Early season green food sources

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Early season green food sources

Unread postby whitetail_addict » Fri Sep 02, 2016 3:14 pm

Now that the beans are turning yellow and the deer are likely to be seen less and less on them I'm wondering if I can expect to continue seeing them regularly on alfalfa. One property I'm hunting in my neck of the woods in particular has standing corn all around it this year but I don't think there is a bean field within a mile. With that, I've been watching bucks hammer an alfalfa field all summer long. Perhaps they prefer it to beans or perhaps it's just the next best green food source within this area and beans aren't enough to make them want to leave the area to travel that far... I don't know...?

Anyways, what's your thoughts/experience with early season alfalfa fields in farm country where there are typically corn and beans planted all over as well. Will they keep hitting them for a while yet? What about acorns... Will they trump the alfalfa once/if they start dropping in the area? I say if because I'm seeing very little for acorns in oaks this year.


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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Fri Sep 02, 2016 7:19 pm

They will keep hitting the alfalfa. Especially if it is up against corn. If you have acorns I would expect them to hit the acorns first and then head for the alfalfa.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:24 pm

Personally I believe most hunters would do far better if they concentrated on natural browse such as poison ivy, small maple leaves, plum thickets, Honeysuckle, and other browse near a buck core bedding area. Yes alfalfa is a great draw for deer, but as soon as a mature Buck starts feeling any kind of pressure they're usually not going to pop out in that field or even close to it during daylight hours IMHO.

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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby vermonthunter16 » Fri Sep 02, 2016 11:15 pm

Deer eat poison ivy??? Good to know..
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:10 am

whitetail_addict wrote:Now that the beans are turning yellow and the deer are likely to be seen less and less on them I'm wondering if I can expect to continue seeing them regularly on alfalfa. One property I'm hunting in my neck of the woods in particular has standing corn all around it this year but I don't think there is a bean field within a mile. With that, I've been watching bucks hammer an alfalfa field all summer long. Perhaps they prefer it to beans or perhaps it's just the next best green food source within this area and beans aren't enough to make them want to leave the area to travel that far... I don't know...?

Anyways, what's your thoughts/experience with early season alfalfa fields in farm country where there are typically corn and beans planted all over as well. Will they keep hitting them for a while yet? What about acorns... Will they trump the alfalfa once/if they start dropping in the area? I say if because I'm seeing very little for acorns in oaks this year.


LOL...your crossing your fingers and hoping? :lol: Its the hurryup-and-wait-to-see-if-he-sticks-around kind of deer. Early season summer patterns can be tough. I always look to capitalize on them but don't count on them.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:16 am

I once watched a buck walk right thru my food plot to feed on wild grape. My stand was in a mature cedar tree that was getting taken over by grape. He came right under my stand and fed right were I walked in and didn't spook. I've also seen a buck eating maple leaves before next to a corn field. They seem to move pretty quick thru an area when they are browsing wild plants. They stop browse then move.

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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:18 am

vermonthunter16 wrote:Deer eat poison ivy??? Good to know..


absolutely - when it is young and tender they seem to prefer it but that is more in early spring. They will still eat it during early fall. Grape leaves and plum leaves are also hit pretty hard in early fall and when maple start dropping that ca be their preferred food source even when other foods are available. Deer will get up about every 2-4 hours and will usually browse a bit that is why I suggested getting close to their core bedding and finding preferred browse - more of a chance at getting a dylight shot at them. When I hunted Montana we hunted alfalfa a lot - you usually only get one crack at a good buck before they stopped using it during daylight... most of the time bird hunters and people scouting screwed that up before I got a chance to hunt a summer food pattern. But browse near bedding is always used while it is available.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby Bucky » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:39 am

Once beans go it is acorns/soft mast like apples.... then typically greens again = alfalfa/clover or Slayer Seed Ravishing Radishes.

Forage Radishes are inching towards the top of my favorite "fall" plot to plant. They grow extremely fast and produce a massive amount of food in smaller plots. Deer start on em in Sept and feed in em until they are gone


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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby whitetail_addict » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:55 am

I don't intend on hunting that field, more or less just wanting to see if the field will be enough to keep him in the area he's been all summer. I've also got a full apple tree and oaks on this 40. When the time is right I'll be within 75 yards of where I suspect he's been bedding.

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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:09 am

whitetail_addict wrote:I don't intend on hunting that field, more or less just wanting to see if the field will be enough to keep him in the area he's been all summer. I've also got a full apple tree and oaks on this 40. [glow=red]When the time is right I'll be within 75 yards of where I suspect he's been bedding[/glow]
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smart move.

In Ohio beans draw early and then pick up again when the weather gets colder and the corn is picked. Alfalfa seems to be hit and miss, they use it at various times but prefer the corn, mast or beans - I think they use it to add some fiber/green to their normal fall diet of higher carb acorns/corn? I have seen deer use a bean or corn field for weeks and then for no particular reason I can find, they switch over to alfalfa for a few days, then back to beans/corn.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:20 am

I see corn as a bigger draw than alfalfa. I have paid close attention to alfalfa fields over the years and they are always hit and miss for me. However, they have a smorgasbord of corn, beans, wheat, alfalfa, sunflowers, peas, etc.

When I go out west, a random alfalfa field is usually a gold mine. They just don't have the options they do here. Same with wheat. Around here wheat typically gets ignored by the deer. Not the case out west!

They are really starting to hit the corn around here. I've seen several fields where the outside row has 1/3 of the kernels eaten off most cobs. They will gravitate to the corn more and more as fall continues.

If you have alfalfa surrounded by corn, I'm betting any groves, fence lines, drainages, and grassy swales will be the ticket for bedding. I view the corn/beans as the main course and a little alfalfa as dessert.

*edit - Dave's last post goes right along with what I see here in MN.

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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:42 am

My only experience with alfalfa is public ground in Nebraska. Buck I killed in 2013 had a belly FULL of it. But that was mid November. And there was no corn around. You could see the beds all over where deer were laying up chewing cud at night.

Its very interesting the same food, different areas of the country, different draw. KS picked bean fields, I totally skip them. For us, much like Lockdown, KS corn is KING. Cut Corn + Heavy Cover = Great deer hunting. Winter wheat....ehh hit or miss. Never really see deer on cut milo either.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:44 am

whitetail_addict wrote:I don't intend on hunting that field, more or less just wanting to see if the field will be enough to keep him in the area he's been all summer. I've also got a full apple tree and oaks on this 40. When the time is right I'll be within [glow=red]75 yards of where I suspect he's been bedding[/glow].

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...whether it be apples, acorns or alfalfa. You open in Sept...so your odds are higher for sure.
Last edited by mainebowhunter on Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:44 am

mainebowhunter wrote:My only experience with alfalfa is public ground in Nebraska. Buck I killed in 2013 had a belly FULL of it. But that was mid November. And there was no corn around. You could see the beds all over where deer were laying up chewing cud at night.

Its very interesting the same food, different areas of the country, different draw. KS picked bean fields, I totally skip them. For us, much like Lockdown, KS corn is KING. Cut Corn + Heavy Cover = Great deer hunting. Winter wheat....ehh hit or miss. Never really see deer on cut milo either.


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Re: Early season green food sources

Unread postby Bucky » Sat Sep 03, 2016 2:33 am

Corn definetly heats up in Oct and is good till picked. Isolated white oaks are deer magnets though

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