Food Patch Review

[Vernon Holt]

Checked my primary food plot today to see what effect this cold weather(17 degrees this am) is having on the plot.

It is a fairly large plot with one third planted in Chicory, one third in Biologic Clover Plus Chicory, and one third in Green Patch Plus.

My Findings: The Chicory and the Clover plus are grazed down virtually to the bare earth. Heavy grazing coupled with the fact that the cold weather has stopped growth of both clover and chicory. Net effect, two thirds of my plot is producing zero forage.

The Green Patch Plus is composed of Rape, Turnips, and cereal grains. Up to this point, the rape and turnips had not been touched. With the grain being cropped closely, the action has turned to the Brassicas. As it develops, were it not for the Brassicas, there would not be anything in this plot for the deer. I had thought earlier that planting the Brassicas was a complete waste of resources. As it turns out, the brassicas have saved the day . Don't know how long the Brassicas will last since some have already been eaten down to the stems already.

 

[ramsey]

I see the same thing. Planted a chicory clover mix about 300' x 80' Decided later to put in a 6' strip along the edge of "Deer Greens" Thought I had wasted time and space on the greens as they hammered the clover and chicory. Hard times came around Christmas and they started working the greens.(never seen them before) They seem to hit them too late for deer season but I see a need for them as a late season filler before spring. Lots of good turnips exposed for wife to pick but I expect the deer will soon clean them up.

 

[Jim Thompson]

The brassicas and regular turnips at our land have been hammered all the way to the ground now in almost all of our plots. we are lucky to still have some cereal grains left, but not much.

The turnips are not good as a hunting plot this far south since the deer wait until January to kill them off, but from a nutrition standpoint they are great! Only problem is we (GA hunters) dont have enough room to plant enough of them to keep the deer from wiping them out completely.