DOWNLOAD PDF HUNTING FARM COUNTRY WHITETAILS

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1 Chapter 1 : Pennsylvania Deer Farms Farm Country Bucks is an instructional deer hunting video by NextBuk Outdoors (formerly Blood Brothers Outdoors) containing advanced hunting tactics for farmland. Many sportsmen confine their hunting to wooded areas year after year, drawn back to the forests by a strong sense of tradition. But the farmland alternative also is worthy of consideration, and for many good reasons. The Farmland Incentive Agricultural foods are important components of the whitetail diet, especially during winter. One recent study determined that 5 of 10 preferred deer foods were farm crops: Farm crops also have high protein content and produce deer bigger, healthier and fatter than the woodland animals. Woodland deer, on the other hand, may experience good times and hard, especially when mast crops are poor. Other studies have determined that deer concentrations can be up to 10 times higher in the vicinity of agricultural crops than in more remote wooded areas. Deer disperse when food is gone, but in many areas, winter wheat, waste grain and other farm foods are available throughout winter. In farming areas, deer may remain concentrated on agricultural lands long after hunting season ends. Finally, because most farmlands are privately owned, access is limited. That gives resident bucks time to gain that part of the big-buck equation most often missing: Older bucks are bigger bucks. Quite often they join right in with the cows and feed alongside them. Almost all other farm products appeal to deer. Soybeans and corn are relished. Green vegetables are delights. Hay fields attract deer, as do patches of lespedeza and alfalfa. The piece-de-resistance is fruit. Peach and apple orchards, grapes and more attract deer concentrations. Those professionals often know landowners suffering crop damage caused by overabundant whitetails. On a farm I once hunted, the landowner showed me 40 acres of freshly sprouted soybeans eaten by deer. Damage was so great, the farmer received a deer depredation permit from the state wildlife agency allowing him to shoot a number of deer in order to minimize crop destruction. The owner, eager to reduce financial losses, happily allowed me to hunt deer on his land several days each season. Deer can wipe out groves of small fruit trees. You may find additional farmland hunting areas on public grounds by inquiring with your state wildlife agency. Many publicly owned properties encompass agricultural lands that are part of the overall management plan. Hunting pressure tends to be much greater on those areas, however, and special permits may be required to hunt. When other options fall through, public lands provide opportunities that might otherwise be missed. Visit the landowner well before the season starts. A Christmas gift, birthday card, some flowers for the wife, a present for the kids or an offer to help with farm work aids in cultivating good hunter-farmer relations. Share your success with the farmer, too. Most landowners take an interest in the hunt. How to Hunt Farmland Big bucks often rest long hours and feed at food sources near their bedding areas. As winter begins, the bucks feel a pressing need for nourishment before the hard times they know are ahead. Gradually, their daily routines shift. They venture out farther and farther from their core areas in search of quality food. If preferred agricultural crops are available, bucks will feed there. Emphasis usually should be placed on hunting deer trails between bedding areas and crop fields. To find bedding areas, look for and follow well-used trails leading away from the perimeter of crop fields. So when you jump deer, back up and leave. If you plan to hunt mornings only, stay close to the bedding area. That way you can catch deer coming back from feeding areas. If you plan to hunt in late afternoon, stay close to the feeding areas. Set up between bedding and feeding areas and catch deer coming out for their evening meals. If, like many hunters, you prefer to hunt on the edge of a farm field rather than in the woods, select a spot for your stand near a main deer route to or from the field. Your first scouting trip around the edge of a grain or alfalfa field may reveal enough deer tracks to give you the shakes. Careful scouting will reveal a main route for entering and leaving the field. Still-hunting can be effective if conditions are right. Hunt to the last legal minute of the day, and be in position in the morning before first light. Try to find bottlenecks or other physical features that help funnel bucks your way. Woodland hunting will probably always be the mainstay for most whitetail fans, but if you are seeking a new tack to spice up your outings this year, give farmland deer a try. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : hunting farm country whitetails Download ebook PDF/EPUB In their formative years, whitetails develop an intimate relationship with their environment. Thereafter, these big game animals resonate in perfect harmony with their specific surroundings. Behavior patterns of timberland, mountain bred, prairie flats and farm country deer vary substantially. Bruner For many this may sound like a no-brainer simply because of the sheer numbers of deer that abound on your average farm that plants nearly any crops. And that statement rings fairly true especially when the crop is corn, pumpkins, cabbages, and gourds. Not to mention numerous grains that deer devour like candy. In any event it was a daily occurrence to see whitetail in the field, walking the edges of the woods, browsing in the center of the fields, or walking in and out of the corn. New to hunting farm country, but not new to hunting deer, I thought this would be a cake walk. Either way you have a point of interest and concentration. Before you begin your hunt ask the farmer when the expected harvest will take place. After all once the crop is gone so is most of the food source as well as the cover and the deer will change their patterns. Also ask the farmer about what types of blinds and scaffolds are allowed. Some farmers will not appreciate the use of screw-in tree steps so a climbing stick may be needed or a climbing treestand if suitable trees exist. Ask the landowner if there are any areas that are off limits or if certain days or a specific time of a day may be unsuitable for you to hunt. You want to be respectful of the opportunity you have been given. Offer to help the landowner with some chores and some fresh venison once the hunt is over. These are the people that live here and watch the deer every single day. If the crop field you are hunting is a grain that has some height to it you may be able to set up a portable ground blind within the crop itself. The ground blind is going to be very limiting and to be effective the best strategy would be to use natural elements such as the crop itself to make the ground blind melt into the surroundings. If the crop is corn you may have better luck as you will have the height and enough density between rows of corn to effectively breakup your outline. Keep in mind that corn also provides security for whitetail deer. Often you may find that you will need to go in and push the deer out during the firearm season if the farmer has let the corn stand. This can be done by either driving the deer from the corn to the waiting shooters posted outside the corn or you can still hunt through the corn looking for bedded animals. In most cases you are going to find yourself hunting the edge of the field and often that means you will have a good line of sight for a large area where deer are traveling. This is probably going to be your best option for deciding where to move your stand next simply because you will most likely be movingâ a lot. This may sound like it goes against the grain of traditional archery deer hunting, or any deer hunting for that matter, but adjusting to deer movement tends to be the norm in this style of hunting. When you have an open area of field to witness these changes in deer movement it serves your best interest to change with the times. It can seem like a cat and mouse game at times but your attention to daily deer travel patterns will pay off. Obviously this situation will reflect less on a firearm deer hunter so take notes if you plan to hunt the same area for an upcoming firearm season. As mentioned earlier it may come to the point where you want to push the deer from the cover or taller crop fields like corn. Whichever method you chose to use you will find that a lot of clues can now be realized while inside the areas of corn or similar crop. Since you previously steered clear of disrupting the feeding and sometimes bedding area there was no confirmation as to where the deer were feeding the heaviest. Besides looking for area of travel you will also find areas of bedding. You might be surprised to see where large areas of corn stalks appear nearly mowed down like the deer had carved out a room for themselves. Check the ears of corn as you move along looking for evidence of feeding. Once the crops have been harvested the game is going to change in a major way but not always right away. For instance a harvester cannot effectively gather every kernel of corn or every grain of wheat. Hence there will be some food left behind and the deer will return to eat whatever they can easily access plus the natural grasses which are still green and full of moisture. Expect the deer to be on edge during this initial return visit. The deer will also make better use of the surrounding natural cover and become wary during their approach into the field possibly even staging further back in the wooded areas until just before dark. This is the time where you want to once again move your treestand. The deer will now use any cover they can to breakup their silhouette and Page 2

3 detract from their movements. A simple example of this was a farmland field I was hunting many years back that had recently been harvested. Deer were still hitting the field every evening but they began using a simple barb wire fence as cover during their approach into the field. The fence allowed the grasses to grow taller which also enhanced the ability to mask the movement of the deer. After several evenings of watching the deer enter the field via the fenceline, one being a very nice 10 pointer, I decided to take a gamble and situate myself on the ground with my back to the fence which would put the wind at my face and the deer about 20 yards away. As predicted the deer followed the same route as they had for several nights. They came right down along the edge of the fence and broke off into the field to my right about 50 yards away. In total there were 4 does out in front and each passed by right around the 20 yard mark but the buck stayed further out and off to the right leaving about a 35 yard shot. Never to be seen again I wonder how many more years that big farmland buck lived. I settled for an oddball 7 point buck in the same field during the firearm season and during the late archery season connected with a nice doe for the freezer. There was a lot learned in that first full year of hunting farmland whitetails and subsequent years afterward began to make sense as the pieces of puzzles fell into place. Page 3

4 Chapter 3 : Hunting Farm Country Fence Rowsâ Part 1 - Grand View Outdoors Read "Hunting Farm Country Whitetails" by Dragan Vujic with Rakuten Kobo. In their formative years, whitetails develop an intimate relationship with their environment. If there are giant fields full of corn and beans everywhere you turn â why in the world would you invest in planting more food for the deer? I would say the answer is a resounding yes. While food is bountiful in the agricultural lands that many hunters call home, there are several very important roles that food plots fill for hunters and deer managers. Compared to many other locations, deer in agricultural areas have a significantly greater amount of nutrion available to them. Plenty of food â but not neccessarily available all the time. Food plots â especially something like Imperial Whitetail Clover or the like, which will be one of the first plants to green up in the spring, can provide a terrific early source of protien to get the year kicked off right. From a quality of nutrition standpoint, there is more to be desired from traditional farm land as well. On the other hand if your farm or area is heavy on corn, your deer will really be lacking in the nutrition area for much of the year. Again, by planting food plots you can ensure an optimal nutrion source throughout the entire year. Take a look at what the crop grounds around you are providing, and then fill the nutritional gaps with your food plots. A clover, brassica or cereal grain can be a great later season choice. Lastly, deer are natural browsers â they crave and need variety in their diet. With food plots you can provide tremendous diversity in the types of food available â and this can only help your deer herd. Hunting As important as food plots are from a nutritional standpoint, they are equally vital to hunting success. Hunting in Farm Country is already a pretty great situation. Now on the other hand, if you invest in some food plots you all of a sudden have a lot more control. With a food plot you can place it in a location that is optimal for a specific wind direction or stand location. Additionally you can shape food plots to funnel deer through certain areas as well! But possibly more important than the control you have with food plots, is the attracting power they can provide. While ag fields can certainly draw in deer, you can be much more strategic with food plots. If you know what your neighbors have on their property, you can ensure you have something unique on your farm with a plot. And if you know that all the beans or corn surroundig you will be harvested by November â you can ensure that you have a plentiful food source on your land when no one else does. For example, during that late season time period when most crop fields are harvested â a brassica plot like Winter Greens from Whitetail Institute can be a huge draw for deer on the surrounding properties. Other awesome plots for this time of year include standing soybeans, turnips, or any other kind of brassica. Chapter 4 : Hunting - Tallula, Illinois Grigsby Farms Challenges of Bow Hunting Deer in Farm Country One of the best things about hunting whitetails in agricultural areas is also one of the hardest parts. Each year, there is a seasonal abundance of food. Chapter 5 : Lowlands Whitetails Hunting Ranch New York -- Where Dreams Become Reality photojpg:the preferred bedding areas and food sources will change through the season and farm country whitetails often roam a much larger home blog.quintoapp.comed is the author Jason Mitchell with a whitetail from Chapter 6 : Hunting Farmland Whitetails blog.quintoapp.com The Farm Country Whitetails Branch of QDMA offers great prizes to three lucky winners! Make sure that everyone in your hunting party carries a camera this deer hunting season! Every whitetail has a chance to win! We are looking for photo quality of your harvested whitetail buck OR doe. Only. Chapter 7 : Are Food Plots Needed In Farm Country? Wired To Hunt Page 4

5 Woodland hunting will probably always be the mainstay for most whitetail fans, but if you are seeking a new tack to spice up your outings this year, give farmland deer a try. Prime farm country offers some of our nation's best hunting for big, healthy deer. Chapter 8 : Native & Exotic Hunting 18, Acres in Texas OX Ranch Description. This tract boasts all the attributes of a bulletproof big buck property and scenic beauty only big farm country can provide. This parcel is perfectly situated between thick cover and fields of nutrient-rich crops. Chapter 9 : Ultimate Whitetail Experience - Wisconsin Trophy Whitetail Hunting New to hunting farm country, but not new to hunting deer, I thought this would be a cake walk. Think again. I got schooled the entire early archery season by a bunch of deer that I thought weren't even paying attention. Page 5