The landowner at my deer club planted about three acres of corn last year in a creek bottom next to my wifes stand. He let the corn stand, mature and harden in the shucks thinking the deer would eat it from the stalk (so did I). The deer hardly touched the ears of corn, just a very few ears were even bothered. I can pour corn out on the ground on the club and the deer go wild after it, they will eat 50 pounds over night in places. Anybody have an idea why these deer won't eat the corn from the stalk but will eat it on the ground when poured out? I think it is because that is what they have always been conditioned to do. I asked him if I could bush hog some of the corn after it was hardened and he seemed to think it would destroy the corn and the deer would get no benefit from the bush hogged corn :smack: . Instead 98% of the corn went untouched and to waste when it was plowed under this spring.
Corn Question
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I don't think that deer can get the corn off of the cob when the corn is mature. Pigs eat dry corn right the cob and a corn sheller was to take the corn off the cob for cows. I have put corn on the cob next to shelled corn and it doesn't get eaten by deer. JMO
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I planted two, 2 to 3 acre, plots of corn last summer and it did great with all the rain, each stalk had 2 big ears of corn on them. I could pick the corn and throw the ears out by a feeder and the deer would eat the ear corn before they'd hit the feeder, but they wouldn't touch it on the stalk. I don't think they knew what it was, until about late Nov or ealy Dec, when they finally realize what it was, they they mowed it down. They wouldn't eat or pull it off the stalk though, they'd ride the stalks down to the ground and then they'd eat it.
Years ago we planted 2 fields of alfalfa, it did real good and I figured I'd have the deer hunt'n cornered around here, cause it was the only alfalfa within 50 miles of here. It took the deer 2 years before they ever used them, after they got started on it, you couldn't run them off of it, but for the first 2 years there weren't even tracks in it. That 3d year I was all ready for bow season, I could watch 15 to 20 deer in that alfalfa field any morning or afternoon I wanted all summer. I had that field ringed with tree stands and was just waiting for Oct. 1 to roll around. Then in late Sept the acorns started falling, bumper crop that year, and the deer quit that alfalfa overnight and didn't hit it again until the acorns ran out in late Dec.
Years ago we planted 2 fields of alfalfa, it did real good and I figured I'd have the deer hunt'n cornered around here, cause it was the only alfalfa within 50 miles of here. It took the deer 2 years before they ever used them, after they got started on it, you couldn't run them off of it, but for the first 2 years there weren't even tracks in it. That 3d year I was all ready for bow season, I could watch 15 to 20 deer in that alfalfa field any morning or afternoon I wanted all summer. I had that field ringed with tree stands and was just waiting for Oct. 1 to roll around. Then in late Sept the acorns started falling, bumper crop that year, and the deer quit that alfalfa overnight and didn't hit it again until the acorns ran out in late Dec.
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Deer are like welfare recipients. They only eat what is free and easy to get.
Deer down here have to learn to eat corn, alfalfa, and chickory. If you plant corn and leave it, it might take some time for them to get lined out and start eating from the stalk. You might start the process by knocking down or shattering some grain. After the learning process is over, you are in business. You can grow a lot more food on a piece of land than most people can afford to feed.
Keep planting your food fields. You will learn that the space you dedicate to corn or soybeans is probably too small for the amount of deer that you have.
Deer down here have to learn to eat corn, alfalfa, and chickory. If you plant corn and leave it, it might take some time for them to get lined out and start eating from the stalk. You might start the process by knocking down or shattering some grain. After the learning process is over, you are in business. You can grow a lot more food on a piece of land than most people can afford to feed.
Keep planting your food fields. You will learn that the space you dedicate to corn or soybeans is probably too small for the amount of deer that you have.
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