July food plot update

Deer feeder follies

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The July 5th food plot update found the plots in need of rain. (You can read the July 5th food plot update at July 5th food plot update.) Fortunately we have received some rain in July. In spite of this, the plots have fallen into a summer lull. In this growing slow down, the clover is holding it’s own. It looks like the clover has even outgrown the grasses and weeds in most areas but we surely do not need to mow because the clover is 24 inches high.

The plot at the old house still looks good. The clover is nice and thick with minimal competition from grass and weeds. Once again you can see how much the animals are keeping the clover eaten from the difference in the height inside of the exclusion cage. I mowed the plot with the brush hog just above the clover for the second time this year on July 23rd.

You can see that clover dominates the oldhouse food plot.

On the July 13th visit I had mowed half of the garden plot with the garden tractor and wanted to see if it would make any difference. As it turned out, there was minimal difference between the two areas. On July 23rd mowed this plot to the top of the clover similar to what I have done at the old house plot this year. I am trying to experiment with mowing heights to determine what is best. Overall the clover in this plot is doing quite well, but would probably have done better if I could have kept the deer out of it for a while after it was first planted. We watched six deer feeding in it late into one evening. This leaves no doubt about how much they like the clover.

You can see the clover in amongst the grass and weeds.

The old corn patch plot still has a decent amount of clover but the grass is still strong. I mowed it with the garden tractor on July 13th. During the July 24th visit both the clover and grass have slowed down.

The clover may be starting to lose out to the grass but it is still there.

The patch at whippoorwill is still surprising me. It is not a sea of clover but it looks better than I thought it would a month ago. If the grass slows down here, maybe the clover can make a comeback. Maybe it won’t get replanted after all. One evening I watched two deer and a rabbit eating in the plot.

There is not a lot of clover here but it is more than I thought would be a couple of months ago.

The middle clearing plot hasn’t changed a lot since the last visit but the clover has gained some. It will be interesting to see how this plot progresses. We saw three deer in it late one evening.

This plot just has not changed much over the last month.

If you have checked out the deer feeder page on the web site you know about my on-going battle with the raccoons over the control of the feeders.

Recently I put galvanized metal on the trees so that the raccoons couldn’t climb close to the feeders, but they were still somehow emptying them. I unhooked the batteries so that the feeders wouldn’t throw out any feed at all and after about ten days the feeders were practically empty. In my own stupidity I had left the ladder up next to one and allowed the raccoons to climb up next to it. I think that we didn’t have enough metal around the other one and they were able to reach over and get hold of the varmint guard. We added more metal to this one and the ladders were moved at both of them.

Something tells me that we never will beat them. Even with all of the metal and the ladders moved away and the batteries still unplugged they managed to take corn out of the feeders.

Our latest move has been to just put in as much corn as we are willing to let them have and we have plugged the batteries back in so that the feeders will be feeding at dawn and dusk again.

Right now we’re waving the white flag.

“Nothing I’ve ever done has given me more joy and rewards than being a father to my children.” Bill Cosby

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