Horrible Luck With Turnips?!?

[sureshot]

My girlfriends dad and I planted about four acres of turnips on one of his farms in southern Iowa this year. We had heard from numerous people that they would work great. I'm not sure what species of turnips they were. They grew great, and we waited....and waited.....and waited.....and no deer hit them! Deer would walk right by them, and not even think about touching them. What do you guys think the reason was for this? I'm no expert on food plots so I thought I would ask some of you who had more experience with them.

 

[timekiller]

I'm no expert by any means, but I think several people have said it can take awhile for the deer to figure out what they are, and that they can eat them.

 

[Woody21]

From my expirience... TimeKiller is right. They didn't seem to pay any attention to them the first couple of years. Stick with them they will turn into one of your favorite late season stands. Not too mention they're very cheap and easy to plant. I mostly use the purple top varity of turnips.

 

[bowhuntr311]

My turnips dont really hit by the deer until after a few hard frosts. First year I did turnips the ground was just starting to freeze before they hit them. When they would bite them they would pop them right out the ground whole.

Dean

 

[Central Iowa]

Yes the above is coorect I have seen them hit in one area the first year and others have taken over three years for the deer to figure them out.

 

[dbltree]

I had one plot murdered on one farm and the other not touched until late winter on another farm.

Check the Brassica thread and you can see they ate the Dwarf Essex rape first so you might try that until they start feeding in it regularly. It's inexpensive and tasty (or so it seems... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif )