# Clover plot drawing too many deer!



## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

Last August I put in an acre of Ladino clover and field rye. The rye was 6 inches tall by fall and the deer were using it good. This spring the clover is a foot tall and the rye is over 5 foot tall, the clover and rye have choked out all the weeds. It is a fantastic plot, but it is drawing too many deer. The deer are severly damaging my silky dogwood shrubs. I have about 8 acres of them and they are about 2 foot tall. The deer have eaten all this seasons new growth on all the shrubs! The deer are munching my shrubs on there way to the foodplot. They have also attacked my apple trees and have actually ripped limbs off the trees. I plan on spreading milgronite fertilizer around the trees to try to keep them away.


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## Bob S (Mar 8, 2000)

Bishs, remember that come October I`m sure there are many members of this site who will be glad to help you thin the deer from your food plots. Doesn`t that even sound like a good idea for a member`s outing?


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

Sounds like a good problem to have.


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

Yea thats what happens when you plant shrubs for deer. What is amazing is that my property is in southern Saginaw county. It is in an area that has 10-15 deer a mile. It is one of the lowest deer densities in southern Michigan. I believe I am drawing deer in from a long ways because there are no soybeans up, because of the rain delays farmers are having. During bow season I will usually see 1 or 2 deer a hunt, we don't have the deer density problems of Michigan's southern counties. 

When I purchased the property it was 40 acres of crop land with no woods. I have planted over 10,000 seedlings since 1994 and it gets discouraging when I see acres of shrubs that are 5 to 6 years old that are only 2 feet tall.


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## Tom (Sep 12, 2000)

If the deer are eating the shrubs/bracnhes that is a indication that your forage crops aretoo stemmy and need to be mowed to a height of about 4 inches. If the ph has dropped the crops may also may start becoming acidic and bitter.


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## leon (Jan 23, 2000)

Bishs, I've had good success in protecting young apple trees from overbrowsing by using three 6' T-posts staked in a triangle around the tree and then surrounding the posts with a piece of 10' by 5' remesh, the wire material used in concrete work. You end up with a 3.5 foot diameter strong mesh cylinder protecting each tree. The posts cost about $2 each and the remesh about $3 for ten feet if you buy a 150' roll. You'll have $10 into each apple tree, but each of them will be fully protected from deer browse until they are big enough to withstand a little browsing. I have dozens of apple trees protected in this manner right in the middle of my food plots and the deer can't get to them because of the mesh protectors.

I've planted apple trees with and without the mesh side by side and the unprotected trees don't make it. The deer ravage them and, in most cases, they die. In contrast, the mesh protected trees have a very high survival rate and grow rapidly protected from browsing. I have somewhere around a hundred trees protected in this manner and I won't plant an apple tree in deer country without the mesh cylinder. 

You might also consider cutting your clover once or twice a summer to keep it young and tasty. This works well for me and may also keep the summer browsing deer from eyeing up your shrubs and apple trees. 

Good luck and good hunting.


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

Thanks for the advice! That sounds like a good idea with the wire mesh. If I don't do something they will surely kill my trees. As soon as the pheasants are done nesting I will cut the clover. Maybe that will keep them from searching out my shrubs.


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