Farm Hunter, we discussed this a while back, but now that the seasons are over, do you think I should knock my corn down for the winter or leave it standing? You have a whole lot more snow than we do, so I could easily just knock mine down with my cultipacker. There are two cedar swamps close by for cover for them. I do plan to hunt a bit yet with the bow since our season doesn't close until Jan. 3.
The only reason I'm asking is that in your first post in this thread it seemed like you maybe wished that you had taken at least some of it down.
-ost

I think if you are leaving it, just to feed the deer.....leave it standing. They will use more of it than if its knocked down, because when on the ground, small animals get alot more of it, and it tends to rot quicker. For hunting it, I now think that it is important to at least knock some of it down. The deer just seem to get on it better, or quicker if its more at their level. Once the hunting pressure is off, I don't think it will matter - it did not last year. Next year I fully plan to knock some down during the bow season, but leave the majority standing. The ice storm this year knocked alot down for us - You can tell from the pic, and the deer seemed to use it a little better after that. Of course 1-2 ft of snow and sub-zero temps probably had something to do with that as well.

On the last day of the shotgun season, 2 more bucks were taken off the corn, by different hunters in our group, both were chasing does around (second rut?), and at least 20 does/fawns came in to feed that evening. One buck was a 2-1/2 yr old with a messed up rack, that we hadn't seen since July. The other was a good 6 point.