I don't know if its any cheaper but plant beans or peanuts and they will come.
Like everything else in our economy Corn Prices have shot out the roof. We usually put out shell corn for the deer (I know it's probably illegal in most of yalls areas) but we ain't gonna be able to afford that this year. Last year it was somewhere between 5-7 dollars for a a 50 lb bag....this year....10 dollars! We have shot a lot of deer over corn in the past years and it's great to put the trail camera out on it to get good pictures, but all that will be a thing of the past now.
We're going to continue to plant milo.
I been thinking about it though....I think it might be a little better hunting without the corn. When the deer know it's there they can come at night and eat without disturbance. The deer we have shot have mostly been at dawn and dusk right before and after daylight. Not to mention all of our big deer pictures come at night over the corn pile. They won't touch the stuff in the day! I'm looking forward to seeing if the lack of corn will be a good thing. What yall think?
Hooking up every chance I get!
I don't know if its any cheaper but plant beans or peanuts and they will come.
Fair Winds and Following Seas
Bill H. PTC USN Ret
Chesapeake, Va
They love peas and mustard greens, that's what we use to plant.
crappie cowboy
We planted peas when I was younger and they worked good. Only problem is they would eat em before they got out the ground good. Have a acre and a half food plot done in a weeks time before season was even in. The milo heads out and can be hunted off of into the winter months. They won't mess with it early in the season before it heads out much though.
Hooking up every chance I get!
I can't plant anything....cattle has access to all I hunt.....corn is 9.00 a fifty pound bag right now...it will probably get to about 20-25 a hundred when deer season comes in.
They are goats. They will eat most anything green but they have preferences. Like us. Would You rather have a juicy T bone or a hamburger from McDonalds? To my experience raising crops, they prefer peanuts over anything but soybeans hold a close second. Now that is feeding on the leaves. As far as the crop itself, Peanuts, then corn, then beans. About their favorite thing to eat is persimmons. Find you one of those trees in the woods and you have found a pot of gold. If you can get hold of some bulk peanuts, put them out, hull and all. Just as good as corn if not better just more bulky to handle.CF
The Original Woodsgoat Hater
2011 NWR Bash Yellow Perch Champion
We have experienced the same problem with the price of corn in our area. There are some great ideas with the peanuts and persimmon, we've even had luck finding late season apples that people let us gather up off the ground for free, they can be hard to find but work great when you can get them. Most of what we hunt is CRP grassland with no opportunity to plant a foodplot. Last year to offset the price we decided to cut the ammount of corn we threw twice a day in half to only about half a pound twice a day. We set our timers to go off later in the morning and earlier in the afternoon. The biggest thing for us is putting out just enough corn to get the does in a pattern of coming through. We saw more quality deer during shooting hours once we made these changes. I suspect most of our success came from the change in feeder times, but never-the-less, we used half the corn and had one of the best seasons in years.
Goodnight Vienna...Pistols Firing!!!
I have always heard that...I have one stand in a place I call the "persimmon field"....loaded each year with big old persimmons. I have only shot one buck in there at a persimmon tree. I think the problem are there are dozens and dozens of persimmon trees in that 60 acre grown up pasture and most are really big and loaded. The cows have ate them so much and pooped the seeds....there are hundreds of small persimmon trees about knee high in there in spots. There has been so many acorns in the woods the last couple of years....you could literally scoop them up in a shovel under some of the trees...and the cows works on the acorns to. I have to fence a small section off in the cow pastures to put out corn. I have two or three other stand sites they are within sight of some other big persimmon trees.... I have had deer to come out and eat my corn....within a few feet of persimmons lying all over the ground. I know they hit the persimmon hard...but it seems to be when I am not there.
Sounds like they can get the persimmons whenever they want to and that is probably why you don't see so much pressure on them. The acorn thing is probably your biggest issue. If they can stay in the woods under cover and eat and have a water supply then they will stay put. I have found many times that the big Bucks will be in a very dense area of woods that has a food supply and a water supply. They will not leave those areas most of their lives except during rut. I have known some Bucks to stay within a 100 square yard area because they have all they need and are too smart to leave their safety area. If you know the area where they move like natural funnels of deer movement, Then You can take one of three things, food, water, and cover and when ones lacking and You find a pond of water in a drought or make a bait pile on a bad crop year or really sparse cover, Then that is where you hunt. CF
The Original Woodsgoat Hater
2011 NWR Bash Yellow Perch Champion
All these deer came from the same general area on the lease I have had for about 9 years....and you are exactly right...the biggest one of these came sneaking through a cedar thicket...getting to a small hole of water dug out in the middle of the woods during the dry spell in 2001. The others came from a 1/2 acre grassy field in the middle of a 60 acre cutover....its actually where an old houseplace had been...