What we have Breechplug, are 23 small food plots in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 acre each. Seven members have two plots and three members have three plots. These are "private plots" that the member has full control over. Each plants, manages and hunts his own plots. We've found that the vested interest nature of this private plot system works better then the community property and "work days" system many clubs use. The more you put in to developing your plots the better they are and the more you get out of them.

Most of the plots get planted every September with a mixture of wheat, oats, and clover. The clover usually lasts well into June. Most guys plant iron-clay peas in early summer, which the deer really hammer. I have three plots of 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 acre. I keep the 1/4 acre plot in clover and chicory pretty much year round, though the clover usually goes dormant in July. When it revives in the fall I overseed it with wheat which tends to be pretty sparse but does add a little variety to the plot. I keep about half of the two larger plots in clover year round and plant the other half with wheat in the fall and peas in the spring.

The area we are in is pretty much either pine tree plantation or cattle pasture. I don't think there's a corn field or bean field withing twenty miles of us. Our competition for deer population is a river bottom with lots of hardwoods about a mile from us. We do have some oaks on our property. But they are no more than 5% of the total area.

I know what you mean about deer concentrating in an agricultural field. The parallel we have to that is when a property is the area is clear cut. The year after the cut the briar, blackberry and other brush is waist high. That stuff attracts and holds deer as well as any corn or soybean field.