2020 October Food Plot Update

A Favorite Picture

Our New Nutritional Plan

Welcome to the 2020 September Food Plot Journal.

Wow, it's been four years since our last Journal. Hopefully one or two of you are still out there with some interest in what we are doing.

We've moved the large majority of our plots into a clover-chicory-alfalfa base. The only annual we currently use are oats in the fall. I only plant in the fall and use a clover-oat combination. In the following spring I overseed with clover. Spring planted plots were always more difficult due to the weather and I found them to be much harder to establish ahead of the weeds. Annuals provided more choices for the deer, but were a lot more work and were a scheduling problem. That's where we stand right now. All I have to do to change that is hook up the tiller and have at it.

It's been a very dry summer and that has taken a bit of a toll on our plots. They aren't dying, but they aren't thriving.

Oldhouse Plot

The clover in this plot was planted in 2017, then spot overseeded this spring along with a full overseed one earlier year. I don't remember what clover blend we put in here.

There is a good bit of grass but there is a quite a bit of clover as well.

As you can see in the picture deer are still using the food plot.

The Old Garden Plot no longer exists. We built a 30x45 pole barn here that has been a great addition to store our tractor and implements.

The funny thing is that this area was overseeded in clover in the spring of 2015 and still has a lot of clover. It's generally mowed with the yard.



Middle Clearing Plot

This plot was planted in August of 2019 with Evolved Harvest Provide Clover with along with some oats. This spring we overseeded with Plotspike Clover.

There is a lot of clover and chicory here along with a few weeds. I have a camera in a location that may give us an idea how much this plot is getting used. I'd imagine the deer hang out here waiting for the nearby feeder to spin.

Northwest Plot

This plot was last planted in 2014. That year we experimented with using extra lime and fertilizer. That paid off with a nice field of clover. Now, six years later there is a lot of grass, but I was surprised how much clover is still there.

If I had not planted the Northeast section so recently I probably would have tilled this plot up this fall.

Northeast Plot

I planted this plot in the fall of 2018 with Hancock Clover and Durana along with oats. It was then overseeded in March of 2020 with Provided Clover mix.

This is a nice plot of clover.

The West plot is on the left side and East plot on the right in this picture. This picture makes this field look much flatter than it actually is.

Southeast Hayfield Plot

This area was planted in 2017 and is still a decent spot. We still see deer using this area, but probably not as much as the past couple of years.

Southwest Hayfield Plot

The Southwest section was planted in 2015 after the pipeline was completed and still has a good bit of clover. We seem more deer on this side of the field.

Northeast Hayfield Plot

We tilled and planted a portion of this side this fall in early September and then have unsuccessfully prayed for rain. We planted X-Seed Clover Blend along with Buck Forage Oats. They are coming up in the dry dirt, but it's far from lush. We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow so hopefully this will help us out.

The rest of this area was planted in 2017.

Northwest Hayfield Plot

This area was also planted in 2015 after the pipeline was completed and still has a good bit of clover for a five year old plot.

The picture below shows our planting efforts from September.

In the spring of 2019 we tilled this plot and planted Monster Mix. Throughout 2019 this plot grew mostly grass and weeds. Then in the spring of 2020 we overseeded with Provide Clover Blend and there was some real nice clover and chicory here this year.

We did have some grass come in late this summer when we didn't get to mow it as soon as we would have liked, but there is a lot of good forage for the deer in this plot. We saw a lot of deer here over the past few weeks.


Pipeline Plot

We've split the pipeline plot in two, an east and west side.

We tilled and planted the west side in August 2019 and planted Antler King Clover and Evolved Harvest Provide along with oats. In the spring we overseeded with Plotspike clover.

This is a real nice clover plot this year.

We tilled and planted the east side this September with Imperial Whitetail Clover, Fusion and Alfa Rack. Like the other plot we planted this year it's doing quite well for the dry conditions.

This should be a great area to sit and watch deer this fall.

In the picture below the east side is on the left and west side on the right. We've left a strip down the middle we drive on that we overseeded in the spring.

We no longer have plots that the deer wipe out. I remember many years ago when we would plant small quarter and half acre clover plots and had to put cages in them to see if the clover is growing. Now we have plenty of for them to eat.

Soon our attention with turn to overseeding and maybe a little extra lime. This is what usually occupies my mind as I sit on my blinds during the hunting season.

For most of the spring and summer we ran one camera and watched our mineral licks. In early September we added three more and started trying to see what our buck population looked like.

Below is one of the bucks we've seen so far.

Last deer season we decided to modify our nutritional plan for our deer.

In the past we ran corn feeders year round, gave them sweet feed on occasion around deer season and had our food plots.

This year we let the corn feeders run out after deer season and just started them up at the end of August. The deer love the corn, it provides some energy and a little protein and it let's them know we still like them. Let's be honest, it keeps them around.

We are giving them 12% sweet feed as long as they will eat it. There is a period in the warm months between spring green up and late summer when the deer pay little attention to it so we don't bother putting it out for only the raccoons. This provides higher protein content than corn and poor browse and some vitamin and mineral support as well. It's not as high in protein as manufactured deer feed, but gosh that stuff it expensive. We also from time to time add high protein attractants to the feed. We are either upping the protein value or just fooling ourselves. We picked up a lot of the attractants after season when it was on sale. The deer seem to like it just as much as when it was full price.

The main leg of our efforts are the food plots. These provide excellent protein values and are available in all but the coldest of months. We also have some steeper areas of our fields that we try to mow at least once a year. Sightings show us that the deer like these areas as well.

We know that it will take three or four years to see what impact if any on antler size this may have. Right now all of our deer look real healthy and they seemed to look good through last winter. Hopefully this is a good sign.