Cheap/Effective Food Plot Protection?

Do you have utilization cages in place to see if it's working? If you can, document how it's going with pics.

 

Not currently but I'll try to set one up tonight.

 

It's hard to know if it will work without giving it time. He just set it up and has never tried it prior it looks like. I'm also curious to see his results.

I would bet it works better than fishing line. Just my $.02!

Whatever you do put some fencing in there and cage off even 1' x 1'. This way you will know if the plot height inside the cage is different than the rest or not.

 

I have tried the fish line, I have also used fish line with plastic roll flagging on the line. I have had mixed results. The last 2 years have been dry towards the end of summer and I irrigate my plots so they were the only green spots in the area, when it was dry fish line did not stop them, in a "normal" year it seems to work ok

 

I'll be making a utilization cage today and taking some pictures.

To be fair, I have a clover and buckwheat plots on my property as well.

 

talked to two guys / on QDMA.com and they said they used cheyenne pepper mixed with water and sprayed it everywhere. You have to have to search that site for more info.

 

I've head of people doing this before.

 

Well here's how the plot looks today. Added the utilization cage.

 

Good science

 

Cool topic! I like the ideas!!!

 

Wow, that plot looks great so far!! Do you have any cameras around the perimeter? Did you notice any deer tracks inside when you put the cage up?

 

I'll be moving one of my cameras this weekend.

I haven't seen many fresh prints but there was a doe and fawn in the plot the other day. I also get an occasional line broken every week which could scare them to the point of running back out of the plot.

 

How's this solution holding up for ya? That's a pretty big plot. Anxious to see how well the fishing line trick does on bigger plots. It's still doing fantastic for my small plots.

 

I've thought about if we ever do beans to circle the plot with string as well as add some cross plot strings too....still could go in and hand spray but possible discourage them even more. Or I've heard good thing from guys that do a double string fence with ribbons tied to the interior one which is 2-3 feet away from outer to discourage jumping.

 

I've heard a lot of folks did this method too. They say it confuses the deer's depth perception, making things further and bigger than they actually are.

 

Still holding up but I really don't know how much activity would be there if it wasn't up. I am considering taking the whole thing down to see if there's any difference.

I have also read about the 2 fence system, which I might try for my fall plot.

 

If it kept 1 deer out I would call it successful Looks like your plot is getting mature enough know to withstand a little more browsing pressure

 

This by no means makes the test a success, but I have seen some positive results. I took the fishing line down last weekend and have seen an increase in deer activity in the plot. There has been at least four deer feeding every evening.

The utilization cage is still up so hopefully in the coming weeks I will get a better look at how effective it was.

 

Cool! Thanks for the update. I took down my fishing line last week and they have nibbled on all of my plants with new shoots!