Food Plot Tips to Attract Deer, Waterfowl, and Turkey
- If your goal is to attract whitetail deer, corn, alfalfa and clover are certainly effective.
- Corn supports many other species, alfalfa and clover are mainly important to deer.
- Diverse planting such as buckwheat, sunflowers and sorghum can attract more game animals.
What is the best food plot for deer and turkey?
Common perennial food plot species include clover, alfalfa, or chicory. Annual food plot species only grow for that growing season and are highly attractive. Common annuals include corn, soybeans, turnips, radishes, cereal grains, or peas.
What is the best thing to plant for a turkey?
Turkeys prefer thinner vegetation when foraging and strutting. Some of the most popular and well known plants for turkeys include agricultural crops like rye, millet, oats, wheat, soybeans and sorghum. Chufa, a plant which forms small underground tubers, is also a favorite of wild turkeys.
What crop Do deer like the most?
Deer love soybeans, but no single crop can meet all of a deer’s year-round needs.
What is the easiest thing to plant for deer?
Red clover is the Easiest Food Plot for Deer. Spread the seed and spray the grasses to act as a mulch for the clover, or spray in the fall and frost seed in late winter right on top of the snow. The freeze thaw patterns of spring creates cracks the seed falls into to germinate.
How do you attract deer and turkey?
Food plots planted with cool season seed mixtures, or cornfields planted to attract deer during fall and winter are excellent food sources for turkeys. These mixes include some annual clovers, brassicas, oats and wheat.
What is wild turkeys favorite food?
Preferred foods of wild turkeys
In the spring, they tend to eat leaves and grasses, and in the fall, they feed more on fruits, berries, seeds and insects. Acorns are a crucial source of nutrients for wild turkeys, especially in the wintertime.
What is the best year round food plot for deer?
Consider Perennial Crops
You plant this crop one time and, with management, it provides a green food plot on an almost year-round basis for five years or more. Crops that fit this category include Durana clover, Ladino clover, Alsike clover, red clover, and alfalfa.
What is a good food plot for deer?
Typical cereals planted for deer would include oats, wheat, triticale and rye. When native green forage becomes less available from fall through spring, these crops will attract large numbers of deer and provide valuable nutrition to help them through this difficult period.
What can I put out to attract turkeys?
Turkeys love acorns and pecans, as well as dogwoods, huckleberries, blueberries, and other fruits found in the understory. Planting food plots: Follow these tips to establish food plots as a supplement to natural forage. Food plots can also be used to increase turkey sightings and harvest success.
What food is irresistible to deer?
Food Plots
Plants that typically attract deer include red clover, chicory, and orchard grass. Certain high-protein crops, such as peas, soybeans, turnips, alfalfa, sorghum, kale, or corn, are also attractants that the animals enjoy feeding on. Deer like the nutritious nuts that come from chestnuts and acorns as well.
What can you plant in the woods to attract deer?
Deer Love to Eat Sweet Fruit
Plant at least six trees in each location so they are able to cross pollinate. I’ve tried many species but the four I’ve had the most luck with are apples, pears, persimmons and plums. Try to plant some early- and late-maturing varieties.
What is the best perennial food plot for deer?
Clovers are predominately the perennials Gamekeepers refer to, however alfalfa and chicory are also important great perennials depending on your location. Every property is different but typically we recommend 20 percent or more of your food plots be perennials.
What is the cheapest food plot for deer?
Clover blends give you the most bang for your buck, especially when your planting food plots on a budget. Put the seed down with a hand seeder and rough up the soil with your yard rake. The first rain will cover the seed just enough for good seed to soil contact and you’re off to the races.
What is the fastest growing food plot for deer?
The Rye and Wheat pop up quick giving the deer something to eat and the radishes and brassicas will continue to flourish on throughout the fall. It is a great blend if you are planting the food plots late or trying to rescue the food plot.
What should I plant in my 1 acre food plot?
My go-to options for small food plots under an acre are clover and some type of fall blend that usually consists of winter wheat, radishes, and brassicas. These are the two food plot varieties I’d recommend just about anywhere in the U.S. If the area has more shade, plant the clover.
What is the best turkey habitat?
It is now recognized that turkeys do best in areas with a wide variety of habitat types and plant species. One recent researcher has described the ideal turkey habitat as one-half wooded, one quarter abandoned fields and one-quarter active agriculture.
How do you attract turkeys fast?
Food. Turkeys are omnivorous and will sample a wide variety of foods. To attract turkeys to your yard, you can provide them with a large ground feeding station containing cracked corn or mixed birdseed. Turkeys will also happily clean up any spills under hanging feeders you may have up for other birds.
How do you make a wild turkey habitat?
7 Ways to Improve Wild Turkey Habitat:
- Plant and maintain mast-producing trees and shrubs.
- Provide and maintain sources of protective roosting and nesting cover.
- Establish and maintain food plots.
- Establish and maintain native grasses and forbs.
- Conduct timber stand improvement (TSI)
- Manage invasive plant species.
Will corn attract turkeys?
Since wild turkeys are a ground-feeding type, sprinkling cracked corn in an open area of dirt is a sufficient way to attract them. Seeds- Another easily attainable food source, seeds provide even more nutrition for wild turkeys. Mixing seeds and cracked corn makes a great spread out meal.
What can I feed wild turkeys in my yard?
Provide cracked corn, millet, milo, wheat, oats, or other seeds and grains. Wild turkeys are not picky and will readily eat less expensive birdseed mixes, as well as the waste seed scattered beneath bird feeders.