Food Plot

[eiowaarcher]

One of my farms is a 60 acre piece surrounded by timber on three sides and a crop field (corn this coming spring) on the other side. I have a small creek running through the property and also set up 6 200 gallon water tanks for deer to drink out of. The property holds deer very well during summer months and later in the year but sept-dec it's not so great. So my question is what do I plant for food? The hard part is I only have a 900ft long x 120ft wide area between the timber and crop field to work with. Do I cut the area in half and plant two plots 900' x 60' or do I plant all the same?

 

[MNbuckhunter]

What does your 60 acres consist of? You obviously have water...What type of cover? Any other food sources? The area you are describing will be just shy of 2.5 acres, which would be a nice sized plot. Since the deer are there in the summer and not in the fall/winter, they are lacking food, cover, or both.

 

[eiowaarcher]

What does your 60 acres consist of? You obviously have water...What type of cover? Any other food sources? The area you are describing will be just shy of 2.5 acres, which would be a nice sized plot. Since the deer are there in the summer and not in the fall/winter, they are lacking food, cover, or both.

Other than the 900' x 120' the rest is timber minus the creek. I don't know my trees very well but most of the timber is big mature trees with little shrub but two winters ago my uncle and I hinge cut a ton of areas for bedding which thickened up very well and the deer are now bedding on my property. Pretty much only in those areas though. Which my uncle and I figured is 12-15 acres total but in 8-10 spots throughout the farm. We did leave all the white oaks for acorn production. So food is just acorns and the crop field. The property also has a 2-3 acre cedar thicket which they seem to like. So other than the bedding created and cedar thicket the property is just mature hardwoods with a decent amount of white oaks. Does that help describe it better?

 

[MNbuckhunter]

Sounds like a great piece of property.

I might suggest doing dbltree's mix. Basically, 10% clover, 45% brassicas & 45% cereal grains. This would give you about 1/4 acre of clover and over 1 acre of brassicas and cereal grains each. Check out dbltree's corner at the top of this section for more details.

 

[eiowaarcher]

Sounds like a great piece of property.

I might suggest doing dbltree's mix. Basically, 10% clover, 45% brassicas & 45% cereal grains. This would give you about 1/4 acre of clover and over 1 acre of brassicas and cereal grains each. Check out dbltree's corner at the top of this section for more details.

Yeah for being a small piece the property is setup very well and has very good potential but just trying to do things here or there to make it better. I have read dbltree's info but ill have to check it out, read a little closer this time. Have you used it? Good all year long or mostly just fall/winter? Thanks for the help!