Food Plot or Corn Pile - Same Thing?
 

I was having a discussion with another member about whether hunting over a pile of corn is the same as hunting over a food plot. For discussion, let's call it a turnip field of about 300 yards by 200 yards in dimension.

His argument is that it's the same thing. I say the differences are vast.

1.) The field is huge. The deer can come out anywhere and be out of range at all times. The pile of corn assures they will be right under your stand.
2.) The field is there 24/7 for months. Deer can come in the middle of the night if they choose. The field cannot be set on a timer to be available at 7:00am and 3:00pm.
3.) The field is in a fixed spot. As the season changes, and deer move into different areas, you cannot put the field in a bucket and bring it with you. It's there.
4.) Deer don't like standing out in the open in broad daylight. You can pour corn in the thickest of cover.
5.) Fields go through stages. Sometimes the greens are not palatable. Eventually, the deer burn it out. Corn can always be replenished, as needed, and it's always ripe.
6.) Food plots require spraying weeds, removing rocks, disc plowing the soil, putting down lime, planting seed, fertilizing and waiting......desperately hoping for the right mix of rain and sun and hoping you get a nice green field in several months. The bait is a trip to Agway or Dick's.

These are just 6 of the differences off the top of my head.

And, if we want to get rid of the turnips and replace with a corn:corn comparison, imagine a field of standing corn vs a pile of corn. It's acres upon acres of the thickest cover around.

What say the sportsmen on this site?

not the same thing whatsoever. Any one can go dump a pile of corn and have deer come to it. True deer managers take time to put in the right food plots. A turnip field provides late season nutrition to a variety of deer, they eat the greens and the roots. A pile of corn is first come first serve.

I think I would get a lot more out of killing a deer from a food plot then dumping a bucket of corn by my stand and calling it a day. Heck I enjoy the sweat equity that goes into a food plot just as much as I do hunting the thing.

another thing, food plots will not spread disease as quickly as a pile of corn.

I'll agree that they aren't the same thing. I don't hunt over corn but its there before season starts and I hunt there when it starts. Same with my plots, I hunt them when its time. Myself I don't really see nothing wrong with putting out corn to attract them to your area. Some people will grip about that comment, but I really don't care. Different strokes for different folks as long as its within the laws of your state.

Not the same thing at all ..

I've found that typically the ones who equate the two are usually just jealous because they likely don't have foodplots of their own for a multitude of reasons... but they certainly WOULD if they could! Therefore they resort to baiting & want to make themselves feel better so they openly state the two as equal.

I annually plant & maintain 10 plots on my land as well as trim, bush hog & mow areas within my 625acres specifically for wildlife food & habitat. It's ALOT of hard work, time & money but the rewards are numerous: food sources & improved habitat for ALL wildlife &, great hunting spots & it's a VERY rewarding part of my giving something back to the land.

Pouring a bucket of corn/foodstuffs or whatever out on the ground during season is hardly the same. :hit:

I hunt near both and they are very different. Deer can normally take a lot of different trails to a food plot making for a hunting experience where as a pile of corn there is usually a couple of trails coming to the corn pile.

Use both. Different methods.
 

We utilize both corn and food plots where legal. Surely the food plots and corn are different, but both can be useful when done correctly.

Corn is like wine, you have free wine at a party all the single ladies will be tipsy before the DJ even plays a terrible Beyonce song. We use corn to attract and hold does as we do not shoot does on our lease. We think that this works as stated previously because during the rut the does will come out and munch on a little corn and bachelor buck comes on in looking for some fun. I've not shot a buck eating corn, but I've shot a bunch checking does that were eating corn.
Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong; but I'm paying for the corn so I'll use it as I wish.

Granted it grinds my gears when some dummy sees a scrape or rub and automatically wants to go sling corn out right next to it.

Food plots are practical and great ways to provide forage for your deer population. I love going to the camp and bush hogging, discing, sowing, discing in, fertilizing and watching the plots mature. Guess its just the farmer in me.

So for years I have just had a gravity deer feeder and my friend said I should make a food plot. What kinda of seed should I put in the plot?

cow peas, turnips, barley, a lot depends on if you want to shoot deer out of it, or just help them through the winter.
RR

Depending what state your hunting in hunting over a "corn pile" maybe illegal. Don't know of any state that a "food plot" is illegal.

Well that helps alot can do you know a brand that would be good for oklahoma's rockey soil?

I have to say, the people on this site are getting MUCH more civil. I remember when people would be at each others throats with a topic like this!

I've done both in my life. I've hunted over bait in Michigan and food plots in Illinois. They are not even close to the same. Anybody can just born 200 pounds of corn on the ground or in a feeder, it takes no time at all. To put in a food plot takes much more time and care. Good bucks learn what bait is pretty quick and know only to hit it at night. Sure you'll get a random nice buck here and there but food plots are natural, they just think its like beans or corn growing.

I don't judge people who bait since I've done it many times but its not the same thing at all in my opinion. Not saying its bad, just not the same thing.

Far from the same thing but each one can be effective in its own right. I use both so I'm not going to look down on anyone for using either or neither if they so choose.

I would never feel a sense of accomplishment if I shot a deer over bait. For me hunting is working to harvest a deer in his natural habitat. A food plot is natural habitat. In my opinion a pile of corn is similar to trapping not hunting.

A food plot is illegal in Colorado. As is any kind of baiting.

Food plot = Growing food to bring in game to hunt.

So what determines whether youre hunting a food plot or a farm? An apple orchard or bean field would bring in game

The good thing about a plot is that you can stay the heck away from it (as opposed to always dropping bait). I have a small winter rye plot, and with my crossbow, most every shot is within range of 30 yds. The bad thing is all the labor involved. And if you have big herds, you will need a big expensive plot or they will mow it to nothing. By us the herds are pretty small these days.

In WI, you can not use automated feeders - you must haul bait out almost daily since amount is limited too. What I find works best is to bait short-term (2 or 3 days), hunt, and then move on to another spot. Too much working up one spot will teach them in a hurry to visit at night or not at all. So baiting in WI is no slam dunk either, and I am talking about bow hunting. For the most part, it is a good way to fill an antlerless tag.

My favorite way to hunt is still hunting with a muzzleloader after the regular gun season. This is classic hunting to me, but sometimes what is most noble does not fill the freezer!

Early in the season I'll hunt over bait once in awhile but for the most part it ends up just being a good way to get deer in front of the camera to see what's there whether it be day or night. That being said, I've never killed a decent buck over bait. Get lots of pictures after dark but that's about it.

Yes, I kind of like that too. It is nice to see a lush green plot that is the result of good prep and hard work. Kind of like gardening.

Sounds like you'd need to ask permission to hunt private land.

The warden would figure it out.

Once upon a time, food plots were considered "baiting" in Illinois. In the rule book, it defined a farm as being a for-profit operation, where residual feed materials were "incendental." Obviously, a combine is going to miss some beans and a few apples might be left in an orchard, but its usually a small amount and not intentional. I'm sure there's some grey area in between, but it should be pretty obvious if the crop was placed there specifically for the deer or if it was part of a for-profit farming operation. It doesn't matter anymore, though - the rules here in Illinois have been changed to allow food plots anyway. Baiting with food or mineral blocks is still illegal.

Now, when it comes to those annual food plots that have turnips and sugar beets in them, I don't see that as any different than dumping corn on the ground. You're concentrating a highly desirable food in a small area, so the deer don't have to 'forage' for them. They know where the food is, and you're sitting there waiting for them. Don't get me wrong - I'm not opposed to it, as long as you follow the rules. Its just not for me. I prefer to improve long-term habitat, by planting native prairie grasses for bedding, perennial grass and clover mixes for summer grazing and oak trees for fall forage. I understand that guys with hunting leases may not be hunting the same place year after year, but the ground I hunt is family land, so I know long-term improvements will eventually pay off. Long story short, I'm not against it, but I don't see much difference.

That's what I thought a harvestable crop for profit wouldn't be considered a food plot.
Thanks CJ.

For the farmer, or you're own land.

7mm mag is correct both are useful both & have merit!!! quit bashing hunters or how they hunt !!! If hunting over food plots or feeders is what some ones choice don't knock it !!! just remember to continue to feed till spring don't just feed to hunt take it to the next level feed through out the winter till it greens up !!!1. this will give does and bucks keep them in better condition !!! 2.so they have stronger fawns & grow more antler !!! gives birds, and other critters supplement for them !!!3. determining population & what animals made it through the hunting season !!!I have saved a lot of bucks that were wound by my neighbors !!! Remember don't kill all the big bucks, make do not kill list preserve your genetics just don't think there's a big one somewhere to breed your does!!! feeders and food plots are both needed to harvest does out of production and cull bucks!!!

Not the same thing. But in my book, HUNTING over a food plot or corn pile is the same thing.

you can argue semantics all day bait is bait whether is a food/kill plot or a pile of corn.. And I don't have a problem with either one..

It doesn't matter who's land it is. I farm and hunt the same land. Like I said, its kind of a moot point here in IL since rules have changed. However, before the rule change, if I had planted a few hundred square feet of corn in the middle of nowhere that I cant get my combine to - that would have been a food plot and a ticketable offense. If I was hunting the edge of a 40 acre field - thats just normal agricultural operation and not a ticketable offense. Now, if I had harvested the whole field and intentionally left the outside 4 rows, that might have been considered a food plot, too. I'm glad they changed the rules - they left too much room for a CPO with a chip on their shoulder to interpret things as they see fit. Plus, I do like to keep a nice little clover plot here and there so the deer have some high quality forage all summer long.

We maintain bait plots. When you boil down the essence of the act, it’s a hunter supplying food for deer to advantage them in seeing and harvesting game. That’s the heart of the matter. Fly fishing and bait casting are both methods of fishing and pouring out or growing food are just different forms of baiting but baiting they both are.

a bait pile and a foodplot are two totally different things. The OP is correct.

correct physically they are two different things but they serve the same purpose...attract deer to kill and put in my freezer :) ..

A food plot and a bait pile are 2 very different things IMO.

A bait pile is hard to hunt for one big reason. Its a small area and deer will be on it when you come in early morning and will also be there when you are ready to get down. It's very hard to not educate the deer.

Baiting is not a big disease spreader. Its just not. Deer live nose to nose in nature. They will eat from the same ear of corn or eat under the same oak or groom each other frequently. CWD is shown to not be spread like wildfire as they thought. EHD and other similar disease has nothing to do with bait at all.

Baiting is just like the people that don't like hunting with dogs or using a xbow in archery season. Some hunters seem to take a hard stance on any technique they don't use themselves. Just chill and do your thing and wish everyone else the best.

It doesn't appear that to many in this discussion have much problem with other people doing their thing....quite the opposite really.

It may not be the case everywhere but if you put up a feeder where I hunt in January with the snow on deer that don't normally come in contact would be stacked on top of each other.