I hunt a Alfalfa Field Edge. The surrounding area is mainly hay and pasture, with more agriculture approx. 3 miles away. Since the deer typically feed in the Alfalfa, should I plant my little corner ( .5 Acre) into a food plot with the Alfalfa being there? Typically in the past I have baited heavy and they hit my bait before and after the alfalfa field. so it appears. Would a unique food plot help here or would I not even notice the difference in deer activity?
I'm not sure were you hunt, that said here in the north the alfalfa gets cut hard and goes dormant. Loosing it's attractivness. The deer would still be hitting the mixed grass / clover hay field and heavy hitting the cover winter grain fields. Because I have many small different plots and I'm surrounded by ag fields I go with what the farmers don't have. When corn is cut here instead of cover cropping manure is spread. So I plant a combo of turnips and winter rye or wheat. The beef farmer has hay fields but cuts them hard in fall so I put in 2 small hay plots that are allowed to grow to seed and cut very early fall or late summer allowing some good regrowth..they will bed in it. Something like brassicas won't get hit hard the first year if they have never had it in the area before. Once they know it's there and get use to it ,small plots get mowed quickly after a first frost.
Plant clover and keep baiting. Bait is merely processed food vs growing in the field if legal there is no shame.
Clover is a good choice Sota but, in his case, I'd do something different. Brassicas , rye,oats,winter wheat or my choice, pumpkins or squash.
agreed, in northern climate I'd do something that offers late season variety. Turnips, radish, etc. They'll like the fresh greens and then have something to hit after hard frost. Or a big ol' pile of sugar beets, if that's your thing.
Sota, I love my clover plots and have for years. His question was about being near an alfalfa field. In HIS situation, a planting other than a clover would most likely yield a better outcome.
We are a huge sugar beet area. During pre-pile you see and hear of people dumping tri-axel loads of them as bait piles... kinda makes it hard to hint if your next up those guys. I know baiting is legal here but when there’s 60,000 lbs of beets in a pile next to 30000 lbs of corn in a pile on the edge of a 1 mile x 1 mike soy bean field.... man the deer don’t move very far after they find those spots. Farmers make enough money up here that a truck of a crop is nothing to lose
