[slipshod]

I have 2 abandoned farms I own and have been reading about feed plots. If anyone has experience with this Idea I would love to hear about it.My set-up to prep with is my 4600 john Deere and a Befco 6 foot tiller. I have about 2 more years to go before I retire and I am slowly putting both of my farms back into shape.

 

[Argee]

What type of wildlife are you looking to attract? A good planting of rye will bring in the dear. Of course corn will too, but also attracts Elk and rocky and his pals.

 

[red-n-green]

Need a little more info

If you could elaborate on what type of wildlife you want to attract and a little about you farms, like how they are laid out, what type of landscape, etc, then we may be able to give you some ideas.

Jay

 

[slipshod]

wild life

I would like to attract whitetail deer and turkey. My 2 farms are 40 miles apart. #1 is the old family homestead willed to me when my mom passed a year ago.It is 75 acres of overgrown flatland that has not been farmed in over 35 years. It has a large pond and a 15 acre woodlot untouched in my lifetime.We planted red and white pine down the hedgerows 40 years.I have cleared approximately 6 or 7 acres over the last 2 years.We planted about half of that in garden this year.I would like to put in 2 plots of about 1 acre apiece of something.
My farm#2 is quite different.It is 89 acres of former dairy.It is a valley with a north facing hillside and a south facing hillside.Thru the middle is beauty of a stream. This place has gone totally wild and is covered with mixed hardwoods and groves of apples gone wild, The property is L shaped with patches of open field,pines of all kinds and some very thick cover.There are wild blueberries,white oaks,wild berries,even bear.Kind of a hunter's dream. The property line running the west side is over 6000 feet and would lend itself well to some sort of planting. I hope this info helps.

 

[red-n-green]

widlife plots

I am not very familiar with your area, but I will say what I would do here.

First off, it sounds like you have a pretty good start naturally. You have some of the whitetails favorite food in white oak acorns and apples. I would leave plenty of buffer strips between the cleared areas. The more ways a deer has to hide the more safe they feel. Look at any spot where several types of terrain meet. If you have places where hardwoods, pines and open ground join, then that is an ideal spot to put a food plot. The hardwoods and pine offer cover and hardwoods offer food, such as nuts and browse. The open areas or pastures offer more browse. And if you have water close to a spot like this, then that is even better. The deer have most things they need and want in one small area so they are likely to stay there and not roam as much. Places like this are great spots for salt licks. I take a trace mineral salt block and dig a hole just deep enough to cover the top with an inch or less of dirt. It won't take long for the deer to find it and dig a nice hole getting at the salt. Then every spring I will take a bag of loose salt and refresh the lick. The deer will get the lick wallowed out and it may start holding water which is fine. They will drink the salt water. I have watched squirrels and even turrtles trying to get the salt out of these type licks before.

We also plant winter wheat and winter peas as deer food plots. These seem to do real well. As will clover and alfalfa. Try your food plots at several different spots. Don't make them very big, maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 acre each at first and see which spots they prefer. When you find the spots they like the best, then go in and make them larger.

Come on guys, lets all give your ideas and thoughts. Some of you may have more knowledge about this area than I do.

I will think of more and post again later.

Jay

The attachment is one of the deer I have taken with a bow this year. The next post has the other deer I took with a bow this year.

 

[red-n-green]

the other pic

N/T

 

[Brian]

Nice Deer!!!!

 

[Tractorguy]

That Deer looks like he's having a really bad day!!!!!

 

[Argee]

I'd shoot him too if he was laying down inside my barn like that.

 

[slipshod]

New york 10 point

This Buck was taken during Bow Season by myself 2001.He was on the flat piece of land I talked about in this thread

 

[slipshod]

same deer

He is also the first mount I ever had done and I have got a lot of deer in my 53 years

 

[Dana]

Red-n-Green had a lot of good advice. Clover & alfalfa are the food plots of choice around here. In the summer soybeans are hard to beat. Winter wheat really draws them in in the late fall & winter.

 

[tisenberg]

Heh..heh.. heh, heh.... he said mount

 

[slipshod]

mount

Dear Tisenberg;
My first mount and I did not even do it myself

 

[mcloud]

food plots

Slipshod I was reading old posts and I was wondering what you decided to plant ? Im from Naples ny and I plant buckwheat on mine and my neighbors properties.The stuff is unbelievable. The first year I harvested it to sell and lost money .A fter that I decided to leave it standing. The deer cant resist it . Ive gone out to scout the fields and come back walking about a foot off the ground.In the years since quite a few bucks have been taken off these field including my brother inlaws awsome 158 class ten point.

 

[Chipmaker]

Around here we plant clover, honeysuckle, and rye grass for green plots for whitetails. And for turkey we plant milo or millet and chufa's, which is like a peanut that turkeys just love. Doves also like the smaller grains...... Don;t know if chufa's will grow up north or at least take to the freezing weather though in winter time.

If you just want to fed livestock, heck, just go and plant a regular garden complete with all the trimmings like peas, beans, corn, potatoes, maters, spinach etc etc, .........."Plant it and they will come".......it never fails wildlife will always rape a garden intended for human consumption.

 

[slipshod]

update

I have cleared a lot of the farm , some has been planted in hay.We used a clover,birdsfoot,trefoil mix with rye grass to help fix nitrogen. It seems to be working good as I mowed about 6 acres of it for the Pig Jam. On my farm we have a piebald young buck I have seen him three times but never with my camera in hand. I have found a custom guy that will put in hay seeding and liming fairly reasonable as I clear more land.

 

[Chipmaker]

Its rare anymore if I shoot a deer or turkey. I would just rather watch them anymore. When your able to hunt in short sleeved shirts and shorts in bow season here, and harvest a deer a day (buck or doe) and then you get gun season and still can harvest a deer a day, and in some counties like the county I live in you can take either buck or doe a day. So if you have a good spot you can really fill up the deep freeze......Season starts Oct 15 IIRC and runs until Jan 31st.........We do have a heap of nice deer down here also, as well as some nice turkeys, which are about as common as crows anymore. I used to free range the turkeys (bourbon Reds and also plain white ones) ... I would raise, and the only ones that would hang around were the Toms, all the damned hens would run off with the wild turkey toms in the spring time.........just like a female! Its also not unusual here to see domestic turkeys running with wild flocks.....

I released 75 Ring necks one year and within a week there was not the first sign of a ringneck anywhere except in my breeding pens. Don't know what it is about ringnecks but they sure do not like Alabama. A Game Warden told me that they tried stocking pheasants also and as soon as they were released, they kept running until they cleared the state line heading north! I believe 110% in what he said.