May 2006 Food Plot Update

Deer Growth

Mineral Licks

May has been a very active month in our food plots. We now have seven food plots and each of them saw some kind of activity in the month of May.

The weather in May consisted of everything from frost to days in excess of 90 degrees along with periods of both dry weather and significant rainfall.

In trying to experiment with different seed varieties we were able to plant three different seed blends including Imperial PowerPlant, Tecomate Ultra Forage and Biologic Maximum.

As we said in our last Journal we have continued to pour the lime to our plots and plan to continue this throughout the summer and into the fall.

Since we have stopped feeding corn from our automatic feeders we have moved most of our digital scouting cameras to the food plots. Having these cameras at the food plots is going to be huge for information gathering. I have nine scouting cameras spread over the seven food plots, so I’m not missing much. How dependable the scouting cameras are is a separate issue, but by rotating the cameras we are trying to get a reasonable idea of the deer activity at each of our food plots. This will also provide us with some pictures that have deer in them for this Journal.

Oldhouse Food Plot

The oldhouse food plot is no longer our flagship clover plot but the deer still seem to like it. It is about 50 percent clover and according to our digital scouting cameras is the most heavily visited food plot. A camera stationed near the mineral lick that overlooks the plot will capture 300 to 400 pictures in one week.

On May 13th we mowed the plot and on May 29th we spread 200 pounds of lime. This amount of lime is about half a ton per acre. Our current plans are to plant an annual in this plot this fall at which time we will add more lime to get over the 1 ton of lime per acre that we are striving for.

The Arrest that we sprayed the grass with in April is killing a lot of the grass and is helping to get this plot a little extra life.

This plot, which was planted last spring has now become our best clover plot. By the first of May the clover had grown to over a foot tall and we mowed it on May 13th. We didn’t measure it but it is probably at least 9 inches tall now, at the end of May.

We were disappointed since our cameras weren’t getting many pictures of deer in this plot, which is likely why it grew so tall. After mowing it we have started getting some pictures of deer in the plot and we have seen them eating in it as well, but we still aren’t seeing anywhere near the traffic that the oldhouse plot receives. On May 30th we saw a deer browsing through the plot as we stood about 50 yards away.

The Arrest that we applied in April has killed much of the grass and most of the plot looks real nice.

We mowed this food plot on May 13th and I doubt that we mowed much of the clover. Similar to the oldhouse plot this one is about 50 percent clover but is patchier. The cameras in this plot aren’t revealing much activity, but when I went out to place the camera on our last visit I jumped a doe out of the tall hay alongside the plot. She was just lying there in the shade. We may see more activity in this plot as summer progresses.

We’re not sure what our plans are for this plot. Since it’s so close to the house I’d like to keep it planted in a perennial but our experiments with the annuals may lead us in another direction. Don’t hold me to anything here.

This is a nice green looking food plot but only about 25 percent of it consists of the plants that are supposed to be there. The clover isn’t too hard to find but you have to look to find the chicory and evergreen forbs. We mowed it on May 28th to try to keep the weeds at bay. Interestingly the evergreen forbs that were there had grown quite tall.

One day after mowing we put 150 pounds of lime on the plot. This would be over half a ton of lime per acre.

Right now we plan on adding more lime later this summer and planting an annual in this plot for the fall. I even pulled the disks out to this plot after we planted our last spring plot in the hayfield. The disks parked at a plot is usually the first sign of its demise.

We aren’t getting a lot of pictures at this plot either. That is a little surprising since this plot is in the middle of the woods and near both a mineral lick and a feeder that isn’t operating. Most of the deer in the pictures that we get do not seem to be sticking around to eat.

On May 5th we applied an additional 50 pounds of lime, 19-19-19 fertilizer and planted Imperial PowerPlant. The total lime added to this plot this spring was 250 pounds, which equals about 1 and a half tons per acre.

We questioned our planting methods on this plot. The planting instructions said to cover the seed about 1 inch deep but cautioned against planting too deep, so we dragged the plot as we usually do. The soil had worked up several inches deep and we were afraid to get the seeds too deep. The drag barely covered the seed and many could be seen lying on top of the ground. The next week we could still see many seeds on top of the ground so we used our small disks to go over the plot and try to get a little dirt on top of the seed. I also harkened back to our garden planting days. When we planted beans where we definitely covered the seed. Sometimes you have to learn some things more than once.

The last visit in May revealed that the seed had started to grow and we’ll keep watching it to see what happens. Some of the plants appeared to be about 5 inches tall.

Our cameras have caught a few deer in this plot and one looked like it was nibbling at the young plants but the traffic here hasn’t been very high yet. Maybe they’ll let it get a good start.

We’ve planted two different seed mixtures on two different weeks in the hayfield food plot. In each instance we added an extra 50 pounds of lime and 19-19-19 fertilizer. Since the shape of this plot changed it’s hard to tell exactly how much lime is on the plots but it’s definitely more than we used in previous years.

On May 13th we planted Imperial PowerPlant. This time the ground wasn’t worked up as deep so we used the large disks to cover the seed. By May 29th we could see shoots starting up from the dirt. Our cameras have caught a few deer moving through the plot, but haven’t caught any deer eating the young plants yet.

On May 28th we planted the remainder of the plot with Biologic Maximum. This is a real small brassica seed so we dragged the seed with our bedsprings just like we have always done with clover seed.

Right Of Way Food Plot

On May 13th we added 50 pound of lime and fertilizer before disking again and planted some Tecomate Ultra Forage. This totaled 250 pounds of lime in this plot, which would be about one and a half ton per acre. I meant to use 19-19-19 fertilizer but grabbed the wrong bag so I’m not sure what we actually used.

By May 29th we could see the Ultra Forage coming up and it looked to be about an inch or so tall. So far it looks good even though it’s early.

Our cameras have caught some deer movement in the plot but it looks like the few deer we have seen are just moving through. Hopefully they’ll let the plants get a jump before they eat them. Our cameras should show us what’s happening.

For now it looks like spring planting is over. Our next project will be to add lime to the rest of the old corn patch and old garden plots.

As soon as the hay is cut we may expand the hayfield plot and put in a fall annual. This could be the first plot planted this summer depending on how the middle clearing food plot pans out.

We also want to spend a little time trying to expand the middle clearing and oldhouse plots. We’re hoping to try to enlarge our plots when we can.

June shouldn’t bring as much activity in our plots but hopefully we’ll have a lot of growth and plenty of deer sightings to report in the next issue.

If you have been following our whitetail deer photographs pages, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t, you may have seen the young buck with growths on its face and body. I’ve seen this in magazines before but can’t remember exactly what they said about them.

We have several pictures of him and have seen him near the house as well. He looks like a one-year-old buck.

If you have a better memory than me or know about deer maladies such as these let us know what this is.

We’ve supplied some form of mineral lick for the deer on our property for years but have always wondered if they did any good or how much they were used. The large holes in the ground told us that they were used but we still didn’t know exactly how much.

We have been putting a camera at the oldhouse food plot that is right next to a mineral lick. The pictures show that this mineral lick has seen a lot of action over the last month.

This spring we’ve put out 50 pounds of Imperial Whitetail .30-06 vitamin and mineral supplement in four different licks. Since we now know that they spend considerable time there we are hoping that it does some good. We’ll keep watching the pictures and at least get an idea of how often they visit the licks.