Glad you've adopted an ideology that works for you and stick with it. My personal opinion is that farm store seed is perfectly fine for most people, in most cases. There's a lot of hooey out there about "New Zealand developed this and New Zealand developed that"...a lot of it is just marketing BS. New Zealand grows big antlers partially (mostly) due to their soils and high organic matter along with high annual rainfall totals. Those make for nearly perfect conditions for antler development. Many seed companies misleadingly slap "New Zealand" on a product trying to take advantage of hunters general familiarity with New Zealand and big antlers. Yes, New Zealand is second in safari type hunting only to Africa so it's a big deal to them so they do a lot of research in nutrition and growing big animals. They also farm them a great deal so many of the ginormous antlers we see here are a result of that and like farms here are a result of genetics as much as feed quality. Nutrition is important but can't create potential that's not there either. The New Zealand Deer Farmers Association goes into some pretty good detail about nutrition, genetics, environmental conditions and NZ specific developments. A lot of what they use isn't 'specialty developed strains' it's just how they use them and methods of graze. Most of what they grow to produce their animals are normal grains that we all know, the exception is that they use some unorthodox stuff for grazing rotations and have a better grip on crop nutritional values as related to crop growth stage timing, than most normal livestock producers. I agree that people should do some side by side trials on their own to make up their own minds. On a small scale, a 300% markup on seed for a 1/4 acre plot isn't going to be argue worthy anyway. More often than not, on a large scale...I've found that most of the "name brand exploited traits" are hype not worthy of the gross mark up for the seed and that palatability of crops to deer are far more centered around soil health/quality than strain of crop. There are some big exceptions and there are many cases of one strain being a seed production rather than a forage strain but both have their place and that goes for pretty much everything out there. I support correct crops being applied to the correct need and soil health...I don't support value added products just because they are exploiting a marketing advantage.
I look at the buck on the bag seed and ponder all the other products that have been hyped promoted and sponsored by the hunting industry as see it as a bunch of hype. Deer were doing just fine before the food plot craze started.
I agree boonerville, especially for a small acreage food plotter, it depends on what you want plant but in most cases with guys that don't have a lot of acres to plant, bob bags is the way to go. Sota you have a great point on deer being fine before the food plot craze. I plant about 1 and 3/4 acres of plots on my 40 acres but if you ask me what is more important, I would say browse and thick habitat. Scoot
As a general rule...yes deer were doing fine. However.....if you look at record book entries, in the last 25 years entries have exploded...more and more each year across the country. Why? QDM (all aspects of it) have played a huge part in that. Hunters are figuring out how to grow, and more importantly, keep big bucks on their property. Food plots are a big part of that. And the guys with the best food plots usually have the best success. I'm not at all saying you can't have success using generic seed, because people do. I'm saying if you plant generic seed, and so does your neighbor, what will make a deer pick your plot over his? Nothing. If you know there is something better...why not use it when the cost difference is so minute in the big picture it's a moot point. I haven't just theorized about this. I test it every day. On my personal farm for example. The neighbors to my south have roughly 3x the acreage I do. When i bought the place. I had most of the cover/ bedding area, and they had all the food. They actually told me that I was wasting my time because all the deer hung out on their property. And you know what? During the first 2 years, they were right. All my cam pics were at night. They also plant food plots. Corn, beans, and regular generic white dutch clover in strips along the woods. In the years since, I have established 4 food plots on my farm. I plant the absolute best seed i can get, and take care of the plants better than i do my yard (according to my wife). Gradually things have changed. More and more deer have started staying on my property. The same guy who told me 8 years ago that I was wasting my time actually called me after the season this year and told me he was sure we had an EHD outbreak because they had seen fewer deer than ever before. Mine was the best ever as far as deer sightings...but I didn't tell him that. I have had similar results on my leases and client parcels. My point is that if you are the only food plotter for miles around, yes you can probably do pretty well with generic seed...but if you are in an area where you need to tip the odds in your favor over neighbors, choosing the best seed possible will help.
By no means do I know even half of what some of you guys know about plots/seed, but one thing I've done over the past few years with great success with my honey holes are to use quality seed mixed with a little bit of average quality seed. It has worked out really well for me. While I may not know plots/seed, what I do know is deer. While deer target specific types of food they still resort to cud (especially in the winter). Since they have a 4 chambered stomach, mediocre quality plot food like some grasses is still part of their food consumption. I've mixed them together and planted them at the same time and I've planted the "filler" seed after the higher quality seed has already germinated, using it more as a cover seed as to not compete against the higher quality seed. Both methods worked out and I found that in the later months, the average quality feed helped insulate the higher quality feed from frost. So on a big scale, yes, higher quality feed will provide the most for your deer herd, but there are certain applications where it makes sense to use average quality seeds such as honey holes, smaller plots, or sections of big plots.
True.....to a certain extent. Using a filler seed will make your plots go further. Consider your statement about deer being ruminants. True....but deer and cattle are not the same type of ruminant. Deer are simple ruminants, cattle are complex ruminants. That basically means that cattle can handle lower quality forage and extract more nutrients from it. Deer cannot break down low quality browse to the same extent and receive less nutrition from it. Which is why they prefer higher quality food.
I don't disagree, I'm not sure where cows come into play. Don't confuse filler with cow pasture. The fillers I use aren't low quality cattle rated pasture feed, but it's also not the top shelf high quality food plot either. For instance, I use PlotSpike for my fillers most of the time, which is for deer. I use plots intended for deer whether it's high quality or filler and I also provide plenty of nutrition via mineral sites and automatic feeders.
