*Discussion*: Winter food source - Corn vs. Brassicas

Only my son and I hunt the property. Both neighboring properties are also lightly hunted.

The deer here seem to travel on and off our property more and more as fall arrives. We carefully only hunt certain areas/food sources that the deer seem to be hitting and do not venture into the wooded areas hardly at all. We had 120 acres of beans, 100 acres of corn and 30 acres of alfalfa. Our food plots in the woods include similar foods and the deer have/had been hitting them hard earlier in the season but this morning after another 3" of snow last night as we picked up blinds and seats out of our permanent stands, we scouted and came across just a dry doe and a button buck, along with several coyotes, squirrels, turkeys, and partridge. The deer were hitting the beans and the corn. Nothing has touched the brassicas at all. Turkeys were in both the beans and corn too along with spending some time in the food plot with clover.

 

We have smaller plots and corn doesn't make it to winter in our case. Brassicas and winter rye work for us. Corn I think would be a better draw if you could have a large enough plot that wouldn't get taken out right away

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Well i am not afraid to front the bill for fertilizer on a corn on corn rotation. With brassicas in the spring I would plant wheat or clover if the Brassicas are eaten down enough that the allopathic characteristics of the Brassicas are gone, then terminate and till under for feetilizer.

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Couple things, now remember I've yet to have the area to want to mess with Corn - changing this next year.

-Brassicas are immensely powerful IF your deer figure them out. Once they do oh my word your plots will be mud come thaw because they'll have dug out every bulb there....however I know some that swear their deer even on year 3 or 4 doesn't like em.

-Some have said brassicas are tough to grow. Honestly, if one doesn't overseed them and does simple fertilizing planned recommended for them, I've never had issues growing them unless light is an issue (which if not enough for brassicas you don't have enough for corn). *Where light is limited go cereal grains, the deer love em too but different thread altogether.

-Both are going to use up nutrients (especially Nitrogen) and deplete the soil similarly. So rotating each year or two is definitely something recommended.

To me personally the biggest pro of corn is the cover it provides throughout it's life span and the biggest pro for brassicas is I seriously think they can provide more food than typical corn plots if all things same.

My personal plan is to do a split I think. Half in Corn will have cereal grains seeded into it with just a dusting of brassicas....other half into beans and will have brassicas overseeded in with a dusting of cereal grains included. Rotated each year obviously as well.

However if you told me I had to do only Corn or only brassicas with no overseeding option I'm going brassicas as their window of feeding deer is longer.

 

While I certainly would not plant them as an attraction plot here in NC and VA I will continue to plant them. The deer here won't start hitting them till late January or February when most other options are depleted. So it worth it to plant at least a small amount of them in my opinion.

 

5 years for me and they still havent figured it out.

Planted some into standing corn this summer. Loaded the 4 wheeler by our shop and spilled a little bit on the gravel. About a week later a few emerged and we let them grow. They grew almost as well as the radishes in the corn and in the pasture, on gravel.

 

Westfinger, one year isn't enough time to tell whether your deer will appreciate them.

Couple things:

Try ripping some up and cutting them in half and laying them out to discover. IF they've never seen em they may not have a clue.

Are you applying some urea after growth and before the end of the growing season for a boost? We do it around mid/late september or when they tell us they need it with discoloration.

Another way to get them to discover them is not do 100% bulb brassicas, mix in some leafy green brassicas that are more palatable for browse above the ground and also we mix in some oats or rye even...assist in their discovery.


One of our properties it took a couple years...the New Property this year has shown the deer nibbling the bulbs now for a couple weeks so no discovery time needed there it seems.

 

After 5 years of rotating my LC Brassica mix with clover/rye/wheat, I'm switching it up next year. Maybe in a new plot, but I want to experiment a little.

For me, experience has shown my deer will hammer the rape as it greens and grows. The root brassicas (groundhog forage radish and purple top turnips) are almost never hit until snow cover or several prolonged killing frosts have occurred. This year, they hit the rape early, then stopped all together once the acorns dropped (we had a bumper crop). I'll have to see how they're hitting it after this snow we just got and the cold snap coming.

Deer hammer rye/wheat even moreso than brassicas. They will paw through the snow all winter to get to it.

 

Really? We had ZERO in WI and MI. Worst acorn yield I can remember ever. Completely altered travel patterns compared to years past.
Good to know about the rye/wheat. We may do alternating strips of that and the brassicas to get them used to pawing at the ground in these areas.

 

That's my experience too. For my property, a cereal/small grain has been, by far, my go to for mixes. They hit it early and keep hitting through early winter.

 

I didn't plant rye or wheat this year, and it shows. My December activity on my main plot is significantly reduced than in years past. Like I said, I'll check it out here after this cold snap moves through on Saturday and see what my camera is showing.

I fully expect activity to pick up a pit now that we've had some heavy frosts, but I still don't plant to eliminate rye or wheat from my fall season mixes again.

 

sugar beets

 

Sugar beets?

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yes sir.

 

Never heard sugar beets mentioned in a food plot thread. I dont know if I have the soil required to grow sugar beets...

 

I've mixed em in...eh

 

I've never planted a food plot in my life... Standing corn and beans will always be my go to (at least here in central MN).

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

All of the farmers here have finished cutting/picking their corn and the beans have been gone for at least a month.
I plant food plots as much to provide a food source and reason to stay on my property as I do to hunt over.

My favorite hunting spots are still apple trees.
(and yes, I do prune my wild apple trees!)

 

I'm thinking of switching to Kumquats.

 

Deer hammer sugar beets in Michigan once the cold hits. Only problem is they need a high pH level to flourish.