dilemma...expert advice needed!

[Gladiator]

Ok, so the scenario is that I'm hunting a piece of ground that I have sole access to. The land owner tells me to treat it like I own it, but to stay out of his walnut trees (he is a huge tree farmer) . He has about 120 acres of different new tree plantings/wetlands/CRP/big timber/etc.

I approached him about doing a food plot this next year to "localize" the deer a little; not sure what food plot that might be - possibly winter wheat/alfalfa/turnips/clover/I don't know (haven't gotten that far). My observation is that there are some really good deer feeding in the middle of this CRP on what green grass was left in late October and they were all out there with no way of hunting them.

I asked him what he thought, and from his side (which I will honor and respect), he wants as many deer gone as possible so that they can stay off of his trees (HUGE tree farmer!). And he wants to know if it will attract more deer to his property, which he doesn't want!

So I told him I would check with the experts to see what you all thought?? I thought that it wouldn't necessarily bring deer in from other properties, but it might centralize the deer a little and keep them off of his saplings, while giving me a better chance to shoot more of them???

What have you guys found with your food plots (and I'm only talking probably an acre at most)? Does it attract more deer off of other properties, or just give the area deer something to munch on?

Thanks for the input...I very much appreciate it and respect your views...

 

[kmehlin]

I would tend to believe that it will just localize you herd a bit. I don't see any more deer coming to it, other than the ones that are already migrating to and from...

Anxious to see some other responses as well, good post.

 

[dbltree]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I would tend to believe that it will just localize you herd a bit. I don't see any more deer coming to it, other than the ones that are already migrating to and from... </div></div>

I agree...unlikely you are going draw deer en masse from anywhere to anywhere.

Whatever deer are traveling thru that area of cover are going to hit a food plot for sure, especially if there aren't many crops there.

Over time, bit by bit you can attract more deer if there isn't more available feed but then you have the same problem I have. You could plant 10 acres and it won't be enough!

Harvesting antlerless deer with a few one acre plots can be made a little easier and if you have plenty of does and cover...mature bucks are more apt to "hang out" (food and girls...who wouldn't go for that... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif )

That's my thoughts... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[tlambert]

I think it depends on the area and the availability of food in the surrounding properties. I don't think an acre will bring in more deer though. I'm guessing the ones that are already on that property will be able to clean it up on their own.

 

[Tom]

It's hard to say if it will attract more deer without knowing details (available food and human pressure) about the neighboring properties.

One selling point on your plan is that the food plot will provide an easy source of food and help keep the deer off his cash crop (aka: trees)