Food Plot Management Approaches!

[mazda3gun]

The time has come that I need to start thinking about better herd management. Not only am I concerned with whitetails, turkey too. Checked out a trail cam another hunter had on the property, yes I was told to do so, and saw 2 sixes, 1 eight, and some big does. A bobcat too, he'll look nice on a mount with a UK b-ball!:cool:

I'm stocking up(when I'm not feeding my new addiction, upgrading my Savages) on various mineral blocks, sacks of corn, and "Rainshed Corn Blocks"-they're sold at Tractor Supply and Southern States. These three items will be in holes, together, I'm digging around the property where I've seen big buck sign and heavy trails, I won't hunt over them though. I have 3 locations in mind. I've also got two apple trees on my own property that I plan to bring some to help supplement my hunting property and disperse at these feed sites.

So, now you know my small scale plan. My question is: What kind of food plot can be planted for better forbs and mast? It needs to grow without being watered by me, shaded areas, and takes little care on my part. The property is going to be logged soon and there will be opening in the tree cover, just don't know where. The logging won't be taking any mature oaks since there aren't any, they were logged out years ago :(. There's less than 70 acres here so the logging won't be taking out huge expanses, and I know deer travel much further so I want to keep them in my neighborhood, not somewhere else!
Thanks for the help!

[mazda3gun]

Really???

Does no one have any experience with deer management?

[Aim4gold]

I have maintained a food plot for years here in KS.
1. Bring in a soil test to your extension service(I can get 2 tests free here through Kansas State Univ.)
2. Do you have proper equipment for tilling – soil prepis a must!
3. I have to think about what time of the year Iwant the deer feeding. If onlysummer/fall I would plant Whitetail Institute Imperial Whitetail Clover. If I want something that is available after aheavy freeze I would use Imperial Alfa-Rack Plus – it has the summer/fallclover but also has Alfa that stands after a heavy freeze.

[GaryB]

I can't be of much help here I am afraid, but I did a search and this is what came up...

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=deer+food+plot+management&ei=UTF-8&fr=chr-greentree_ff&ilc=12&type=714647

http://www.qdma.com/content/food-plots

The first few of those links in the search are just trying to sell product, but some of them, like the second link I posted, look promising.

Good luck, I hope you find the information you are looking for
Gary

[mazda3gun]

I'll check em out. Thanks!

[thermaler]

deleted

[yobuck]

[QUOTE=thermaler;238751]I've read someplace that certain plot feeds that are not equivalent to wild grown trees and plants can actually aid in the spread of fatal diseases for deer.

it has become so popular with so much known information that isnt even a consideration for those who are serious.
were told that eating at burger king can kill us also. so can eating too much of the fish we catch.
were also told the water will rise and drown most of us.
so far the most problems facing the deer in my 66 yars of hunting has been bad winters and doe licences.

[hcpyro13]

My first question would be what kind of topography are you dealing with and what are your dominant tree and shrub populations. Knowing what kind of soils you are dealing with and much area you are trying to cover. Are you looking to plant a 1/4 acre food plot for next season, or broach the topic of habitat improvement and spend years on the process?

[yobuck]

what is really needed here is a government committee to investigate the situation.
or in a "pinch or a hurry" a local farmer might suffice. after all theve been feeding off him
forever.

[thermaler]

deleted

[hcpyro13]

There's a fun article to read, glad they summarized it. I don't think I could stay awake through the unabridged version.

Back to the topic at hand, it rarely hurts to spike the remaining oak trees with some fruit tree fertilizer spikes. Mast production occurs in cycles, but trees that are less stressed for nutrients and resources will produce more mast/year.

[barrel-nut]

If you want a real education on the topic of food plots, supplemental feeding, and how they tie into hunting and deer management, this book is hard to beat:
http://cspoutdoors.com/foodplotands.html

[mazda3gun]

I'm wanting to improve chances of more deer, does and bucks, in my hunting area. The assumed area will be no bigger than an acre, I do not have equipment to use either. This is a near mountainous area, lots of steep hillside and ridges. All the oaks are too young to produce, there's a few green shrubs, not sure of species though. There are a couple peach trees(I think) in my buddies' back yard they feed on every night.
This will be an ongoing effort to establish bigger and better whitetails. I will use management and take one mature buck(3-4yrs old and older) once every other year, take a younger buck in between those seasons, and take the allowed possible 3 does every year.

[barrel-nut]

Not to discourage you, but if you are only controlling 70 acres, herd management will be next to impossible without the cooperation of the surrounding landowners, or else a high fence. I'm no fan of high fences. And getting surrounding landowners to agree to and stick with a management plan is probably gonna be very difficult. So what you seem to be facing is, at best, to make the deer that call your property and the surrounding properties home, to want to spend the majority of their time on your place.
As far as planting actual food plots, like the ones you see on tv, it can be done and it can work quite well for your intended purpose, but several things will be necessary in order to do so. First you will need a sizable opening to allow sunlight in to make your plants grow. 1/4-1 or even two acres would work. The upcoming timbering you spoke about may provide this. This opening must be tillable, meaning cleared of brush, rocks, etc. I have no experience in mountainous terrain- its flat as a pancake where I hunt and plant- so I'm not real sure about this but I'd say it must be relatively level (again never a problem here). The soil must be appropriate for the crop you intend to plant - ph, soil type, nutrient levels, etc. These can be modified somewhat with the addition of lime, fertilizer, etc, but it helps if it is close to begin with. A soil test is indispensable here. You must receive adequate rainfall for the crop you intend to plant. And the crop you intend to plant must be suitable for your climate, and the season that you intend to plant it in. Also, it must be a plant that deer find very palatable, or else you're wasting your time. You will need some way to till the soil, at the very least an ATV-style disc will work. A friend with a tractor and the proper tools is much better. If you wish, any of this equipment could probably be rented. All that remains is to choose your food plot seed correctly, adequately prepare and amend the soil, sow it at the right time, and cover it. Then pray for rains at the right times and hopefully watch it grow and pull in the deer. This will give you some appreciation of what farmers go through on a daily basis. It's also a very rewarding experience when all your hard work comes together and you start getting trail camera pictures of deer you never knew were there, eating and spending time in your new plots. I enjoy this part of my deer hunting as much as the actual hunts. I will also caution you that for this to be successful, requires considerable actual work, and expense. I spend more days on a tractor in 95 degree heat in the summertime, than I actually spend on stand in the fall. But it makes the time spent on stand so much more rewarding and productive (usually lol). I also spend more $ on my gentleman-farmer pursuits, than I actually pay for my leases. So it can get rather expensive. But it doesn't have to be, to be effective. It's all a matter of scale.
I hope that at least some of this applies to your situation. Whether it does or it doesn't, if you intend to do anything in this area, the $30 you would spend on the book I linked you to above would save you much money and frustration in the long run, and would be money very well spent. Feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions.

[GaryB]

Here are two places I would start first...

http://fw.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx

http://extension.ca.uky.edu/

In Indiana the Cooperative Extension Services are through Purdue University and they can do soil and water testing and more, usually for very little money.

GaryB

[mazda3gun]

barrel-nut, you're right. This is only to persuade the deer to stick around my hunting area longer. I can't keep them there. The property is backed up to 2,000+ acres of forest and hills so I'm small potatoes for total 'herd managing'. And surrounding landowners just shoot anything that moves(seems that way year round, always a few gun shots a day out there).
I guess I'm wanting it to be a save haven for deer. I will hunt and kill them, just not over pressure them or hunt them over mineral licks and major food sources.

GaryB, I've tried contacting my county's Fish and Game Officer. He won't return emails or calls, so that's a lost cause dealing with the Feds. All I can do is gather what's available from the biologist's links and info.

Maybe a food plot isn't the way to go since I don't have the equipment to properly care for the soil first, I work fulltime, live 45 minutes from the property, and really want more time hunting than caring for a crop. Might just be sticking to mineral blocks and bags of feed dug into holes...

[jpdown]

The neighbors are going to love you! You are somewhat limited without tilliage equipment. Start mid summer and begin spraying the plot area with Roundup herbicide to kill all existing vegetation including the brush. Then in late August on a calm day, do a controlled burn of the dead/brown vegetation so that you remove the dead trash to insure good seed soil contact. Based on a soil test conducted earlier, lime/fertilize the area as recommended. Broadcast a heavy rate of wheat or forage oats as a cover crop in early September. This will be your fall food plot. Come back in January or February and broascast seed a mixture of white (ladino) clover and other legumes into the wheat or forage oat cover crop. The freeze/thaw cycle will work the these seeds into the soil and they will start to germinate in early spring as temperatures permit. This will attract the does and the bucks will follow.

[jpdown]

The neighbors are going to love you! You are somewhat limited without tilliage equipment. Start mid summer and begin spraying the plot area with Roundup herbicide to kill all existing vegetation including the brush. Then in late August on a calm day, do a controlled burn of the dead/brown vegetation so that you remove the trash and to make sure you get good seed to soil contact. Based on a soil test conducted earlier (take a random soil sample to you local KY extension service office), lime/fertilize the area as recommended. Broadcast seed a heavy rate of wheat or forage oats as a cover crop in early September. This will be your fall food plot. Come back in January or February and broadcast seed a mixture of white (ladino) clover, alfalfa and other legumes into the wheat or forage oats which act as a nurse crop. The freeze/thaw cycle will work the small seeds into the soil and they will start to germinate in early spring as temperatures permit. This will attract turkey, does and the bucks will follow. The food plot will last 1 to 2 years. Weed control will become a problem sooner or later and crowd out the desirable plants. If you can mow above the legume crop to keep weeds from going to seed and crowding out the desirable legumes, the food plot will last longer. Then you need to repeat the process the 3rd or 4th year. A supplement feeder or mineral block in the area will also help.

The trouble I see with your strategy in KY is the "shoot the first legal buck I see mentality and get back to camp for the party". So I would not expect many bucks will get to 3 to 4 years of age. I hope I'm wrong.

[jpdown]

Delete. Somehow got double post.

[mazda3gun]

jp, that mentality is why I passed on two 4 pointers this year.

Since I'm such good friends with the landowner, I spend a lot of time fishing during the summer there. So clearing a plot would be easy, I can just take a weedeater and do that. And chop down anything left by the logging crew.

As for the seed and forage I wanted to use, I thought about getting Throw N Grow since it's easily available(at Wally World and Tractor Supply). But I wasn't able to do much summer/early fall scouting to see where and what the deer frequent. I say that since I saw remnants of large patches of tall grass in the few open canopy spaces.

I don't expect this to be a miracle fix to keep deer on our property, they roam much farther in a single day. This will be more trial and error for a year or two I suspect, then I'll have better understanding of what they like since Oaks aren't producing acorns. The mix of apples I'll be supplying, mineral licks, and various types of loose bag feeds should be a great start.