Plotting. Food plottin'

With me off work and my daughter off school, we went over to the camp this morning to help my grandfather with the food plots. The plots are multiplying; we now have 4 of various sizes.

My daughter on our biggest plot. 5 deer and a bear have been taken at this one over the past 10 years. My grandfather is on the tractor. Its sits 300m from camp straight down the field, so we can see everything thats there when we arent. This one had some stifling grass of some sort get mixed in with the seed last spring so we turned it over and will turn it over again after it bakes in the sun for the next couple weeks. Then we'll plant.

https://i.imgur.com/ikOE7kal.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/N5OKM8Al.jpg


Plot #2 we planted with clover last year which is coming up beautifully already this spring. Very excited to see how it will turn out and many years we'll get from it.

https://i.imgur.com/ME2LM00l.jpg

My daughter inspecting the groundblind to make sure its still there. It is. My grandfather has taken to building these as he and our hunters got older. Makes those nasty days much more tolerable.

https://i.imgur.com/KsRF5Pfl.jpg

This one used to be a vegetable garden, but since the deer ate it before we could harvest most of it, we just decided to plant it with more deer specific vegetable anyways. No one will hunt this one given its proximity to camp, it'll just feed whatever critters decide they want a piece of it. Healthier animals going into winter is a great thing IMO.

https://i.imgur.com/QdbwOJ6l.jpg

We planted a mix of "deer turnip" and forage kale purchased at the local feed store. The deer absolutely demolish the turnips, especially as winter hits. Heres a pic from the 2nd week of the deer hunt last year. They were rooting around under the snow for them. Its funny, the moose dont touch them until after the winter. Then they come around and suck the rotten turnips out of the ground. I think theyve fermented and it makes them drunk? We'll plant parts of the plots with fall rye later int he summer, which the deer start to devour later in the fall after the gun hunts (late November). You can see that obnoxious grass I was referring to earlier. Nothing touched it. Not sure how it got mixed in with the turnips seeds.

https://i.imgur.com/Uc6Y450l.jpg

The view in week #2 of the hunt on a beautiful evening. It was about -15 here. I was glad to be out of the wind. You can see a portion of the plot with tall strip of grass poking through. There is a natural game trail that crosses the field right at this point. Many evenings I can hear deer up on the hill, even if they dont come out until after dark.

https://i.imgur.com/wPKVAoEl.jpg

Looks awesome! Glad to see you guys are all on the same page with that kind of thing. Sometimes new ideas are frowned upon in the old camps. Never hurts to mix a bit of new technique into the old ways.

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Originally Posted by GW11

Looks awesome! Glad to see you guys are all on the same page with that kind of thing. Sometimes new ideas are frowned upon in the old camps. Never hurts to mix a bit of new technique into the old ways.

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My grandfather has long believed as we use the resource we should give back to the resource. The extra food provided by the food plots feeds immeasurable amounts of wildlife and helps them prepare for a hard winter, and for some animals provides a food source early in the spring before the season. In my opinion anyways.

I wish anti hunters understood this part of hunting. It's a love of the resource and all that encompasses our bush. I laugh, I once watched my grandfather shoo deer out of the way of his truck at his house so he could drive to the camp 15 minutes away and go deer hunting. He was perfectly legal to shoot the deer in his driveway, but that's not what it's about. Of course he didn't shoot a deer that year at the camp, and the deer were still in his yard when he returned.

Pretty cool set-up. Stuff like food plots, trail work, setting up stands, etc makes deer hunting fun throughout the year. Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Pretty cool set-up. Stuff like food plots, trail work, setting up stands, etc makes deer hunting fun throughout the year. Thanks for sharing.

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Indeed. I'll try and keep this thread updated throughout the year with various plots progress.

COVID has really thrown a wrench into my plans for the camp this year. This has been an absolutely stellar spring weather wise and easily the best one in many years for us here in central Ontario. Id hoped to have a large gang together before the leaves burst out and the bugs too, but that all got thrown out the window. I had planned to bust a new ATV trail through the bush and build two permanent treestands, as well as move one of my metal ladder stands.

Awesome pictures and story. You have great hunting grounds and history.
Congrats to your grandpa for still being involved and great to see your daughter enjoying the hunting grounds...

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Originally Posted by blasted_saber

My grandfather has long believed as we use the resource we should give back to the resource. The extra food provided by the food plots feeds immeasurable amounts of wildlife and helps them prepare for a hard winter, and for some animals provides a food source early in the spring before the season. In my opinion anyways.

I wish anti hunters understood this part of hunting. It's a love of the resource and all that encompasses our bush. I laugh, I once watched my grandfather shoo deer out of the way of his truck at his house so he could drive to the camp 15 minutes away and go deer hunting. He was perfectly legal to shoot the deer in his driveway, but that's not what it's about. Of course he didn't shoot a deer that year at the camp, and the deer were still in his yard when he returned.

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Your grandfather sounds like a wise fella. Good luck with the plots. Hope to see some success pictures here this fall.

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Has anyone try millet or sorghum I n their plots. Wondering if it will even survive deer population to maturity