I plant clover and corn in my food plot,farmers all around me have clover and corn. Sometimes I see deer in my plots and sometimes I see them in the farmers field. Around here there is no difference. A good oak or apple tree is a better spot to shoot a deer because there is so much clover and corn.
Ditto for me.
One other note I'd mention - is I hunt 90% of the time off the crops. Too often only does and fawns make it to the field before legal hunting hours end.
I'd rather be in a good funnel or staging area several hundred yards off the fields.
I cannot seriously compare baiting to planting crops and/or food plots. Our standing corn plots this year will provide 15,000 to 20,000 lbs of corn Kernalsfor yarding deer this winter. This on top of 30,000 lbs - 35,000 lbsof managed green forage (soybeans and clover) during the summer months. Our stated goal is to support a local deer herd of 30-40 deer per square mile. In some years - the weather makes it easy - in other years - we lose deer anyhow.
Guys like me - We are supporting a deer herd - not baiting it.We aren't hunting over a 100ft x 100ft plot.
This statement reminded me of what someone said earlier in the post about the PGC planting food plots - being "a wrong practice" - I don't think alot of you understand - that a deer herd of 30-40 deer per square mile - eatstons and tons and tons of food per year. - I'm not an expert on the PGC - but my guess is that without food plots - the PGC would have to LOWER the deer population even more -because there would not be enough food to go around (not without destoying the natural regeneration of forestland). - I doubt that would be a popular move in PA.
FH