2000 - Fall Food Plot

 

 July 31, 2000 Oct 7, 2000

 

This was our third year hunting the food plot. The plot itself was in better condition than we expected however it was 75% grass/weeds, 25% clover. Clearly our problems from spring rains had carried through to the fall. Next season we will be tilling the main plot and reseeding.

The clover that had made it to the fall was stunted and overbrowsed - no doubt the deer were using the plot heavily now. The new plot (below) was in slightly better condition and several deer were seen using the new plot first, before heading over to the original field.

The hunting was tough this year. Due to two factors: First was a black bear that had established a presence on our plot - making the deer uneasy and pushing the does and fawns completely off of our property (not a single doe or fawn was seen all week). The second problem was the adjacent property was being logged. The food plot is only 40 yards from the property line and between the human scent, heavy machinery and noise, the deer were avoiding our 30 acres. In all we saw 6 different bucks on the property. All 6 bucks were seen on the plot and only one of those bucks was also seen on another area of the property.

Of those bucks the largest was a six point that was not past his ears (immature) 2 four points and the rest were spikes. After three years, the food plot has worked at attracing deer to this section of the property, however it has not helped to increase the size or quality of our bucks. Please remember that genetics are terrible in this area. There is also an inability to enforce QDM practices due to the hunting policies of shoot any-horned deer in this particular area.

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