Here's my opinion. On our place we are surrounded by ag ground. Predominantly corn and beans. Last year we planted 2 acres of brassica of various types and oats. It was the prettiest plot with the largest turnips and radishes I've seen. I wear a size 11 EE. The turnips were wider than my foot is long. We planted this in bottom ground "away" from the ag areas as far as we could. This plot is on a major travel corridor through the bottoms. The deer skirt the bluff along the creek to move through the area. Which was right by the plot. We had a camera on there all fall and through the winter. We would get "random" pic's of deer lightly browsing. We found very little evidence of the plants being eaten. The deer would constantly come up out of the bottom to eat on the standing soybeans we left. In February they finally showed up in the "greens" to eat on the winter peas. The rest rotted right where it grew. Granted, it all went back in to the soil so we didn't waste any fertilizer but the deer didn't eat it either. Like Covey said the pic's on tv are showing the highlights. We never get to see the hours they waited for deer to come to that particular plot. At my in-laws. They only have 10 acres that is in town. I've planted the same mix over there for the last several years. It is the same mix as we planted at our place last fall, '15. The deer absolutely are mowing it off. The turnips and radishes look like little white eyes in the ground where the deer have eaten them down to the frozen ground. The major difference is that the area is non ag. The closest crop fields to them are almost 2 miles as the crow flies. The only competition that I have is the neighbors corn pile. The only mast crop near by are locust pods. Hedge apples were the food of choice before we started using a food plot. The plot is 1 acre in size that lays right next to a pond. I'm saying location has just as much to do with what we see on tv as anything. I've noticed the poor editing before as I'm sure some of you have. One minute it is sunny and 75, next thing ya know the hunter is shooting a buck in the snow out of a different stand. I'm just saying they never give a total layout of what is behind that grove of trees. We've improved our equipment over the years too. I no longer need to abuse the 4 wheeler. As far as seed quality. I don't buy anything with a picture of a deer on the bag. We have a place local that has as good or better seed for a fraction of the cost and will mix anything you want at any ratio. At our place there are plenty of deer and plenty of food options and with little snow the last few years they can eat anywhere. With no-till becoming more popular the food is readily available. It isn't disked under the ground. At the in-laws there are too many deer and not so many places to hide so they hammer what food is there. Just my 2cents.
Soil quality = $$$$ Farmers properties are more often than not valued by the quality of their soils. If you are in a nutrient deficient area, getting your soil up to snuff can be a pricey investment (depending on how bad it is). That's not to say your soil wont do better with a different seed. Fist steps is always taking several soil samples and having them analyzed to check how much N-P-K it requires.
TV shows should never be used as a high water mark. You have the Dbags and the wealthy, one that will do anything, including hunting high fence operations and try to not disclose where they are hunting and another with more resources than any other ten hunters combined, showing people how "to get it done". It's a lot like listening to Hollywood preaching about politics and morals. Sure, there are some good, honest shows out there but the vast majority are in control of their own narrative and they take every advantage of it they can. I'd propose that having 20 does and a 150" buck in your food plot every night is an unreal expectation no matter where you are living in the US, short of being in a high fence operation. Expand your opportunities to 20 different properties with 100 food plots and you can probably expect to have at least one plot with pics like that every time you pull cards. You could probably even pick that field to video a hunt on and brag about how all your properties are like that all the time if you wanted to.
Obviously some sarcasm was used, and i wouldn't even take into consideration a "high fence" hunting show as an example of realistic hunting. I do believe though, that the TV hunting industry has somewhat falsely led you to believe that food plots are the end all be all of killing mature deer. Of course, i just finished year 1. After next year my sample size will double.
A Dbag TV hunter will hunt a high fence and never tell you and never show the fence. You can tell by the number of deer encounters and the quality of the deer they encounter. They market their shows based on their success and footage so they have incentive to take whatever shortcuts they can to show results. Yes, my point is that people watching TV hunt shows are going to have a skewed impression of results they can expect from food plotting. The folks in good areas will never see it because it worked for them just like on TV, the folks like you with challenges around are going to be slammed into reality and start to question what they have been shown on TV. I live in a great area, have fairly impressive resources and still have mixed results with food plots. The honest truth is there are a hell of a lot of variables to deal with, just growing the crop isn't necessarily gong to be the hard part or guarantee growing, seeing and killing big deer. For one thing, it can take deer a while to find and establish usage in an area with a lot of food. It's like trying to manage a duck marsh in the middle of a state waterfowl refuge. You can have the best groceries available and still have no ducks. In that case, you have to be patient, enjoy it for what it is and hope that ducks will eventually learn there's a spot in the middle with better food and they need to follow the few explorers that found it back to it. After a while, masses of them will learn there's better food and target it before they focus on the surrounding refuge. If you can't get better food, provide better cover and less pressure. There's always a way, find the limiting resource and provide an excess of that and it'll work out. Resources for deer are 1. Food 2. Cover a. Bedding b. Escape 3. Water 4. Pressure (or lack of) Listed in order for "most" parts of the country. The parts of the country where #1 is not #1 (in your case) you'll have to find what other one is #1 and you'll have deer when no one else does. Seems simple and you probably already know but it's worth saying anyway.
I agree with you based on my limited experience with food plots. My food plots did nothing to enhance my opportunities at deer. In fact I would say the opposite is true at one of the locations where I tilled under some cover. They used that area much less than in the past. That being said I may plant them again this season. Not because I expect it to impact my hunting in a meaningful way but because I like to make bowhunting a year round activity. The deer did finally eat my brassicas the last week of January so maybe they benefited in a very minimal way too.
In regards to "build it and they will come", I truly believe if you can make a preferred food source in your area and provide food year round it will ultimately increase your odds. Are you gonna see 100 deer in your fields, well if you don't have the densities of course not. I only have access to small plots, 40 acres or less, so by making food plots my odds go up slightly in that a deer may pass through. I'll take any slight gains I can get at the end of the day.
I have land and I have lots of equipment to use still left after we sold the cows. I lease most of our land to another big farmer so the fields are all planted to beans, corn or alfalfa. In the woods, I have several food plots, secluded, well taken care of and very good looking. Some years, the deer will hit one or two of them and then the next year you won't see anything. We don't have a large population here so it's not expected to see a large group and the idea of a 150...... totally dreaming. While having grown some amazing brassicas several times and then having sat and watched deer walk right through those fields to get to the clover side of the plot, I have given up on them. I have almost as much fun planting as I do hunting the food plots. Now probably the best example I can give you of deer and their food fussiness..... we have one pasture stand, (pasture is about 2 acres) and around the edge of that pasture there are 7 different apple trees. This year was one of those years that every one of those trees was loaded with apples. It was interesting to watch the deer feed first on one and then on to another and never more than two different trees at the same time. What was amazing, there was one tree, that even though you couldn't walk under that tree without fear of turning your ankle on the huge number of apples on the ground, that the deer never even touched one apple under it. Don't you love trying to figure deer out?!?!
This, how many food plotters actually do soil testing? You can buy the best seed available but if the soil is missing something you get diminished results.
Truly successful food plots need 3 things...and just 2 or 1 of them will never be truly successful: #1 - Good quality seed. Can be had from many places. #2 - Effort by the plotter. Sweat, money, time, fertilizer, soil amended appropriately.... #3 - Mother Nature cooperates
I can say this irrigating food plots makes a huge difference, that is in the years rain does not cooperate.
In addition to the soil sampling & testing, I will say this; Deer are creatures of habit. A once-off food plot will not bring deer streaming onto your property. Food has never been there before, now there is food? It may take several years of blood, sweat and tears before they recognize your plot as a reliable food source (emphasis on reliable) which they can reply on. We all would love the quick fix solution here, but the fact of the matter remains that there isn't any. I look at "hunters" such as Bill Winke and the Drury's. I think of them more like farmers than hunters sometimes. I see their lush green plots and high quality yields. That takes hard work and year-round dedication. Anyone who has farmed with greens before will know the challenges they face with unpredictable weather patterns; droughts, floods, fires etc. I take my hat off to the guys that are being persistent in their conquest of excellence. Taking a Booner in addition to all that...respect.
Dan, another thought to piggyback on yours. I know a few people that have planted all turnips, or rape or radishes thinking it will be a magnet late fall. If I were to do that I would do it in strips with clover or alfalfa mixed in. The deer will come for the clover and will be somewhat conditioned to feed in the area, once the frost hits the other stuff will be hit more.
I feed when I am not hunting, when I take the fence off the alfalfa clover plot I have more deer on the plot then I do around the feeder.
So you knew the answer to the question all along In all seriousness, it really comes down to competition with regard to what you're asking. With how much variety exists in a deers' diet, I find it hard to believe you can't plant anything they would come to. They don't just eat piles of corn all day long. Habitat wise, these neighbors who bait, what else does their property have that yours might be lacking? Cover, water? Topographical features? Pressure?
My property is far and away the best, and biggest. The neighbors who hunt have tiny lots compared to mine. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Then you're an anomaly So they haven't done any habitat work at all? It's just tiny lots with little habitat but piles of corn?
