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In this issue.... October 2008 Food Plot Update A Favorite Picture Ryan's Buck October Food Plot Journal Welcome to the October Food Plot Journal. This will be our last issue for 2008 now that our growing season is over and our annuals have been eaten by the deer. We didn’t get much rain in October and our plots didn’t make that jump in growth that I had hoped for. Oldhouse Food Plot The deer have eaten the Durana clover down close to the ground. I hunted this food plot on the 25th and watched deer eat in the plot. I believe the clover will jump back up strong in the spring given enough moisture.
This plot doesn’t look like much but there is a good base of clover under the leaves. Corn Patch Plot The biggest news in this food plot has been the apple trees that are in it. The deer have not left them alone and have trampled the young clover trying to grow there. The Durana clover in the plot in the rest of the plot tried to grow and may be OK if we have a good spring.
The cornpatch plot is in the back of the picture and is the brown area. You can see deer eating under and apple tree in a corner of the plot. Old Garden Food Plot The Durana in the old garden plot doesn’t look too bad although the deer have kept the clover close to the ground. The growth inside the exclusion cage is good and shows us what the rest of the plot could have looked like. We also have a couple of fruit trees along the edge of this plot that the deer have muddied the ground under. This plot should do well in the spring.
You can see the clover inside the cage and the lower clover outside the cage. Middle Clearing Food Plot The Monster Mix is still hanging in there. I watched a few deer spend some time in the plot when a larger buck chased them away from a feeder on the 25th. I’m not sure what spring will bring for this plot, we’ll wait and see.
This plot is covered with leaves, but there is some green in there if you look hard. Whippoorwill Food Plot This mixture of Bucks and Bosses, Monster Mix and Durana is hanging in there this fall. I think I should be able to hold onto this plot next year with a little mowing and herbicide application. The last couple of weeks have been big weeks for deer pictures in this plot.
The deer have hit this plot hard this fall. Hayfield Food Plot The Durana and AlfaRack look rough right now but the deer are still visiting them a lot. The growth inside of the exclusion cages shows us that the deer are eating heavily here. The Winter Greens I planted on September 4th were not planted early enough and never had the chance to grow. They achieved about a two inch height and then the deer ate them. I need to plant Winter Greens earlier. The Ultimate Forage Oats grew well to as much as 6 inches in height and the deer have eaten in them heavily. We saw deer in them on each visit and they were still eating oats on the 25th. The early September planting date did well with the oats. I have some decisions to make in the hayfield next spring. Some of the clover I planted last fall and last spring is questionable and I’ll have to decide what to do in the strip where I had the Winter Greens and oats.
The Winter Greens were in the foreground and the oats are in the background. If you look hard you can see deer in the oats while I was taking the picture. Right Of Way Food Plot The Durana I planted in late July is thin but growing. I’m curious how well it will do in the spring. Hopefully it will come on strong.
This is the most clover we’ve had in this plot all year, but it still isn’t much.
Now we get to hunt and plan for out food plots in the spring. Have a great season. Our Favorite Pictures We get thousands of pictures each month with our digital trail cameras but we narrow down each set of pictures to our favorite six or seven and these are usually buck pictures. As you can imagine there are always several more that are very good but don't make the cut. Below is one of our favorite pictures from October. When the apples are falling sometimes even the squirrels have to be brave and take on the deer. You can take a look at our favorite deer pictures from October 24th here.
Ryan's Buck I’ve told a lot of people about Ryan’s buck and he has shown the picture to everyone he comes close to but I have to talk about it one more time. Last year Ryan hit a wide nine point buck in rifle season and I decided to let it lay and die. Well, I was wrong and we returned to find the deer had gotten up and left to never be found. This year Ryan took things into his own hands and headed out of the house around 5:00AM. He had watched two bucks all summer and decided that he wanted to try to shoot the wide buck we call sticker point. His opportunity came later that morning and he made a very nice shot on his second attempt and got the buck that he had been watching. I was 50 miles away when he shot this buck and maybe that was best. I couldn’t mess things up from that distance. Here is the picture, one more time.
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