Help!

[murph69]

My family owns 580 acres in Pike county Alabama and I am having numerous problems with my food plots. September and October are usually our driest months so we normally plant late. Also, most of the property is pretty sandy. I put in a test plot this year of a grain/clover mixture, AlfaRack and Imperial Clover just to see which would do best. The Whitetail products have done very little so far. They were planted in early November. We are also carrying a high deer density with 200+ deer on the place. Any thoughts on what and when to plant?

[Danny_GA]

murph

200 deer on 580 acres equals 220 deer per square mile. That is the highest I have personally have ever heard of. I will borrow a phase I heard from Dr. Grant Woods in one of his seminars. "You need a serious application of LEAD". If your estimates are correct you need to do some serious herd reduction.

Have you done soil tests? This would be the first step in establishing food plots.

Danny
Talbot County, GA

[murph69]

Danny,
Yes, I know that is a high density. My figures might not be exact because I haven't done this year's camera census yet. Two years ago it was 233 and last year after shooting about 25 does it was a little lower. To answer your second question I have done repeated soil tests and done what was recommended and it has not helped.

[fshafly2]

Murph - if you planted in Nov 03, do not look for results from clover or alfalfa in Jan 04. The plants will need a spring growing season under their belts. Consider a test plot of chicory for your droughty soil conditions. Ditto Danny on herd reduction.
-fsh

[murph69]

fsh,
Thanks for the reply. The odd thing is even with that high of a density we don't see that many deer in our plots.

[Danny_GA]

Murph

Do you use exclusion cages on your food plots? Is it possible that your plots are overbrowsed? Serious pressure on food plots will make them look like failures.

danny

[murph69]

Danny, yes I use exclusion cages. You can tell the difference in a couple, but in most places there wasn't even enough seed that came up to compare.