Food
Plots in the Farm Belt
Don’t rely on farmers to manage the deer herd
Have you ever heard anyone say, “no wonder the bucks are so big here, look at all the corn.”
Or maybe you have heard the comment, “ Iowa and Illinois have huge bucks because there is corn and beans everywhere.”
Finally, you may or may not have heard this one, but I certainly have. “ I don’t think I need to plant any food plots because there are acres of corn and beans where I hunt.”
These are all logical statements drawn from the well-founded conclusion that corn and beans translate into big bucks. After all, aren’t corn and beans used to fatten up hogs, cattle, chickens and about every other farm animal out there. Why then are deer hunters and managers planting food plots in the middle of farm country and seeing spectacular results? Well, the answer is not all that mysterious. The answer is found in the basic understanding of deer nutrition and feeding behavior, farming practices and how various crops and forages fit into a deer’s diet in farm country throughout the year.
I was born and raised on a 500-acre farm in southern Iowa where I still reside today. Our farm is much like those of many farms in southern Iowa, a mix of row crops (corn and soybeans), timber, pasture and hay ground. We use the pasture and hay and some of the row crops to feed our cattle herd. And like most of southern Iowa, we have very big deer. There are many reasons why we have big bucks including excellent genetics, no gun season during the rut, a fairly conservative buck harvest strategy by the state and, of course, a larger and more diverse food supply than many other areas of the country. The mix of cover and food seems to be well balanced leading to a healthy deer herd that tend to have large bucks both in antler size and body weight.
With all that being said, you may wonder why I have several acres of food plots planted among the hay fields, corn fields and oak and hickory wood lots on our farm. The answer is that I started working for a food plot company and wanted to test out the effectiveness of food plots in one of the best trophy-deer hunting areas of the country.
Food Plots
Food Plots on the Farm
The first year of my experiment, I planted several half-acre food plots in different areas of the farm. One particular half-acre food plot was planted with Imperial Whitetail Clover in a creek bottom along a 20-acre red clover field that we used to mow for hay for our cattle. I had hunted this particular creek bottom for several years and had always noticed a good amount of activity as the deer moved off of the hardwood ridges surrounding the bottom and fed in the field.
I placed a stand on the Imperial Clover field and sat and observed. I am not afraid to tell you that I had my doubts about the ability of the Imperial Clover to draw deer away from a feeding area the deer had used for many years. I was amazed the very first evening I sat in the stand to see two does and a small buck walk completely across the 20-acre red clover field, only stopping to look around, and proceed to the food plot and spend over an hour feeding within 30 yards of my stand. This same pattern continued the remainder of season with deer activity being at least five times higher in the food plots than in the fields.
The next year, corn was planted in the 20-acre bottom and the deer activity still remained five times higher in the food plot than in the corn. It has been over four years since then and the results have gone beyond mere deer activity. Body weight and antler size have also increased. In fact, one of my neighbors commented, “What the heck are you doing over there? I have seen more big bucks over on your place than I have ever seen.” If it weren’t for the fact that he has a good view of some of our property from his, I might be concerned; but the fact is we have indeed seen an increase in the size of the bucks in the area.
To understand the reason for the success, I and others had seen using food plots in farm county, you must understand the difference between food plots and agricultural crops. Food plots are designed for deer. They are designed to supply the deer with the particular nutrients they need and at the times of the year they need them. Agricultural crops are not designed for deer. In fact, feeding the deer is the farthest thing from the farmer’s mind. The primary concern of the farmer is to make money on the crops and livestock he raises.
I am not saying that agricultural crops do not have beneficial effects on deer. In fact, certain agricultural crops can have a big effect on deer, which is evident by the tendency toward bigger bucks where regular farming is still being done. So the question is not whether certain agricultural crops benefit deer, but rather, how much more beneficial are food plots?
How much more do food plots help deer? Well, this answer varies depending on types of crops, types of food plots and specific farming practices. But in general, it is a good-better-best scenario with agricultural crops being good or better and food plots being the best. To further explain this, let’s examine some agricultural crops and compare them to certain food plot plantings.
Corn is Not King
Corn is the king of all crops that are supposed to grow big deer. Most probably this idea comes from the fact that deer are very attracted to corn and people associate corn with “fattening up” livestock. Deer do indeed love corn and corn is used as an energy source (specifically carbohydrates) in livestock diets, but this does not necessary translate to an improved deer herd.
Corn can be broken down into two different food sources for animals. There is the plant itself and then the seed (kernels) it produces. When it comes to the plant, deer derive very little benefit. This is because deer for the most part do not eat the actual corn plant except when it is very young and there is no other food available. Therefore, through the bulk of the antler-growing season (spring and summer), corn supplies little to no nutrition to the deer. Deer may use the corn for cover, but they are not using it as a food source. When ears do form on the plants, deer will begin using them. But as far as any antler growth is concerned, corn only contains 8% protein, which is one of the most important nutrients involved in antler growth.
Where corn does have benefit is during the winter months, especially in the north. As I said earlier, corn is high in carbohydrates, which gives deer energy during the cold winter months. The problem, however, is just when the deer start using the corn, it is harvested by the farmer. Now many may argue that there is corn left on the ground after the harvest, but let me assure you, when a combine costs close to a quarter-million dollars, the farmer makes pretty sure most of the corn goes in the combine hopper.
What little corn is left is used up quickly not only by deer, but turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, waterfowl and any other creature in need of nourishment. So unless you plant corn and a lot of it, and leave it standing for the sole purpose of feeding the deer, you will not derive much benefit from it. When it comes to antler growth, corn really has no direct benefit. In fact, I would go so far to say that of all the agricultural food crops, corn has the least effect on antler growth.
Now compare this to a food plot such as Imperial Clover. First, deer are attracted to Imperial Clover all year long and especially during spring, summer and fall. This is, of course, during the heart of the antler-growing season. So the deer are using nutrients found in the Imperial Clover, such as high levels of protein, to grow their antlers. And when it comes to protein, Imperial Clover averages up to 30 percent to 35 percent where, as we discussed earlier, corn is about eight percent. So if you are relying on the 200-acre cornfield next to your hunting property to grow antlers, you may be disappointed.
The Problem with Soybeans
Another agricultural crop associated with improving deer quality are soybeans. As opposed to corn, deer do eat both the plant and the seed (bean) of a soybean. Soybeans are also higher in protein than corn, especially when the plant is young. But the age, or rather maturing rate of the plant, is where you run into problems with soybeans. Deer tend to be highly attracted to soybeans when they are small and tender. This is because soybeans are highly digestible during the earlier (younger) stage and have not produced high amounts of indigestible compounds such as lignin. Lignin is used by the plant to give structure and support the plant as it grows. Lignin is mostly indigestible to deer.
Therefore deer do not utilize soybeans to same degree throughout the antler-growing season. Early on, when the soybean plants are young, deer derive benefit. But as the soybeans mature, benefit decreases and deer use them less. When the beans are formed, deer once again start using the plants heavily. But as with corn, shortly after the beans appear, so does the combine, and the benefit of the beans are taken away in a wagon to the nearest grain elevator.
Soybeans are sometimes used specifically for deer. You have the same problems I mentioned previously plus an additional one. Most agricultural soybean fields are large, at least 40 acres or more. Soybean food plots are typically much smaller. Early in the growing season when deer eat the young soybean plant, most soybean food plots are devastated because they do not stand up well to heavy grazing pressure.
In this case, I would like to compare different food plot types to soybeans. First is Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack and new Extreme. All are high-protein food sources that deer utilize early in the spring and summer. The difference, however, is that these food plot types are designed to mature slowly and therefore remain highly attractive throughout the antler-growing cycle.
Soybeans are only an attractive protein source for a short period of time where Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack or Extreme are all attractive protein sources all year. Relying on soybeans for your protein source would be like putting an olympic athlete on a highly nutritious diet for two months a year. With Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack or Extreme, you would be feeding that athlete the best diet all the way to the finish line.
Some of you may be saying, “well what about PowerPlant, doesn’t it contain soybeans?” The answer is yes. PowerPlant does contain viney soybeans along with viney forage peas, lab-lab and structural plants vines to grow on. But the soybeans found in Power Plant are specifically-designed forage soybeans, not grain-producing soybeans.
This distinction gives PowerPlant two major advantages: First, because the beans are designed for forage, the soybeans are much more palatable than agricultural soybeans even when they are maturing. This is because instead of having heavy stems like grain-producing beans, forage soybeans are mostly vines and leaves. Secondly, forage soybeans withstand grazing pressure much more than grain soybeans. This means that deer are much less likely to overgraze a PowerPlant food plot.
PowerPlant is the best-designed warm-season annual blend on the market due to its high nutrition, continuous attractiveness, heat and drought tolerance and its ability to withstand grazing pressure. If your food plot plan calls for an annual for rotation purposes, diversity or to provide a high-quality forage during the hot summer months, PowerPlant is the best choice.
Though this may sound biased, the statement is true. Unlike soybeans, the PowerPlant blend was designed for deer both for attraction and nutrition and will outperform a regular grain soybean nearly every time.
Hay Crops are Hard to Digest
Finally, I would like to talk about hay. Hay comes in many forms but can be broken down into two major groups – grass hay and legume hay. Examples of grass hay are brome, timothy and Bermuda. Legume hays are typically clover varieties or alfalfa. Many times grasses and legumes are mixed together to form a grass/legume hay. Like soybeans, hay fields can supply good nutrition to deer. But again, the problem is that the varieties of grasses and legumes used for agricultural hay fields are designed to produce food for cattle or maybe horses.
Because the farmer is interested in producing as much hay as possible, he/she picks varieties that grow and mature quickly, producing as many tons of hay as possible. With maturity comes lower digestibility. Cattle have the ability to digest poorer quality hay because they have a very large rumen, which is the compartment of the stomach of ruminant animals where forages are digested. Deer, on the other hand, have a much smaller rumen and must eat easily digestible forages.
Even if they were able to ford off starvation on poor quality forages, deer certainly wouldn’t thrive on them and achieve maximum body weight and antler growth. In fact, unless it is very high-quality hay, deer will do very poorly on most commonly used cattle hays. This is especially true for grass forages, which tend to become less digestible to deer much faster than legumes.
Brome, timothy and Bermuda grasses are normally only used by the deer for a short period of time when the grass is very young. Deer eat commonly used agricultural clovers and alfalfas for a longer period of time than grasses, but even these clovers and alfalfas are designed to grow quickly and produce tons of hay. As the plants mature, digestibility, protein content and attractiveness decrease.
This is evident if you have ever watched deer in a hay field over the spring and summer. Normally, deer feed in the hay field for a short period of time immediately after the hay has been cut. At this time the forage is starting new growth that is young and tender. As the hay field grows, deer use the field less. Hay is normally cut three to four times during the spring and summer, so you could expect three to four different times when the deer will utilize the hay field. Of course, there are some hay types (even clovers) that deer simply do not like, and the deer will get no benefit from the hay field.
As discussed earlier, Imperial Clover and Alfa-Rack were designed for deer food plots, not for hay production. In fact, both of these products contain the only forage types on the market that were specifically designed – through genetic research and plant cross breeding – for whitetails.
During the development of these forage types, several clovers were selected and tested for desirable traits for deer food plots. Those that had the most favorable traits were bred together and retested until one clover type was developed that had all the characteristics needed. These characteristics included high protein (up to 30 to 35 percent where most clovers are about 20 percent), actual sweeter taste, slow maturation and season-long high digestibility, unmatched attractiveness, heat resistance and cold tolerance.
Imperial Clover is clearly the best clover type to use in deer food plots because unlike other clover types, Imperial Clover was developed specifically with deer in mind. Alfa-Rack contains the same clover along with grazing-variety alfalfas. The distinction between hay alfalfas and grazing alfalfas is that grazing alfalfas were designed to have slower maturiation and stay attractive for grazing, thus making it more digestible and much more utilized.
Another reason quality food plots are extremely beneficial to agricultural regions, involves the time when row crops are planted in relation to the time when antler growth begins. March is roughly the time of year when antler growth begins, and high protein is essential for maximizing antler development. This is also the time when does enter the third trimester of pregnancy when two-thirds of fetal growth occurs. Imperial Whitetail Clover and Alfa-Rack are the first things to start producing in late winter/early spring and provide the critical high protein levels needed for the antler-growing process.
Corn and soybeans aren’t usually planted in the Farm Belt until May and typically aren’t utilized until June or July, after approximately 50 percent of antler growth is complete. This is the major reason why serious deer managers are planting quality food plots in the Farm Belt and other heavily agricultural regions.
Farmers Don’t Farm for Deer
In closing, I will not argue that agricultural crops do not benefit deer because they do. However, you must realize that the farmer is not farming for deer. Even if the farmer is a hunter, his/her first priority is making money on the farm. This means planting crops that are suited to achieve a profitable harvest. In nearly all cases, these goals do not match the goals of those who wish to supply deer with the best nutrition possible.
If you want to manage for deer, you need to plant food plots designed for deer. So take it from a guy who both farms and deer hunts.