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Zero interest in our plots

BriarwoodBottoms

BriarwoodBottoms

Active Member
So here is a little background on our hunting property. We have 53 acres of crp, roughly 110 acres of timber and the rest tillable. It borders a campground that consists of 1600 acres which includes multiple wildlife reserve areas (it is full of deer). We have had the property for 4 years and have made improvements each year. We have around 6 acres of food plots. Breakdown is alfalfa, corn, soybeans, clovers, and brassica mixes. I planted close to 2 acres of purple top turnips, ground hog forage radishes, forage peas, and rye. They were planted at the correct time, fertilized well, germinated and grew great. The plots could not have looked any better and still do. My issue or question is that I see Paul along with others post all the great success stories on these plots and we cant seem to get the deer interested in them what so ever. I know they still could hammer them once the snow gets here but up until now they have shown little to no interest in them. This will be the 3rd year we have planted some form of this mix. Our deer herd is very strong due to the 1600 acre "sancutary". I see Winke and other guys talk about the deer and how they are hitting these types of plots and sit back and scratch my head wondering what I have to do to get the same kind of results. I apologize for being long winded just trying to give you all some background on my situation and would appreciate any thoughts on why we arent seeing the interest like we had hoped, Thanks.
 
The same for me to some extent. I have yet to see a deer eat a turnip or rape on place. I did notice they were starting to eat the radishes for the first time. They pound the beans once it gets cold, but not till then. This is my third year planting food plots. Each year the deer seem to get a little more adapted to them, I think it just takes time. I did plant dbltrees mix fir the first time this year with the rye and oats. Have had better results with that. I quit watchin Winke cause his plots just make me mad ;) Its amazes me to when he shows deer pounding his turnips in Oct.
 
Scott said:
I quit watchin Winke cause his plots just make me mad ;) Its amazes me to when he shows deer pounding his turnips in Oct.
Click to expand...
Does Winke have deer population beyond habitat carrying capacity????

That makes it easier to kill them on food plots.
 
Maybe you need better bedding habitat? I have seen first hand how tsi and hinge cutting can single-handedly be the deciding factor in which property/food sources they frequent. Especially in the bottom grounds I frequently work in, deer will ALWAYS choose the thick, nasty stuff to call home versus the typical, wide-open bottom ground timber and adjacent food sources. Just a thought!
 
The first year they were alittle slow hitting the brassica's but now they pound them after the first frost and they don't last long. Same mix.
 
This is my first year with a food plot. Planted 4 acres of beans that did not make it due to the drought. Then planted rashish, turnip, clover mix early Sept. Deer have been all over it since early October. On the correct wind I average seeing about 15 deer per sit and have had as high as 35. Saturday evening of 1st shotgun saw 25. All relaxed and eating, not running past. I know they are not duplicates beacue I had 22 on the plot at one time and earlier had seen three different little bucks. I think I am just lucky in that there is heavy beading cover around on three sides and the fourth side is short CRP grass. There are not a lot of crop fields close. I also left a fair amount of bushes in the plot on purpose to make them feel like they had cover. Early they mostly ate the leaves, but now are digging the turnips up and eating the heck out of them. The plot looks like somone dumped a semi of baseballs on it becasue there are half eaten white turnips everywhere.
 
Hers my take on the situation. If your working with a property that requires drawing deer from some place else than your gonna be disappointed in the brassica mix results. For drawing power from far and wide nobody can convince me you can beat beans or corn. Getting beans and corn to November and past is another story. For whatever reasons on our place the deer pound our beans/corn and love the over seeded rye we throw on top in August. Even though we have plenty of turnips, radish and peas in our food plot rotation they would rather scavenge in chiseled corn fields than feed in those plots. We have noticed browse pressure on the peas early but once they mature the plots have received zero use. We haven't witnessed a real cold snap with heavy snow in a few years now so I am still hopeful the green mix gets hit this year.

Regardless we have alfalfa, beans and corn that has and continues to pull the deer in large numbers. A balanced approach works for us but its getting hard to justify a couple acres out of 6 for the brassica mix when it isn't benefiting the deer. I would say we have a resident heard of 30-40 deer on our 240 but its not uncommon to see 100 feeding on picked corn in the winter. Hopefully the more we discuss why or why not the deer hit brassicas we can come up with a solid answer for the equation. Like I said I think it all comes down to if your goal is to draw deer vs just feed what you have. Even though our resident deer don't seem to care for the brassicas I still feel over time they will come around to them. Staying patient thru this process has been challenging. Thanks for all the great info guys. What a resource
 
I have had great luck on a new piece of property this year. I planted Dbltree's rotation. These deer have never seen brassicas before and they have hammered them since October. There is nothing left in the field. On the other hand, 2 miles away, myself and my neighbor have planted a variety of food plots over the years and the deer didn't seem to want the brassicas at all. It wasn't Dbltree's mix. Maybe that makes a big difference. Not sure why it works great in one area and not in another.

FYI - both places have similar browse, cover, water and crop fields around them.
 
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Our deer have been hammering our turnips since early oct., We put in close to 5 acrea's of purple top, now all our brassice plots are not far from a couple of standing bean's and winter wheat plots, We planted a few of the brassic plots right on the edges of narrow timber strip's or in the middle of tall crp grasses,, And these locations have been killer this year
Here are a couple of pictures from earlier of a few of the plots that totally tore up now,

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Thanks for the responses. We spent last winter hinge cutting a good chunk of timber to improve bedding. One of dbltree's plots this year is surrounded on 3 sides by a tall and thick stand of crp, which I thought would be the perfect screen to make them as comfortable as possible. We have followed and applied a lot of methods to improve our wildlife holding abilities. It just seems like everyone is going to have mixed results. There is no question soybeans are the biggest draw.....the problem being the deer hammer them during there growth stages, sometimes enough to wipe your plots. We do not plan to eliminate dbltree's cereal combinations any time soon just hope the deer have a change in appetite. Thanks again
 
I have planted the rape,radish,pea mix and the deer around me love it. I only have 40 acres. Theproblem this year was ,,it was so dry,,even though I planted mid Aug, I got little growth. I had plots with only minature rape, and radish, plants, and the deer had everything chomped down by early Nov. I do not have alot of deer around . A couple gruops of 2 or 3 does, some young bucks ,but they love the stuff.
 
The best drawing power is not food, it is cover, deer eat over 700 different plants so any one type is not going to be the winner. Give them the security first and food comes second.

Food next to an area they feel secure in is the best all around.
 
I have planted turnips for 5 years, and have had varying results depending neighboring food sources and the weather. I find they hit turnips the hardest when there is snow or ice on the ground and they don't have to work as hard to get to them as they do when scrounging for corn or beans on the ground. I don't have any standing corn or beans because they are gone before late season, so they don't have an option for picking them off stalks. My turnips NEVER get hit before late season. I couldn't believe it when Drurys or Winke were covered up with deer in October on brassica plots...still don't understand, but quit trying to figure it out. I won't stop planting brassicas because they are a good late season food source when many others are gone. Plus, they're a good place to find sheds! However, in Illinois, I wouldn't plant them planning to hunt over them prior to December.
 
i hunt a commercial carrot field and the owner told me how the seed company sends new samples to try and a few years ago they gave him a new one that the deer wouldnt stay away from. they ate ALL of the new and didnt touch the other types in the field. when he reported this the company said this was the report from everyone and they wouldnt be selling this seed. wish i had some of that! my point is a slight variety change can be all the differance.
 
I have always been a big advocate of the idea that food sources are relevant. Meaning like every animal, they will eat what they like the best, is the easiest to eat, and then go to less desirables. I have beef cows and they can pick through 4 bales of hay for the one with alfalfa in it and then eat the all grass bale last. Deer are no different...that is why in some cases brassicas and rye are big attractions and in other cases not so much. If a neighbor has standing corn or beans in December---unless they have put a lot of pressure on the deer my guess is most deer in the immediate area will be on the neighbors beans and corn. Overall habitat does matter, but standing beans and corn will draw deer over other food sources.

I have seen people post on these forums that say they will lose 5 or even 7 acres of beans before they ever pod out due to overgrazing. They will then go on to say that green plots like rye, brassicas, or others and combinations of them draw deer just as effectively as the corn or beans. If you are losing 5 or 7 acres of beans in a single plot and the deer are whiping them out before they pod...the reason they are then eating your green plots is because there is over population and of course they will hammer what you have. This is not a good indication that the green plots are just as attractive as the beans or corn. Corn is expensive to grow...beans are relatively cheap. If you have 5 acres I can see no better alternative than beans and then overseeding to make the plot last longer. If the beans don't pod out on 5 acres...you have too many deer.

I used to have similar problems on a farm I used to hunt in Wisconsin. We would plant beans and they would be heavily browsed and sometimes destroyed. With a very aggressive doe harvest over a few years we were able to get our overall herd in check and were then able to plant as little as 2 acres of beans with full pods into late November. We did overseed with brassicas to make the plots last into December and the on into the next year.

Habitat is the #1 way to increase food on your property...food plots second. But some plots are just more attractive than others. If you can see 30+ deer on a food plot in late November or December that is one thing, but if you see that many deer in the summer growing months and they are whiping out 5 acres or more of beans in a single plot, it's time to start killing some does.
 
I believe food plot attractiveness is relative to the available food sources in the area and the overall population. With areas of high population deer will eat anything they can because they have to making it seem like certain food sources are attractive when they may not be under other more balanced population conditions. I agree with other posters who have seen brassicas get pounded on one farm and not so much on another...I think this is based on what is available and the population.

If you go to a buffet do you eat everything on the menu or just what you like? Now, if you go to a steak house and that's all they have...your gonna eat steak. Given the choice of food, deer will pick some food sources over others. Every area is different but in my opinion soybeans during the hunting season are a preferred food source.
 
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