Renovating with Food Plots?

[Stocker Steve]

I am trying to renovate a couple acres of pasture per year by fall planting food plots in choice corners and hollows. The area I am located in is mixed dairy/beef so there is always some standing corn within a half mile - - and this is what draws a lot of the deer.

Is there a green mix that deer greatly prefer to corn?

 

[Brute 23]

Deer prefer just about any thing that is green over corn. There is alot of mixes out there. Alot of people plant peas, beans and all kinds of other stuff. Around here Oats is still king in my book.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Oats because it is cheap, or because it is tasty?

 

[dun]

As far north as you are I would go with a brassica mix of some sort and maybe WW thrown in for good measure. The WW will start drawing them in before the brassicas are ready so at least they;ll be used to frequenting the areas

 

[1982vett]

Oats because it is cheap, or because it is tasty?

Because it works...

 

[highgrit]

A cold winter here in Ga. will hurt-kill fall planted oats. I would not plant oats in the fall that far north. My cousin in Wi. swears by sugar beets.

 

[Stocker Steve]

A cold winter here in Ga. will hurt-kill fall planted oats. I would not plant oats in the fall that far north. My cousin in Wi. swears by sugar beets.

It was down to 25 degrees last week, so fall is here.

Does he grow the sugar beets, or backs up a semi of tailings?

 

[highgrit]

He grows them, sent us 10lbs of seeds just didn't grow here soil temperature to high here?? But purple top turnips work the best, after a freeze they get sweet I guess, the deer love them.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Turnips, winter wheat, and clover sounds like a good mix for my clay soils.

 

[LRTX1]

A cold winter here in Ga. will hurt-kill fall planted oats. I would not plant oats in the fall that far north. My cousin in Wi. swears by sugar beets.

It was down to 25 degrees last week, so fall is here.

Does he grow the sugar beets, or backs up a semi of tailings?

Glad I'm not where your at. Fall should be lows in the 60's highs in the 70-80's. What you speak of sounds like a cold winter to me.....

 

[cowman]

winter peas, rye, winter oats, clover

 

[High Cotton]

I usually just sow some winter wheat, rape, and winter peas.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I press drilled in a tillage radish and oats mix. It was a dry fall in 2011 so it germinated slowly. Ended up with a good oats stand and very small radishes... Not sure why the radishes did not do better, but planting earlier may be needed. Cattle eat it to the roots after rifle deer hunting was over.

Thinking about winter wheat and turnips seeded with a fertilzer buggy in 2012 to lower the cost. Seed salemen really push (crimson) clover to add N. My other thought was to spread compost before sedding and run over it with a springtooth w/ drag.

Any tips here?

 

[terra8186]

I have been planting food plots in SE Michigan. I have tried:

Corn - Deer and Racoons eat it all up in July if the the surrounding fields aren't corn. If the surrounding fields are corn, then they won't touch the stuff.
Brassica - The deer barely touch it in SE Michigan. Farther north, they love it. I have been told there is a learning curve for the deer. I am sticking with planting it.
White Dutch Clover - Deer love it.
Cool Season Grasses - The Deer won't touch it by here.
Warm Season Grasses - The deer bed in it and travel through it.
Oats & Wheat - In SE Michigan they didn't touch it. Even with our mild winter this year, the oats still died.
Soybeans - They ate the plants clean.
Sugar Beats - The first year they didn't touch them. The second year my plot area was a mine field. The deer dug them up. I want to plant some more of these next year, but it is difficult and expensive to find RR sugar beats.
Sunflowers - Deer eat the heads of the sunflowers
Sorgum - Deer bed in it.

Try planting that Brassica in late July. It will be 2 feet high. Plant at a rate of 7-9 lbs/acre.

We also do some food plots up north 45th parallel area. We have good success with clovers, winter rye, brassica, and corn. The soil is very sandy and acidic. We grew a good 2 acre stand of corn, one month it was there, the next month we just found bear Sh*t.

 

[AngusCowBoy]

It might take the deer a year or so to get used to the brassicas, but once it frezzes all the suger goes into the leaves and they will go crazy for it, oats planted in the fall so it is green when it freezes is also good, another good one, would be a mix from a food plot company that has a variety of different forages specificly for deer in your climate.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Is a mix of winter wheat (more cold tolerant than oats) and turnips a good mix?

 

[AngusCowBoy]

Yup that would probably be a good mix

 

[terra8186]

Is a mix of winter wheat (more cold tolerant than oats) and turnips a good mix?

I tried that this year, but I added oats. It grew pretty good.

The nice thing about that kind of mix is that it all goes to seed in early summer. Mow it and do a light disking and you don't have to spend any money on seed.