You northern guys have it tough - or us southern guys have it easy - not sure which. You have to worry about your winters and we have to worry with summer and fall
You northern guys have it tough - or us southern guys have it easy - not sure which. You have to worry about your winters and we have to worry with summer and fall droughts. Deer around my place quit using foodplots - which stay green all winter, because every pasture in the world is greening up and there is a world of green for them to eat. In my area of southern AR, I don't feel winter foodplots really help the deer much - but tend to concentrate them for hunting - and provide a variety for deer to choose - in addition to acorns and browse. Spring is a time of plenty - fresh browse and green forbs and grasses aplenty. Summer can be brutal - sometimes we don't get rain from first of July until the end of September. Beans and clover (until the clover dries up) help the does with fawns and the bucks growing antlers get through this hard time. Fall sees acorn drop and things begin to green back up as rains start falling again. Corn usually isn't a choice for most southern food plotters because of hogs.
Your comments here are why I think the south, especially the deep south, have such tremendous potential for growing world class whitetails. The growing season is almost all year long meaning you can have quality cultivars available every month of the year. Environmental stresses are limited though indeed summers can be tough. But manageable. Property holdings tend to be larger especially compared to the north. Historically all thats been missing has been quality management practices . The legacy is the whole brown its down mentality. But thats changing and folks are starting to grow some top flight bucks as a result.