Preparing for Hunting Season; Food Plots

Food plots, a lot has been written before about this and I’m sure a lot more will be written in the future. Mostly by the companies who wish to sell you their seeds to plant..

It is always a good idea to get a handle on this early, food plots can become very expensive and require a good bit of work as well. One thing to remember is that, a deer’s plate changes throughout the year.

During the early spring month’s herds tend to be in search of a high carbohydrate food source, visiting leftover corn fields and plots of wheat or rye as winter gives way to spring.

One idea here is to use an automatic feeder, broadcasting shelled corn in an area close to your desired hunting grounds. But as spring wears on the deer population’s appetite will quickly switch to a high protein diet. During this time of year clover becomes their favorite meal.

Later, as the summer months begin to heat up, herds will begin congregating  in and around soybean or alfalfa plots until fall approaches. At which time, their cravings turn to grains. During this phase of their feeding cycle, sorghum seed pods will often become the preferred meal.

Then as winter approaches in late fall, once again the herd will be in search of high-energy  carbohydrates to see them through the winter.

As you can see, few if any hunters have the resources or time for that mater, to provide a complete year round array of crops. Basically there two stress periods for feeding herds, late summer and winter. With this in mind, a combination of high protein sources and high carbohydrates will make up your best food plots.

My suggestions for late summer would be soybean or alfalfa with a second crop planting of corn. I’m sure you have heard that no food plot should be with out clover, but in your main hunting grounds I still say soybean or alfalfa is better.

My reasoning on this is something that few hunters employ when setting up their plots. The large trophy bucks prefer to feed under the cover of darkness. They tend it mill around in the brush until nightfall to adventure out into open fields.

By creating a staging area for them you improve your chances during the early season. These will be the best areas for small patches of clover. Once you have your major food plots established and they are being grazed, scout the surrounding tree lines.  

After you locate the largest trail leading in from bedding cover,  search 50 to 100 yards to either side of this main trail. Often you will find a secondary trail, as you scout this fainter trail back into the woods watch for rubs and scrapes. If you come across an opening with several rubs then you have found an established buck staging area.

This is where you need to sow your clover plot, even if you need to bring in a chainsaw to open it up some. By creating a smaller plot,  here under cover you are sweetening the staging areas for bucks to feed a little before venturing out after nightfall.

Once you have these staging areas setup and sown you should leave them and not return until hunting season! If you do wish to monitor the area I would advise using a game camera along the trail leading from the staging area into the main field. And never visit it more than  once a week. Using SD cards will allow you to slip in to exchange cards without disturbing the area. I would also advise using a quality scent eliminator on these visits to keep your human scent to a minimum.

As I said before, much has been written about food plots and which crops are best for your hunting lands. Each crop has its own advantages and disadvantages and no one crop fits every situation. Nature is always changing and from year to year the weather changes too. Visit your local Agricultural  Extension to discuss the planting seasons and fertilizer needs of your property before deciding which is best for you.

 

Deer Cross Supplies, the ultimate hunting scent eliminator