Just a general observation on what the deer are...

[Daver]

up to now. Now that the regular shotgun seasons are over and the archery season restarts and the late muzzy season begins...let me just say that this year is WEIRD!

Although the calendar says mid-to-late December now, the deer on our farm are largely eschewing the excellent standing corn available to them and showing a strong preference for fresh green rye/clover/WW, and also still slurping down the radishes that are left in the brassica plots.

I thought our awesome standing corn was going to be a super deer magnet by now...but I was wrong...again! The coons are feasting, but the deer are 90% on the green grains and tender clover.

It just goes to show that it is really important to have different choices available I suppose. Good luck to the dudes that are still trying to fill their tag(s), but with long range forecast still looking very warm, relatively speaking, I don't think the normal pattern of waiting for Mr. Big to come to corn or beans will be nearly as successful this year as it is in most years.

 

[Deer Nut]

I hear ya there. The temps are definitely a game changer. I'm going to have around 8 days available to muzzleloader hunt starting Christmas. I'm going to start near beans and corn and see what the first couple days bring. It will be interesting. Might not see much at all during the day with the warmer temps. The first thing i'm going to do is check cameras. That should tell me something. I really wish I had some more green to hunt. I did notice some greenery coming up in one of the cornfields I hunt. In mid November these green patches were a doe magnet. I'm not even sure what it is but the deer like it.

 

[Trapshooter1]

Hung a tree stand on the edge of a field, that has a cover crop and is about 100 yards from the bedding area. Heavy heavy trails threw this area. Seen 12 deer tonight while hanging the stand. One heavy horned 8 point that I have trail cam pics of. Am pretty excited to hunt this late season.

 

[HorseDoctor]

Totally agree with Daver's observations. Plus if you have an area where the deer normally "yard up" in the winter, they ain't there yet this year. Best looking corn & beans I've had in a long time & Guess you's NOT coming to dinner...

 

[Deer Nut]

I think 3 or 4 years ago it was like this all through late season. It was terrible for me. I had no food sources that were drawing deer during daylight.

 

[StickersNKickers]

Had heard this elsewhere too regarding this being a good year for green plots. We don't have corn/beans but neighbor does. We have a few areas with clover mix and these have had activity thru shotgun seasons, even mid afternoon. I'm hoping they still have activity in the coming weeks!

 

[bwese]

I have about 3 acres clover and brassicas. The deer meander their way through them occasionally eating as they go to my corn plots. This has been observed since December started from stands and my house. The three deer killed in the past 9 days all were filled with a lot of corn, browse, and a little green. I am not seeing them hammer greens in my area of southeast NE, just across the river from IA but the corn has been a draw.

 

[Gladiator]

Same here Daver - when the snow just hit, they started on the cut corn, but after checking my trail cams, they killed the greens (actually the dbltree mix). They can't get enough and are hammering it. Big deer to little deer and everything in between....they haven't all left for bigger and better yet.....

Thanks for sharing - glad to hear I'm on the same page.

 

[MNbuckhunter]

It's been a crazy year for sure. In SW WI we have 3 acres of Dbltree mix (clover, brassica, cereals) enclosed by an acre of standing corn. We haven't had any nice bucks on camera in the plots but have had plenty in the timber. We saw a decent amount of deer eating the clover and cereals in our plots but by no means hammering them. They have not even touched the standing corn yet...literally haven't barely touched it. I think they are back in the timber eating browse and apples, as there is an orchard full of apples tucked way in.

In contrast, our farm in west-central MN has about 2 1/4 acres of standing beans. We received about 4" of snow last Tue/Wed. Saw 25 on Wednesday and 50 on Thursday. They are absolutely hammering the beans. Amazing how fast it changes with even just a little bit of snow.

 

[Highmark]

Watch for fronts. Even without dramatic temp changes fronts can send deer from greens to grains or vice versa.

 

[Lucky13]

Sat on dbltree mix (turnips, rad, rape) (rye oats peas) last night....field was absolutely full! My turnips look like it snowed with amount that are ate off...pretty wild....from cam pics I would say in my area the greens are the biggest draw right now

 

[bkcrrtnps]

Sat on dbltree mix (turnips, rad, rape) (rye oats peas) last night....field was absolutely full! My turnips look like it snowed with amount that are ate off...pretty wild....from cam pics I would say in my area the greens are the biggest draw right now

have been for 3 weeks, they are loving the clover with these warmer temps and wet lush greens

 

[iowavf]

Took a drive around a couple sections where I hunt and saw several deer and all were in stalk fields and was actually feeding before dark which is switch.