BT corn, not eaten by game animals Bad for food pl

[bwese]

I was told by a farmer that the BT labeled varieties are not touched by deer or even his cattle(at least not in a too damaging way compared to his other varieties)He said if I am going to plant a corn food plot stay away from the bt.

Has anyone else heard or experienced this? He is a large farmer and hunts wt with a passion so I put stock in what he says. I plan on taking his advice.

 

[JNRBRONC]

If that were the case, more farmers would plant Bt varieties just to stop deer damage. I've planted Bt corn on my farm and I can assure you that the deer ate it just fine. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

I would not spend the extra money for Bt seed if I was planting a food plot.

 

[dbltree]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I've planted Bt corn on my farm and I can assure you that the deer ate it just fine. </div></div>

Same here! Heck...if that's all it took I would plant it all the time just to keep them from destroying it!

They seem to find it quite tasty!

I got the seed free from PF but I wouldn't have paid extra for BT corn just to feed to deer... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[nannyslayer]

60% of the corn planted in the state of Iowa is a BT, Triple stack or Quad stack. If this was the case, we would almost never hear of a complaint on corn loss.

Traited corn is a little bit tougher corn, so if there is a conventional corn near by, yes, they will prefer that.

 

[bwese]

Good to know and the reason stated is good common sense. Who am I to contradict a farmer when I have no experience in this area nor wanting to sound like a know it all to a lifetime farmer

 

[Deerwatcher]

That is the case here for me here in Southern Wisconsin as well; I noticed that about 3 years ago when I started using bt corn; that deer left it alone more often. They would hit it at the silk stage but after that it was safe until the cold and snow hit.

 

[Grasshopper]

This thread caught my attention, because a couple of older farmers in our church do not use BT (or as they call it "GMO") corn. They claim that their crop losses are higher than those of their neighbors, who do use the GMO.

I was kind of skeptical. But I am also not a farmer so what do I know? I did visit one of their farms and the damage to the corn was pretty bad. And this place gets a lot of does shot every year!

So maybe it is a preference thing? If all deer have it BT, of course they will eat it. But if they can choose....?