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Corn for cover

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I got a couple acres worth of corn from neighbor, he was going to throw out. I had an acres worth of an old food plot that just didn't work out well (hunting it was hard) and was mostly clover and weeds. I broadcasted the corn and tilled it in and called it good. I plan to see how it emerges and roundup/maybe fert as I feel like it. I did this in hopes to just leave it be as cover/bedding, I don't really care about ear size or if I get ears at all. Now I'm wondering though, how long can I expect this corn to stay standing assuming I get it to come up? 3 years would be nice. Surprised I couldn't find info around this on the world wide web, maybe its a dumb idea.
 
I would bet it will be pretty much worthless cover by late fall. They will lay in it (maybe) when it is full. It is not good winter cover so they will be somewhere else. and then by spring most will be knocked down or gone. Far better off planting CIR switch or something if you are just wanting cover. Switch is fairly cheap cover (about $60/acre).... plus ur chems. I wouldn't plant corn as cover. Just my 2c.
 
You're probably right. I wasn't going out of my way to make the cover, was just on a whim. Just took an hour out of my day and did it for basically no cost
 
Corn without nitrogen won't do very well and as IowaBowHunter said it will be no good by late winter.
 
Good corn will stand through the winter and into the spring, at least. But, it will have dropped a lot of the leaves by then and you would be likely to be able to peer through many rows, so it would not be much of a visual screen.

I agree though, it would not make good screening cover over the long haul. But if you had a good stand, which takes fertilizer($$'s), etc, you would likely be providing food well into the late spring of the following year. As recently as last weekend, I still had deer coming for waste corn to a plot of mine that was replanted to soybeans about 6 weeks ago now.

I had LOTS of leftover corn and that field "carried" a lot of animals through the winter and spring this year.
 
I personally don't think, IMO & experience that even good corn fields "hold" a lot of deer for "cover". Some but I just don't see herds of deer coming out of standing corn. In summer, occasionally see em bedding in waterways inside corn. Imagine some bedding in it but again, I don't think it's as much as I used to think.
For ur cover- ya- pry not do much & actually- if u get the right weeds that grow up in it- that may have more benefit. Can't hurt though. Never know. For cover- I've done all of it and I've "thought" about trying like 2-3 acres of Egyptian wheat to see if they'd bed in that but never tried and don't know if it would work. Or something like a mix with sunflowers & some other tall forbs.
Obviously crp, timber and overgrown crp with shrubs & trees r the best IMO. Worth a shot. Report back on how looks in fall. And ya- if no N added- they won't do anything if u got weeds in there especially. If u want best shot, IMO.... Add like 70-100 lbs of actual N per acre. Do lighter dose of atrazine & dual so weeds come in later. U will at least have strong stalks with small ears and a variety of weeds that are a roll of the dice on what u get.
 
Sligh1 said:
I personally don't think, IMO & experience that even good corn fields "hold" a lot of deer for "cover". Some but I just don't see herds of deer coming out of standing corn. In summer, occasionally see em bedding in waterways inside corn. Imagine some bedding in it but again, I don't think it's as much as I used to think.
For ur cover- ya- pry not do much & actually- if u get the right weeds that grow up in it- that may have more benefit. Can't hurt though. Never know. For cover- I've done all of it and I've "thought" about trying like 2-3 acres of Egyptian wheat to see if they'd bed in that but never tried and don't know if it would work. Or something like a mix with sunflowers & some other tall forbs.
Obviously crp, timber and overgrown crp with shrubs & trees r the best IMO. Worth a shot. Report back on how looks in fall. And ya- if no N added- they won't do anything if u got weeds in there especially. If u want best shot, IMO.... Add like 70-100 lbs of actual N per acre. Do lighter dose of atrazine & dual so weeds come in later. U will at least have strong stalks with small ears and a variety of weeds that are a roll of the dice on what u get.
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What Skip said.....Let the weeds go and you will have the cover you want. Around here an 8+ foot tall 2nd year cornfield will be full of 1"-3" diameter weeds and lots deer beds.
 
6x6 said:
What Skip said.....Let the weeds go and you will have the cover you want. Around here an 8+ foot tall 2nd year cornfield will be full of 1"-3" diameter weeds and lots deer beds.
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That's what I was visioning. I was going to let it go to weeds before this corn deal anyways
Appreciate it
 
I'll sometimes run over brome & fescue areas (worthless for deer & wildlife for the most part) in flat areas with some round up or Roundup and plateau. Fun to see what comes up. Variety of results of course but pretty easy, cheap & interesting. *yes, wanna be a bit careful that u don't get swamped with thistles or pigweed & stuff but for most part it's cool to see a mix of weeds & for sure better than fescue or brome.
 
I have planted sorghum for bedding. It served two purposes, deer beds, and late season pheasant hunting. This all happens on a farm that I have in MN, wide open--trees planted CRP and creek/cattails, but no real timber.

The deer bed in it every time. Pheasants love it. I would say you need 2 acres or more to be successful. E Wheat mixed in might work pretty well.

I stay out of the sorghum until December so the deer do not get busted out of there. I walked my sorghum in October 7-8 years ago... and two huge bucks got up in the middle of it, one had to weigh 275-300 lbs on the hoof. That is why I tried this experiment and it does seem to work.
 
Hardwood11 said:
I have planted sorghum for bedding. It served two purposes, deer beds, and late season pheasant hunting. This all happens on a farm that I have in MN, wide open--trees planted CRP and creek/cattails, but no real timber.

The deer bed in it every time. Pheasants love it. I would say you need 2 acres or more to be successful. E Wheat mixed in might work pretty well.

I stay out of the sorghum until December so the deer do not get busted out of there. I walked my sorghum in October 7-8 years ago... and two huge bucks got up in the middle of it, one had to weigh 275-300 lbs on the hoof. That is why I tried this experiment and it does seem to work.
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Another FWIW...for the first time last year, I planted one plot, plot, not strip, of EW primarily for quail. This plot though was small, no more than 1/8 of an acre AND it was within 25 feet of my grain bins and 75 feet of my cabin. So it was basically a tiny plot...in the yard. :D Yet, I think it demonstrated the pull of tall overhead cover like what is being talked about in this thread.

There was a doe and fawn in that plot almost all of the time from say August to November and then still off and on up until January approximately. I guess what I am trying to say is that the idea of planting a plot of EW or sorghum or something like that is very likely to draw deer and they will bed in it readily. I am sure that if the plot was bigger and not so close to buildings, etc, then it would have had even more deer action.

I am planning two such plots this year, one small one like last year and one larger one, maybe a little more than an acre, but well away from the cabin too. You are providing food and cover for game birds and deer at a minimum.
 
Sligh1 said:
I'll sometimes run over brome & fescue areas (worthless for deer & wildlife for the most part) in flat areas with some round up or Roundup and plateau. Fun to see what comes up. Variety of results of course but pretty easy, cheap & interesting. *yes, wanna be a bit careful that u don't get swamped with thistles or pigweed & stuff but for most part it's cool to see a mix of weeds & for sure better than fescue or brome.
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I do the same thing but with a disc, then broadcast a tall milo and tall forage soybean mix I buy from Welter seed. I dont spray it, just let it go, deer love it....way better than a field of brome grass. Deer do love most weeds too
 
Reading this thread reminded me of a thread I had put up a couple years ago regarding "screening" with giant ragweed. Found this response:

letemgrow said:
Pheasants do, killed many a bird out of giant ragweed. Not counting how deer pound that stuff when its within reach.

Get a big enough patch and deer will bed there for great cover before the snows hit and gets deep. They just disappear in a big enough patch of that stuff, especially when its 15' tall.
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My dad has had to mow tall weeds, including giant ragweed and whatever else, for a neighbor in late summer every year, and always jumps bucks out of it...assuming they get up quick enough. Weeds are usually over the hood of the tractor.
 
I don't suppose this was going to work like I would have liked. I looked at this plot for the first time since late summer I'd say 80% of the stalks are knocked down. I'm going to go with raccoons although there was plenty of deer sign there as well. I was really impressed with the growth and amount of corn it produced this year
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though; planted late, broadcast and just tilled the seed under. Nice big ears and when I took that picture, there was a lot of corn that made it.
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I sprayed after some good growth and put down 100 actual lbs of N per acre. I put the seed down really heaving and it came up thick but with the browse, I ended up about right I think. Having the seed for free and buying the urea by the trash can full from the coop, it wasn't that expensive or time consuming and was a lot of fun. I'll definitely do it again if the opportunity comes.
Thanks for looking
 
Well heck, I'm always for experimenting and goofing off... Looks like your example worked well!! So, that 1st ear of corn came off of that field with all those little corn plants growing towards beginning? WOW- I'm impressed and I would not have expected that. Well done! The closest exception I've had to that success was planting 32k seeds per acre with 30" rows early in season.... It got pounded really bad out of the gate, bad..... I simply ran another 32k in seed the opposite direction (sprayed and added a little N as well) and had really nice results, likely due to deer thinning it. Can't hurt to try when all it costs is a little time, work and fertilizer. Nice job.
 
That's right! Nice big ears on those crowded little corn plants. This is bottom ground that is about as good as it can get. I did the exact same 200yrd away on hill top to act as a screen for my clover and those plants stunk. I used the Google machine to come up with lbs/acre of seed and I upped it nearly 40%..maybe ended up higher by the time I was done because I just had the seed and really was shooting for 'cover'.
 
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