Food Plots

cocinaelktaco · Aug 23, 2004

If you had your choice for attracting Mule deer during and after hunting What would you plant in the dry southwest?

DallanC · Aug 23, 2004

>If you had your choice for
>attracting Mule deer during and
>after hunting What would you
>plant in the dry southwest?
>

Alfalfa, apple or peach orchard.

-DallanC

RACKMASTER · Aug 23, 2004

COCA! JUST KIDDING apple lots of apple and they
are a hardy tree even during drought year they will
produce enough apples to attract deer!
RM

Gator · Aug 23, 2004

A blend of clover,soybeans rye, brassicas, this will give you a good start try and plant different strips always put up a round cage of chicken wire about 2' so you can see how well it is growing after they eat it down. There is several different blends on the market Biologic is one of the boggest, Try Antlerking they have some good blends too. You need to test the soil for PH low ph you can plant all you want and it will never grow. Have your county agent test the soil samples for ya then order some seed.

cocinaelktaco · Aug 24, 2004

I've put in:

Winter-Fat: Having hard time getting this to take.

Four wing Salt bush:

Apache Plume: Already have lot's of this.,

Small Burnett clover.

Forage Alfalfa

Im currently planting winter Wheat and Triticale on ridge fingers.

I have peach and Apple trees on the ranch the smaller bucks are coming to this and the doe's.

New Mexico is going to a different system next year with special tags for ranches that help the wildlife.

Looking for suggestions. Thaank you for the help. any experiance would be helpfull and probably save me a lot of money!!

HuntinAddict · Oct 29, 2004

Check your inbox.
Best Regards,
HuntinAddict

BeanMan · Oct 29, 2004

Check your big game regs to see if it is legal to plant food crops. In Colorado they have to be harvested crops. It's a little gray in Colorado's regs "It's against the law to: use dogs or bait to hunt deer...etc. Bait means to put, expose,deposit,distribute, scatter salt, minerals, grain...as a lure, attraction or enticement for big game." It doesn't specifcly say plant.

Low pH is almost never a problem in the desert southwest. With our arid conditions and soil types our pH's are typically in the high 7's, 7.7-7.9 The Colorado River drainage which irrigates many locations in the Southwest has ph's as high as 8.3 What works back east may fail here.

BeanMan