Food Source vs Cover

[Smallplot]

My response to OP's original question. Before we start a champagne diet, we have to realize you have a beer income. What I mean is realistically you have a very small piece of the puzzle to work with.

When looking at any program or transformation of a property we are looking to fill the holes in a bucket first so our bucket is able to hold more besides draining out, and your bucket is significantly smaller than many. Not saying you can not have good success in habitat vs food but you are very limited.

Looking in from my perspective of just your description, the holes you are trying to fill is security and stomach, in that order. Due to the size of the property you are going to struggle with getting enough area for a solid sanctuary. This is going to lead into hunting pressure which will effect deer movement and use of areas.

Another misconception is thinking a food plot will provide more tonnage of forage than an acre managed for native habitat, or a deer will get better nutrients from a food plot than a natural stand. A case can be made in the later but realize plants growing in say an area of hingecut, will be selected by nature to take full advantage of the soil conditions (including nutrient) and be better adapted at utilizing nutrient uptake than an Ag crop.

In your post you mention security so one has to assume that is likely your areas biggest drawback. If a deer is feeling pressure, it will likely move to an area with less pressure.

I think the key is addressing heavy cover and managing human and deer contacts, thus allowing the deer to feel safe during legal hunting hours.

Some may disagree but here is my suggestion based on deer observations over the past 20 years. Keep your food plots in service and make certain you have the type of thick cover a deer will feel safe in. Secondly is to drastically limit your human interaction with the deer population, and this very well includes hunting pressure. Address these two shortfalls and you may be on the correct path of success. If you continually bump deer during entry and exits they will remember and possibly look for a more preferred contact ratio or property offering what yours might be lacking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jeff H]

I am in Catskills mountains NY- Thank you all for the lengthy responses , a few more thoughts :

I am fully aware that I will never hold deer on my 35 acres alone . Over the last four years of improving habitat we have removed many white pine and mature hemlock to improve the under story . We clear cut a two acre stand as well . I have been working to hinge cut the property lines , as well as work on edge feathering the main plot , create travel cooridors etc.

The main issue at hand that I wanted to discuss in this thread was increasing daytime usage of my plot . Last year we did not hunt the food plot at all . I ran an experiment to see if I kept the pressure that I could control to an absolute minimum if daylight usage would increase . It did not , but my observations did show that deer in the local areas have absolutely no problem feeding in old pasture in broad daylight .

I know that in my region I will never sit over my plot in a redneck blind and wait
For an old bruiser to come out of crp field at 10 am . But I do know that both myself and my neighbors have seen a great improvement in the body weight of the local heard since I started planting . This past year many of my neighbors harvest the deer that were on there way to my plots .

So I had a few ideas , do I try a mix like Ed Spinozollas cover and Forbes mix ? Do I try planting switch grass or screens to break up the plot . I'm having a hard time balancing hunt ability / cover & tonnage .

Sounds like your on the right track. Only thing I would add is to try and break up your food plot(s) with some type of cover to help with daytime activity. Milo or grain sorgum is a great option as it is a food source also.

 

[Elkaddict]

Matt, I'm a fan of corn and bean mix but it would not be my first choice in your situation. I'd focus on the classic LC rotation and really get active hinge cuttung a number of well thought out bedding areas that allow you to set up on. I don't think your biggest deer will regularly be shot in the plots. I think you're far better off hunting down wind of beading areas or trying to intercept deer on their way to your plots.