Why is it important to consider year-round maintenance on your deer fields?  

If deer do not have good, high-quality, consistent nutrition throughout the year, their health, body weight and reproduction will suffer. Maintaining a variety of healthy foods and shelter for bucks and does ensures plenty of wildlife for years to come during bow and gun hunting season.

When hunting season has passed, deer need a sustainable food source to carry them through shortages when temperatures plummet in the winter or rise excessively in the summer. This is especially true when deer are in rut season or lactating. In addition to food, having ample trees and tall grass provides a safe place for deer to take cover, as well as a haven for does to give birth.

What does it take to maintain a good year-round deer field?  

A year-round deer field is either an annual, perennial or combination of both types of food plots. The annual food plot provides high-quality food, but must be re-established each year. A perennial food plot, when done correctly, can provide a good food source and cover for up to 5 years. A combination of both, will give deer a good variety to keep them there all year.

One of the most economical ways to feed and attract deer is to plant a permanent food plot with bushes and trees that surround a green field filled with perennial and annual plantings. Fruit and nut trees are excellent food sources, along with bushes like strawberries and honeysuckle.

You might want to consider an L or Y shaped green field. Both are strategically planned to make the best use of the field while providing the hunter with easy access to deer. In the L shaped design, deer have an easy escape route, so they are more comfortable entering the field. The Y shaped field provides for a better bow and gun hunting area, since one section can be maintained while the other is in use.

Property terrain has much to do with what the green field will ultimately look like. Too much timber and brush can make it difficult to create any formal shape to a green field. Location is important in that there must be an easy access route to be able to maintain the field. Having a good water source nearby is essential.

Planning the field, much like one plans a garden, takes time and preparation to make it productive. Utilizing natural vegetation and incorporating seasonal plantings are both good and cost-effective measures. Knowing when to use wild vegetation and when to plant a better source are equally important, especially for plants such as honeysuckle. Although it grows wild throughout most wooded areas, the best choice that will provide food year-round is Japanese honeysuckle. To protect the perennial bush plants, like Japanese honeysuckle, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries, enclose them in a wire cage so that just the branches extend outside the wires. 
 

Fruit trees, like persimmons, are also popular. Unlike typical wild persimmons trees found in the South, all Japanese persimmons will yield fruit within three years.
A particular variety called the Fuyu, will yield fruit until Christmas in the South and last long after the native persimmons are gone.

With good planning, you can create the ultimate year-round green field for deer. Cahaba Tractor carries all the equipment you need to successfully create or update your existing plot into a year-round field: everything from tractors, to bush hogs, mowers, fertilizers and sprayer attachments.