Billy from Wisconsin asks,
Hey Bill, I hope this message finds you well. I have 2 questions for you. Now that you have stepped away from Midwest Whitetail and the sponsors affiliated with them, are there any major changes you are making to your bow setup, food plot seed, hunting attire, etc? Anything you’re excited to use that you may have not been able to in the past? Also, if you were going to create a plan for year round food plots, what would that look like for you? Thank you!
Bill responds,
Topic: Year Around Food Plots
There is no such thing as the perfect food plot crop for all year around. For that reason, if you are serious about year around food, you need to break your plots up and plant part to spring/summer crops and part to fall/winter plots or just have separate food plots dedicated to different parts of the year.
Billy,
Doing well. I hope you are also. I pretty much hand-selected the sponsors when I owned Midwest Whitetail so they were already companies I used and liked, so nothing really has changed. I did like the Cabela’s scent suit that they discontinued and found one of those used on line that I will probably wear some this year. Otherwise, I have not changed anything since the Midwest Whitetail days and don’t really expect to. That was all really good quality stuff that we used then.
Regarding year around food plots: It is hard to find one crop that works great all year, so you have to compromise a bit. Clover is the best for spring and summer in smaller plots and soybeans are great for summer in larger plots. Soybeans also do well in the fall and winter too as the deer will eat the beans and pods in the fall and the leaves in the summer. Soybeans aren’t great for spring because you plant them after the spring gets underway. I think if you are serious about year around food plots, you need some spring/summer plots and some fall/winter plots and accept the fact that none of them are perfect for the entire year.
Spring/summer ideally is clover. Fall/winter ideally is soybeans, corn or brassicas (like the Big N Beasty). That is what I did. I had about 1/3 of my food plot acres in the clover every year and focused the rest on fall/winter foods – when the deer need it most. Good luck. (7/14/21)
Billy- I am planting food plots for the first time on my property this year. I have corn and soybeans, but the soybeans are likely all that will produce. In our area (SE MN) I’ve heard many people say late planted oats and peas can be extremely attractive in early and mid fall. I am going to try that here in mid August, or time it in advance of a rain. I think as dry as it’s been this year a “new” fresh succulent green source could be very deadly if given the proper conditions.
Guess I’ll see how it goes. That’s the fun thing about management. Trial and error and formulate your own plan!
The only problem with late planted soybeans is the fact that they won’t produce beans so they may be attractive in September and maybe early October, but after the first hard frost they will lose value to you. The leaves will go from green to black and the deer won’t eat them and the pods and beans will not have formed so the deer will basically completely abandon them. It is much better, in my opinion, to plant something at that time that will survive the frost and continue to produce fall/winter food. That is why I like brassicas for the late July/early August planting. They may not be super attractive in September, but they will hold up through the fall and most of the winter. Winter rye (cereal rye) and winter wheat also will work for that, but they don’t produce as much pure tonnage of forage as the brassicas. Everyone knows that I like the Big N Beasty brassica blend. It is hard to beat. Good luck.