Anything big on camera yet Swamp?

Not really. One 9pt that is probably a 4 yr old. A couple 7pts that are definitely 4 yr olds. Those 3 are the best my place has to offer this fall unless a larger buck wanders up or down the riverbottom soon with our peak rut approaching in the next 2 weeks.

That 9pt is the least available for me. He stays off my place more than he is on it. I dont know where he goes, but one of my neighbors is probably excited about him.

Oh yeah. I finally had some attention this morning at a mock scrape I opened up and set a camera on a few weeks ago.

3 bucks, all with their antlers out of frame of course. I’ll have to adjust that camera!

That sux when that happens. Many times the antlers will be up in the branches of the overhanging limb and cant see the rack clearly.....then buck walks away without a decent pic....

I am right with you swamp. I plant about 30 acres a year - but not yet this year. Still too dry maybe in a couple weeks. I havent killed but three deer in the last seven years, but I got five grand daughters that come in like a pack of wolves. While I dont hunt with a real bow anymore, I did only hunt with a compound bow for about 20 years. Now, with a pinched nerve down my right arm - I am relegated to a crossbow. I did find a deer I like two days ago -



My favorite food plot is a seven acre spot with big old native pecans - way down in the bottoms

WC,
Pretty buck! Congrats!

You have a good looking place ....exceptional habitat!

top dressed my oats and brassicas plots with some cereal rye, wheat, and turnips last week so they will continue to hold up well after frost. Deer are devouring my red ripper cowpeas currently and we harvested a yearling off them last night. We feed the deer and they feed us. I too enjoy planting crops for the deer and with cameras know quickly where and when to hunt. The cowpeas were new this year for me and I am very well pleased with them.

Cowpeas here are like throwing money away...lol. Dang seed is $40/50 lbs.

Most never get beyond the two-leaf stage after sprouting.

Y’all boys are funny.

If the majority of you had the land and the resources to do it, you would.

I can promise you that I feed 30x if not more game than I take on food-plots. All fair Chase. I try to put in what my neighbors don’t have. Nothing keeping deer on my small parcel other than hard work and favorable conditions.

Think I planted mine in May and some were over 3' tall especially when they had something to climb. They have mostly all seeded out with long pods now that look like green beans. Deer have hit mine good the last few weeks and mowed them down to about a foot tall with lots of forage left though as they have vined out. Still blooms on quite a few and it appears they might keep growing until frost. Very tender looking plant with lots of mass.

For long term food plots, I would plant pecans, hicans, hazel nuts, burr oak and chestnuts. I have a heck of a time getting those picked off the ground before the deer do. There's an amazing amount of deer poop under the pecan and hican trees at the nut grove I'm now in charge of, all concentrated directly under the relatively small, producing trees. The deer must just stay there waiting on the nuts to drop.

Keith

Got to be a younger man that owns the property to realize the benefit of planting mast producing trees.

[quote=Swamp Wolf]Completed 2.3 acres (4 plots) of rye, oats, crimson clover plots today. Some of them also have pt rutabagas and radishes in them.

Got 1.7 acres (4 more plots) yet to plant this week.

Here are pics of 3 of them....





Very impressive!!! They look great! If you ever get bored being retired!! I might have work for you!!!

Gator Foot,

If I went back to work (for someone else)....it would be expensive for the person hiring me.

Hazelnut produce in three years from seed. Bushes that will produce next year are relatively cheap. Missouri sells American hazelnut seedlings for around $88.00 a hundred shipped. They'll have some nuts in two years and a lot by 6 years.

Keith

Planted a couple bags of this with some 17/17/17 about a week and a half ago. It's coming up already. Good luck to all the deer farmers lol

Well as far as food plotting that is only part of what we do in woods. Was it our first goal, deer population, then age structure, with that antlers, you bet. We have developed food plots that involve many types of plantings. We have incorporated timber management, creating different types and age structure for timber and habitat. As this evolved we realized that we had created a much healthier bio-diverse habitat. We have managed our wetlands, developing a balanced beaver population as well as numerous riparian projects for the two miles of creek. We have built root-balls in wetlands for (lizards, frogs, and such), bird houses, nesting habitat. And all this to our advantage as we have a solid deer herd with quality antlers, numerous large black bear, turkeys, squirrel, partridge, rabbits etc. Am I a deer farmer you bet and everything else benefits and so do the neighbors. Great trapping land also! We are also farmers of everything else on our property, if you ever want to hear owls go off in the evening you'd understand. Oh and two bald eagle nests! Yep we are deer farmers. LOL

Oh and I have a fruit tree orchard, 24 apple, 3 pear, and 3 plum. Deer cannot eat them all.

I looked at that mix at AgriSupply. A little pricey but I like what was in it.

Awesome!

Great stuff!!