Different food plot question...

Threemorewishes

Threemorewishes

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Ottawa Ontario Canada
Hello all,
I have noticed something about food plots that I was wondering if anyone else has experienced....for some reason around mid-summer the deer just stop coming for a nibble. They come back in the fall and winter but disappear around mid-summer.
This is something I have seen over and over again. We dont use the commercial 'deer food plot' products but sow various grains from large bulk bags. I know the plants are changing and as such the deer may not like the plant anymore but we put in a variety and you woud think that there is enough choice for even the finicky deer.
I have also noticed that they eat certain areas right down to the ground and leave others almost untouched. We started to think it was the soil chemistry or that they could not see predators from certain points in the field, but then the next year the places would change. Deer behaviour is a great puzzle.
Any thoughts?
Threemorewishes
 
I would suspect that the deer are doing that as a method of food preservation, if they were to stay in one spot and graze all year then there would be no forage left for the fall and winter months. They also might have another feeding spot with a forage that they prefer for spring and early summer.

Another explanation that may be responsible is the fact that some plants are bitter until the first frost, after that they start producing sugar and are much more paletable to the deer.

I don't know about Ontario but in B.C. the deer have to migrate to and from their winter range. By the sounds of it your place could be their winter habitate. If this is the case then there is nothing that your gonna plant to keep them there, and you wouldn't want to mess up there travel patterns. If they are coming to your place in the late fall and winter then thats good, thats hunting season. Realize that there is going to be some guy complaining about the deer being at his house all summer and leaving when hunting season starts;)
 
Your problem is that you are sowing commercial grain... not wildlife mixtures.
You do realize that they will eat on the new growth in the spring... and then there is no nutritional value until the grain ripens that's why they are back in the fall.
You should rethink what you are planting if you really want to benefit the wildlife.
Grain crops are designed to do well with herbicides, pesticides and fertilization never mind well aerated and tiled fields.
You may think you are saving money doing it your way but you are actually wasting your money and efforts.
Check the bishops site for some good advice.
http://www.bishopseeds.ca/wildlifephotogallery.php
 
Or you could do this....

You don't need to buy a pre-mixed product with a 1000 % mark up. I get a real charge out of what the 'mad scientists' at those outfits mix-up and charge. Most of the ingredients are available from your local agricultural seed and fertilizer dealer. A previous post kinda hit on the problem. As spring cereals mature (past the flag leaf) they begin to lay down a lot of fibre and decrease in feed quality. They become unpalatable and the deer move onto 'greener' pastures. So what you want to do is seed winter cereals like fall rye, winter wheat, or winter triticale instead of oats and barley. They need to vernalize (go through a winter) before they set reproductive tillers. So what you wind up with is lots of lush vegetative growth. Now having said that, you wouldn't want to seed just cereals. A good mixture would have fall rye, winter wheat, winter canola (rapeseed), stubble turnips, puna chicory, clovers, and field peas. Since most of you are probably going to broadcast your seed: disc or rotavate the soil and harrow it level. Broadcast the seed and a starter fertilizer (25-10-10-5), harrow to incorporate and then run over it with a roller to pack.
 
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