Food plot

I feed them mineral and protein blocks through out the winter as well. Corn is for summer and fall to fatten them up, but once the lakes freeze over I stop. If they don't have a water source corn will bloat inside them and kill them. You can also get bales of alfalfa and other kinds of straws. Literally any legume they will eat. Dont over think it too much, just stay away from corn in the winter
 
jonnyboy1014 said:
I feed them mineral and protein blocks through out the winter as well. Corn is for summer and fall to fatten them up, but once the lakes freeze over I stop. If they don't have a water source corn will bloat inside them and kill them. You can also get bales of alfalfa and other kinds of straws. Literally any legume they will eat. Dont over think it too much, just stay away from corn in the winter
Click to expand...

Cracked corn is fine. Whole corn is what you need to be careful with
 
Thanks for everyone’s input. I think we are going to take the advice and try a few separate plantings on the property. A rack stacker walk and toss patch, white clover patch as well as some turnips for late season. With any luck I can report the results next year. Our goal is to have a healthy group of deer remain on the property.
Thanks
Don
 
crumper said:
Thanks for everyone’s input. I think we are going to take the advice and try a few separate plantings on the property. A rack stacker walk and toss patch, white clover patch as well as some turnips for late season. With any luck I can report the results next year. Our goal is to have a healthy group of deer remain on the property.
Thanks
Don
Click to expand...

You know, of course, none of those are natural deer foods. :)


What is A Browser?
A browser is a type of a herbivorous animal that specializes in eating leaves, fruits of high-growing woody plants, soft shoots and shrubs. A browser is, therefore, an animal that does not feed on grass or other low growing vegetation. They can also be defined as animals that mainly eat non-grasses including herbaceous dicots and woody plants.

Grizz
 
Watch Whitetail Habitat Solutions on youtube for food plot ideas. He has tons of vids about it.

The main things he stresses is that you dont make food plots for summer deer because unless you want to compete with actual farms, there is no way you will keep deer on your land. What hunters need to focus their time and effort on is making food plots that are peaking and available AFTER the fields have been cut and the frost is in and the farm food is gone and the deer are looking for something else.

Winter greens, winter rye, brassicas and things that will be green and lush while everything else has died or been cultivated.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
You know, of course, none of those are natural deer foods. :)


What is A Browser?
A browser is a type of a herbivorous animal that specializes in eating leaves, fruits of high-growing woody plants, soft shoots and shrubs. A browser is, therefore, an animal that does not feed on grass or other low growing vegetation. They can also be defined as animals that mainly eat non-grasses including herbaceous dicots and woody plants.

Grizz
Click to expand...

Whitetails are only as prevalent in North America because of intensive agriculture of things that provide better food then what they evolved eating. There's far more whitetails now then at any point in history.
 
blasted_saber said:
Whitetails are only as prevalent in North America because of intensive agriculture of things that provide better food then what they evolved eating. There's far more whitetails now then at any point in history.
Click to expand...

I agree. If i was a deer and had my choice between twigs and leaves or turnips and other legumes i know what my choice would be. Deer like flavour too
 
WT will die on a diet of twigs & brush, they require grass-like or broad-leaf food source were as Mules must have a large amount of twig-willow-buck brush volume in their diet to survive and digest the small amount of grass they require. For this reason, Mules will survive much better in a high-snow environment much better that WT will. Their primary food source sticks out much higher in the snow.
 
A deers favorite food is acorns, so if you own some property, plant some oak trees. The best time to plant them was 25 years ago. The next best time is as soon as possible....
Apple trees would be the next best thing you can plant to sustain deer with minimal work afterwards.

Deer are very adaptive to their environment. They will eat the food that is there that provides them with the nutrients they need.

As mentioned, corn, sugar beets, turnips, and apples are all right up there on their list, as are different grasses that provide nutrition.
 
Bigbubba said:
A deers favorite food is acorns, so if you own some property, plant some oak trees. The best time to plant them was 25 years ago. The next best time is as soon as possible....
Apple trees would be the next best thing you can plant to sustain deer with minimal work afterwards.

Deer are very adaptive to their environment. They will eat the food that is there that provides them with the nutrients they need.

As mentioned, corn, sugar beets, turnips, and apples are all right up there on their list, as are different grasses that provide nutrition.
Click to expand...

Lol. "Minimal effort" isnt exactly what I would call trying to keep bears off them until theyre big enough to survive a bear being *literally* on them. I wish it was easy.
 
53Izzy744 said:
Watch Whitetail Habitat Solutions on youtube for food plot ideas. He has tons of vids about it.

The main things he stresses is that you dont make food plots for summer deer because unless you want to compete with actual farms, there is no way you will keep deer on your land. What hunters need to focus their time and effort on is making food plots that are peaking and available AFTER the fields have been cut and the frost is in and the farm food is gone and the deer are looking for something else.

Winter greens, winter rye, brassicas and things that will be green and lush while everything else has died or been cultivated.
Click to expand...

This make a lot of sense.
Thanks for the utube tip.
 
Was thinking about some improvements i planned to make this year to my food plots. My one brassica plot did great last season, ditched the groundhog maxx tilling and just went with roundup to kill the weeds (2 applicatons). Then planted right before a rain, and 4 weeks later spread out Urea to give extra nitrogen to the brassica. Well they grew very well! It didnt equate into a harvest but the deer used the plot well into december (nothing really used it before mid november). Some of the radishes were massive!





Anyways, as i am thinking about adding another plot, i look up the price of the 25kg bag of Urea i got last summer. Last summer i paid 29.99$ per bag at the local ritchies feed and seed. I look up the price today at the same place, 48.99$ !!!

I only needed 2 bags for the one plot, but if i put in another that'll be 200$ in fertilizer just for a couple small brassica plots.
 
fingers284 said:
WT will die on a diet of twigs & brush, they require grass-like or broad-leaf food source were as Mules must have a large amount of twig-willow-buck brush volume in their diet to survive and digest the small amount of grass they require. For this reason, Mules will survive much better in a high-snow environment much better that WT will. Their primary food source sticks out much higher in the snow.
Click to expand...

Whitetails eat tons of cedar, oak and maple branches when there's snow on the ground. So much in fact that in many areas a chainsaw and trees falling is practically a dinner bell as they come to eat the previously unreachable small twigs. In bedding and transition zones it's common to see the small branches/buds eaten up as high as they can reach. Many times I have seen cedars with the bottom 5ft completely eaten away. I have also shot a few deer with stomachs completely full of mashed up twigs.
 
canadian hunter312 said:
Whitetails eat tons of cedar, oak and maple branches when there's snow on the ground. So much in fact that in many areas a chainsaw and trees falling is practically a dinner bell as they come to eat the previously unreachable small twigs. In bedding and transition zones it's common to see the small branches/buds eaten up as high as they can reach. Many times I have seen cedars with the bottom 5ft completely eaten away. I have also shot a few deer with stomachs completely full of mashed up twigs.
Click to expand...

Browse in an important part of deers diet and habitat. But not the most attractive food source if you are looking to attract, concentrate, and improve herd nutrition. Hinge cutting and Timber stand improvement ( TSI) can be all part of good hunting land management.
 
My area is overgrown with cedars. I spent a good chunk of last season clearing cedars that were choking out the apple trees. And every year im clearing back the cedars that narrow down our travel corridors.

I have the brassicas for late season staging since they travel through our area to get to soy across the way. Last season i had many deer that found it, even though it is not directly en route to the bean fields. My hopes is that the more deer that find it, will know there is a food source better than browse in the area and will continue to detour each season lol

But with the ever increasing costs, i may just have to cut trails further south and cut them off near the property line instead.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom