Ist Time Plot Question & Other Advice

[PAGUY]

New to all of this but very excited. I just bought an old Ford 8N with attachments. I have a very limited amount of ground to work with (12 acres). It's surrounded by farmland on three sides and a major highway borders the fourth side. Cover is sporadic with a few acres of brush here and a few acres of timber there. There are a lot of deer. It's not uncommon to see 20 to 30 deer in the fields in the evening.

Most of the farm fields are 100's of acres of corn with a few 10 or so acres of clover and winter wheat fields. This is all they ever plant. They just rotate them in the fields. By the end of September everything will be gone (silage) and it looks like barren waste land. You can't hide a field mouse.

Right now I've prepped (soil tested, limed & fertilized) a two acre area area out of the twelve for a plot. My first question is: Am I better off making the plot bigger, or should I go for the additional cover? The property is going to be utilized for strictly bowhunting. Not sure the best direction to take or exactly what to plant yet.

Open to any and all advice. Thank you!

 

[Mennoniteman]

With all the deer you have and it's getting late I'd put a mixture of clover, oats, wheat and rye out. This keeps weeds down, builds soil and will withstand the heavy grazing pressure that you'll get after the farmers fields are empty. With only twelve acres I'd stick to two or three acres of plots. Where bouts in pa r u at?

 

[PAGUY]

Thanks Mennoniteman. I wasn't even going to plant it this year. Was thinking ahead to next year, but I'm game if you think it would pay dividends? On the Crawford/Mercer line.

 

[JFH]

New to all of this but very excited. I just bought an old Ford 8N with attachments. I have a very limited amount of ground to work with (12 acres). It's surrounded by farmland on three sides and a major highway borders the fourth side. Cover is sporadic with a few acres of brush here and a few acres of timber there. There are a lot of deer. It's not uncommon to see 20 to 30 deer in the fields in the evening.

Most of the farm fields are 100's of acres of corn with a few 10 or so acres of clover and winter wheat fields. This is all they ever plant. They just rotate them in the fields. By the end of September everything will be gone (silage) and it looks like barren waste land. You can't hide a field mouse.

Right now I've prepped (soil tested, limed & fertilized) a two acre area area out of the twelve for a plot. My first question is: Am I better off making the plot bigger, or should I go for the additional cover? The property is going to be utilized for strictly bowhunting. Not sure the best direction to take or exactly what to plant yet.

Open to any and all advice. Thank you!

Largely agree with Mennonite, not knowing enough about your property.

If you expect neighboring properties to be barren by the hunt I agree planting mostly grains and some clover for good draw and cover cropping.

Perhaps some brassicas earlier next year?

Good job with testing and liming!


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[Jason Broom]

Ultimately, on smaller parcels like yours, it's all about cover and very careful ingress/egress to your hunting spot. Don't over hunt it or hunt when the wind is wrong. A small food plot or two doesn't hurt, but focus mostly on providing the cover deer will need when all of that corn is gone.

 

[Tap]

Ultimately, on smaller parcels like yours, it's all about cover and very careful ingress/egress to your hunting spot. Don't over hunt it or hunt when the wind is wrong. A small food plot or two doesn't hurt, but focus mostly on providing the cover deer will need when all of that corn is gone.

Yes sir. Develop cover and keep hunting pressure to a minimum.
In all honesty, there are very few 12 acre parcels that should be hunted more than a couple of times each season, it just too easy to burn it out. I'm not saying a 12 acre property can never be hunted more often, but you darn well better only hunt it under prime conditions. Risky access and sloppy odor control will burn it out quickly.
Develop cover, sanctuaries, iron clad approach routes, and live by the wind.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I'd try to get some oats in at least. They're cheap, good for the soil, easy to put out, grow like weeds, and actually help keep your weeds down. Go to the local feed store and get a 100 lb bag of feed oats for about $15, just spin them on and run over one time with a disc set lightly. Soil stays in better shape with something growing in it all the time, especially over the fall, and oats are a great draw for the first week of gun season. You want to keep your soil organic matter as high as possible all the time, and when there's not much growing OM is going down. When us plot guys mow, spray or roll down one crop we get the next one going right away. My next move on that two acres would be to seed clover on top of those oats. Clover is unbeatable in small plots. You could do a late winter frost seeding, but I'd probably seed the clover right away, and it'd be well established by spring. Then you're set until next July when you might plant some brassica. Or leave the clover be for five years or so and add more oats every September first.

 

[Mennoniteman]

The other guys have some good advice on hunting those twelve acres. I have an eleven acre property similar to that in special regulations, and I've harvested fifty deer off of it in the last ten years, about ten quality bucks. We only hunt the downwind edge in archery, and an enclosed hut in the middle that I hunt a few times in gun season, I only walk through this eleven acres to get to the hut. Stay out of your bedding area!

 

[Chainsaw]

A 1/2 acre of oats planted with clover and well fertilized and properly limed to get absolute maximum growth possible somewhere on the property where the deer are hidden from you and everyone else would be good. Fertilize the edges of the plot also. Border that with a strip of apple trees planted and individually fenced on the sun receiving side of the plot. Never hunt the plot. Grow the remaining 11 acres into cover including brush, hardwood and softwoods. Put stands near the outside edges on deer trails designed by you. Pay the farmers with either cash or work for permission to access your edges through their fields. Save the property for November 6th to 12th hunting and reread Tap's post.

 

[PAGUY]

Ultimately, on smaller parcels like yours, it's all about cover and very careful ingress/egress to your hunting spot. Don't over hunt it or hunt when the wind is wrong. A small food plot or two doesn't hurt, but focus mostly on providing the cover deer will need when all of that corn is gone.

Thank you! I wasn't certain whether to go for the additional cover or increase the plot size. I'll leave it the way it is and work with what I have.

 

[Jason Broom]

Thank you! I wasn't certain whether to go for the additional cover or increase the plot size. I'll leave it the way it is and work with what I have.

Last year, in northern Michigan, I harvested the buck shown below on a 10 acre property and my cousin harvested an even bigger buck on a 12 acre piece. The key is keeping intrusion to a minimum so that deer feel secure being there, as part of their home range.

You can see the edges of a tiny food plot (less than 1/2 an acre) in the background. This guy came cruising through, looking for companionship, because of the does who were enjoying the secure dining location. He dressed out around 175, which means more to me than antler growth.

 

[PAGUY]

A 1/2 acre of oats planted with clover and well fertilized and properly limed to get absolute maximum growth possible somewhere on the property where the deer are hidden from you and everyone else would be good. Fertilize the edges of the plot also. Border that with a strip of apple trees planted and individually fenced on the sun receiving side of the plot. Never hunt the plot. Grow the remaining 11 acres into cover including brush, hardwood and softwoods. Put stands near the outside edges on deer trails designed by you. Pay the farmers with either cash or work for permission to access your edges through their fields. Save the property for November 6th to 12th hunting and reread Tap's post.

I have 4 established apple trees on the south end of the plot. Kind of why I established the plot there.


I planted 5 pear trees on the North end of the plot last fall. They doubled in size in one year. I'll prune them this winter.

Wanting to plant chestnuts this fall. Any suggestions?

 

[PAGUY]

This is the view from the adjacent clover/winter wheat field. My property consist mostly of red brush, golden rod and secondary trees. The large trees in the background is the fencerow property line. Beyond it is more cornfields.


I turned the plot today and will plant oats this week.

 

[PAGUY]

Fairly certain I can bowhunt it effectively. Just not a lot of area to work with and I wasn't certain whether to focus on food or cover. The deer live like kings until the end of September.

 

[Mennoniteman]

The oats will be just right for heavy grazing by the end of September. If the deer mow them hard they stay low and tender. Last year mine were green and being grazed into January. If you want to feed the deer in February you need to plant rye. But the deer won't go for the rye in the fall if they can get anything else.

 

[Jason Broom]

The oats will be just right for heavy grazing by the end of September. If the deer mow them hard they stay low and tender. Last year mine were green and being grazed into January. If you want to feed the deer in February you need to plant rye. But the deer won't go for the rye in the fall if they can get anything else.

My brother-in-law is a roofer and he told me, years ago, that rain always comes down, except when it goes sideways, and when it blows up.

Deer eat what they eat; hundreds of different plant species that vary based on your locality. It may well be that deer in areas surrounded by ag fields in late summer will not eat winter rye, but your assertion that it's the very last thing they'll eat is a little misleading. Depending on where you're at in the whitetail range, there are dozens of different things deer eat that are lower on their preference list than winter rye. Heck, it's even a stretch to say it's less preferred than oats, wheat, triticale, barley, or any of the other grains/grasses. Most folks who have done side-by-side comparisons find that IF there is a preference, it is not exclusionary; they'll almost always eat both plants, if winter rye is one of them.

However, you mention the most important reason for planting winter rye earlier in your response: "If you want to feed the deer in February you need to plant the rye." Unless someone is planting a food plot specifically to kill a deer, why wouldn't you want to feed them well into winter? The ability of winter rye to germinate and grow in temperatures that put virtually all other green food to sleep is crucial to feeding them in winter. Perhaps even more important is how quickly rye greens up in the spring and starts providing calories and protein for deer desperately in need of both to recover body mass lost during winter.

Now, I typically include oats in my fall mix, (Thank you LC) but I never leave out winter rye, or at least triticale, which is a hybrid of rye and wheat. I like having oats in the mix, but the only time I would plant them w/o rye is if they were to act as a nurse crop for clover and chicory, and I didn't want to have to mow the rye the following spring. Whether you're planting way up north or down on the bayou, on deep alluvial soils or something closer to blow sand, winter rye is a remarkably useful and effective base for a fall food plot...not that I'm biased or anything!

 

[Mennoniteman]

My brother-in-law is a roofer and he told me, years ago, that rain always comes down, except when it goes sideways, and when it blows up.

Deer eat what they eat; hundreds of different plant species that vary based on your locality. It may well be that deer in areas surrounded by ag fields in late summer will not eat winter rye, but your assertion that it's the very last thing they'll eat is a little misleading. Depending on where you're at in the whitetail range, there are dozens of different things deer eat that are lower on their preference list than winter rye. Heck, it's even a stretch to say it's less preferred than oats, wheat, triticale, barley, or any of the other grains/grasses. Most folks who have done side-by-side comparisons find that IF there is a preference, it is not exclusionary; they'll almost always eat both plants, if winter rye is one of them.

However, you mention the most important reason for planting winter rye earlier in your response: "If you want to feed the deer in February you need to plant the rye." Unless someone is planting a food plot specifically to kill a deer, why wouldn't you want to feed them well into winter? The ability of winter rye to germinate and grow in temperatures that put virtually all other green food to sleep is crucial to feeding them in winter. Perhaps even more important is how quickly rye greens up in the spring and starts providing calories and protein for deer desperately in need of both to recover body mass lost during winter.

Now, I typically include oats in my fall mix, (Thank you LC) but I never leave out winter rye, or at least triticale, which is a hybrid of rye and wheat. I like having oats in the mix, but the only time I would plant them w/o rye is if they were to act as a nurse crop for clover and chicory, and I didn't want to have to mow the rye the following spring. Whether you're planting way up north or down on the bayou, on deep alluvial soils or something closer to blow sand, winter rye is a remarkably useful and effective base for a fall food plot...not that I'm biased or anything!

Your observations are pretty much spot on. I was just doing the short quick version of helping a guy get a great fall shooting plot established. While rye is a very useful planting, it would be my last choice for a quick late planting fall shooting plot. Around here, the deer go for rye in February, but let it go in November.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Food plots are somewhat like running from a bear. You don't need to outrun the bear, you only need to outrun the guy you're with. You don't need to grow the perfect deer plot to attract deer, it just needs to be the best food available in the neighborhood during hunting season. Plant rye and there's oats, brassica and clover a mile away you're going to be out of luck. Nothing else green around, it'll bring in deer.

 

[PAGUY]

I transplanted 25 pine trees today into my golden rod. I sure hope they survive. It was a lot of work. I'm thinking about planting some autumn olives because I have access to as much of the stuff as I want. I've heard bad things about it being invasive, but I need to provide as much cover as possible on this small acreage and it might just be the trick. Thoughts?

 

[Jason Broom]

Typically better to transplant when a tree is dormant and you can do a lot better than autumn olive.

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