Deer Food Plots 2009

Food Plots difficult in Hot Dry Georgia

The ODHA deer food plots in 2009 did not do as well as expected. We tried soy beans, grain sorghum, peas, turnips and Evolve Harvest Seed Blends but only the sorghum and turnips grew well. The year started off well with plenty of rain, but August was dry as usual and that was bad for everything but the sorghum. It grew like corn in Iowa. Below is a pic taken around September 1st and you can see the turnips growing like crazy and a nice stand of sorghum. This was the first time we tried sorghum.  It was a bargain of Georgia Outdoor Network at only $8.88 for 50 pound bag. They also had soy beans. We planted 150 lbs of soy beans that either did not come up or were eaten as soon as they broke ground. All the sorghum grew well and you can see in the photo below what a pound of turnips can do.

Seed heads are now forming in mid September..Hope we planted the Sorghum early enough for the seed heads to mature before frost.  Fifty pounds of soy beans and couple of pounds of peas were planted in this plot and you can hardly find a bean or pea plant.

By the middle of September the turnips were about a foot tall and thick as could be when the deer discovered them and started to mow them down, then proceeded to dig up the turnips and eat them too. My first deer a nice 9pt buck, was taken on Sept 30th with a mouth full of turnips. The good news is that there is still time in October to plant turnips again before a freeze.

Waiting to see if the deer eat the Sorghum heads. The heads are full size but not fully matured at Oct 1st.

 Westervelt News Letter has good Food Plot Info