Debate on food plot
 

I am debating on whether I should plant a food plot this spring or not. Where I hunt there are a lot of corn and bean fields. So the deer have a lot of food around to eat. I wanted to try to plant a bout a acre food plot in the area I hunt as a kind of attract for the deer to come into for early season hunting and give them better nutrition. Would this work or are there any other things I could do?? Please help!!

Sure you can do that. Just make sure you plant whatever is NOT being planted elsewhere around you. In other words, if there is plenty of corn, beans, alfalfa, etc. then plant something else like clover, beets, peas, canola and whatnot. Deer naturally seek out several different kinds of food to balance out their diet, so having something different may draw them in. Also, having a water hole near by (may have to dig that, but doesn't have to be huge) will also be beneficial if there isn't a good water source close to your food plot.

One thing about this that i have learned early season plant an attraction that helps the deer with nutrition. In the fall plant beans or some good oats. That way once all the corn and beans are picked around you in the fall october. The deer will hit your food plot hard.

You may want to plant something for the deer to eat in winter. Winter rye and/or brassicas are a good choice for winter-early spring.

I'd recommend another approach. If I hunted in area with a lot of food, I think I'd opt for planting and developing heavy bedding or loafing cover. It's hard to compete with commercial agriculture for food plots. And in a heavily farmed area, bedding and loafing cover is at a premium and usually hard to find. You'd have them right where you wanted them.

Corn and beans will be harvested in October or November...What will the deer eat then??? Plant some clover along with wheat/oaks and rye in September...The grasses will help this year and the clover will be there for next...

if you plant a small plot in the woods near where their bedding,they will go there before dark because they feel safe in the woods,so they will stop by on the way to their main feeding spot.

What he said and to further expand, if you put in a plot that has good cover the deer will be drawn to the safety of your plot as opposed to wide open fields. I put a small ambush plot in the woods that are surrounded by all types of farms and the deer come into it at all hours of the day and night to browse.

When I plant a food plot, I position it in the middle of cover, 1/2 acre surrounded by thick cover and well away from everything. The deer will feel safe and be there during the day. I never would put a plot near a road or other busy areas.

I love planting Food Plots...as mentioned if You plant is a secluded area or even an open area that stretches into a covered wooded area the Deer feel safer and will come out to feed.In the early Spring we may walk the field edges,roads,logging roads etc... and frost-seed clover,when we can break up the ground and disc we plant wheat,foraging oats in the Spring.After it dwindles down thru the summer months and we get into the Fall months we plant the Rape,Brassicas and Purple-top Turnips sometimes adding in a few sugar beets and winter wheat.Like several here also mentioned...plant something different on your land from what other Farmers have row croped around You,eventually You will find what the Deer love and crave and they will go out of their way to browse/eat what You have planted.

In some area's we plant food plots closer to the woods or in long strips for Bow Hunting and its a great feeling to see Your plots grow and the Deer come in to browse or the Turkeys and Quail use it to survive.