i just got about 100 acres to hunt right next to the 50 ive been hunting and am thinking about plantin a food plot or two. never done any food plots. when do i need to start planting them and what do yall recommend to plant. i know there are several different kinds of feed.

I was wandering the same thing myself? Curious to see how this post goes.

I know in winter we use to plant Oats and had deer come in by the dozen, that was many yrs ago( like 15 or so). I was curious about summer plots as well myself. Is this Biologic stuff what the advertise?

Here's a couple pics of my first food plot. Wheat and turnips...wheat was 8 bucks...turnips were free...the beer was about 30 bucks. Threw a pic of Sarah Evans in there, just because.

Do a soil test from your feed store. Tell them you're doing a food plot for deer. Ask for suggestions on what grows well in your area. Do some research on those plants and your budget. Work the land, lime and fertilize per soil test, plant according to your seed, pray for rain.

I did some experimenting two kinds of oats, turnips, rape, clover and chicory. Got record rains and everything turn out nice but I've never saw more acorns in my life this year.

Clover and Chicory



BFO and turnips



Before



After

from what i have learned in the past 5 years of helping serouisly manage a ranch, are these things:

if you don't have enough land for a large food plot (at least 5 acres) then you are wasting your time.

if you go buy that high dollar lab-lab and the other equivelents and you don't have irrigation and at least a 5 acre plot, then you are wasting your time and money.

if you don't have at least a 2 or 3 hundred acre place to put this on and hunt, then you are wasting your time.

also, the vast majority of whitetails visit the plot at night, making hunting over it less than desired


this is not speculation, its from actual experiance. same thing with feeding protien. if you don't have a large ranch with several feeders or your the only one in your area feeding protien, again your wasting your time and money.


but, if you do have a bigger food plot, then a 10 or 20 acre oat patch in the middle of a sea of brush can be a goldmine.

I meet txtrophy85's criteria but I don't think it's a waste of time if some do not. I had as much fun making the plots as hunting. YMMV

agree with you on the acorns i did most of my hunting this year on oak stands. never seen so many on the ground. thank you everybody for your input.

I disagree, I think food plots help any land. I have seen many deer killed off of a food plot that were very small. My food plot is only 100 yard long, by 30 yards wide, and have killed quit a few deer on it. I have 40 acres surronded by timber company, and I have the only food plots for quite a distance. My other food plot is only 60 yards long, by 20 yards wide and have seen many deer on it.

I have a total of about 6 acres of food plots and they are almost bare dirt. I have 820 acres and I dont think 20 acres would be enough idealy I think it should be around 8% of land. With out enough they will never come up.

You must have alot of deer, I still have turnips and mustard in my food plot.

are place is also over 75% oak and THICK There are quite a few but its very strange We normaly would see 5-10 deer a sitting but every once in a while none and then sometimes over 40 I love all the rain we got but on my place with all the acorns hunting was tough.

The acorns killed me this year too. I only have 40 acres, and it was clear cut about 6 years ago so I only have a few oaks around my creek. My neighbors have lots of oaks

I've done them for years. However, like most things, they are rain dependent. Three of them failed miserably this year but one did kinda OK.

With the huge acorn crop we got, the deer didn't use them all that much during the day. However, they are totally littered with hog and deer tracks from nocturnal feeding.

I usually only plant wheat but sometimes overseed with turnips. I've tried peas but haven't found that they work out all that well. Oats sometimes freeze out and rye is pretty expensive.

I've seen some on here say that they just toss out seeds but that has never worked for me or anybody else that I know. I plow to loosen the soil. Spread the wheat, go back and cover the seeds and pray for rains.

No Plow and Clover mixed food plot........deer were carzy to get too it every morning. Completely disagree with the only feeding at night. I see lots of deer eating in the mornings, and if there are that many eating at night too, Im in HUGE business.

Neat looking stuff. Never has worked for me.

unless you can irrigate it, or live somewhere like east texas that gets quite a bit of rain, then it's hit or miss on whether or not it will come up.

we looked at our logs, and we only had good plots 3 years out of 10.

in my experiance, unless you can plant a large enough plot, then your pissing in the wind as far as deer are concerned.

I think it is worth it, there is no way it can hurt. I killed my 8 point at 7:15 in the morning on my food plot. I don't think I would have seen him if it wasn't for the food plot. Watched many small 6 points, and does eating in my food plot at all times during the day.

I hunt in Latexo, which is about 30 minutes south of Palestine, and about 6 miles north of Crockett.

Sweet, I hunt further east than you, in Shelby county (about 2-3 over from you). I'm going to see if I can get a new budget this year starting earlier to do some spring food plots with soy beans and corn, and then another planting in the fall for winter oats, clover, or whatever. I'm working on getting back out there this month or next for the soil sampling, probably going to be really acidic being as sandy as my place is.

I was also thinking about doing soybean and corn. Corn grows great at my place, anytime the deer stay away from the feeder the corn starts to grow.

We have a lease just outside Snyder and I was wondering if any of you guys have ever planted food plots out in West Texas? No problems with acorns where we are.

We hunt out in Edwards County. Have a big place and could easily justify it size-wise. But we have lots of acorns, and it is so arid I think having anything come up is hit or miss.

I assume we'd probably be wasting our time trying and should just stick with protein?

Payne, nice work/plots. What county are those in ?

Thanks,Lavaca co.