinking well, but is backing into deer management in reverse, trying to estimate growing enough tons of ag crops so the deer food lasts all year, and drawing a blank. The correct approach is to tally the acres you control and figure out what species to manage to feed the herd you intend to maintain and doing it right, "never run out of food".
Mark has absolutely nailed this discussion, his two gold nuggets of truth being "never run out of food" and "chainsaw". I've been doing "never run out of food" plots for years, using exactly the 3 species he mentions, and have started others in doing this, I believe this is 100% possible to be replicated by anyone with an ATV and a sprayer, on any parcel of 10 acres or more, anywhere east of the Mississippi and some places west.
If someone wants to start managing deer they should memorize Mark's short missive (sans the pumpkins part) and concentrate on browse, clover, and cereals. Once someone has these three perfected they can consider themselves graduated from middle school and can start learning how to do brassicas and other short-term high effort deer candy like corn, peas, beans etc., if they want to. But you don't need these additional high maintenance, high dollar crops at all to be 100% successful in deer habitat.
In zone 6b, clover and cereals can be tailored to feed deer 90% of the year, or, every day that there's no heavy snow cover, and browse fills in the snow gaps. The great thing about clover and cereals is they will easily outgrow deer browsing on a half acre if you get timely rains.
Give me 10 acres (with at least a 1/2 acre plot, a sprayer, spinner seeder, & chainsaw), thick browse, ladino year round, spring oats and fall rye, this is textbook food-plotting, forget the lbs. of food per deer, just watch them grow antlers.