Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Settle a debate about green fields

All of our green fields are relatively small plots planted in the corners of pretty large fields. The actual planted portion may only account for 15-20% of the field in most cases.

In each case, the rest of the field has been allowed to grow wild for a few yrs, to the point that the rest of each field is shoulder high, often more.

The reasoning (by everyone here but me) is that deer like cover and having the small green field surrounded by 6ft of "stuff" makes them feel secure.

Problem is were seeing very few deer in the fields and there's no chance of seeing them walking the edge of a field because the grass is so grown up.

I've always heard/read that deer prefer open pastures cut shorter because they can see a long way and keep an eye out for predators instead and can just duck into the woods for cover.

I've been saying we need to cut the entire pasture, not just the small part we plant.
What say you experts?

I'd cut trails leading to the green stuff. They'll take the path of least resistance

I believe these grown up areas...buffer zones, are a good idea. I would lean toward having the field 75% planted 25% grown up.

I'd plant every dang foot of ground I had the opportunity to plant. No way I'd let plantable ground grow up like that. I've always had better luck drawing deer on bigger fields.

I would bushhog and plant strips in the fields all leading to the treestand. Think like the spokes on a wagon wheel.

Absolutely!

Put more corn out

Joking aside, I've come to the conclusion that corn is more overrated than Dan Mullen or stuffed crust pizza. I can't tell that its helped us at all, and not entirely convinced it hasn't done more harm than good. This has been our worst season ever

You may increase the planted size to around 25%, then cut lanes through the rest of it. Are the deer using the field at all? It may be that you didn't fertilize and lime correctly. I've seen deer that won't touch some fields.

X2

This is one of ours like that. We plant corn and leave it all standing but the rows we plant. I make them 2-3 tractor widths wide and all of them lead toward the shooting house. The deer will actually bed in the corn.

I have heard all the tales about how deer prefer skinny plots because they are only one leap into the safety of cover. The longer I live, the less I believe it. I believe I can honestly say that I've seen more deer on average on the larger plots of all the leases I've hunted. It seems like guys sitting the large plots see deer when guys on other plots are not. I think the crap about long skinny plots was dreamed up by someone and it sounded plausible so everyone believed it. The bigger plots also produce more available tonnage of browse so it's really a no-brainer to me. Plant it all. If you are doing several fields this way, plant one large one next year and see if you don't see more deer there.

Maybe your neighbors have out more better corn?

Now that looks good

I've planted areas like that. The "stuff" was about waist to chest high. It would get cut under every year to keep it that way. It worked very well.

Bush hog lanes in the tall stuff and a 20-30 yard buffer between the field and tall stuff. That way a booger cant sneak up on em

I agree with this. It's really just playing the odds. Bigger fields better odds.

^^this^^. We did this to a large field we had and deer sightings went up drastically. The deer started using the bush hogged strips a lot earlier in the afternoon and feed right into the bigger field. We'd cut the grown up stuff about every other year in early Spring, to keep it from getting out of hand but still have time to grow up some.

What's the acorns like? In some areas I've hunted, seeing deer in fields = poor mast or gone for the year.

We have long skinny lanes to simulate gas lines and/or power lines because they don't take up as much acreage and you can see further. All my lanes are "hundreds" of yards long, and if they were wider they would take up a LOT of acreage. I plant every inch I can because they are narrow. I kill 10-1 bucks just crossing or walking across them vs feeding.