Vet Judy

Cool season deer food plot forages are generally considered to be those plants that are planted in later summer, early fall or spring. They are great for whitetail deer, mule deer, turkeys etc. The plants  provide fall and winter deer food when the deer are under a significant amount of stress during the rut.  Those plants that are planted in fall but emerge in the spring are great for giving does additional support during lactation.

When considering using cool season deer forage in your food plots  generally all legumes should have a grain, annual ryegrass or rapeseed (brassica) mixed with them.

The cool season grass ( annual ryegrass)  and grains ( wheat, oats, rye)  have multiple functions in a food plot.

*help prevent erosion

*can compete effectively with deer food plot annual weeds

*grow quickly and therefore provide quick food supply for deer

* are a cover crop for the legumes which means they protect the legume through the winter and early spring when frost risk is high and allow for a good stand in the spring.

Commercial seed mixes for deer food plots generally have legumes, small grains, grasses and/or brassicas in them. It is not essential to use a mix. You can buy seed at a local distributor as well and mix the combinations yourself.

Just remember if you are going to use low till or no till strategies you have to stay with the small seeds as these are the ones that need very little soil coverage. With these small seeds the soil coverage is generally 1/4 inch or so, which lends itself to using a rake (if you are covering manually) or a drag behind an ATV. Very small seeds can also be mixed with sand in your seeder to help with even spreading, especially if they are to be planted as a monoculture (by themselves). 

When planting your food plot feel free to premix as mentioned above, mix your own and spread it that way, or plant as single culture patches. The advantage of planting several types of plants together is especially evident when you need a cover crop for your legumes. I have planted both ways though and had success in either strategy depending on the plot and the deer pressure.

The deer don’t care how the feed is presented so much as they care about their safety when getting to the food and also that it is tasty when they arrive.  

corn

            corn harvest is right around the corner in most places.  corn is a common crop in many deer food plot plantings and habitat management—both as a crop planted specifically for deer, and as a row crop that is planted on farms and ranches for grain.  Take time this fall to remember a few things about managing corn stands.

            First of all, the extent that deer utilize corn grain for food is heavily influenced by the acorn crop.  If your area is experiencing a normal to heavy acorn drop, standing corn may not be as critical for a food supply later on.  The strips that you plan to leave standing around the cornfields could possibly be reduced in width.  However, if you planned to leave strips of standing corn on field edges during the winter, it’s still a good idea to leave them.  They provided valuable cover and field borders for winter deer habitat.

            Second, the state of the local corn crop can help you judge the overall deer forage situation.  Dry or cool conditions that may have hampered the heat-loving corn plant’s growth (remember, corn is a grass!) in the summer may also have affected other warm-season grasses on your property.  That’s important to keep in mind for next year’s management and planting.

            On many of our landscapes, corn is such an important crop that it has become part of the annual landscape.  Be sure that you treat it and manage it as such in your fall food plot mix.

See our article http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/8-steps-to-successful-food-plots.html  for tips on successful food plot strategies and other free resources.

Wondering what to do with fall planting annuals: visit our website and look at article: http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html

whitetail deer are selective feeders. They are known to feed selectively in a home range where foods they like exist. Fortunately, for us (deer food plotters) they will even give up large amounts of available forage in favor of tastier items and will move to an area where these better items are available.

Why plant food plots? Well the simple answer is nutritional help. Did you know that whitetail survival is dependant on good nutrition? The buck needs at least 16% OR MORE protein in his food in order to reach maximum breeding ability as well as fertility. His antler growth will also be shorted by poor nutrition. Now here is the catch. Native forages generally have 13% protein levels. The same applies to the does. Does under nutritional stress will decrease number of fawn from the normal 2 and may even have no fawns depending on how bad the situation is out there. So it is easy to see why adding foot plots can encourage quality of deer as well as number of deer.

Here is another important peice of information for you deer lovers. Native forage is limited in production to somewhere between 100 and 500 lbs of feed/acre on average. Deer forage from food plots can reach levels of 10,000lbs/acre of forage. WOW is that impressive. This is another good reason to put your food plots in this year.

It is now fall, but it is not too late for planting for planting fall food plots for your local whitetail deer. There are lots of varieties of fall planting options available to deer managers. The idea is to get started, offer better nutritional quality and quantity than what is available out there. All wildlife in the area benefits when deer lovers plant good nutrition for the animals we love to see.

For more free resources see resources page on www.diydeerfoodplots.com 

Oats (Avena) seeded for fall forage in well-drained ground is one of my favorite choices for deer food plots. “Forage oats” seem to be very attractive to the deer on our farm. I think this is because oats tend to remain greener longer into the winter—I’ve even seen deer seek out oats from underneath snowcover.

Either winter or spring oat varieties can be utilized for winter and fall forage. (Spring oats have been developed to produce grain when planted in the spring). Spring oats can be planted for fall forage from late July to early September, depending on your region and climate. For forage, plant winter oat varieties about two weeks later than spring oat varieties. In a deer plot devoted solely to oats, the seeding rate will be about 100 pounds per acre.

Oats are also a proven crop to help establish grass and legume seedings. You might consider sowing oats along with alfalfa, a strategy used often by American farmers to help establish alfalfa plantings.

Oats may also be a crop that can be used if you’re establishing food plantings on former pasture ground, especially in climates south of where I live. Frost seeding forage oats into closely-grazed pasture ground in the late winter can result in suitable spring forage for wildlife in the early spring. You could then come in during the later spring or summer and begin preparing the ground for your fall food plot.

For more information on annuals: see  http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html

            Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a cool-season annual grass.  In the Midwestern U.S., it is usually seeded in the fall for early to mid-summer grain production.  As you move further north, it is more common to find wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer or early fall.

            Wheat’s coldhardiness makes it a great choice for fall deer food plot plantings.  It is also a fairly easy crop to seed in large fields to improve the forage options during the early spring.  To improve your wheat stand, consider adding about 75 pounds of urea or ammonium nitrate per acre in the early spring.

            But wheat probably performs best as part of a food plots rotation in larger fields.  It may be seeded in the fall for fall and winter forage; then red or ladino clover can be “frost seeded” into the wheat field in the late winter or early spring.  The natural freezing and thawing of the ground works the clover seed into the ground.  The wheat may then be harvested for grain or straw, and the clover will be established in the field for summer forage.

            Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) should not be confused with wheat.  Its purpose in a deer plot planting is to provide a green forage and cover in the early season, along with grain in the fall.  You’ll find a variety of opinions on the use of buckwheat in deer food plots.  I’m not persuaded that deer will choose buckwheat over other plants in our setting, but this may be due to my northern location.

 For more annual deer plot forage choices check out the article:  http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html