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

From corn to browse and back again

Iowabowtech

New Member
Interesting week with the big thaw here in central IA. I've been glassing the deer most nights for the past 2-3 weeks. At the start, they were hitting the corn fields en masse but after about 5 inches of snow there wasn't a deer to be found in the fields. I actually suspected that they moved west to farms that have better thermal cover. Even as recently as last night, sightings were extremely sparse. On some nights there were a handful of stragglers but really just local activity, diehards that never seem to leave.

After the quick thaw today and with the fields entirely exposed once again, a good majority returned to feed and they didn't come from the west, they came from the local timber on the friendly confines. I'd estimate about a 400% increase in sightings in one evening. I figured they'd still be willing to work for the grain with that amount of snow but it's fairly evident they switched entirely to browse during that period. Perhaps they would have changed their tune if things got more drastic but whatever the case, I found it an interesting exercise. Feel like I learned a bit more about the local herd over the last few weeks.

Moral of the story...time to get back out there before the snow flies again. The food source is hot and I'd imaging with dropping temps, the numbers will only go up. Anyway, I was bored and figured somebody might find it interesting. :D
 
Not first hand knowledge but a friend of mine told me this AM he moved off his plots last night and into the timber. He had a very nice hunt, 30+ deer and a couple dandys late out of range.
 
My dad said seen a ton of deer driving home from work in the fields yesterday after the thaw. Before hand he only saw a handful. Maybe the warm weather wont be so bad even though it will turn a bit colder here soon.
 
Top Bottom