OK farm hunter what's this then?
All farmers know deer take their alfalfa. Why the cheap shot? I even watched a hunting show on the Outdoor Channel where the guy was sitting in a hay bale blind for wind protection during sub zero weather on a late season BP hunt and had does eating his blind away on camera. I see lots of TV shows with shooting blinds ringing an alfalfa field.
In Oklahoma any feeding is legal baiting even to hunt over which I don't. I hunt trails and use feeders to attract deer from neighbors. Also fawns become imprinted to my land easier and better instead of my neighbors. Is it legal in NY so long as you don't hunt right over it? Can you hunt a certain distance away from feeders? Also alfalfa is cultivated and deer eat it all night so there's nothing wrong with it. Cattle are more susceptible to stomach souring sicknesses.

We have a high fence around all of the large food plots that we plant. These food plots are normally 50+ acres and we have 8 of them through out the ranch. The high fence is 8 ft and surrounds all the bigger plots. We built the high fences in a way that allows them to be "broken" in half. So we take the top 4 feet and fold it down, so the fence is then only 4 feet high which deer can/do easliy jump over. I really like this method, and although the fences and the oilfield pipe cost alittle bit of money, it is well worth the cost to me.

There are also several smaller plots that I plant right before deer season as a means of attracting the deer. These smaller plots are normally 5-25 acres and I dont fence them. We plant these smaller plots down the Senderos and the roads and around certain deer blinds. Are goal with these blinds are to attract the deer within shooting range, we dont use these plots as a form of benefitting the deer, thats what the bigger plots that I listed above are for.

soonershooter -

No cheap shot intended - A bale of Alfalfa in the middle of the winter is like poison to deer in NY. The deer's bacterial dependant digestive system is fully away from "green legumes" by mid winter - and usually centered on woody browse. The deer eat it (alfalfa), but cannot digest it - and "starve to death " with a full belly. Worse - Once you start feeding it, and some deer do make the bacterial change in their digestive system - you HAVE to be prepared to provide the food all winter - or wean them off the alfalfa food source. Unfortunatley, most good intentioned individuals do not understand deer biology enough or have the resources to continue to feed once started.

Also in NY - it is illegal now to supplementally feed deer - in - or out of season. I realize that other states do allow feeding - it is however not an option in NY at the time being.

Thanks farm hunter. I didn't know about alfalfa shock during winter absence of green browse. Kansas and Oklahoma deer bed within and eat off our columns of alfalfa rolls during winter. Must be the year round diet.