Clover food plots

Clover food plots (Full Version)

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wallyeye -> Clover food plots (5/5/2008 12:40:43 PM)
Hey guys just getting ready to put in the food plots for the spring.. im kinda undecided on what to put in? I planted corn last year and it did real well.. But the deer never came out to the corn feild till after dark.. will a clover feild produce more deer trafic than a corn feild?? Im sure it depends on what time of the year the deer will go to different food sources just would like to hear your opinins on what you guys plant?

Stealth Archer -> RE: Clover food plots (5/5/2008 1:00:15 PM)
I would recommend planting the clover as opposed to corn. Also maybe throw in some soygum, sugarbeets, and turnips. This is what I have been planting for the past 5 years and it has proven to work very well. You can also supplement your corn by using feeder(s). It's a good way to get an indication of what you have in the area using trail cams. With the mix I plant every year the deer seem to come into the plots about the same time every day. Usually from 2pm to dark is when I observe the most traffic. I'm not sure how much the location would have to do with the timing. My food plots are pretty deep in the woods built in clearings that we had created for the purpose. That's just my opinion.

MuskyMastr -> RE: Clover food plots (5/5/2008 1:31:37 PM)
The clovers are good just check the production. Some produce little for the first year but then come on strong in the second year and for years after that. Some are extremely strong the first year and not so good after that. It is good to mix the two to produce a nice plot. Stealth had a good suggestion on the turnips as well. Any brassicas will stay long into the winter and feed well into february. I try to plan my plots based on peak production times and then have my mix staggered to provide food at all times with my peak attractor coming in during archery. I don't like the premix stuff. I buy at agway and mix my own.....

EagleCrg -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 1:32:18 AM)
If you guys spent half the time learning how to hunt as you do planting bait you wouldn't need the food plots.

MuskyMastr -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 12:24:02 PM)
EagleCrg, Have you ever shot a deer that was feeding on acorns? How bout Apples? How about in a stand of cherries or beeches? If not fine then chastize me, if so, then be quiet. When you have killed as many bucks as I have, maybe you can start telling me how I need to learn to hunt.

Stealth Archer -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 1:15:32 PM)
EagleCrg, This has nothing to do with baiting deer. Sometimes I think ppl need to think before they speak. This is about taking care of your deer herd. Would you like to know what else I do. Well let me tell you. In the midst of winter when the snow is deep and the weather is bad I load up tons of corn and straw to take up and put under awnings to feed the deer. Now would you consider that baiting, or having compassion for the animals. For me it's not all about hunting I truly just enjoy spending time outdoors. Yes having food plots may lend an advantage when hunting, but that is not what it is about. As Musky said chances are you have shot a deer that was either feeding on, or in the area of the things he mentioned. I think you need to learn to do more than just hunt.

SilverKype -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 3:05:07 PM)
Interesting. Each of us have a personal means to what hunting stands for, how we choose to do it, and what type of gratification we are after. For myself: It's about adapting to the deer and what nature has to offer, not making the deer adapt to me. << That's exactly what plotting does, it makes (or attempts to make) the deer adapt to you. Like it or not, legal or not, purist/naturalist or not, that's a fact. Hunting deer over the dropping of acorns is far different than planting clover and hunting over it. I'm not going to go as far as saying plotting is 100% baiting, or that it is wrong, but it's different than me walking miles to a favorite spot in the forest. Do not tell me otherwise. I can tell you with absolute certainty, taking a deer from a plot would be less gratifiying for me. If plotting is about the deer, would do it if you didn't hunt? Do you plant and NOT hunt near the plots or attempt to intercept the deer when they are heading to/from there? We know the answers to those questions. walleye --- WHAT you plant probably will not affect WHEN they come to feed. If they are not coming out until after dark, they likely got quite a trip to get there, or they're being pressured.

griffon -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 3:16:27 PM)
Agreed 100%. To each his own, but I would rather do it as Kype would, on the animal's terms not my own.

Carpet Bagger -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 4:54:32 PM)
Kype i know what you are saying and i think you are absolutly right. However most hunters are some of the most influential people i know in providing a thriving habitat for deer survival. Most hunters want to see big populations of animals with large trophy racks. In a sense, most people wouldnt ever think about feeding deer if they were not hunters who enjoyed taking a deer. My mother hates deer, they beat up her bushes and plants. The last thing on her mind would be drawing any attention to her property to attract deer or any wildlife for that matter. You techincally can only take one mature deer per year legally. Anyone who takes the time to plant their own land and gives to the animals on it I doubt is going to rape the land of all the mature bucks. Yes it is very rewarding to take a deer from its "natural" environment, but by planting some food for them ensures that you will continue to see a very healthy and populated deer herd. Also not everyone who plants hunts it. You can hunt the area around an food plot or going into it and be very successful as well. While a food plot might be a good place to take an animal it is giving alot back as well.

EagleCrg -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 6:53:32 PM)
First of all, I apologize for the bluntness of the direct shot across the bow of a few folks here. It is the result of watching so many videos on TV of "hunting" deer over food plots. While it may be sporting to some, it isn't sporting to me. Musky, no offense intended, but I think Kype said it best and more eloquently than I could regarding the difference between shooting a deer feeding on acorns and one feeding in a food plot. If you don't see the difference, its a waste of time to attempt to explain it. Its almost become a competitition over who can grow the biggest buck as opposed to who is the best hunter or woodsman. In the vast majority of hunting videos and TV shows on whitetail hunting today someone is staying in a hunting lodge that is 10 times nicer than my home, gets driven to a stand that is entirely enclosed and prepositioned, and then picks out the deer they want to shoot after watching them for 15 minutes or more. Heck, that isn't hunting in my book. What woodsmanship skills did they display? Did they have to put any effort into their hunt? The most exercise they got was walking from the truck to their stand (10 yards). I don't know if I have killed more or less bucks than anyone else here (I'm 57) and I don't care. I would sooner shoot a small 4 point in the Adirondacks than a 160 class buck in south Texas. It is certainly a more worthy adversary and requires a heck of alot more skill to take. What makes a deer a trophy is not the size of the rack, but the skill and difficulty it takes to bag a deer.

S-10 -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 8:36:23 PM)
It's the difference between deer hunting and deer shooting. Deer hunting takes skill and time spent for scouting. Deer shooting takes time spent for planting.

wallyeye -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 9:01:27 PM)
thanks for all of your ifo ,,what are the brands of clover plots you plant??? have any of you guys ever used Antler king?? www.antlerking.com

griffon -> RE: Clover food plots (5/7/2008 9:33:18 PM)
Wally, I know a ton of guys who do this (I don't personally-besides the point). All of them have gone to biologic or Whitetail Institute. I cannot speak to Antler King specifically. If you try supplements, try to stick to minerals and foods such as flax seed, peas, and greens (if available-specifically turnip as someone mentioned, try to stay away from corn as much as possible). I do supplement in the winter and the deer definitely benefit from it.

MuskyMastr -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 1:00:01 AM)
Walleye go to your local Agway and mix your own. It is cheaper and you don't end up with all the junk filler........ Question, and I apologize for the sharp retort earlier, If I plant oaks rather than clover and shoot a deer feeding in that area some years from now, what is the difference between that and a clover plot that produces food for the next 10 years?

S-10 -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 4:14:39 AM)
There is no difference if your intent for doing so is to condition the deer to come into a specific area to make it easier to kill them. It's a fine line but IMO you can plant for the deer and hunt the general area but if you setup over the plot or on a trail leading into the plot It is deer shooting and not to be confused with hunting. For example-- I feed turkeys at my bird feeder and have several gobblers coming in right now. I am hunting two spots 3 and 7 miles from home.

EagleCrg -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 8:52:34 AM)
The line between using scents, baiting, and putting in food plots is not an easy one to distinguish between. Its all a grey area and I think each hunter needs to decide for himself/herself what is right for them, as long as it is legal. In my own mind, I see a big difference between hunting a deer over food plots and in a natural setting (in my case the Adirondacks) where deer are not being fed and do not have the unnatural advantage of food plots placed there by man. To me, a buck taken in a natural setting is a much more difficult trophy than one taken over food plots or even bait as they use in some states. Here in NY, it is illegal to feed deer at all. However, I don't think the DEC considers planting food plots as feeding deer--again, a grey area. I do hunt in the southern zone of New York at times and that is a completely different ball game--a much easier one due to deer densities, number of hunters pushing deer around and increased open spaces which tends to concentrate the deer and limit their escape options/hiding places. I have hunted deer in 4 states and hunting them in the "big woods" to me is the supreme whitetail challenge.

MuskyMastr -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 10:23:53 AM)
I love hunting the big woods of ncPA and scNY as well as WVA. It is where I learned to hunt. But if I am hunting in a stand of oaks that my father planted in the late 60's or a food plot thta I planted two years ago, what is the difference? There are obvious problems with feeding wildlife, and frankly I am suprised that the PGC has not banned it here in PA yet. Feeding is the fastest way to spread disease (namely cwd). I just happen to think that when you start planting food wheather it is plots, mast trees or fruit trees you are taking care of the resource in a much more responsible way than using a feeder.

EagleCrg -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 5:50:37 PM)
Musky: I agree with your distinction between food plots and feeders--a big difference in my mind. There is no arguing the fact that planting food plots helps the deer immeasureably and I bear no ill will towards those that choose to plant them. It certainly takes alot of time, effort, and money so I suppose in that regard, those that plant food plots have earned the deer they shoot. My preference to hunt "big woods" deer is no doubt due to the memories I have in the hunting camps in my younger days and the fact that that is where I learned to hunt. You mentioned CWD and that is why New York banned the feeding of deer--fear that it would increase the likihood of it spreading. Alot of people and hunting clubs that used to feed the deer in the winter no longer can. Some of them tried to continue despite the ban, but in the winter time, it is easy to spot places where folks are feeding them and the DEC has written tickets.

wallyeye -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 6:21:28 PM)
I baught the antler king seams to be good stuff ill see how it works?? Icalled there and asked a bunch of questions about it and how to plant it, They have the greatest customer service!! they are a good company... i learned a little bit from the guy, all of there seed comes from the north like Canada so its a hardier seed, unlike a lot of the other seed producers like BIOlogic wich all there seed comes from the south

MuskyMastr -> RE: Clover food plots (5/8/2008 6:22:58 PM)
Cool, take some pictures of it as it grows so we can check it out......

eyesandgillz -> RE: Clover food plots (5/15/2008 3:19:40 PM)
Musky, Don't let em get you all stirred up. I am sure none of these guys ever hunted near a farmers field, or along a trail leading to a farmers field, or along a bottleneck in the woods leading to a farmers field. If they did, then they are just hypocrites because that is no different than if they planted the fields themselves. If it is legal, who are you guys to judge someone? Oh wait, have any of you ever hunted a couple year old clear cut? Just about the same thing as it is a man made opening creating lush browse attracting the deer with food and bedding areas. And no, I don't plant food plots where I hunt. I have tried to frost seed a couple atv trails and openings in years past with not so good results. And, I am a little lazy and just don't get around to doing it. Now, to stay on topic with the original question, did you take soil samples of where you plan on planting the clover? You will probably need to adjust the pH of the soil to make your plot successful. Also, you'll want to kill the weeds off pretty good before you plant. You'll probably need to do a couple sprayings with Round up spaced out to get most of the weeds killed off. Good luck.

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