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Best food plot options??

i am going to be planting a couple decent sized food plots this year, probably about 18 aces or more. what is everyones favorite stuff to plant and how have you had your best results? im thinking of planting corn on the side i walk in on so i can hide behind it on my way in to my stand and then haven it on the far side also and then the middle being soybean, clover, and maybe something else. how do you guys go about starting out a new food plat? i already have the fields ill just have to plow them up.
 
18 acres is a lot of food plot which can get expensive in a hurray. First thing is to get some soil samples as soon as you can. I just sent a couple in this week. If I was going 18 acres I would do a variety of things. Do you have an aerial you can post of your property? Is it all 1 field or is a bunch of small pieces?
 
i can do less than that if that seems like to much, but its two fields with the center split with a valley of pines and some hardwood. im thinking of making the valley my sanctuary because it would be hard to hunt down in it without being winded and its about center of property.
 

jagermeister

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First off, what is your perspective of the deer population in your area? A lot of deer, a few, not very many? What about the neighbors? Not just adjacent owners... I'm talking up to 2 miles in all directions. Are there good numbers of deer inside a 1-2 mile radius of these proposed food plots?

If you believe there's a lot of deer around you, I don't think 18 acres is as big as some here believe. A sizeable population of deer can wipe out 10 acres of corn in one winter like it's nothing. I'd suggest planting 15 acres total and using the other 3 for cover or strategic entry/exit routes. 5 acres of soybeans, 2 acres of clover, and 8 acres of corn. Go into your standing beans whenever they start to wilt and broadcast winter rye (cereal grains rye) or oats as a cover crop. You can rotate your corn and beans and build up your perennial clovers as each year goes by. You could even break the fields up into smaller chunks so you have more rotation options. If you hit your standing corn with a mower in mid-August it will likely be a dynamite spot to whack some doves on September 1st. With that much ground and that much effort, I think it'd be foolish not to reap the benefits from as many game species as possible.
 

OO2

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In the Uplands
That's a good thought buckmaster. Maybe lease it out with the understanding of him leaving you some of the crop to stand over winter. Im just spit balling here. I'd like to see what you do because I'd like to put standing corn in all year for my spot as well.
 

hickslawns

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I don't know you so I won't say that is overly ambitious. Sure sounds like a big task from my perspective though. I believe I would take a year or two messing with some small plots and cutting my teeth while I observed the property/deer movement and took a lot of mental notes. Just me though. With a new property I think I would be completely amped to get started on many projects as well. Good luck and have fun!
 

Iowa_Buckeye

Smartest person here
1,776
85
Linn County Iowa
You mentioned corn and beans. Do you have the equipment to plant and maintain them efficiently? Meaning a tractor, disc, row planter, and sprayer?
If so I say go that route as you can knock off 18 acres in a day or two if you know what you are doing. Also you need to rotate your corn and beans every year for disease and 'nitrogen' fixation purposes. So the plan to plant corn for screening your walk in will be short lived. You mentioned 2 fields. I would do corn in one and beans in the other every year.
To control costs we look for free or cheap corn (year old) from the NWTF, Pheasants Forever, farmers who didn't use all last years seed, the grain elevator/co-op, etc. We also plant 'bin beans' we get at the current bushel price from a local farmer (can't sell these of course, but they are for the deer only anyway).
We have spent money on fertilizing with P&K and urea. This is a big investment though and have had decent luck with just rotating the crops. You don't get the bu/acre as with fertilizing, but you need to remember you are feeding deer and not making a living at this.
If you have the equipment and 18 acres of ground, corn and beans are the quickest and easiest to plant and will draw/hold deer to your farm when neighboring food sources are consumed.
Now if you are planning on broadcasting corn and beans you can have some success but it is very time consuming and frustrating (been there).
It can also be very time consuming if you are doing a little of this and a little of that here and there. So that really depends on how close you are to your farm and how much time you can invest.
Good luck and have fun!
 

Iowa_Buckeye

Smartest person here
1,776
85
Linn County Iowa
One more thing to consider with corn and beans. Are you aware if you can just use Round Up Ready seeds, or does your area have problems with RU resistant weeds (such as water hemp) that RU will not control? If so you will need to consider what other chemicals to use to control the weeds after planting.
Not sure if you have done any farming or not, but if not, I would suggest having a chat with a local farmer. You don't want to end up with a weed plot.
 
You mentioned corn and beans. Do you have the equipment to plant and maintain them efficiently? Meaning a tractor, disc, row planter, and sprayer?
If so I say go that route as you can knock off 18 acres in a day or two if you know what you are doing. Also you need to rotate your corn and beans every year for disease and 'nitrogen' fixation purposes. So the plan to plant corn for screening your walk in will be short lived. You mentioned 2 fields. I would do corn in one and beans in the other every year.
To control costs we look for free or cheap corn (year old) from the NWTF, Pheasants Forever, farmers who didn't use all last years seed, the grain elevator/co-op, etc. We also plant 'bin beans' we get at the current bushel price from a local farmer (can't sell these of course, but they are for the deer only anyway).
We have spent money on fertilizing with P&K and urea. This is a big investment though and have had decent luck with just rotating the crops. You don't get the bu/acre as with fertilizing, but you need to remember you are feeding deer and not making a living at this.
If you have the equipment and 18 acres of ground, corn and beans are the quickest and easiest to plant and will draw/hold deer to your farm when neighboring food sources are consumed.
Now if you are planning on broadcasting corn and beans you can have some success but it is very time consuming and frustrating (been there).
It can also be very time consuming if you are doing a little of this and a little of that here and there. So that really depends on how close you are to your farm and how much time you can invest.
Good luck and have fun!



yes i have the equipment and ill live right there on the farm. i just want to plant the crop for the deer and leave it stand till they eat it all and ill replant the next year. im going to be about 15 miles east of Heath ohio and from what i herd they have a good deer population. the food plots that were put in on my land in pa we over 60 acres and the deer straight up destroyed them! my friend who put them in is a local farmer and put them in right, they just couldnt keep up with the deer heard. i know there are less deer over in Ohio (at least thats what i hear) but i dont wanna go so small that the deeer jusy level it. its not going too be just for hunting over either, i plan to hunt the deer in some pinch points where im pretty sure they will enter the plots from what ive seen so far. Do you think corn and soybean is a good way to go? or should i plant some other stuff in there to?
 
First off, what is your perspective of the deer population in your area? A lot of deer, a few, not very many? What about the neighbors? Not just adjacent owners... I'm talking up to 2 miles in all directions. Are there good numbers of deer inside a 1-2 mile radius of these proposed food plots?

If you believe there's a lot of deer around you, I don't think 18 acres is as big as some here believe. A sizeable population of deer can wipe out 10 acres of corn in one winter like it's nothing. I'd suggest planting 15 acres total and using the other 3 for cover or strategic entry/exit routes. 5 acres of soybeans, 2 acres of clover, and 8 acres of corn. Go into your standing beans whenever they start to wilt and broadcast winter rye (cereal grains rye) or oats as a cover crop. You can rotate your corn and beans and build up your perennial clovers as each year goes by. You could even break the fields up into smaller chunks so you have more rotation options. If you hit your standing corn with a mower in mid-August it will likely be a dynamite spot to whack some doves on September 1st. With that much ground and that much effort, I think it'd be foolish not to reap the benefits from as many game species as possible.



i like the way you think. thats pretty much what i want to do and hopefully draw some turkeys in to. do the deer like the winter rye? that something i havnt ever really planted. As for number of deer i dont know yet but its about 10 or 15 miles east of Heath and i hear that there is a good deer population but i do not know this for a fact yet.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
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18,060
223
Ohio
i like the way you think. thats pretty much what i want to do and hopefully draw some turkeys in to. do the deer like the winter rye? that something i havnt ever really planted. As for number of deer i dont know yet but its about 10 or 15 miles east of Heath and i hear that there is a good deer population but i do not know this for a fact yet.
Yes, deer love rye and oats. Any type of cover crop would be extra attraction for the deer. Oats, rye, Austrian winter peas, brassicas, etc. I'm just thinking of something that would kind of "fill the attraction void" between when the beans turn brown and when they starting hitting the corn late in the year. Cover crops are really easy because you can pretty much just broadcast them and have above average germination if the weather is right. You'll be surprised how much they're attracted to the standing beans when it gets really cold too.
 
land pic.jpg

ok guys go ahead and laugh! I didnt really wanna post a photo right off a map so i did my best attempt at drawing a map hahaha. if you guys dont understand it any just ask me what means what on it. the two houses on there are both mine and will both be occupied and as you can see parts of the fields are visible from the houses so im wandering if i should put corn up so the deer in the fields cant see the house, and the driveway has a small strip of woods between it and the fields so i dont think it will affect much.
 
Yes, deer love rye and oats. Any type of cover crop would be extra attraction for the deer. Oats, rye, Austrian winter peas, brassicas, etc. I'm just thinking of something that would kind of "fill the attraction void" between when the beans turn brown and when they starting hitting the corn late in the year. Cover crops are really easy because you can pretty much just broadcast them and have above average germination if the weather is right. You'll be surprised how much they're attracted to the standing beans when it gets really cold too.


Thankyou for this great info!!! i am going to be doing this for sure!
 

Iowa_Buckeye

Smartest person here
1,776
85
Linn County Iowa
yes i have the equipment and ill live right there on the farm. i just want to plant the crop for the deer and leave it stand till they eat it all and ill replant the next year. im going to be about 15 miles east of Heath ohio and from what i herd they have a good deer population. the food plots that were put in on my land in pa we over 60 acres and the deer straight up destroyed them! my friend who put them in is a local farmer and put them in right, they just couldnt keep up with the deer heard. i know there are less deer over in Ohio (at least thats what i hear) but i dont wanna go so small that the deeer jusy level it. its not going too be just for hunting over either, i plan to hunt the deer in some pinch points where im pretty sure they will enter the plots from what ive seen so far. Do you think corn and soybean is a good way to go? or should i plant some other stuff in there to?

I would put the majority of it in a rotation of corn and beans. As some others have said a green source (rye, oats, clover) is also a good attractant, especially in range of bow stands for early season. We've learned you don't need to go crazy on the size of the green sources as even if the deer do keep them mowed to the ground they continue to grow/produce. Since they are perennials, we put clover in the larger hard-to-reach areas where we can't get the big equipment in, or where you may have several trees to deal with trying to run the row planter around. We put put oats/rye in our small 'kill plots' in the timber/staging areas. Cover crops as jagermeister mentioned can also be advantage, but just be aware depending on the crop you plant may consume the nitrogen the beans created. We personally don't do cover crops as we have enough acreage with our plots to keep them fed through the winter.

And even if you believe there are not other local crop fields as food sources, remember you can just dump it out in a pile in Ohio.
 
I would put the majority of it in a rotation of corn and beans. As some others have said a green source (rye, oats, clover) is also a good attractant, especially in range of bow stands for early season. We've learned you don't need to go crazy on the size of the green sources as even if the deer do keep them mowed to the ground they continue to grow/produce. Since they are perennials, we put clover in the larger hard-to-reach areas where we can't get the big equipment in, or where you may have several trees to deal with trying to run the row planter around. We put put oats/rye in our small 'kill plots' in the timber/staging areas. Cover crops as jagermeister mentioned can also be advantage, but just be aware depending on the crop you plant may consume the nitrogen the beans created. We personally don't do cover crops as we have enough acreage with our plots to keep them fed through the winter.

And even if you believe there are not other local crop fields as food sources, remember you can just dump it out in a pile in Ohio.


thanks again! this is the kind of info i need!