Food Plot Question

My property owner let me have one of his better leases this year and it has a pretty big food plot on it (2 acres). Big for me anyway, I've always had just little 1/4-1/2 acre plots. I'm really not planning on hunting this field but just using as a holding plot to establish some travel corridors around the property because it sits just about in the middle of it.

This property doesn't really have big pine rows, just mature hardwood stands, 4 fields with this one being the biggest and 3 other small ones averaging about 1/3 acre a piece.

I'm planning on having feeders running around the property and there is water as well. Just trying to figure out what to plant in that plot.

Right now I'm thinking just a good clover field would be nice (perennial) since I could realistically compensate for protein and other nutrients throughout the rest of the year with the feeders.

Ya'll got any thoughts?

why wouldn't you hunt the biggest field on the property id spread a 3 way mix drag with a chain harrow then over seed with daikon radishes and set up a stand on it that big field will be where the deer will be after everything in the small ones is ate down. get the ph right and the deer will walk over corn to get to radishes

A 2 acre food plot can be a deer magnet. I'd plant oats, wheat and rye then overseed with clover and some brassicas(rape, radishes, turnips, etc). Put a shooting house on both ends to allow for hunting n and s wind that you can get in and out of without disturbing the deer. Don't shoot up the does and they will be there every day. When the rut comes, that is where the bucks will be. I have several like that that I hunt regularly and have been for years. I see deer 90%+ of the times I hunt them

Id plant ever plot i had . My deer perfer oats.
I seed red top over or

Oats, oats and more oats. The BFO's if you can find them and afford them.

Never liked oats myself. You need a hunting partner up there? You could plant the whole field in some good forage or plant part of it. Leave some of it uncut and plant a strip down the middle or a + shaped plot. I would try and set up facing north or south. So the sun wont blind you or silouet you. I always prefer rye, rape and some type of turnip or deer greens. Multiple stands are a must. Scout, see where the deer enter and leave. And dont blast away on that field. I think the larger bucks are more comfortable in a smaller plot with an easy escape rout. I've seen a few in larger plots but my best results are in a medium size plot, in the middle of a large field that is over grown. Money for me.

Pennington rackmaster elite, has everything in it.

This^^^

Why wouldn't you hunt the 2 acre food plot?

I've just never really seen big bucks on big plots. Seen lots of deer on big plots just not big bucks (except at night on camera) so I figured just hunt around it in the woods and catch them either staging or going to and from.

Of course my daddy didn't take me hunting growing up, he was too busy working so I'm self taught. I've always hunted clubs and my own leases and am just now getting to the point where I can afford to get on land that isn't overly pressured. Other folks who have had those opportunities may do it different but I'm just going by my own experience.

We rarely see mature bucks on food plots. As a matter of fact since 1994 only one buck 4.5 y/o or older has been taken from a plot and he was standing in the edge of the woods. Clubs that have a lot more acreage with low pressure, might have more success. Usually yearlings and 2 y/o is all we see on plots. Killed a bunch on lanes around the plots during the rut.

If you have does that aren't afraid to show themselves on a food plot during the rut, you will have bucks there too. I have 7 mature bucks on the wall, all at least 4 1/2 yrs, most 5 or older, all killed on green fields. When the poontang is hot, they coming

Ronfromramer, i'm glad that works out for you, but that doesn't work out like that for everybody. We have a small 400 acre club that me and my son hunt. We keep the pressure low and see does on plots when we hunt near them. The problem, is the deer get pressure from other property's. When the doe stop coming out on the plots, that's when we know the ruts in full swing.

Sounds just like what I deal with. When the first scrapes show up, all my deer disappear the next week and that's when the rut is strong. If you catch a big boy it will be mid-day slipping around the food plots scent checking them.

Doe deer start avoiding area's where bucks will harass them, then just like magic they'll start showing up again.

In a lifetime of deer hunting concentrating on big mature bucks in all terrains, I have killed exactly TWO five and older bucks in a greenfield, and ONE five year old standing 10 yards out of a greenfield full of does right at dark.

Just curious but where have you killed the majority of them? I've always tried to hunt intersections and the nastiest stuff I can find with deer sign but to be honest the few encounters I've had with truly mature bucks were just them meandering through the woods going to and from food sources.

Lol , they'll watch a field like we do .

I would not attempt to overcome tonnage of food plots and sub tonnage of supplemental feed. That gets expensive and deer are browsers.

Most of my club's mature bucks come off food plots, but we don't shoot does or pigs on food plots. Youth season is a big success then it tampers off until the rut.

I have never liked sitting in a shooting house, but our records show that our food plots have been successful. Of course, we keep our pH very close to 7.0 and we try to hunt our food plots without the deer knowing we're there.