spring food plot?

[dogdoc]

allenw--welcome to the forums. This room is new and glad to have a new member contributing.

Providing spring food plots is just as important to plant as fall plots. Not only are you providing high quality forage for the bucks during their antler growing season but also providing nutrients to does who are nursing fawns. This will aid in increase weight gain of your fawns which in return will increase their survivability the following winter.

Spring planting should be geared toward high protein forage. Bucks need the high protein to add muscle mass and for antler growth and like i stated above does need it for good milk production.

I try to have two types of plants available during the warm season. The first is a good perennial plot--my favorite plants are clover, alfalfa, trefoil, and chicory. All these plants will provide lots of high protein forage, handle heavy browsing pressure, and are very palatable.
I also like to plant warm season high protein annuals. The most common warm season plants I use are cowpeas and soybeans. Lablab is also a great choice. The downside to these legumes is that they are easily overbrowsed so you need to plant a pretty good size area. Depending on the size of your deer herd and available natural forage I would recommend planting at least 1 acre and 2 acres would be even better. I also like to plant the peas and beans with a grain crop such as a forage sorghum or milo to give the peas something to climb. This will increase the forage production over them just sending runners on the ground.

best of luck
todd

[Thayer]

If you can plant up to 3 acres or more, you could do really well with soybeans, but deer will always like variety. I found that deer love buckwheat, sunflowers, and all of that stuff that Todd posted earlier...I had planted Coopers seed blend #7 last spring and the deer devoured the buckwheat and sunflowers, then they came back and hit the soy and lablab that I had thrown in.

Your size of the plot should be larger due to the amount of forage that you want to provide, and there is some kind of hotline that the deer use to tell all their friends about a good, new food source.

Good luck!

[wtnhunt]

Welcome to the forums. Did not get any spring plots in here this year, but planted lablab plus in the summer. Have had best luck planting clovers and perenials in the fall here.

[MarylandQDMA]

Welcome
I just put in my first FP this fall. it is 1/2 acre in perenals. this winter I'll get out and open up another area and use in for anual spring and winter plots.
Frank