Baiting vs Food Plots..is there any difference?

Im jumping in this thread a little late but..... i have never hunted a food plot nor used bait (illegal in VA). i believe these two actions go hand in hand and vary depending upon who yoru talking to... i can not say much because i have in the passed hunted overtop, or near by, where the farmers leave a row of corn for the wildlife or where they load of the soy beans and spill a few.... so i guess that would technically be bait. in my opinion baiting would consist of something that is unnatural to the area....such as all the acron rages and greens n rage you see on tv...

but i do have a question.... i have never really heard of much success of baiting in my area, never heard of people doing it alot.... do those products actually work anywhere other than on tv?? (ie: deer cain, acron rage, greens n rage) i might use a few baits to get some pics this summer while im outta town for a few weeks and cant go out to the farm.

good thread by the way

 

Did you ceate those areas:D

Landon to say food plots and baiting are the same is tough for many reason.

Here is what I do and how I view it.

Baiting has one purpose, to bring the deer to you to kill. There is no other reason to bait.

Plots can do the above, in fact I employ a tactic called bait/kill plots. I plant a small strip of clover/alpha outsie a cornfield. It's a tactic I have used for many year. The buck I shot this year was following a doe who was........ eating in this kill plot. I plant them next to corn and oak trees.

I also have 3 other plots, one is 10, 4, and 3 acers, I hunt no where near them. The 4 and 3 acer I don 't have a stand with in 300 yds of it. I hunt the bedding area behind them, I am not trying draw the deer to a certain location like baiting or my kill plots. My 10 acre plot is for winter feed only. I don't hunt it.

Plots and baiting is big issue here in MI. From what I gather the issues has to do with planting them, some can and some cannot. That is the big issue here in MI.

To compare the two is hard, because plots are a bit more verstile than baiting. I am going to go make deer beds in a couple of weeks, bedding baiting(I already coined it)

 

First off let me say that I don't really care if people bait - if it's legal in your state and you want to do it, fine with me.... But I've never understood the logic of saying that baiting and hunting over a food plot is the same....

To start, most food plots are many acres in size.... To me that would be like taking 100 electric feeders and spread them out over 5-10+ acres so that every square inch of all the acres gets sprayed with bait - try and setup on that...

There are other reasons I don't think they are the same either such as when any nutrition/foliage in the plot is gone it's gone... While baiting constantly provides an 'easy to get to lunch'...

Duke also made some good comments in that often times food plots are not used to directly hunt over - its just as much about providing nutrition, or keeping deer in your general area....

 

NC has been a baiting state for a LONG time. In the history of the practice, do you know how many confirmed cases of CWD/disease we've had?

Populations out of control? I won't argue with you....but to hear some talk....you'd think this was a means to total eradication of the herd.

Are natural movement patterns altered by deer feeding in plots?

In most areas I see, here......the vegetation suffers. But it's getting POUNDED whether baiting occurs, or not.

Do you really think that everyone who baits.....does so with the sole purpose of killing deer over it? And, do you really think everyone who plants food plots doesn't plant them for the same reason (to kill deer in them)?

So what we're really hung up on.....is the size of the "pile"? Again....if a hunter can reach his prey....no matter where it's standing within his plot or "pile".....do we have a difference?

If you don't hunt your plots.......I'll give you full credit for planting for the betterment of the herd. If you don't hunt over your feeding stations.......I'll give you the SAME credit. I just don't differentiate between the two. I don't see EITHER as "unethical", "immoral", or otherwise. So, I certainly don't view one (or the other) as morally superior to the other.

I've done both. I may do both, again.

 

I know of over a dozen guys who have plots they do not kill deer "in it" That does not mean it's not meant to kill a deer. Some guys spend thousands and thousand of dollars on them. They do not do so to kill a deer. They do it to have a better hunt, see more deer.

TB was help spread in MI, in the NLP, it was more private farms and HUGE feeding stations. A lot of hunters blame baiter on state land. In fact it was huge feeding stations.

 

I'm currently in a WHIP and CP 22 Riparian Buffer program through the NRCS and Missouri Dept. of Conservation. I've planted 15,000 trees in 3 years and 40 acres of NWSG on our 90 acre farm. The trees aren't "natural" so to speak b/c I planted them there and either are the NWSG. In between each row of trees, I've broadcasted Ladino clover. Ladino, although great for deer and turkeys, was planted to help our riparian buffer to remove pollutants and other sediments from the streams on our farm until our trees have become mature. The deer love the clover and use it as a food source. This is one reason I see planting food plots and baiting as being different. My "food plot" primary goal is to remove pollutants and feed wildlife second, something a 50 lb bag can't do. Although, I don't care if a person baits as long as it's legal, I do see some rather large variances between the two in my eyes.

 

I plant plots and yes, they are a form of baiting. The differences between food plot bait and a bait pile are obvious and I don't need to point them out. Just like the difference between a decoy (bait) and a bait pile are obvious.
We aren't allowed to set bait piles in IA so I don't have any experience with them. But, I can't even get a mature buck to visit my plots in daylight, so I highly doubt I could get one to come to a bait pile. My reasons for food plots are simply to bring and hold more deer on my small property. I do hunt over some of them, mostly in late season conditions or trying to get an early season doe. To me, it's all about making my 40 acres the most attractive 40 acres around.

 

Kind of like a fellow I know that owns 1000 acres and goes to great lengths putting out food plots, etc.

He said normally he has 5000 acres worth of Deer on that 1000 acres. I believe him! :-)

Dan

 

I hunt in Texas! My feeder holds 300 lbs of corn and or protien pellets. My budget usually determines what is in it. This time of year through mid summer I usually try to feed protien to help with nutrition. The feeder throws feed twice a day, (about a pound per feeding), morning and evening. (of course at prime hunting times! duh!)
So, I feed year round with nutrition in mind, and I hunt over it on rare occasions. I let guests hunt over it whenever they would like to.
My question is am I the same as the lazy slob that pours a 50# bag of corn on the ground and hunts it until its gone?

 

You're as lazy as me when I through out a liitle clover and spend 1 hour raking it

I have never undeerstood why some get all fired up over baiting. I still remember killing my first deer as she ate an apple:D

Baiting done correctly is a true art form IMO. A correct baiting setup takes a lot of time and money sometimes to do correctly.

 

And all the dang batteries I go through!:D

 

You can buy a Solar panel and hook that baby up.

It's called Green Hunting, you get a tax rebate on all your hunting gear for helping the enviorment.

 

TX- curious question that I've always wondered..

What do deer in Texas eat? I've never been to Texas and am completely ignorant to it's ecosystem. But what I see on tv it just looks like a bunch of dirt! Lol.

So what native browse and mast do they feed on?

 

Mostly they eat the corn hunters throw from automatic feeders!:D

Where I hunt in east Texas it is mostly woods. The primary food source is acorns, and whatever browse they can find. When I hunted closer to home the land is mostly pasture and the native grasses that grow there. Texas is so big there are many different types of terrain and vegitation.
Most of the big ranches in south Texas that are seen on hunting shows provide protien year round.

 

Let me first say that I have not read this entire thread. However, I read enough to see the same old arguments and laugh at the fact that several here are spouting some strong opinions about something they have never done or experienced. If you have never put in several acres of food plots and hunted over them, your opinion is unfounded. Is there a difference, yes. A target animal may enter a 5 acre food plot several hundred yards from a stand and never get any closer. If that same animal eats at a pile of apples. It will get shot at.

I have put in several acres of food plots for several years now and have yet to harvest a target buck in one of them. In fact, I have pretty much abandoned hunting them most of the time. Most mature bucks still dont enter the plots until after dark. (with the exception of late season in poor weather) The food plots may attract does and fawns and keep his interest on my farm, but I have killed all of my bucks far from any plots. We can not hunt over bait piles here, but I have placed bait piles for cameras after tagging out in seasons past and guess what, when placed back in the timber, the big boys do show up during legal shooting time. So, I would have to say, my experience here has been that I would definitely like my odds of killing a mature buck over a pile of corn in the timber vs. sitting on a 5 acre food plot. To me, that is quite a difference. I would agree that both are intended to attract deer, but a bait pile is more likely to produce a kill. It wouldnt be a style of hunting for me here, but I dont begrudge anyone of doing it where legal. I hunted Texas a few years ago and I can see where baiting is nearly a necessity in some areas.

 

My pile took a LOT of work

 

Germ,

I would say your shot distance from the top of that stand is unethical. The bait pile is fine though. (assuming its legal ofcourse)

 

So the argument can be settled by saying, "if it is legal in your state to bait, then end of story?"

 

Thats how it works for me. I joke around about me being a slob. Some people aren't joking. Water off a ducks back. I'm OK with it and thats all that matters!