West Texas Deer Management and Food Plots

I have a place near Colorado City, Texas and I have multiple feeders on it. I have been curious about food plots or any other forms of vegetation that would increase my deer productivity on my land. It is an old cotton farm and there is an ample amount of land for planting. Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be good for that area that would have the deer swarming my land?

Any comments or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by jake on January 20, 2011 at 9:32am

I started doing food plots on our ranch here in Central Florida about 7 or 8 years ago. Now I plant 4 to 8 each fall. 1-4 acres each, this is a large ranch. They are fenced with barbwire to keep the cows out. Its a lot cheaper than feeders with corn running about 7.50 a 50lb bag here. I buy my seed direct from a farm supply company not the over priced stuff they advertise on TV. We disk them, then plant them, then fertilize them. We do best with glyphosate ready clover in the summer and if you let the cows on it when it blooms it will reseed itself saving time and money. In the fall we do rape, oats and cow peas, each in their own field so we can observe which is working best. We also rotate crops to avoid soil depletion. The deer prefer cow peas and will usually try to eat them before they can get more than a couple of inches tall. My cousin also grows 50-100 acres of rye grass for the cows. Turkeys like the plots too. Last year in 4 acres of thigh high rape I counted 14 racked bucks in one afternoon.