2024 Food plot results and seed reviews
A good year
Our 2024 report reflects the results of our 2023 planting results and subsequent deer hunting season. 2024 was our fourth year owning this Ohio ground. Our previous strategy has been working well so we continued the basic strategy with some brassica rotations and scaling back on corn. We kept screening the same since that worked well on my kill plot and big plot. I split my 4 acre kill plot evenly between soybeans and brassicas, I just swapped their locations in the field. And I planted my custom mix that T-Roy calls the Big-O mix and that worked well once again. The result was my farm became the hub of deer activity again in 2023. I had one incredible buck there all summer, another mid-150" buck that was wounded and later found dead, and my 6 year old 10 survived the season.
For the second year in a row, my corn was decimated in the silk stage and whatever grain had germinated was wiped out prior to hunting season. It's hard to fence the corn since the field is so big, so I'll try it again in the spring with a larger corn planting to hopefully limit the damage.
Seed Choices
For the 2023 growing season I used a mix of seed types including mostly 'brown bag' varieties, and Ag seeds, and some retail 'deer head' seeds as well. The goal of our annual seed review is to demonstrate how a little effort, and moderate expense can dramatically improve the deer hunting on any property.
Food Plot Choices and reviews for the 2023-24 season
- 2024 Review Introduction & Guide
- Food Plot 1 - Ag soybeans + Ag Corn + Egyptian Wheat
- Food Plot 2 - Ag soybeans + Brassicas
- Food Plot 3 - Legacy clover + Alfa-rack (year 4)
- Food Plot 4 - Hancock Killer Clover (year 4)
- Food Plot 5 - Durana clover (year 4)
- Food Plot 6 - Merit Aberlasting Clover + Chicory (year 4)
- Food Plot 7 - Winter Peas + Crimson Clover + Winter Rye/Wheat
Plot Locations
Map of the Ohio DeerBuilder Property with Food Plot Locations
Planting Conditions last season
For our fourth planting season in Ohio we experienced perfect moisture. We had good temps, and excellent planting windows.
Overall I rate growing conditions as 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 with ten being best. There were some brief periods of drought but not enough to really be concerned about.
Soil Tests and Amendments
I fertilized heavily in 2023 and the crops came up great, but soil tests are showing that I will eventually need an investment in both lime and a planting of green manure.
Equipment Used
I used, 100HP New Holland Powerstar 100 tractor, a four row 7000 Deere Planter, an 8' Greenscape drill, a 12' White travel disk, a 12' Deere Cultimulcher, a 20' boom sprayer, and a 3-pt mounted spreader. I planted all the plots myself.
Trail Camera Survey
We had 40 cameras running year' round. We diligently maintained batteries and SD Card collections and finished out the Trail Cam Survey season with 163,877 individual photos of deer. These were sorted and maintained for establishing accurate deer utilization trends in each plot. We utilized 16 cameras running Moultrie Mobile in several key locations. This allowed us to have Real-time photos.
Hunting Season
I spent 45 days hunting this property over the entire 5 month archery season. I identified 4 mature shooter bucks with most being above PY minimums. We also identified 56 additional bucks that were 2.5 or older within our borders. Not as many shooters this year, but more rack bucks than I have ever .
While I never had a shooter buck in range on my property, we had some really nice mature bucks including this 7 year old that exploded this year. He lived on my ground all summer and I got dozens of pics, unfortunately he vanished a week before hunting season and was never seen by anyone again.
I shot 3 does during the February season.
How we choose our seeds
You will notice that a lot of our crops come from fresh, 'brown bag' type seeds. I prefer to buy seeds from high volume distributors - rather than per-packaged varieties sold by big name hunting companies. On occasion, we will use 'deer head' branded seeds. Please remember, I have been doing this for over 25 years and most people will never want (or need) to go to the lengths I do to plant food plots.
Our plot strategy
While my plot strategy has been evolving, it still relies heavily on soybeans. For my kill plot, I planted half in beans, and half in a brassica mix. I utilized Egyptian wheat heavily for screening. My south kill plot, previously in brassicas, was rotated into Winter Wheat, Winter Rye, Peas and Crimson Clover. My perennial plots remained unchanged.
