Food Plots 2014

[Lunker]

Was up hunting our Carlton County property late September and collected some photos. This is the third year of owning the property, and in addition to the plots that have been planted the last couple of years we had some new roads and plots put in this year in conjunction with some small logging that was done.

This is a large plot that was planted in turnips last year. This year it is peas/oats and a little bit of turnip mixed in. Has done very well. August planting

Same plot, which was expanded a bit this year and you see turnips planted on the outside edge where it was expanded.

Same plot stand shot. You can see an alfalfa field way in the back of the shot through the trees

Same plot different stand. You can see the turnips on the near side edge

Doe enjoying some greens

Turnips

Trail planted in clover, planted last year

Next three shots are rape with something mixed in I can't remember. Has Clover/Chicory mix planted around the plot. Clover/Chicory planted last year.

Clover/Chicory Trail Plot- last years planting, and a picture of it from a stand

A clover plot from last year in need of cutting

Two of the new plots cleared this year. September planting of oats/winter wheat/turnip. Did well, but can see they are in need of discing next year as it's a bit compacted

[Lunker]

One of the new plots from the ground

Turkeys on one of the alfalfa fields (took the picture from the porch on the house with my phone, they were close!

Deer hunting has been tough since we got the place, but still a fun hobby and hopefully helping. My brother has done the lions share of the work, but I try to get up there as much as I can. Lots of these running around though with some on camera

And this print was under one of my stands

Though the deer hunting has been tough, there are a ton of grouse on the property, benefiting from the plots and aspen tops from logging.

[Lunker]

Woops left this one out. Planted last year as a clover/turnip plot, left it as clover this year

[Pinusbanksiana]

Beef is cheaper

[leechlake]

fantastic work on the plots. It can be a fun hobby to extend deer season especially if you have the right equipment.

[BLACKJACK]

Plots are looking great!!! Even if you don't get a deer it always fun to get out and improve your property!!

[LandDr]

Very nice work! Something to be proud of...never an easy task in that environment. A little passion and a little obsession!

To expand on some options, create some hinge cutting off the food plots to create the "bed" with the "breakfast" to increase the attract and hold. Also increasing the "thermal" cover by replacing some deciduous tree areas with conifer trees would be a good project to add to the carrying capacity of the area.

Thanks for the report and photos!

[NWKR]

Looks great! What % of your place is conifer trees, it looks like quite a bit or is just where you happened to take pictures? Our land is in Carlton County as well, but almost all of the conifers on our place are black spruce swamps. Deer use those areas during the winter but we started to get some of the high ground planted with Norway and white spruce for more thermal cover and also trying to get some travel corridor areas set up. It does seem like the deer definitely prefer to bed around the few conifers we do have on dry ground, so more pockets of conifers would be better for us.

[Lunker]

The property is 160 acres. There are chunks of aspen regrowth about 15 years old, sizable pockets of spruce, a stream running through it with marsh grass/tag alder/tamarack/spruce bordering the wetland for quite aways and a chunk of mixed wetland forest (spruce/tamarack/etc), and a couple of areas of older aspen/spruce/mixed forest that we logged. Also about 10 acres of alfalfa and another 6 or so in plots. I've never tried to grid out a map and figure out the acreage of each cover type. Now that we have a couple of non-plotted logged areas maybe instead of letting it come up as young aspen regrowth we should plant conifers?

[Lunker]

The big oats/peas plot is getting hit hard. Pic is two small bucks from the stand my brother snapped last night

[NWKR]

Quote:

The property is 160 acres. There are chunks of aspen regrowth about 15 years old, sizable pockets of spruce, a stream running through it with marsh grass/tag alder/tamarack/spruce bordering the wetland for quite aways and a chunk of mixed wetland forest (spruce/tamarack/etc), and a couple of areas of older aspen/spruce/mixed forest that we logged. Also about 10 acres of alfalfa and another 6 or so in plots. I've never tried to grid out a map and figure out the acreage of each cover type. Now that we have a couple of non-plotted logged areas maybe instead of letting it come up as young aspen regrowth we should plant conifers?

Your habitat sounds pretty similar to ours overall, with aspen, creek with alders, willow, etc. Except ours is quite a bit larger and we have less than 1/4 of an acre of conifers on hard land! Black spruce and tamarack swamp totals over 70 acres including the portions that are on adjacent public land.

I would think about adding conifers to the aspen regrowth in pockets for bedding and in strips to help direct deer movement. But I would base it on what else is in the area with food and cover. Take a google earth aerial and draw it up what you want in Microsoft paint.

One of my goals is to look at our property in 15-30 acre sections and try to make it so each of those sections has pockets of conifers, aspen/maple/oak mixed of different ages, and some sort of water hole. This is the anywhere from 5-30 year plan. Good thing I am young!

Good to see those young bucks around!