I manage a private 202 acre farm here in PA. 70% of it is field and 30% is woods. The farm was an operating cattle farm with the fields that were all pastures. The farm is surrounded by public State Game Lands on three sides. The four side is private property. I have posted the property due to trespassing and vandalism. I control how many people hunt on the farm and keep it down to no more than 15 hunter s per season.
We usually do pretty well and last year we pulled 8 bucks that were 8 points or better. No real monsters but nice 2-3 year old bucks.
Pre season scouting showed us withsome nice 8 , 10 and 12 points. But when the season started we got skunked. Not a single buck.
The one thing that changed form laast year was that we leased some of the acres to a nearby farmer so that we could plant corn. The funny thing is ... he never harvested the corn. So we have about 30 acres of standing corn.
Do you think that the standing corn changed the deer habits to more of a nocturnal feeding habits during the season?
We can't figure it out. I would appreciate any insight you guys may have.
Thanks in advance.