What you plant in your food plots?

Here in My part of SC there is no restriction on planting or baiting. Most of the corn we raise we sell on the cob for hunters to bait deer. On our farm we have stands in fields and several in wooded areas with small plots. We have tried all kinds of things generally cow peas and soybeans, millet and the last couple of years we have been planting turnips. We also plant patches of oats in the bigger fields. We tried alfalfa but had no luck with it coming up. Is there a different type of alfalfa that will tolerate our heat. What do you plant?
Ron in lower part of SC.

I have a couple of deer plots planted.
I just go to my local feed/seed store and buy a bag of their prepackaged 'Big Rack' mix.
It's a mix of a couple of kinds of clovers, alfalfa, rape seed, timothy and turnip.
Turnip only comes up the first year and is the cover for the grasses.
I generally get 2-3 years out of a planting.
Deer love it. They really go for the turnips and will dig the them out of the frozen ground to eat them.
Local seed store will have a mix that is right for your climate zone too.
I pay about $35 for a bag that covers 2 acres.

Plant corn and green beans, that seems to be what they like in gardens.

Seriously, I have never thought that planting food plots made much difference to deer. Deer move around a lot. There are a lot of people, me among them, that gave up on soybeans because of deer. So a good patche of soybeans should attract deer. If someone puts salt in their pasture, for the cows, of course, the deer seem to be attracted to it.

KEH

I don't have the equipment to plant corn and beans so just use a hand crank broadcaster for my plots.
As for the salt, baiting is not legal here but plots and salt licks are.
But as many salt licks as people put out I always figured if the deer were to eat it all they would be venison jerkey before you even shot them.

Mostly whatever kind of seed I can get for free. Leftover seedcorn or soybeans. Milo sometimes. I have friends at the Universtiy farm and they have given me Egyptian wheat and other things. I put out turnips ususally in late summer. I have wheat growing now.

The deer are so thick that any kind of soybeans, corn or milo they just strip it clean and there is nothing left come fall.

I am trying to grow stuff that will benefit bobwhite quail, and if the deer eat it off, then it is no good come a hard snow.

I have also tried forage type sorghum or something that puts on a head above the reach of deer. That was the reason for the Egyptian wheat.

Gene

Deer aren't real high on my list, but I do like to put one in the freezer. I have several plots ranging in size from about a 1/4 acre to a little over a half. I usually rotate corn and cow peas. Last year I planted oats for the first time and did so again this year. Some years I plant grain sorghum aka milo.

Clovers listed in my food plot book with high preference and excellent grazing resistance include berseem,crimson,alsike,and ladino. White Dutch and alfalfa are moderately used but high in resistance. Grains include: oats, wheat, triticale, and rye that are high/high. You might add chicory or sugar beets to your mix. Turnips are good too, especially late in the year. You might also incorporate some "edge feathering" around wood lots to encourage native plants for browsing.

I didn't think deer used millet much although they do eat milo. I plan to plant some brown top millet and follow it up with a wheat, Austrian winter pea, crimson clover mix. But I'm more interested in plots for rabbits and birds.

Personally, I avoid the pre-packaged mixes. I prefer to make my own. I think you pay too much for the cheaper seeds that are predominant in the mix. A couple of stores/co-ops sell bulk seed.

Get a copy of Wildlife Food Plots Blending Science with Common Sense by Craig A. Harper. Written mainly for the mid-South area of the country.

Larry

I guess location is everything. Around here planting a food plot for wildlife is the last thing I wood do. Every year I shoot 8 to 10 deer in the gardens. Also countless raccoon, groundhogs and rabbits.
In cold weather 3 deer will go onto the freezer. The rest go into the compost pit.

Gene,MO;

Have you checked out any of Missouri DNR web sites? I get "The Covey Headquarters" on line. We don't have quail, but the techniques benefit rabbits too. Cover seems to be the biggest factor rather than food for quail numbers. I hunted them in Oklahoma a couple years ago. What a blast!!! I love hunting the little buzz bombs.

Larry

Go to Whitetail Institute's website not cheap but they sell some products that will really bring in the Deer.Local Coop also sell their products here.

In Pa I go with White Clover. Plenty of lime and fertilizer on all exiting plots seems to do the best. When we get snow tehy go for it first.

Caught him eating turnips at 1:15 in the afternoon. Post rut and on a nice day. This was late November in SW PA