Vet Judy

Have you read about using native grasses as part of your deer food plot strategy? A friend of mine and I recently had a discussion about the use of this native grass for whitetail deer food plots. Here are some thoughts:

It makes for excellent escape and bedding cover - Native grass stands like switchgrass, or plantings with more diversity, big bluestem, indiangrass etc, are excellent ideas for land managers improving wildlife cover for deer habitat. But I would use these types of plantings as stand alone habitat improvement projects - the larger the better.

I could see where these strips of switchgrass and brush, evergreens could break up a paddock enough to create a situation where a buck would need to investigate things a bit more. I can also see it on a site where it’s a large open area where these strips would add more diversity, edge and cover. But most paddocks sites, acre or so in size - I don’t see much value to it.  Large sites, yeah I can see it, but the plantings of switch
and trees would be more of a habitat improvement plan than a “hunting” thing. 

A person could structure the strips to converge at a tree stand area, as when they do become established they will create travel lanes.  I don’t see ten or twenty foot wide strips doing it though - more like 50′ plus. 

Also, you would want to plan a tall variety of switchgrass - there are several different varieties out there.    It may take, and usually does take three years for it to establish.These warm season grasses need good sun to soil contact for the grasses to come and they grow well from late June through August.  

Some people have recommended clover with it. However, I would not plant anything with it.    clover would already be up and would shade the ground and would certainly set-back growth of your switchgrass.   

If you manage your food plots well ie mowing, spraying and tillage I don’t see the switchgrass spreading much - so that wouldn’t concern me.  I do see a place for it if you have a large food plot area.  The best place for this type of an approach would be a larger area where dedicating both food plots and additional cover interspressed together. 

Say you have a fallow field of twenty acres or so, here you would really only need about five acres of food plot - which can be a lot to manage depending upon the equipment you have.  If you created cover areas, with native grass, evergreens and shrubs and spread the paddocks out in the area it would add a lot of diversity, edge and habitat. 

Trees, shrubs do take quite awhile to estiblish, as you well know, and the switchgrass, native grass planting does come much faster and is some really nice cover.  I really don’t see a 10 foot wide strip of swithcgrass creating much cover, or something deer would really use all that much.  The thing is though - there are sites where creating a corridor of grass cover may really help “dictate” deer travel.

So I can see some value to it depending on the site - sites would have to be large enough where the site demands both both food plot and habitat improvement “cover” together.   Most food plots are small, and if they are too big to cover from one stand, you likely would want different stand locations at the food plot anyway to address varying wind directions.

Native grass - switchgrass can be an awesome habitat improvement tool - I just don’t see small narrow strips of grass really doing much.  Now, a strip of natives, say fifty feet wide or so with some evergreens planted with it…. You may have something there!

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            By this time, your weed worries in your food plots may be a thing of the past.  Your food plot plantings may be well on their way to providing deer forage this fall.  However, if you’re establishing a new food plot this fall, there is a class of weeds that may prove quite troublesome.   They’re the cool-season weeds that thrive in the same conditions that some of your best food plot crops thrive.

            Cool-season broadleaf weeds can be especially troublesome, especially in areas a little farther south than mine.  (Weeds like deadnettle, common chickweed, and henbit have proven to be especially troublesome.)  Such weeds present particular problems when you’re trying to seed perennial crops in the late summer or fall.  Many perennial crops that are used in food plots can be slow to grow after seeding; this gives the weeds a great chance to overtake your plot. What a waste this would be prior to fall and winter hunting attraction goals for whitetail  or Mule Deer.

            Honestly, the best thing you can do under heavy weed pressure is spray the weeds.  The most effective sprays are pre-emergent herbicides that you can actually spray before seeding.  Obtain a local recommendation for these and be sure that any herbicides you use are properly applied.

            If you’re applying a post-emergent herbicide, take special care that the herbicide you choose won’t affect the variety of crops that may be in your food plots.  Some herbicides, for example, will affect legumes in younger stages but not in older stages.

Of course, replanting may sometimes be an option.  Like anything else that deals with food plots or growing other crops, you may sometimes have to start over from scratch!

For More information on Do It Yourself deer food Plots, please visit our website www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

Fall Management

            You did it.  You followed all the advice that I and other deer food plot experts could provide and even found some things that worked on your own.  As the fall comes, you have a fabulous food plot emerging for managing your deer through the winter months.

            Makes you want to go out every day and admire your food plot handiwork, doesn’t it?

            Well, don’t.  One of the worst things you can do this fall for your food plot’s effectiveness is to spend too much time in the tree stand or blind.  If you did everything right, the crops will do the job on their own, providing forage and cover for your deer populations.

            There are some things that you will want to pay close attention to this fall, however.  And they’re things that you don’t have to be out every day to notice.

            Weed pressure—take careful notice of weed pressure, especially in new plantings.  I’ve devoted a whole separate blog posting to fall weed management.

            Crop stands—note any poor stands in new food plot plantings.  If you catch those early enough in the season, you may be able to replant.  If not, you may be able to plan an overseeding or other management strategy for the spring.

            Condition of cover—low rainfall (or excessive moisture) can affect the status of the natural habitat surrounding your food plot.  Be sure to note the general state of the forage available to the deer this fall.

            Paying attention to these issues, as well as spending the time in the wildlife habitat that allows you to notice the subtle changes of nature, will go a long way in helping you manage the food plot for the long run.  Just be sure not to spend too much time there when the deer that you’re managing are around.

 For more free information on food plots feel free to visit our website http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

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

            Deer food plot planters are well aware that the best food plots are those that are well planned.  In this fall season, I want to take a look at the flexibility that a fall-seeded small grain like wheat may give you next spring.

As I’ve mentioned in this blog before, wheat can be a most valuable deer food plot crop for winter and fall forage, especially in larger plantings.  But it’s time to review another advantage to winter wheat plantings beyond the food value: as preparation for planting spring legumes.

You have a couple options with the 60-120 pounds of wheat that you seed per acre in a fall planting.  It may be utilized for winter forage, and then fertilized in February to provide standing grain cover and habitat the following summer.  Larger wheat plantings, of course, can also be harvested for their grain value.

But wheat seedings in food plots may be most valuable for the flexibility that they give for frost seeded legumes in the early spring.  You can overseed clover or lespedeza into a wheat planting and provide valuable legume forage in the early spring and summer months.  Other legumes may be appropriate for seeding into a wheat stand depending on your location.