No Crops from the rain. Now what ?

[whi52873]

Unfortunately, I've never had the privilege of hunting crop/ag fields. The public land I hunt is in an area where the soil is too rocky which results in a large amount of cattle.

As many have said, I rely on natural browse which in my area is acorns, sapling buds/leaves, and several shrubs (i.e. honeysuckle, jewelweed, honey locust) to name a few. My advice would be as your doing your scouting, look for fresh droppings/browsing as this should tell you what the deer in your area are eating currently. The deer will adapt to having no corn this year meaning you will to. Hope this helps and good luck this season!

[DaveT1963]

What I think the OP will find is that preferred bedding may move until the rut kicks in. It really depends on how reliant the deer was on ag fields. But I assure you the bucks will be keyed into the food that is available and it just means if you can find a good draw (isolated oak, apple, persimmon, etc.) that si going to be a gold mine in heavy ag areas - probably more so than most years as the competition will be greater and the mature bucks just might risk a little earlier travel to it. BTW - this is the typical scenario in cattle country every year. Find concentrated poop/big tracks over a preferred natural source and you might just have a better hunt than you think.

[Hildebrand]

What I think the OP will find is that preferred bedding may move until the rut kicks in. It really depends on how reliant the deer was on ag fields. But I assure you the bucks will be keyed into the food that is available and it just means if you can find a good draw (isolated oak, apple, persimmon, etc.) that si going to be a gold mine in heavy ag areas - probably more so than most years as the competition will be greater and the mature bucks just might risk a little earlier travel to it. BTW - this is the typical scenario in cattle country every year. Find concentrated poop/big tracks over a preferred natural source and you might just have a better hunt than you think.

Thanks for the replies. I would like to kinda get off topic. So its summer now and I thought this was not a great time to get out and explore ? Please correct me if I am wrong. I know for sure I dont want to get in and around the bedding areas. We have a big thicket thats all bedding and the timber around it. Would it be ok to explore that now and see what they are eating ? I know we had 100 tree removed this past winter and the tops left. I would think they would be eating on them too

[_Splinter_]

There is always cover crops and late beans which are ideal after other beans turn yellow.

[Hildebrand]

we have cover crops planted. Will see how it goes. I'm up for the challenge tho

[headgear]

The deer will adapt, the hunters should follow.

[Livesintrees]

A buck spends most of his daylight hours in and around his bedding area. He may move a short distance every few hours which I found is driven by changes in wind direction. What I’m getting at is, crops or no crops, a mature animal is browsing on what is within the confines of his “safe zone”.

[greenhorndave]

The deer will adapt, the hunters should follow.

Indeed.

I think Stanley had the best summation I’ve seen. Something to the effect of, “Deer like to do two things: hide and eat.”

Just gotta figure out what and where, no matter what set of circumstances.