Looking into the legality of food plots.

[lsnydes]

This should liven up this forum. Looking into the legality of food plots. To put this into simple terms...Why is it illegal to put a kernel of corn on the ground and hunt over it and it is legal if you put that kernel in the ground and it produces lots of kernels which are now above the ground and you hunt over it. Both kernels were put there for the sole purpose of attracting deer to harvest. No other reason. No corn was growing previously. It was not natural to the land it is on. And it is next to some perfect trees for stands. What is the difference???

[burmjohn]

To keep it simple because the DEC says so. One is baiting the other provides habitat, food, and numerous other benefits. Another reason is CWD.

[d-bone20917]

To keep it simple because the DEC says so.

Exactly! Don't try to overthink what the DEC does.

[virgil]

It's a pretty fair question. And while the 'DEC says so' is correct as far as why it's legal, it doesn't explain why so many hunters who are appalled at anyone who users feeders or any form of baiting, but are totally cool with using food plots. Should make for an intersting thread.

[growalot]

Because if it wasn't legal ....no one could hunt in farm country....then where would we be?

[burmjohn]

It's a pretty fair question. And while the 'DEC says so' is correct as far as why it's legal, it doesn't explain why so many hunters who are appalled at anyone who users feeders or any form of baiting, but are totally cool with using food plots. Should make for an intersting thread.

Because you can't compare the two. You have a feeder, it dumps food, most of them are timed... You can time it down to when you will be in your stand and have the deer file and line up.

Hunters are appalled because its illegal. I don't know how I'd feel about it if it was legal either.

[lsnydes]

I know of people who grow the corn and knock it down before the season so it is on the ground...habitat for what mice. It is now food scattered on the ground for feeding deer and is being hunted over. What is the difference!!

[lsnydes]

I am not talking about a feeder that drops at a certain time each day. Just corn scattered on the ground just like the corn field.

[burmjohn]

I know of people who grow the corn and knock it down before the season so it is on the ground...habitat for what mice. It is now food scattered on the ground for feeding deer and is being hunted over. What is the difference!!

If they are putting it into a pile its illegal. Maybe you should do some research on food plots first.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I know of people who grow the corn and knock it down before the season so it is on the ground...habitat for what mice. It is now food scattered on the ground for feeding deer and is being hunted over. What is the difference!!

As long as its not moved into pile(s) its legal.

Im sure we could find the carbon copy of this thread around the site from last year and the year before lol.

[lsnydes]

I know it is illegal....so if it is not in a pile it is legal??? Sure!!

[WNYBuckHunter]

BTW, ever hunted near apple trees? Acorns? Farm fields? Were you appalled at yourself then? Its the same thing as a food plot.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I know it is illegal....so if it is not in a pile it is legal??? Sure!!

If you grew it and have not piled it up after its cut it is 100% LEGAL.

[Dakota Dog]

Isnydes do you hunt? If so do not shoot your self in the foot. The anti hunters have enough of their own fuel. We do not need fellow hunters helping them.

[G-Man]

Food plots are grown and can fail, placing food in a pile or scattered in an area is considered baiting. And if your placing it in a cut corn field and it is not from loss of harvest that is considered baiting as well. Just ask any goose hunter that has been fined because when the farmer loaded his wagon and spilled a pile on the ground it is now considered bait! Drawing deer to a specfic spot and re applying food to that spot is baiting. So once your food plot is cleaned out it cannot be refreshed.. or it is baiting.

[d-bone20917]

They are both meant to attract critters to your hunting location and keep them there, which classifies both of them as a form of baiting. It's just that the powers that be say one method is ok and the other isn't. So take advantage of the legal form of baiting (food plots).

[Gthphtm]

Might be that He or She is one of the ones that own or leases property up state and puts corn out to get pictures on there trail camers,don't have the time or ambision to do the work involved to prepare and and spend the money to prepare Food Plots.And are proberly POed because they got caught baiting.

[Doc]

I suppose that in the strictest definition of the word, food plotting could be called baiting. No, not in a DEC legal sort of definition, but in a dictionary sense. Certainly most of the food plots being produced do have as an intention, drawing deer to the area. That probably is a pretty good definition of baiting. Yes I know all the hue and cry about how individuals are only investing their huge amounts of time and money only because of an over-whelming concern for the health of the herd. Yeah, ok, who am I to say that that isn't the case. I have a rough time swallowing it, but I am not ready to call anyone a liar over it .... lol.

However, underneath all this crap was the question of why the DEC allows one and forbids the other. I believe it is relative to concentrating deer into mouth to mouth, saliva to saliva, body wastes to body wastes, kind of contact. Somebody throwing out a pile of corn, pretty much guarantees that kind of intimate proximity. Food plots on the other hand are generally big enough to scatter deer feeding in the same field so that they are not swapping body fluids. The benefits of that are obvious.

I think the DEC definitions of baiting are also tied in with their laws against feeding deer. They are basically the same thing except for motives. Feeding/baiting both involve unhealthy close contact between deer. There is also another unhealthy similarity between baiting and feeding. Both concentrate deer and cause them to become reliant on the artificial food source. Many people think it's a great thing to feed deer until they are faced with the ever increasing numbers of deer that show up each day and the ever increasing cost of feeding them at which time they simply stop and leave these super-sized herds loose on local habitat, sometimes destroying them for years to come. Bait piles have the exact effect. Here today .... gone tomorrow.

And then there is the practical problem of trying to legally phrase the differences between agricultural fields vs. food plots. How practical would it be to outlaw hunting in all farms. The DEC is charged with controlling deer herds not establishing huge safe zones for them.

There definitely are huge differences between piles of bait/feeders and food plots in the eyes of the DEC. They have simply set up their definitions in a way to eliminate the more harmful practice of the two.

[Guns&ReligionCop]

Food Plots are fixed and naturally grown and can't be moved day to day for your hunting convience. Dumping crushed sugar beats in a pile in the woods around no other food sources is completely different then having some clover growing in the middle of a field.

[nyantler]

I think you're probably right Doc... that is the common sense answer... I think also the food plots still allow the deer to feed in a somewhat natural way... they are not drawn to a pin point location like a pile or feeder, but still have a choice as to which end of the plot they prefer to feed... and for the hunter there is still some sense of fair chase not knowing exactly where the deer will feed at any given time... Personally I'm still up in the air about whether I can ever warm up to food plots... I prefer enhancing browse areas and trimming existing apple trees to introducing new food sources like beets, and turnips... although I do understand that it makes it easier for the deer and I'm not really AGAINST food plotting... I still just have trouble warming up to it as a hunting tool.

[wdswtr]

I think Doc has the reason spot on. If I recall they made them illegal around the time CWD popped its ugly head up. Then there is the digestive part of feeding or baiting. I have read many articles on how it can and does really mess there digestive sytem up. Especially if you are feeding something like corn into early winter. It fills there stomach, easy access and they will take to it rather happily, then its suddenly gone and there digestive system is messed up and natural browse is hard for them to transition too.

I do spend a good amount of time on food plots myself. Im on the fence towards feeling a bit odd about hunting over them. I personally dont. I do not intentionally hunt trails leading to them either. And that is the honest truth. I use them to attract and help hold deer on the property, to add an additional supplement to feed the wildlife in a natural state, to give a little back for all the enjoyment I spend hunting these deer. A long with enhancing my property through pruning wild apple trees, planting other nut bearing trees etc. I do however spend some time sitting along these plots with a camera and taking pictures. Sitting on a food plot with a legal weapon to take a deer, not my cup of tea, to me it takes some of the challenge away and puts the deer in a volnurable state of attraction.

Edited October 1, 2012 by wdswtr

[Nomad]

i'm not against food plots, but its kinda interesting, to a farmer deer in his crops is a nuisance, "give me more nuisance permits ,issue more doe tags ". To a hunter deer in his food plot is the point.

When the crops are cut around me deer go where they still stand , nice to never have to cut them I'd guess.

[lsnydes]

With the advent of rifle hunting in most of NY a food plot might as well be a pile. Not many food plots are big enough to make a difference what end a deer come out of. The rifle pretty much covers the whole plot very nicely. Just sit in your treestand and wait for the deer to come in to the bait, excuse me,field

[burmjohn]

BTW, ever hunted near apple trees? Acorns? Farm fields? Were you appalled at yourself then? Its the same thing as a food plot.

^^^^

[Guns&ReligionCop]

WNYBuckHunter, on 01 October 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

BTW, ever hunted near apple trees? Acorns? Farm fields? Were you appalled at yourself then? Its the same thing as a food plot.

I have but I moved my stand near them not the apples trees, acorns, etc near my stand.