Turnips in

[moog5050]

4 minutes ago, E J said:

Deer at my place won't touch them ever. I've tried turnips, rape, radish and sugar beets. Also 8F. Too much other good stuff for them to eat

Yep, I find that at my one property located in the middle of big Ag, brassicas are not hit at all during season.  At my other property, they will eat brassicas from august through the entire season and dig the bulbs up late season.   Matter of preferred food source.  

[Lomax]

So checked out my plots recovering my deer and they continue to hammer the radishes and beets.  Should continue to draw as it gets colder but here is evidence of their trespassing 

luckily I got one of them trespassers today

[stubborn1VT]

Nice buck!  That makes the food plotting really worth while!

I went out to check a camera and found that deer have been eating on the bulbs already.  No snow and they are taking big bites out of turnips.  Your pictures of turnips look like rabbit sign, no?

I can see my plot at the house from my picture window and during a little snow flurry I watched 8 does/fawns pile out.  It's the most deer I have seen in my plot so far.  It only took 3 years to convince them that brassicas are good food.  I kept planting them to help with my heavy clay soil and they figured it out eventually.

Congrats on the gorgeous buck.  

 

[Lomax]

Thanks Stubborn 1VT  
Yes 4th year for me growing food plots.  I have watched the deer eating radishes and beets since Oct.  They tend to like the smaller beets Golf ball size they seem to eat those first along with the radishes they start chewing them down to the ground.  I think they wait a little longer on the larger beets and parsnip and start nibbling on them now and through out the winter.  

Once deer season is over I will post some pics of a large herd in the plots sometimes upwards of 25 to 30+ but usually not until real cold weather sets in late Dec Jan and Feb. 

Yes must be nice to watch them pile into the plots from your house think it takes a few years for them to really draw or educate the deer over the winter of a new food source but once They figure it out they’re on it like flies on shat  

I shot him feeding in the brassicas at 8 AM on Saturday after about a dozen does and fawns piled into the plot first.  Food plots work just have to do them right by putting in some time in late July each year. 

[Lomax]

Plots continue to draw the herd and parsnip appears to be favorable food radishes have been eaten down to the ground.  Moved a camera overlooking plot so hopefully cold snow set up this week drawing the herd even more.  Definitely getting a cabbage type smell from field too which herd seems to know more each year as the plots mature into January.  

[Lomax]

The herd has been busy since the cold and snow showed up.  Walked up on a few today but they took off they’ve been Digging up my field 

the last pic is an area where there is no food plot underneath.  They know where to dig and where not too.  
 

[Robhuntandfish]

3 minutes ago, Lomax said:

The herd has been busy since the cold and snow showed up.  Walked up on a few today but they took off they’ve been Digging up my field 

the last pic is an area where there is no food plot underneath.  They know where to dig and where not too.  
 

I'm going to be planting and hope I have a 1/4 of the success you have there.  

Doing a whitetail mix in one spot that's about 1/5 acre. Then in the other a 1/3 acre of whitetail mix and a 1/10 of an acre of radish. 

[Lomax]

15 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

I'm going to be planting and hope I have a 1/4 of the success you have there.  

Doing a whitetail mix in one spot that's about 1/5 acre. Then in the other a 1/3 acre of whitetail mix and a 1/10 of an acre of radish. 

You have cover and some great bucks so plant some plots and they will learn to hang close and eat and get big.  Me thinks you will be successful once the plots are established 

[wolc123]

I got out to my back plot of purple tops today.  The deer finally have these basket ball sized turnips whittled down a bit.  It looks like most of the bulbs are about half eaten.

Edited March 7, 2021 by wolc123