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Facts from the Field 2009
An exclusive 4 season trail camera study of food plots and their effect in Ontario hunting strategies
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This program is brought to you by:
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The Beasley Brothers 2009 Food Plot Program
Location: SE Ontario
Deer Density: low/moderate
Property Type: high agriculture/small bush
Nutritional Target: late fall through to spring green-up
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We were born and raised in Peterborough. We have grown up hunting and fishing and you could say that it has become a little more than a passion as we could not get enough local content to read so we started our own magazine. The rest is history now and we try to explain to the lovely supportive ladies in our lives why we need more time in the woods. They keep asking us why another deer on the wall is necessary but hey, even if they don't understand, we sure are grateful for them.
We hunt everything we can get a license for but whitetails are truly where our hearts are. Having hunted with our dad and uncle as long as we can remember it has become more than a sport but a family tradition. With a few kids already here and more due in a few months we plan to pass it along for many more. We have harvested deer with compound bows, crossbows, muzzleloaders, shotguns and rifles. It doesn't matter what the method of harvest, we can't wait to be up the tree. This program is another great way for us to enjoy a longer and more productive fall.
We hunt whitetails at the very bottom edge of the Canadian shield. Our area is where the big woods ends and agriculture begins. Our ground has loamy soil which creates a very full crop each year. Most farms in our area have small pockets of swamp and timber with large tracts of field for planting, which usually consist of corn, beans, alfalfa and grains.
We feel food plots will be most beneficial to us during the fall through spring green up. With the crops coming off in early fall our deer soon look for browse and left over agriculture. With the addition of food plots, more tonnage of feed will be available through some of their most critical months.
Each farm we hunt is 100 acres or less and with hunters on every fenceline, a food plot helps to keep the deer on our side of the fence more regularly. This will allow us to use the food plots as a main food source during the rutting months and early winter, thus; targeting the travel routes surrounding the food source with out ever sitting directly on the plot. This will allow the deer to feel comfortable feeding and move to and from it freely. We know from past experience that these additional food sources not only keep our deer healthy and concentrated but aid us in patterning them as the fall wears on. We could not be more excited to get these plots in the ground and be working with such reputable food plot companies.
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The pictures above, showing one of our brassica plots as of June 23rd. This section is planted in late season
attractants like Whitetail Institute's Winter-Greens, Backyard Wildlife's Sweet Success and Biologic's Maximum
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The picture above shows one of our plot sites as of June 23rd. The section in the foreground
is a brassica plot, the section in the middle is an Imperial Chicory Plus plot that was planted
last year and is doing absolutely phenomenal this year, and the farthest section is planted
with mixed annual/perennial blends like Biologic's Premium perennial and
Backyard Wildlife's Superb-uck.
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Most of the plots we did this year went into existing plot sites which require a lot less work. The pictures below show the evolution of our biggest "project".
This site has been an old apple orchard that cows were pastured in and has been
left to go fallow for the last 10-15 years. As you can see, it's a long way from
being plantable. We went in with chainsaws to clear the small trees and brush
first and then brought in a bush hog to mow down the smaller vegetation.
This picture was taken after the site has been mowed down with a bush hog and sprayed
to kill the existing grasses and weeds.
This picture was taken after our first round of passes with a chisel plow. The ground
is very rough and rocky so the ground will need many passes from different angles
of approach in order to get it completely worked up. We plan to have this site ready
for planting in late July or early August and will continue to post updates as
it progresses.
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Getting our plots started was difficult this year as it seemed the rain was falling every few days and hardly giving us any time to spray for weeds or dry out the ground enough to work it with small equipment. In an ideal season, we like to be breaking ground well before turkey season but this year we didn’t get started until the second week in May. The one constant in food plotting is that mother nature doesn’t follow any rules and therefore you can’t expect anything to be the same from one year to the next.
One lesson that we re-learned this year was the value of using a “kill-all” herbicide before breaking ground. Since we broke ground so late this year, one of our annual plots from last year had a lot of new green growth in it that needed to be killed off. The rain was making it very difficult to get enough consecutive days of sun to ensure a good kill so we decided to go ahead anyway and just employ a repeat tillage method of weed control; that is, we would turn the ground, let it stand long enough to allow new growth to start, then turn it again to kill that growth and repeat this process maybe two or three times. Well, in theory, this method does work, but in actuality, we ran out of patience and time and tried to rush the process by not giving the newly exposed seeds time to germinate before our next tillage. As a result, we didn’t get a complete kill and some sod clumps survived all the tilling which means that we are going to have some grass clumps in our plot. This isn’t the end of the world, it’s just not an ideal situation and another lesson learned the hard way.
On a high note, we have a new plot that we are working on which is converting an old overgrown apple orchard into a whitetail smorgasbord. It’s taking a lot of time and energies but we’re confident that the rewards will be great. This plot is going to be planted in late July or early August with annuals like Biologic’s Maximum, Whitetail Institute’s Winter-Greens and Backyard Wildlife’s Sweet Success and we’ll show you some before and after pictures of that plot in the next issue.
Planting food plots is a great way to give something back to the deer that we love so much and you might be surprised how easily they can be done. If you have any questions about how to get started or what to plant, contact us or one of our three sponsors. There’s still time to get late summer plots in before hunting season so hurry and get started today!
Since the summer issue, our attention has centered around two fall plots totalling 2 acres in size. The one plot is an old apple orchard (see pictures above) that we evolved from a site that offered very little to the wildlife and now to a site that is just overflowing with lush green forage. We planted this site in annual blends like Biologic’s Maximum, Backyard Wildlife’s Sweet Success and Whitetail Institute’s Winter-Greens. We planted all 2 acres in late July and early August and have been rewarded with tremendous growth. Though I’m sure we could have planted a little later if necessary, I feel that early August is a great time to plant to ensure optimum growth. Since the annuals we planted are all from the Brassica family, we really won’t see a lot of deer activity around that orchard plot until late season but that’s exactly when the deer on this property need nutrition the most.
We really saw the importance of fertilizing our plots this year. We watched some of them slowing down in their growth rate so we hurried out to the local co-op and picked up the recommended fertilizer’s and saw a rejuvenation of the plants again. With food plots there are three things that we’ve learned never to cut corners on: 1) Quality Seeds 2) Proper Lime Application and 3) Proper Fertilizer Application.
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Remember our big "project"? The pictures below show the growth of the old overgrown apple orchard in September.
This is only our first year planting this plot. We will continue to work the ground and improve
the soil and in another year or two, this plot is going to be incredible!
This picture was taken in the south corner of the plot. That's impressive growth considering
this area was providing zero nutrition and zero attraction to the deer before.
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