Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Breaking the ice?

muddy

muddy

Well-Known Member
I've always wondered if anybody who owns decent chunks of land and that have food plots on them ever drive around in the fields this time of year? Particularly after heavy snow or ice fall, it would seem that breaking through the crusty stuff we have now would be beneficial to the deer feeding in that area. I mean, why not? Spend thousands on the ground, food plots, and hours hunting, why not put in some time to make the late season easier?

Yeah, I know an antler through your tractor tire would be bad, but what about that booner starving after a particularly hard winter?

Just some thoughts.
 
Although I have not personally done it, I have heard of guys running a blade or scraper over picked cornfields in tough winter conditions to expose some grain for pheasants, etc.

Where my farm is in southern Iowa the snow did not get deep enough, and a lot is melted away now, for this to become a strong consideration, but I could see where it would be a good idea.
 
I was actually thinking of doing that next year after late ml. Its kind of too late for me this year, drifts are a little big now and I don't have chains on the tractor. Sheds in tires suck, we've had it happen twice in the last few years.
 
Mat I have took the tractor with the blade on it and drug off some snow on my clover/Alfalfa plots. Of course that is in front of a game camera!

Mark
 
Matt,
Done that a couple of times this year. Deer would come in the first couple of
nights but tail off as the week wore on. I think they went to an area where it was easier
to get food. My plots are not super big and that could make a difference.
 
It would help long as it didnt drift right back . I pulled off the deep part here a weeek or so ago . I think I was a little late to help the smaller animals to reach food . With the warmer temps the last few days areas blown clean have melted patches off so pheasants and other small wildlife should be ok .
 
SaskGuy said:
Wouldn't it be easier to just go ahead and toss out some grain or alfalfa hay?
Click to expand...

Good point but if you ran a drag over a large picked corn field you'd only have to do it once rather than replenishing the food pile. Then again, a few big round bales would do the trick and you could push them to the side in the spring. Dumping a giant pile of grain could get expensive if you're trying to feed a couple hundred deer.

The main reason I brought this up is after this last ice storm I took a walk around the house checking the down spouts. I tought my shins were going to bleed as I would bust through the crust and have that 1 inch crust of ice dig into them. Can't be easy out there right now.
 
Muddy,..

You wouldn't have to push 2nd cut alfalfa hay to the side. I've watched as many as 100 round bales get turned into dust over the course of a few different winters up here. Sometimes they still stood in the field, others they were in people's hay yards. If set to the side, there'd be just a bit of mess left over, not much.

Dumping grain would get awfully expensive if feeding a couple hundred deer but I assumed since we were talking plots we weren't talkling 100's of deer.

January is never easy.
 
Seen somewhere where a guy went out into a field with his truck and just started cutting cookies all over. Uncovered some of the food for the pheasants and they found it quick.
 
I'm not sure if it would be all that beneficial to be honest. The snow on top of the ground acts as an insulator and acutally keeps the ground from freezing solid.( at least temporarily) I would think that opening up the ground and exposing it would make it harder for animals to pick up food that is frozen solid in the dirt. At least if they paw through the ice on top and get down to the softer snow they might find it easier to grab food off the ground. I've never done it before, but I know what happens when I clear a part of my driveway that's been covered for a while.......turns rock solid.
 
I just did some "Turnip Training" the other day. Took the truck out of 4wd and started spinning! Turns it into an instant salad shooter. The plots on this farm are in turnips for the first year and the deer were not even touching them. Tossed out a little shell corn into the fresh greens, and waahlaa... The candy shop has been discovered.

As for large round bales of hay- I never notice the deer hitting these unless the winter is extreme, even than they won't seriously hit them. They seem to want to dig thru the snow to get to the unbaled hay before wanting to hit the bales. I dont know if it would be because of the higher protein level left in the hay that grew back or not, but thats what my therory is.
 
shrek1 said:
As for large round bales of hay- I never notice the deer hitting these unless the winter is extreme, even than they won't seriously hit them.
Click to expand...

X2, the deer hardly touch my big round bales of hay.

I have gone out and cut donuts/cookies in the ag fields to break the crust before, more for the pheasants than for other game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom