2016 Winter Food Plot Update

A Favorite Picture

Deer Feeders

Welcome to the 2016 Winter Food Plot Journal.

Our last food plot journal was last July, so I guess we have a lot to cover. Since then we've seen another deer season come and go and we even got a little work done in our food plots. We also bought a six foot tiller which has been one of the best purchases that we've made. I was disking a plot and knocked a disk off the outside row when I made a tight turn, so we went that evening and bought the tiller. Now we just have to watch that we don't till up too much ground. We like running that thing.

We had the opportunity in late summer to get some things done and we think the deer liked our efforts.

We also got the chance to get a jump on things here in early March so I hope we're ahead of the game this year.

Oldhouse Plot

After seven years of clover we finally made it to this plot. The Durana had done well here and wasn't completely wiped out, but it was time to move on.

We had plowed the plot and was disking when I broke the disks, so two passes with the new tiller and this plot was ready to go.

We added 500 pound of lime and 190 pound of fertilizer and sowed Imperial Whitetail Winter Greens.

The Winter Greens came up real nice and the deer eat them late into the season. Similar to past plantings of this variety the deer stayed away from them for a while and then hit them real hard. I was pleased with the plot and the ground needed a rest from the clover and we're also able to add more lime and fertilizer for future rewards.

This spring we plan to put a spring/summer blend in here. The ground is pretty torn up so one pass with the tiller and we'll likely be ready to plant.

This picture was taken in early October after the deer had already decided to start eating in the plot.

Last spring I overseeded this plot which had been planted in oats the prior fall. Although the clover didn't pop up for the late May wedding like I had hoped the clover did eventually come up.

To further explain, this plot didn't get tilled, limed or fertilized so we were pretty much happy to get what we could from the overseeded clover. By late summer/early fall it was common to see deer eating in this plot once again.

We're not sure what we'll do with this plot since we need to build something to house our tractor, so we may be putting a building up in this location. This plot will likely just become part of the yard. Hopefully it will still have a lot of clover in it.

The food plot in October. I was surprised how much deer activity we saw here, mostly at night. We ran deer out of the plot most evenings when walking to the outhouse.

This year the Monster Mix in this plot turns three years old and as of March 9th it looks like it should do well this year. As is the case as our plots age, grass is starting to encroach.

On the 9th we spread 100 pound of lime and we'd like to add some fertilizer as well.

I found a shed antler in this plot in January, that's a good sign.

The plot was still nice and green into early October.

This year I'd like to rename our hayfield plots. In the past I had them named as areas, but I'm going to change that this year. We should end up with five separate plots that used to be part of the hayfield plots plus the new pipeline right of way. Each of these plots will be about an acre in size, realizing my acre could be anywhere between a half acre and an acre and a half. I hope to eventually split them up and rotate different crops in them.

Northeast Hayfield Plot

This area had been planted in Alfa-Rack, Durana and Monster Mix. I started tilling late last summer and extended it to about an acre once I starting tilling. Two passes churned this dirt up real nice.

We applied 1020 pound of lime and 300 pound of 12-12-12 and planted Plotspike Oats, Imperial Whitetail Winter Peas, PlotSpike New Zealand Rape and Clover and Evolved Harvest Throw and Grow. Each seed variety was in its own area and they all grew well and the deer spent a lot of time here throughout the fall. There was a spike buck that would lay in the field right below the oats and then hop up and eat for a while.

I'll till this up this spring and put in a spring/summer blend. Right now it looks like this may be Lab Lab, but we'll see. The plot is pretty bare so it should till easily.

By October you can see that this plot had seen heavy grazing and it's even more bare now.

These areas were previously planted in Durana, but they are now part of the new pipeline. The clover that the contractor planted finally came on strong last summer and we mowed the cover off of it. This area should be about two acres, give or take a bit. The deer spent a lot of time eating here last fall.

Hopefully this clover will last a few years with little more than mowing on our part.

Southeast Hayfield Plot

This plot is consists of what we called area 51 and another long strip of the hayfield so it's currently a combination of Monster Mix, Durana and new pipeline clover. We'll probably just mow this plot this year and watch it to see when we need to till it up. This could be later this summer, but we'll see how it does this spring and summer.

Pipeline Plot

This area was woods until the new pipeline went through so we picked up two acres of food plot area. This was planted in clover by the contractors as well and the clover looked real good by summer. The deer really liked this area and we saw more deer here than any other spot most likely because this area is protected from sight and bordered by woods on both sides. We'll keep this mowed and likely split it into two one acre plots later.

You can see how pretty it is in this plot.

Last fall we plowed, tilled and applied 550 pound of lime and 200 pound of 10-10-10. We then sowed a combination of Monster Mix and PlotSpike Clover. Along with this we sowed PlotSpike Forage Oats.

This is the first time we've planted clover with a cover crop and it turned out great. The oats popped up to around 6 to 8 inches and the deer loved it. The clover hid underneath and came on real strong a little later and the deer were often seen bedding down right in the plot.

On March 9th we added 400 pound of lime and hope to fertilize later. We'd also like to overseed this plot with some additional clover as well.

We've had trouble planting clover in the fall in prior years, but the oats as a cover crop seems to have helped a lot so I'm now of the opinion that planting clover in the fall with a cover crop may be our best option. We'll try this again later this summer in a couple of our other plots.

If you look close on the other end of the plot you can see a deer standing there. They pretty much lived in this plot last fall.

This plot of Monster Mix is now two years old and was our mega lime food plot when we planted it. The clover was real nice in this plot last year and we saw a lot of deer in this plot even though it is real close to the house.

On March 9th I applied 500 pound of lime and hope to fertilize in the coming weeks. This should be a nice plot again this year.

Front Field East Plot

This plot was planted three years ago with no lime or fertilizer and minimal preparation so it's been a sub-par food plot. It's pretty much just been another area that we mowed. Once we till and plant the areas that were in fall annuals this plot is next on the list and will get something for the summer. At least it will be another area I get to use the tiller on!

I'll have to get an approximate area on this plot. It may be close to an acre, or close enough we can call it an acre.

You can tell that the upper portion is the good plot while the plot below looks more like an overgrown field.

We saw deer in our plots all fall and winter. Hopefully this will pay off with more healthy deer. I saw a doe early this week and she looked really healthy, especially considering we are just coming out of the winter months.

We plan to fertilize the plots we limed and then start tilling those we planted in the fall to prepare for some warm season annuals. Then we'd like to till up an older plot and put an annual there as well.

Remember this all depends on the weather, but summer annuals allow us more time so we'll see how it goes.

If you've watched our website in the past years you know that we added pictures quite often until late last year. We explained in our Deer Droppings why we pulled the cameras. On the other hand I've put a couple of cameras out at another location and should have some deer pictures to post soon.

Below is one of our favorite pictures from fall 2015. This is the biggest buck that survived deer season this past fall. We found his sheds and look forward to seeing him this year. We hope he takes full advantage of the food we're trying to provide.

Last year a black bear knocked over two of our three feeders so we quit using the tripod feeders. After taking them completely down for a short time, we went back to using 5 gallon bucket feeders slung over tree limbs. The bear got to these as well so we added some tin to the trees so that he couldn't climb up the trees. This kept him at bay. After deer season we pulled our three corn feeders and put them away. We'll likely put them back up later this summer.

We started putting out protein feed for them in late summer and have continued to do so through the winter. In an effort to increase the nutritional value of what our deer are eating we've continued providing protein feed although I'm not sure we were consistent enough to make any difference. In the past the deer have moved away from our protein feed once everything else greens up so we'll watch and see what they do this year. If they keep eating it, we'll keep giving it to them.