Feeder vs. FoodPlot

MarineStud · 09-19-2005, 01:34 PM

Which one do you guys this is more beneficial for not only bringing in the deer but also for the health of the heard? So if you could only do one or the other which would you do?

Rebel Hog · 09-19-2005, 01:52 PM

Feeders!

kevin1 · 09-19-2005, 05:36 PM

Food plot .
A well balanced food plot will provide high quality nutrition over the long haul and benefit multiple species . Food plots can also provide cover for small game like rabbits and quail .

answerguy · 09-19-2005, 06:00 PM

As soon as you include the health of the deer in the question you rule out feeders.
Feeders encourage nose to nose contact of deer and that causes the spread of very bad diseases like TB and CWD.

bigtim6656 · 09-19-2005, 09:56 PM

i have feed out and have doubled my deer sighting since i know here in ky you can hutn a food plot but not were you put out food or anything not growing basicly

farm hunter · 09-19-2005, 09:59 PM

Food plots - not even close.

The best part of food plots is that they a very much like farmland, and hunting deer on or around them (to me anyhow) is a much, muchmore pleasing. It might sound cliche - but to me its more about the hunt than the harvest - and Hunting on or around a feeder would ruin a hunt for me. I've only ever shot one deer off a food plot - same goes for most of theguys I hunt with. We hunt the funnels and transitional zones between bedding areas and food plots. Truly nothing makes me happier than seeing a dozen deer feeding in a 3 acre clover plot - on my way out. I don't think I'd feel at all the same way seeing deer lined up under a feeder.

FH

Jackson Bowner · 09-20-2005, 06:16 AM

DITTO TO FOOD PLOTS

Kevin and Farm Hunter hit it on the head!
PS-But I have both.Put corn in the feeder for late season and early spring. Keeps the available protein high for the herd.

otismyman · 09-21-2005, 02:39 PM

Thank goodness, most of you have a brain. There is no comparison between a food plot and a feeder. I have both.My food plots are perennial clovers and some Extreme. They are feeding basically all year. Three years as of last May. After establishment all I do is spray them in the spring for grasses if neededand fertilize at the same time. That's the only time I see them other than an ocassional drive-by until the season hits.

My feeders on the other hand are great too but they require a visit at least every three weeks. I use a trough feeder that holds about 400 pounds of either corn and beans or corn (in winter). By the way, JB, corn is not much of a source of protein, 8-9%.

Based on my grazing guages in my plots I know I'm producing tons more forage than I can feed through the feeder. With perennial plots the costs over a 4 year period are less than 10% of feeding year-round.

Just my 2 cents. Based on the price of gas, that's all I have left.

O

Terasec · 09-21-2005, 05:18 PM

also depends on local laws
here in NY,
can hunt food plots,
cannot hunt near feeders
so i would choose the plots in NY,

1sagittarius · 09-21-2005, 08:37 PM

If you could do ony one plot, and do it RIGHT, that is easy ... white clovers. (Hubam, New Zealand, Kura, Dutch white, Ladino)

A variety is best if you have the equiptment, time, and space, to do it well. Clovers is always first choice, then soybeans, corn, winter wheat, oats, brasicas, winter rye.

Too many half a$$ attempts are made by throwing down a bunch of commercial seed mixes and some 10-10-10 thinking they are creating a great food plot.

A soil test is always first, followed by the recommended Lime application recommended by a good university soil test. If your PH is not above 6, you are wasting fertilizer because most of it is becoming bound up in the soil and not available to your seed of choice.

A recommend fertilizer application for legumes (clovers, alfalfas, trefoil), on a new plot might look something like 0 nitrogen, 60 lbs phosphorus, and 180 lbs potassium per acre. You can never get there with 10-10-10. 10-10-10 is for little old ladies in their flower garden, and guys who don't know what they are doing. If you need Nitrogen, 46-0-0 Urea, 100 lbs has as much Nitrogen as 460 lbs of 10-10-10. Potassium 0-0-60, 100 lbs has as much potassium as 600 lbs of 10-10-10. Phosphorus is getting harder to get do to polution run off, 0-42-0 is great if you can find it. Otherwise your phosphorus recommendation will have to be had in a mix such as a 10-20-26. Mix your own fertilizer to get exactly what your specific seed requires, you will apply less lbs, and save time and $ in the end.