I live in Kentucky and I would like to plant a small clover field for deer this coming spring 2025. Thank you for all the very helpful information you shared here.

Love it

Yes sir

Looking forward to following along, Wes. 100 acres. I'm jealous. I'm working with 6. I've already been out cutting some trees. Good luck with the project!

Cow peas work better and cheaper puts nitrogen in the soil

Thanks for the video Wes. Maybe at some point you can discuss some things to look for and things to avoid when looking for hunting land to buy

Toad choker lol in Oklahoma

I have a 106 in western Ky with 12 acres of ag. I have the same problem with the does. I get one day to hunt before they all know and spread the word that "it is hunting season." Looking forward to learning how to combat the situation.

I have a question. I have a high number on 675 acres. What seems to be my problem is 3-5 year old bucks with large base antlers that are funny looking. I see several 2.5 year old pretty looking bucks during the summer and early fall. Then they leave but the heavy antlered ugly bucks stay. Then in rut I do see several of the younger bucks return but with broken antlers. So my question is this, would rather than thinning does, thinning the older low quality bucks be best? Thanks

Im 30 min north of Bham Alabama & I have to many doe. Have seen as many as 17 at a time. Its crazy.

Looking forward to the series! Would like to see some of your hunt's, and setups.

Thanks Wes, that’s a lot of deer. That’s good meat for the locals, best of luck and I will be watching.

Another good one. Having done a couple projects myself I'm anxious to see your results esp with bedding areas. My personal opinion is different than most influencers rights now in that most deer have adapted to bedding in those open areas and will continue to do that the majority of the time. I think the thicker areas become more utilized during the rut but overall that learned bedding behavior is tough to break. Let us know how that pans out of your place.

Im debating right now if i need to harvest more, does. I have solid deer numbers. Not uncommon to hunt over my standing beans and see 20 deer. Out of those 20, 5-6 are bucks. I have 52 acres

must have low hunting pressure to see so many deer ...good for you!

Based upon your camera intel, are you planning any food plot changes/designs to help you combat the over population of does? A video of your strategy/plan would be very interesting. It sure does sound like you need a serious culling on the does. Never had that problem in Maine though. Cheers and Merry Christmas.

Thanks wes, I'm really looking forward to this series

I have some changes I need to make on my land. Great information I will be following along.

What people consider "seeing a lot of deer" baffles me. Im in south central IL in ag country on a highly manipulated, low pressure property with lots of cover, browse and green food. We shoot very few does and the population never explodes. We never see more than 2 or 3 does in a hunt. Property seems to hold more bucks than does. I can not fathom an over population.

Wes.....all good comments. Looking forward to seeing your journey and accomplishments on this property as we go forward. Bob

We have a small farm, 72 acres, 7 acres of fields and the rest is mountain range. In this county, we have 15-20 deer per square mile so I do not take any does and have not shoot any bucks in the past 7 years. I just need to managed the woody brow, screens, etc to hold more deer. We do have some nices ones on cam. We are in North Georgia

Both...

Have you tried sorghum

Thanks Wes that makes great sense. I really need to do more cutting. I noticed someone commented on prescribed fire, and that is a wonderful addition to getting sunlight to timber floor and controlling invasive woody browse. The immediate browse response the next spring is phenomenal and you really pull nutrients from deep in the soil with aggressive plant life. Bush honeysuckle and autumn olive are terrible up here, and fire doesn’t eliminate them but keeps them setback to manage with chemicals. I do burns every spring, and it is something I look forward to every year. Like plots, there is a technique, but once you master it, most of the hesitation and fear goes away. I invite you to my place in IL this march when we burn if you would like to do a video? You can give me a few plot tips, and I’ll share my burn experience first hand. We have burnt off my 15 acres of nwsg 5 times in 12 years and I do regular timber fires between 2-10 acres. I’ve really enjoyed your channel.

Thanks Wes

good info as usual.

I have planted spring plots the last three years. If it weren’t for drought, deer pressure or wild pigs, I would have good plots. This year I am fencing off some feeders to keep the pigs out and be able to feed portion the deer.

Big woods with no ag around.... rye and oats work great for me for the base. Put some annual clovers and radishes in the mix for some diversity. Still mowed down to dirt by mid Dec. I pull deer in from everywhere else, no one else doing what I do in the area, even though lots of hunters around. Soybeans or pure brassica stands will never work in my location.

You were showing how dry the soil was. I know you have talked about doing notill before. Did that work out? It would keep soil moisture higher.

Can’t have a successful food plot when it’s an extreme drought four years in a row from May-November.

I had to resort to ceal rye because of the drought in ohio we had. I tried brassicas/ winter peas and they never came up

You aren't kidding about having more than 1 plan. Seems every year it's something new, It's a real challenge sometimes.

I enjoyed the video. I'm going to give forage beans a try this spring but it might be a bust due to deer density and the hogs.

Seems like you can spend a pile of money if things don't work out!

Great video on diversity. This year was just brutal for drought. Thank god for cereal grains. Sure hope next year is better. 🙏🏻

Every plot should be divided into three sections....IMHO I like clover/chicory for a perennial, soybeans, and a strip of brassica. When the soybeans leaves turn yellow in August, I also over seed brassica into the beans. That keeps green on the plots until after the early frosts. Deer will eat all of the above even after the snow is a foot deep and the ground is frozen hard. Diversity at every stand will produce results and you should always have food throughout the season with this strategy. IMHO and CHEERS to all you fellow hunters and food plotters.

Always good info from you Wes. Would sure like to see you try a few small pumpkin/ squash plots.

Nice video. I'd like to see the video about how to hunt cutovers. Thx

Great video lots of info, all my plots are small

Does are for kids and neighbors who can't hunt

If I spread a good bit of 34-0-0 in the early spring will that offset?

Can I get information on hunting with your outfit?

Always interesting

Had a poacher on adjacent public land start popping does out of season last winter. We got his ass caught good. Saw several good bucks and plenty of does last year. This year, saw four does and only one decent buck. Heard a shot right on top of me a couple mornings after seeing that one buck so he's most likely gone. Public land hunters suck. Getting game wardens to do their jobs around here is like pulling teeth from a grizzly. They're more worried about harassing land owners feeding deer than they are catching poachers and baiters on public land. You can literally offer to show them the bait piles and the stands and they'll tell you there's nothing they can do about it. It took three (angry) calls to get that game warden out last year. I'm surprised he even showed that last time.

Terminated a cowpea plot in November 1 and planted oats, wheat and winter peas in the plot. Cowpeas seeded out and now have a crap load of cowpeas in December and the deer ain’t touching them, lol. Never again planting Cowpeas pretty much worthless here in Southern Texas. Still haven’t gotten a frost yet. 😂

Pigweed has over taken my RR beans, do you use or recommend a pre-emergence herbicide to help control pigweed on your Enlist beans??

Been adding sunflower seed to my plots every fall. Deer relish em. They start getting hit right away. Every time they're hit they sprout two new shoots. They'll start to form small buds in September. Once the buds are all cleaned up they're mostly done. Few make it into November. Youll see all the little brown leafless sticks standing everywhere. They take the early pressure off the brassicas, legumes and chicory, and keep the deer coming in from early August until the other plants are well established.

All I can account for is where I hunt in SC. The property is a farm (875 acres) with mostly fields that has cattle on it. When I first started hunting the property, you could go all season without seeing any bucks bigger than 4 pointers. You’d see does (mostly), spikes, and 4 pointers everyday. Several years before I started, DNR gave the landowner 50 doe tags, but nobody used them. After listening to the other hunters complaining about not seeing big bucks, I suggested shooting does. Five years after starting to shoot does, I shot a big bodied 10 point. We’ve been seeing and shooting more larger bucks (>16” inside spread 8 points) including 3 good 8 pointers this year. Most of the does we take every year weigh between 100-120 lb does. 120 is a good size doe in SC. Not shooting does isn’t the plan for every property, and I will say it wasn’t the right thing for this property.

Yup. You’re raight. That thar will hep ewe.

I was in a hunting club a few years back that believed you should harvest every doe you see to keep the population at 1:1 buck to do ratio; I swear to God on that 2600-acre hunting club there was 1 buck and 1 doe. Yeah, it was a 1:1 buck to doe ratio but damn sitting on a 20-acre food plot day after day and not seeing a damn thing. On my private farm I don't harvest any does, there's plenty of other idiots to that already.