New food plot last year, soil has some serious silt. Sprayed existing vegetation, then broadcast Mammoth Clover, Crimson Clover, Dwarf Essex Rape, Winter Wheat, Cereal Rye; about $60/acre. Drove over the dead vegetation to mat it down, about as easy as it gets. Bucks still have to high-step through it in November, but its gone by the new year.
Unconventional Food Plot Ideas for Deer?
- Thread starter Rzrbck918
- Start date
WildWill
Well-known member
Hog panel welded in a 4x4x4 box just leave out the floor and I use rebar T stakes to secure it. I had to wrap them in chicken wire also to keep the rabbits out live and learn.
Been trying to restore my place from overgrazing 10 yrs. Being in NM & no nitrogen in soil does not help when you seed or plant. Elk mowing everything the rodents do not get is another. Deer are common at my neighbors but not here,elk are & antelope.
I have had good results with seeding Fourwing Saltbrush & the other natives are coming back that deer like. All the seed I have bought has done poorly due to lack of rain at right time or the poor soil. Even native grass & wildflower mixes grown in NM have done poorly.
I have only had cattle on here for 8 months in 10 years. The native grasses & plants have regrown well.Buckbrush, Sheepsorel, Saltbrush. etc coming back.
I have been planting some berries & fruit trees inside my elkproof fence area & just ordered Sand Plums & Bush Cherries to plant on fence row. Hopefully some Narrowleaf Cottonwoods will make it to become thicket near the stock tank. I will be planting some perennial rye down around the well & tank that overflows finally. The traditional plots & rows I have seeded have not done well at all down in the bottom. If it does come up the ravens & rodents make short work of the sprouts. I have seen some good growth with plain old rye around here ,if it rains.
I have had good results with seeding Fourwing Saltbrush & the other natives are coming back that deer like. All the seed I have bought has done poorly due to lack of rain at right time or the poor soil. Even native grass & wildflower mixes grown in NM have done poorly.
I have only had cattle on here for 8 months in 10 years. The native grasses & plants have regrown well.Buckbrush, Sheepsorel, Saltbrush. etc coming back.
I have been planting some berries & fruit trees inside my elkproof fence area & just ordered Sand Plums & Bush Cherries to plant on fence row. Hopefully some Narrowleaf Cottonwoods will make it to become thicket near the stock tank. I will be planting some perennial rye down around the well & tank that overflows finally. The traditional plots & rows I have seeded have not done well at all down in the bottom. If it does come up the ravens & rodents make short work of the sprouts. I have seen some good growth with plain old rye around here ,if it rains.
Yep, should be a consideration. In the long run they are cheaper because you don't have to reseed and do weed control amd they last a long time. Sunlight is needed though, or fruit crop won't be there.
Gerald Martin
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- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 9,616
Is it considered baiting if your wife shoots a buck eating the potted tomatoes on the back deck? She didn't take it kindly when an overly brazen buck decided to poach her green tomatoes during archery season. The evidence of his theft was still in his teeth after his death run. It wasn't really a food plot per se. More like a food stalk.... Pun sort of intended.
Some years I can get in two crops : plant buckwheat in late May/early June. I find the deer will let it get up about 6" and mow it down. In mid August I spray the field, till it, fertilize according to soil test, and reseed with a brassica mix.
WildWill
Well-known member
Sounds like he went from stealing food to being food. Not baiting just defending the homestead.
Steiny
Well-known member
Didn't know they had roundup ready alfalfa, I'm going to try some. Would be just as attractive to deer as clover and easier to maintain.
I did 7-8 acres of soybeans this year that worked well.
I did 7-8 acres of soybeans this year that worked well.
farmerboy1381
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2018
- Messages
- 106
Not a food plot idea per se but the most unconventional one I ever heard was from a guy that put powdered calf milk replacer out instead of minerals. He swore nothing made the bucks grow like milk. Never tried it personally though.
npaden
Well-known member
I just planted 30 fruit trees and 40 oak trees on my property this winter. Put 5' tree tubes on all of them. I for sure need the tree tubes because I planted the oaks Saturday and didn’t put the tubes on them until Sunday and the deer ate one of them overnight. 
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I may have to try the roundup ready alfalfa as well.
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I may have to try the roundup ready alfalfa as well.
Gunner46
Well-known member
You didn't stipulate weather it is going to be 5 acre plot, or a micro grav-point. My long-long time hunting buddy planted a few apple and persimmon trees on the family farm when he was in high school. Just a couple each in a few spots around the acreage. 10,20,30 yrs later those were the prime Hot Spots every season. You had to be a realllly good friend to man one of those stands during the Prime time. Everybody else got the seed plots.
WildWill
Well-known member
I have had poor luck in planting pear and apple trees on my property out of the over 2 dozen I've planted only 1 pear tree and 4 apple trees are left. Hogs rooting them up, deer rubbing or eating young trees, rabbits chewing the bark, coons breaking branches and drought I watched them bite the dust one by one. But I've had a lot of success with planting native persimmons trees you can grow or transplant the saplings easily and cheaply, they're more hardy then apple or pear trees , and deer love them. I now have 3 "persimmons patches" on my property and they are some of the best hunting on the place come mid October till about mid November.
Nick28
Active member
Sugar Beets and Radish's always work well for me. Especially when it freezes.
Bringing the thread that got me to join back from the dead...
East central MN. Frost free growing season usually runs about from May 15th to September 15th (this year, last hard frost was May 28th and first frost was October 20th- unusually late on both).
I've been doing a 240 X 10 yard wildlife garden between a farm field edge and woods & swamp where deer bed down, started doing this area 10 years ago. I've tried pre mixed food plot seed (not worth the money, 90% annual rye usually), seed store bulk brassicas, forage turnips, corn, beans, clovers (all good, some better than others depending on year & type) and finally, winter squash and pumpkins (BINGO! Worked every time).
Additionally, I've planted apple trees at 100, 150 and 200 yards from deer stand. Range markers and deer attractant all in one.
I planted corn & sunflowers in the spring, a row of pole beans along these to climb them and a mound of squash every 20' to grow around these and suppress weeds. The indian 3 sisters technique, modified into row form. The deer and at least 1 bear are enjoying the excess squash now- There are 23 mounds of squash in a couple of 220 yard long rows of corn/beans, last year the deer were still digging squash out of the snow and eating them until February.
Corn & beans this year did not enjoy 6 + weeks without rain from June 27th through August 20th. The various animals had pretty much stripped what little they produced by Labor Day. I could stop by to dump a 5 gallon bucket of water on each squash mound about once a week, squash did OK. No way to water the rest, would have been a full time job.
So I went back and roundupped/tilled area between rows and along side rows, put down 40 lb.. Austrian winter peas, 40 lb. winter oats and 5 lb. Latino clover the week after Labor Day. It rained at least 1X per week! The deer are liking the greens.
All the wild stuff had a poor year too, woods have browned out and soybean fields around here have all been harvested. Was a poor year for acorns and hay due to the drought as well.
The deer are so thick on this that in many places there are more square feet of deer tracks than "not tracks"... Opener is November 6th, weather is looking good and green food looks to last. Even if the green stuff gets frozen and covered with snow, these deer are experienced with digging out the remaining squash.
East central MN. Frost free growing season usually runs about from May 15th to September 15th (this year, last hard frost was May 28th and first frost was October 20th- unusually late on both).
I've been doing a 240 X 10 yard wildlife garden between a farm field edge and woods & swamp where deer bed down, started doing this area 10 years ago. I've tried pre mixed food plot seed (not worth the money, 90% annual rye usually), seed store bulk brassicas, forage turnips, corn, beans, clovers (all good, some better than others depending on year & type) and finally, winter squash and pumpkins (BINGO! Worked every time).
Additionally, I've planted apple trees at 100, 150 and 200 yards from deer stand. Range markers and deer attractant all in one.
I planted corn & sunflowers in the spring, a row of pole beans along these to climb them and a mound of squash every 20' to grow around these and suppress weeds. The indian 3 sisters technique, modified into row form. The deer and at least 1 bear are enjoying the excess squash now- There are 23 mounds of squash in a couple of 220 yard long rows of corn/beans, last year the deer were still digging squash out of the snow and eating them until February.
Corn & beans this year did not enjoy 6 + weeks without rain from June 27th through August 20th. The various animals had pretty much stripped what little they produced by Labor Day. I could stop by to dump a 5 gallon bucket of water on each squash mound about once a week, squash did OK. No way to water the rest, would have been a full time job.
So I went back and roundupped/tilled area between rows and along side rows, put down 40 lb.. Austrian winter peas, 40 lb. winter oats and 5 lb. Latino clover the week after Labor Day. It rained at least 1X per week! The deer are liking the greens.
All the wild stuff had a poor year too, woods have browned out and soybean fields around here have all been harvested. Was a poor year for acorns and hay due to the drought as well.
The deer are so thick on this that in many places there are more square feet of deer tracks than "not tracks"... Opener is November 6th, weather is looking good and green food looks to last. Even if the green stuff gets frozen and covered with snow, these deer are experienced with digging out the remaining squash.
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Gellar
Well-known member
Try planting new trees in your yard. In Iowa they will walk a 1\4 mile through standing corn, alfalfa and beans to rub on them.
Yes, new seedling trees I plant go inside 72" tree protector tubes, larger potted trees get either chicken wire or concrete reinforcement mesh protectors.
Deer are tasty but sometimes inconvenient tenants!
Gellar
Well-known member
Last year I had a 130” 8 pointer in my yard every morning testing the cages around my trees. I told my brother he could shoot him if he wanted to but he opted not to, my closest neighbor is about a mile away. The deer disappeared after the guns started blazing on opening morning of gun season but I caught up to him 3 days into the season. A young kid that hunts with us asked me why I shot that deer, like he was mad and I should have let it grow. I told him that’s the deer that tears up my trees every morning.
nodakpursuit
New member
Honestly just find some grass. Wait till early fall right before a rain and mow it. It takes a bit of knowledge on cool season grasses but if the right grasses are present the mowed grass will stay green late just like your lawn. Warm grasses and cool grasses will dry up but the mowed grass will stay green and the deer will love it.
Bc1992
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2020
- Messages
- 211
In think awnless wheat and crimson clover is the best combination for winter forage in the south. It’s affordable and provides forage October-may.
Summer time I go with eagle beans, joint vetch, or cow peas. Corn is nice but gets devoured if you have a high deer density and is almost completely out of the picture if you have bears or hogs unless you have a lot of tillable ground to plant.
Summer time I go with eagle beans, joint vetch, or cow peas. Corn is nice but gets devoured if you have a high deer density and is almost completely out of the picture if you have bears or hogs unless you have a lot of tillable ground to plant.
