Create Fall Food Plots For 2024 Deer Season!

Create Fall Food Plots For 2024 Deer Season!

By Lane Rumelhart

Very few things in life bring me more peace and satisfaction than climbing into my tree stand to hunt over a fall food plot. Crafting the perfect fall plot can be both rewarding and challenging. There have been years where plots turn out lush and abundant with forage, and years where Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. The last few years, I have narrowed my focus to plots I hunt primarily in late October and November. I have four key factors that have led to more success in the stand, while simplifying my fall food plot strategy. Fall food plots are all about attraction, and to be more specific, attracting your target whitetail.

Location Is Key
I’m a firm believer that the most important aspect of your fall plot is the location. You have to be able to not only enter, but also exit without disrupting the deer. Keeping the plot upwind of the predominant wind direction you plan to hunt is critical. It is best to use natural screens, such as ditches or overgrown fence lines, to help conceal yourself to and from the stand. If you can’t enter and exit undetected, this will greatly reduce your chances of a successful hunt, regardless of the quality of your food plot.

Choose the Size of Your Food Plot or Kill Plot
Once I have chosen an area for a plot, I shift my focus to size. As I said earlier, fall plots are primarily about attraction. I want to make sure the plot is large enough to handle a dense deer population, but small enough to increase the chance of having a shot opportunity if the right deer visits. These spots are set for the archery season, and my goal is to set up my stand where I can comfortably shoot at least 50% of the plot area. Depending on how experienced of a bow hunter you are, this will impact the size. I typically shoot no more than 35 yards, which gives me about eight-tenths of an acre within my shooting range.

This may seem like a small area, but remember, the goal is to increase your odds of bringing a deer within range. Often there will be some real estate left untouched to keep the plot condensed enough to encourage deer to work within bow range. Other winter plots are designed for feeding deer throughout the harshest months of the year and offer shot opportunities for the gun seasons in Iowa. In that case, you’ll need to maximize those plots to ensure there is enough food to keep deer in your neighborhood.

Select Your Food
Perhaps the most talked about topic when creating a new plot is what type of food to plant. There are thousands of articles written with plenty of opinions. Personally, I put most of my energy into two different species for fall plots in Iowa—clover and brassica mixes. I plant clover in areas where I can bring in a mower to ensure cutting it at least once per growing season. Areas with high deer density may require no mowing at all. Mowing is more about weed reduction than producing more forage. The less you have to mow clover, the better. Another reason I prefer clover are the widespread options available. There is a clover variety for almost every soil type. If managed well, perennial mixes can last anywhere from five to seven years before the plot needs to be reworked.

In harder to reach areas, I prefer brassicas. These plots often are areas where I have hand-sprayed a glyphosate product in mid-July. Some years I use prescribed fire to burn off these areas to create a nice, bare soil bed to broadcast the seed right before a forecasted rain. With the recent drought, my newest strategy has been to spray in June, burn the area in July, wait for a new weed layer to come up and spray again in early August when everything is about six inches tall. This allows a shorter thatch layer to remain, and brassica seed still can find its way to the ground for good soil contact. Thatch is absolutely necessary in areas with no shade or drought-stricken areas. If you have access to a drill or are able to work the soil in some capacity, this will benefit your brassica plots. I have limited access to equipment, so get plenty of exercise when creating a brassica plot. Once seedlings come up, applying urea as a fertilizer supplement will help the crop take off. Brassicas grow quickly, and can become too dense if the area is overseeded. When broadcasting, a good ratio is seven or eight pounds per acre. Overall, this crop provides a lot of forage and is highly attractive to whitetails beginning in October, and throughout the rest of deer season.

Timing is Everything
After the location has been set, the area worked, and you have chosen your preferred food, there is one last factor to keep in mind—timing. The nature of your farm and neighborhood will impact the timing of when you hunt your food plot. After spending hours and hard-earned cash on what could be the ticket to wrapping your tag around an antler, don’t blow it! Don’t risk your spot by hunting a wind that is less than favorable. Don’t let your excitement on opening day make you push the envelope when it is hot and most mature deer are not daylight active. I prefer to wait for a high-pressure system that usually brings a northwest wind to Iowa (where most of my stands are set up) and pair that with information from my trail cams. If I have pictures of target deer becoming more daylight active with the right wind, it is time. If you are hunting an area with a higher hunting pressure, it may be worth pushing in a little earlier in the season before others have a chance to harvest the mature buck you are after. Ultimately, you must know your area, and what will set you up for the most success.

Fall food plots are sure to increase your chances of harvesting deer, whether that be doe management or a mature buck. Even if the opportunity never presents itself, it’s hard to beat a cool evening sitting in a tree over an area of ground you worked on over the past several months. There’s no perfect plot recipe, but I hope these tips help guide those looking to improve their plots this upcoming fall. Best of luck, and happy hunting!