I think you will find that a 2.5 acre corn field will be worthless. Depending on the size of your herd. Here in MN a 2.5 acre corn field would be gone before season starts. Ive seen what they do to a 40+ acre field. I would consider something other than corn myself.
If you were to approach a farmer and offer him to leave some spots of his fields (corn and soybeans) standing, what kind of cash would you be looking at per acre?
TeeJay, I've heard something along those lines before. Hopefully, if we do plant corn, the varieties of other food plots on our property outside of the corn (another 2-3 acres approx) will take a little pressure off the corn itself. Only time will tell I guess
Everything is going to be a case by case situation, but here's a few numbers to chew on... Quick google search found that average acre of land in IL (in 07) produced approx 175 bushels of corn per acre. Average current cash price for corn in my area was listed at $3.23 per bushel. So gross number would be $565 per acre. Of course there are other factors: the farmer is paying taxes on the land, he's applying herbicides, pesticides, etc., cultivating, planting - using tons of diesel in the field, so you would have to take that into consideration too...
I have been thinking of planting something too. Problem is that I hunt a deep valley with a creek in it that is completely surrounded by corn, soy beans, alfalfa and hay. The deer bed up in the corn until it is cut so for me the problem is getting them out to shoot them
Along those same lines, a buddy of mine plants approx an acre and a half of corn every year, later in bow season he puts the plow on the truck and knocks it down so he can see em better. Like RJ said, fertilizer is where your money is. My biggest plot this year was 2.5 acres. It was 40% Ultra Forage Turnips, 40% Red Zone, 20% Oats. I put the seed down a bit heavy and I still easily had as much cash in fertilizer and lime as I did in seed.
If you want good corn you must fertilize. Takes lots of nitrogen. You could easily spend over $100 per acre on fertilizer and one bag of seed will do it. The seed could be as high as $200 a bag but you may be able to get free seed through local conservation organizations such as Pheasants Forever etc. if it is only used for food plots. It will be 1 year old seed but will still have a good germination rate. You can test yourself by placing a few seeds in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and then see how many sprout in a few days. I have never seen it be a problem. Around 30,000 plants per acre is standard here and you can adjust your seed rate accordingly. You would likely have to hotwire such a small corn plot. I had 20 acres of corn this year and several acres were wiped out by October. Not that a couple of acres is small, but corn is very succeptable to wildlife damage and cannot sustain grazing activity like green plots can. Clovers and grasses like oats or rye can rebound from grazing, corn is done. Also, for those of you who love to plant turnips like I do. You need to know that they must be rotated to different areas every couple of years or they will get a blight and die. Especially on wet years. We learned the hard way, a couple of friends were replanting food plots this year in early fall. Apparently the old turnips can leave a fungus in the soil that will attack the new plants. I think you could even rotate from one end of the plot to another and be okay. We resarched this and found that two years in a row for turnips and then do something else for a year. Keep in mind that many designer brands of mixes have turnips in them.
Each state is different on the rules on doing this, so check it out before hunting over it. You might be in violation of the baiting laws. I know in IL unless you harvest it you cannot simply mow it down with a brush hog and hunt over that field. In MO I believe it would be OK.
Absolutely, please check your local laws before doing something like this. As a kid in Vermont, this was 100% legal.
Good advice here. We have planted ~.75 acres in corn in our plot in years past, and like was said, fertilizer is key. We have a farmer who farms our ground, so, we worked out a deal for bulk liming, and fertilizer. The corn did well, and the deer were using it. There was ~20 acres of corn elsewhere on the property, so the deer were hitting it hard. I would be hesitant to plant it on a small plot if it were not competing with larger corn fields nearby. As for turnips, my experiences have mirrored Matt's. You need a really hard (or several sequential) frosts for the deer to really start to hit them. Once the starches are turned to sugars, the deer were digging, and pawing through 8+ inches of snow well through February to get to them. Problem is, in PA, you can't always count on them (turnips) to be preferred during archery season. Heck, in years like this where we haven't had many hard frosts, deer might still not be hitting them that hard (as Ben can attest to). I see them not necessarily as a hunting plot plant, but a supplemental feed for winter for the deer.
My plan for next year in our three acre plot, corn in the first half and about 5 rows deep around the edges the in the middle of the plot there is gonna be our normal green plot, basically we are providing cover for them so they will move a tad bit earlier and we get a nice food source out of it to boot.
I have an awesome turnip crop, but alas I think we need some more hard frosts to get them on it. Looks like it may be a late season crop only.
It took a couple of years for my deer to get really interested in the turnips until late season. Now, they are mowing them down by late September. Some of my turnip plots are already down to just the bulbs in the ground and look like hogs have been in them.
