feeeding deer

[lungdeflator]

Whoa! lol

[PEATMOSS]

Farmers, Loggers, and Foodplots are all man made food sources for deer. They are all large in size and have natural vegetation that deer like to eat. What does intent have anything to do with it? Just because a farmers intent is to harvest his crop its ok for him to hunt over a bean field but guys hunting over floodplots can't? What makes one field ok in your eyes and another illegal? If I plant a bunch of oak trees in a pine forest with the intent to hunt them some day is that wrong because I have intent or is it smart hunting? Lets try and use some common sense here. If you owned a bunch of land should it really be illegal to make changes to your own land or whatever purpose you see fit?

Farming, Logging, Food Plots <<<< Large Gap >>>> Baiting.

To everyone who is against food plots what would you prefer? Do you want to outlaw food plots and have the legislature write up a bunch of ridiculous laws about what constitutes planting for deer and planting or other uses, I can't imagine there would be any double standards or loop holes in those laws. Or should we just make baiting legal and "level the playing field" and see who can afford to dump the most attractive bait in a certain location?

[hockeybc69]

I really struggle with the fact that hunting over a big old field(farming) full of food is OK. And somehow food plotting is a shunned practice too many.

I will say it once again. I could choose to rent our land out to a farmer to plant crops, and still hunt over it. And that makes it OK by your definition the way I read your views.

But if I actually put my sweat equity into growing something there, then its not OK; but if some lazy a$$ goes and dumps buckets of corn out for 2 weeks a year to bring in wildlife. Thats OK.

I smell hypocrite in the air.

[PEATMOSS]

I really struggle with the fact that hunting over a big old field(farming) full of food is OK. And somehow food plotting is a shunned practice too many.

I will say it once again. I could choose to rent our land out to a farmer to plant crops, and still hunt over it. And that makes it OK by your definition the way I read your views.

But if I actually put my sweat equity into growing something there, then its not OK; but if some lazy a$$ goes and dumps buckets of corn out for 2 weeks a year to bring in wildlife. Thats OK.

I smell hypocrite in the air.

Do you not get what I'm saying or just don't want to get it? I'm NOT telling you or anyone else how to manage your land or conduct your hunt.

If you would rather plant a little turnip patch and have the deer come to you instead of going out and scouting etc., then have at it! It's your land, your hunt and the last time I checked, it's supposedly a free country. When you refer to someone baiting as a "lazy a$$", just remember that may be someone elses' opinion of you. Unless one is out roaming the woods buttnaked and killing deer with their teeth, someone else is always hunting in a more "challenging, sporting or ethical" way.

All I want to see is an end to this baiting hysteria so that the already overworked and understaffed C.O.'s can quit driving and flying around the countryside looking for corn and pumpkins and get back to much more important enforcement issues, especially at this time of year. That's it.

[Bear55]

PEATMOSS I guess that is my fault for assuming you want to make foodplots illegal. I've run into that on here before, plus when you seem to be against a perfectly legal practice and compare it to illegal baiting you can see why I might have thought that.

Forget all that high horse ethics stuff, you can think that if you want but the truth is most people just don't want to see baiting legal. I think most hunters are against it, DNR certainly is, and the non-hunting public. Public perception is important these day and hunters who bait just come off and lazy trigger men to the public. The whole disease factor may be a bit overblown because deer are in contact with each other all the time but you have to admit disease can and will be spread much faster from a pile of food vs a 1-2 acre field.

I would also disagree with you about the small gap between fooplots and baiting. To start, a deer will always take the path of least resistance, this includes an easy meal. This makes a pile of corn much more attractive than say an alfalfa field or foodplot and in most peoples eyes give an hunter an unfair advantage. You can also strategically place your bait just about anywhere, deer naturally avoid wide open spaces and like to remain in cover. These easy meals placed in thick cover make baiting all the more attractive to deer and again give hunters an unfair advantage. Like you said we already have high powered rifles, do we really need more of an advantage? Foodplots, logging, and farmland are at least on a level playing field - the deer choose to expose themselves in the open. I don't think I have seen too many people throwing their bait out in an open field, has anyone else?

Lets say we "level the playing field" and allow baiting, it won't be long and the deer will learn to shy away from baiting piles during shooting hours just like they have for farmland, foodplots, and other open spaces for thousands of years. So now we have deer herd that is already under a lot of human pressure that becomes even more nocturnal. What is the next step then? Do we allow night scopes and spotlights because some people don't think baiting is enough and aren't willing to put in the effort to scout and actually hunt deer?

Again:

Farming, Logging, Foodplots <<<Large Gap>>> Baiting <<<Small Gap>>> Poaching

[PEATMOSS]

Public perception is a funny thing Bear. If we polled hunters and the general public and asked:Do you support the practice by responsible private landowners of enhancing their property for all wildlife by planting vegetation that will provide cover,sustenance and nutrition? I think you'd likely get an overwhelmingly positive response.

Now, if we asked:Do you support the practice of planting small plots of exotic food crops in the middle of the forest for the purpose of attracting deer for hunters to shoot? I think your numbers would be down significantly even though we are talking about the exact same practice.

The idea of successful hunting is to gain some advantage over the deer. We all engage in this, the question is, when does someone cross that ethical boundry? I've always manintained that line needs to be set by the individual so long as the resource and public safety concerns are addressed.

I wouldn't mind seeing baiting with restrictions like Wisconsin in this state, but I think you're right in that we're moving in the opposite direction. What I'd gladly settle for though is a reasonable approach to this issue. It's time to end the hysteria and see it for what it is, a nuisance. We have an overworked and understaffed cadre of C.O.'s and with all that is going on in the fall, they simply have better things to do than this "war on baiting".

[Lee Lane]

No ones going to like me for saying this but baiting is not good for deer...it spreads disease!!!! I also dont like baiting because a guy throws a corn pile on public land and then has the attitude that he owns the surrounding 500 acres......I also wont even debate the ethics of baiting and I dont think wisconsin is setting a very good example with baiting!! hunters should be scouting and taking advantage of natural browse and food sources wich in most cases keeps the deer on their feet longer feeding and moving around. Im very thankful the Minnesota DNR is smart enough to not allow baiting!!

Food plots are a different story I dont really see a problem with them as of now except for maybe fights that would break out after a guy put in some hard work to plant them on public land and found someone else hunting over it on opening day. Myself Ive never hunted over either and never had a problem seeing big bucks I like to hunt as well as numbers of deer but only after countless hours of scouting.....It continues to amaze me the number of hunters I talk too that think because they are seeing no deer that if they throw a corn pile down in a bad spot that a 200 inch bruiser is going to come strolling into view 20 minutes after they arrive at their deer stand!

[Bear55]

Now, if we asked:Do you support the practice of planting small plots of exotic food crops in the middle of the forest for the purpose of attracting deer for hunters to shoot? I think your numbers would be down significantly even though we are talking about the exact same practice.

See this is the misconception about foodplots, people think they have some kind of magnetic draw for deer. Lets start by saying anything you see on the hunting or outdoor channels is a bunch of bunk, just like the deer you see. These are unpressured deer on highly managed game farms or in high fence hunting operations. Remember there is TV and there is reality, those big bucks on TV wouldn't make more than a day or two on public land. Now you will also have a sliding scale depending on the size of your foodplot. The larger the foodplot the more food and the more attractive it will be to a larger number of deer. This large size also hurts any daytime activity, again this is on pressured deer, not what you see on TV. Now the smaller the foodplot the more secure the deer feel but guess what, its not going to produce a lot of food. Then your plot might only be the preferred food source during a certain time of year. This mean that the deer could basically clean out a small foodplot when you can't legally hunt like summer or in winter. Even if the foodplot was the preferred food soruce during the fall it might only be a day or two that the deer hit it hard and then the move on. I don't know too many people who have the time to monitor a small foodplot to find out when its hot, then if they do have the time to monitor it they are probably putting too much pressure on the deer pushing them away from the plot or turning the deer nocturnal. Now when you think about all the time and money you spend on these small foodplots, or even the large plots you time is much better spent scouting.

[Dotch]

I agree. Pull this statewide proposed feeding ban off and it will be the last access any deer hunter has to our property. I don't think I'll be alone in that respect. At 85, my mom still lives alone on the farm in SE MN and watching and feeding the birds in the winter, pheasants included, is a major reason for her being. She's told me about being bullied by deer hunters to gain access to her property so this proposed ban is the last straw as far as I'm concerned. Deer hunters have an image problem and this proposed feeding ban will do nothing to improve it. It will come off as more bullying IMO.

[Musky Buck]

All I know is if I could bait, I would really diminish the 12-14 hunters that surround the properties I hunt on. They are waiting for the deer to come out of mine into field/crp fields. If I could bait them in the thickest furthest away from the other hunters spot, they'd really struggle to ever catch a glimpse of a deer again. I'm sure their bait dumped in a field would get mopped up after dark. I could bait 3 areas, so 2 wouldn't even be hunted, not that they still wouldn't range around some but that would be a lot less ranging. Who would have the advantage, open field or me deep in tamarac swamps where all the bedding cover is ? Maybe I should support baiting, I could end some of the pressure in my area. But, you know what, what ever the rules/regs are I will follow them and hope for the best, that's the way it is now.