The Best Thing to Plant in Deer Food Plots

www.deeranddee... What should I plant? This is the most common question asked about food plots. There are many variables to consider first, but these tips will help you put together dynamite food plots every year. Grow ’em Big. Season 5. Episode 14.

[@CWK_Outdoors]

I always love a nice, varied plot. Different growing conditions year to year, different deer personalities, whatever it is… lack of variety could land you with an empty field (ask me how I know…lol). Great video!

[@ianmoone2359]

If I might, I’d also suggest ph testing your soil & where it’s acidic, apply crushed dolomitic lime to sweeten the soil ph back towards neutral (~ph 6.7). You see bucks as well as does require not just high protein, to grow big and fat, they ALSO need very high calcium uptake! The does are long lived (up to 20 years in ideal circumstances) and have a tendency to twin fawn as a survival of species adaptation in high predation / mortality environments. In order to produce the skeletons of twin fawns every year for 19 of those 20 years, the does need to cannibalise their own skeletal calcium reserves to achieve that stunning outcome! In order to do so - particularly in the 3rd trimester of their 8 month gestation period, without ending up with osteo arthritis in early age - their calcium uptake requirements are off the charts! Bucks likewise require similarly large calcium uptake to grow large antlers to hold a harem of does! Nature just happens to time it that, bucks antlers which are composed of calcium to cast / shed (fall off) at the exact beginning of the does 3rd trimester, when skeletal calcium demand is highest! Little known fact, does chew on cast / shed buck antlers in their 3rd trimester. You will get better fawning %ages to maturity & thus better population increase if you don’t collect cast / shed antlers, but instead leave them for the does to chew on when needed. Likewise high calcium content leafy material assists the bucks & does to uptake their calcium requirements from their food if the soil is ph neutral with addition of lime! Superphosphate fertilisers are manufactured utilising acid in the production process. Repeated application of superphosphate fertilisers tend to turn soil acidic a little at a time year after year. Eventually once soil ph gets as low as ph 4.2 even clover won’t germinate & woody weeds tend to take over and shade out pasture, woody weeds that deer don’t tend to prefer as food. So liming your soil to keep it sweet (ph neutral) and plants with high calcium content is key to attracting deer to your food plot & not someone else’s nearby. Deer have highly sensitive chemaphore receptors in their noses that can detect their dietary needs from great distances, and they actively seek out the food their body needs, and this includes calcium content not just protein content. My 2c after intensively farming deer including white tails for 20 years. This calcium process in deer is called “antlerogenesis” in deer for anyone wants to research it in greater depth. Calcium is key! 👍👍👍😉🇦🇺

[@byelochka]

This is perhaps one of the most well stated and useful comments I’ve come across on KZbin. Thanks.

[@ianmoone2359]

@@byelochka You are most welcome, my 20 + years as a Forester, Wildlife Officer, Deer Farmer, Enviro Consultant wasn’t totally wasted then. What’s even more remarkable? I’m downunder in Australia, so learning all about white tails and their dietary and calcium requirements, from such a long way away from USA took a lot of doing. 😉👍🇦🇺

[@daddylee4216]

It's a convincing comment! Could you give us some examples of preferred food plot seed choices from your experience that deer love, particularly in the fall?

[@ianmoone2359]

@@daddylee4216 Our choices of seed differ to what you have available stateside. I used 2 types of clover seed, “Big Berseem” & “Pardana Balanca”. I also used a couple of different rye grasses, type evades my memory at the moment, (it was 20 years ago). So you would need to select species suited to your area and available locally. Something else to consider. After typical “1 bag of superphosphate per acre per year” application on hay paddocks, for 100 years, the phosphate levels in the top 4 or so inches of soil get consumed by pasture or crop roots. What leaches down into the deeper soil profile below the pasture / crop root zone - isn’t used / consumed, so attached itself to available chemical bonding points within the soil, and this repeats each year until the deeper soil profile becomes like more and more teaspoons of sugar added to a cup of coffee. Eventually you get to supersaturation point, no more sugar added will dissolve. So it is with phosphate in the deep soil profile beyond pasture & crop root zone. Once this condition occurs - where the deep soil profile becomes supersaturated with phosphates - the continued application annually results in the phosphate that leaches below the pasture / crop root zone, not being able to find chemical attachment points, so it leaches on through until it hits the water table, at which point it then migrates through the water table to neighbouring streams. The leached phosphates into streams fuels algal blooms and fish kills due to oxygen deprivation. That supersaturated phosphate deep soil profile, is in effect a superphosphate “bank”, bought & paid for by prior generations who farmed that land, that commercial crops and pasture roots can’t access. So it’s capital $ wasted, and continued application causes environmental harm to aquatic ecosystems. It’s totally of no use to deer in say food plots. The ONLY way you can access that deep super saturated soil profile phosphorous that’s been bought and paid for by prior generations, to benefit your deer (& remove the excess phosphate from the deep soil profile to improve water quality in rivers & streams) is to plant trees, who’s roots can access the deep soil profile that pasture & crop roots cannot access. In the case of deer feed plots, trees that produce fruit and nuts which they desire, is the obvious answer. Apple trees for example, oak trees, walnut trees etc. The deer do actually seek out woody stems on the end of branches on such trees because their rumen prefers a even mix of both pasture species but also hard mast material like twigs and buds etc from the ends of branches. They can smell the best browse material with the highly sensitive chemaphore receptors in their noses. If those fruit and nut bearing trees are accessing the superphosphate bank within the phosphate super saturated deep soil profile, then they will be the most attractive to the deer as hard mast browse material, not to mention the protein in any nuts and sugars in any fruits. My deer would come and take apples, peaches, plumbs etc in season from my hands, their preference for them is so strong. The supplemental feeds I provided for them were a blend of lupin seed (legume, about 26% crude protein, barley, oats and wheat. Pure lupin at 26% protein is too rich on its own and will kill deer if fed to them on its own. You want no more than about 12% protein in your food ration if supplemental feeding with deer feeders. Hence mixing the grains into a blend, to achieve the desired protein content. Typically man made deer feed pellets, are gristed, to creat a pellet around 12% crude protein. Deer again because of their noses and ability to sniff out the most beneficial food will walk through a ripe wheat crop (13% crude protein) to get to a neighbouring lupin crop of 25% crude protein. This would suggest you could grow legumes like clover & lupin, chick peas etc, along with your fruit & nut trees on your deer plots if you want to make the most attractive feed plots, as well as good soil Ph - addition of crushed dolomitic lime if necessary to achieve a neutral soil Ph around 6.7 Ph. If that doesn’t bring every deer within the local area, nothing will. Hope this helps out.

[@dougcounts3383]

Love how you show the buck hitting that marking tape in the begging of the video. Guess that's a scrape or mock. Pretty cool! Guess it doesn't have to always be a branch they lick on.

[@kitchenpractical7967]

I love the info on your video. Thanks for your time!

[@jasonbroom7147]

The best food plots are "Diversity, Wrapped in Security". What deer want to eat is a variety of things, in a location where they feel safe feeding. That's it.

[@stevegermain1222]

He is sir I put out a smorgasbord and 1/2 this year

[@kennethflynn2469]

Sounds more like an add for antler king products

[@ronmeade4607]

I'm in Indiana I've planted a bit of everything I put out 4-5 acres of sweet corn and there has been nothing better at least for my area

[@go4ll812]

This guy gets to the point love it

[@mikeb1189]

When does he get to the point? Bc the video starts out with a lecture on vlogging. I hope it gets better soon!!!!

[@mikeb1189]

One minute in, thank goodness

[@outdoorztime2923]

Steve, you can come and fix my place up like that when you get the chance. 😁

[@nextlevelwhitetails6130]

I use soybeans and after my second spraying I add red clover, oats, radish and turnips. Ive never been disappointed. Having a combination of the right plants makes all the difference.

[@QuiseSama]

Super late but do you mix it all together or do you section each seed type in its own row? I’m working with 11 acres and 2 of those acres is an open field of weeds where I want to plant something. I’m also adding a hidey hole plot with a watering hole.(plan to make it maybe 1/2-1 acre big.

[@BooBuhHaze]

@@QuiseSamamix it all together 👍

[@fredflintstone6163]

I hunt differntly slow walk hours or days build no fire shoot close range field dress snd begin eating right sway but thanks. Great grandpa hunting since fifties

[@keithdavis4683]

Imperial clover is the best thing in my area I have ever planted and it lasts about 5:years.

[@dans4270]

3:43 Elliot shows up 😂 If you have kids you know who I'm talking about.....

[@spencerhall6744]

Would you recommend digging out a hole or something for water

[@karma8001]

NO. Make your water hole back in the woods a little ways and hang a vine waist high and make SURE you have a tree 2 put a stand in because they will hit it hard.putting a water hole in a good plot is a waist of time because deer will b going there anyways. Search perfect water hole for deer Jeff has perfected it and trailcam footage 2 price it. U want 2 steer the deer

[@FarmallFanatic]

BOOM

[@waynegalyen6176]

With that mixture how many pds per acre and how much of each seed

[@lawrencedonna8240]

Steve -love your videos. Very informative. Do you just broadcast the Winter Rye right over the top of plots without working into the soil? Thanks.

[@lincolnminor4665]

How do you plant the mixture? Do you just spread it out across the soil then till it into the ground or…?

[@wildandliving]

Well thr seeders people use use a discount tk break up the soil drop the seed then use a cultipacker to Grove and break up the clumps. Basicly you ruff up the top soil throw seed down losely cover it then add water. It won't germinate until water is added. Spray water 2 times a day lightly to get the seeds to go. Look up how to grow microgreens and its the same basic methods

[@mikemarks6562]

Could you ad calcium powder into the mix ? when your planting the plot thanks

[@jaseast]

Liquid cal, it will adjust the ph and be available through the plant quickly

[@kevinwilson7760]

Do you plant everything all at once in spring?

[@poorfatman5317]

What state are you in

[@sport07-o2l]

Ad for a company, not what you plant

[@sapotts1387]

*Dirty secret?? Whats dirty about this secret??*