I've never been in a club, or associated with one single person, who plants year around for nutritional purposes. And that spans 25ish years and countless properties/people.

Don't get me wrong, I realize and agree with the practice, I just find it difficult to believe a substantial percentage of hunters plant (or otherwise manage forage/nutrition in the form of plots) more than once prior to season, for any intent other than hunting those fields. Even if 10% do, that's a lot of people sewing a lot of acreage, but that still leaves 90% who are only using a plot as "bait".

Now, perhaps you and some of the others in this thread are part of that 1% (or even 10%), so I can see how me using a plot simply for "bait" is different from how you use a plot. In similar fashion, that's also why I would never spend big dollars to buy expensive seed (Whitetail Institute, or Tecomate for example). I've always just used the el-cheapo Co-Op stuff...once dark settles on Jan 31st, I don't care what happens with that field. Just being honest.

What the hell does the amount of effort have to do with what something is? If you hitch a plow to yourself and drag it like a mule; if you crawl along and poke each individual seed hole with your little finger; if you water each seed with your own spit; you know what it will be when it starts to grow out of the ground? BAIT!

It's harder to weave a basket by hand than it is to let a machine make one. But in either case you know what the finished product is? A f#####g basket. Are machine made baskets illegal because they are easier to make?

And this notion that all you have to do is swing by the feed store on the day you are going hunting and buy a sack of corn to pour out under your tree is beyond ignorant. Deer like corn but they have to find it like any other food source. That takes time just like with a green patch. You can't just pour it out for the first time and sit over it that day. It's food not magic pixie dust. Good grief.



I wish I knew the percentage of Alabama hunters that planted patches that provided 9-12 months of food each year for deer. I bet it wouldn't crack double digits. I'm 50 years old and lived here my whole life. I don't know anyone that does and I know a lot of hunters. The vast, VAST, majority of green patches planted in Alabama each year are just winter wheat, rye grass, or oats. None of which provide year round food. This is just another myth that people dig out of their @$$ to make themselves real superior.

but a heck of a lot longer than the 50 pound bag of corn.

You can hardly find a pre mixed blend that offers only cereal grains

and all the crimson and white clover and Ladino clover must be stored in local feed stores and co-ops to sell to people outside the state of Alabama too

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Or farmers who plant it for cattle forage. You do know that co-ops and feed stores sell to farmers also.

wrong again, no one I know plants $100 bag of anything unless its RR corn, and I never said that the AVERAGE hunter plants perennials or blends with clovers, just that a lot do … you are trying to argue the fact (that a food plot (green patch as you call it) will provide more food for a longer time period than a "BAIT PILE"). I previously said that if you supplemental feed, year around you can take this difference out… again, go back and read my post. You've also yet to say how you are blessed with the knowledge that hardly anyone plants perennials or blends that provide food for most of the year, and again, I find it just as amazing that you know so many hunters and NONE of them plant a blend.



good one…you are funny too.. so 50 pounds doesn't last all year??? …you are good at putting words in my mouth…again, go back and read my post…I was talking about people that bait, as in putting out a bag or two of corn near their stand to draw in deer and for no other reason…That is not the same as supplemental feeding. Which I've already said…. again go back and read my post...





Up until this point I at least thought you knew how and when to plant foodplots, but I'll explain…"fall mixes" cereal grains, clovers, brassicas, etc. are planted before hunting season, usually from late Sept. (in N Bama) to late Oct. (south Bama). This would be why you don't see much seed being sold after deer season is over. I realize that some, maybe even a lot of people only plant "green patches" with cereal grains, but try to stay with me here… there are hunters, a lot of hunters that plant blends with more than just cereal grains. One more point you can chew on… cereal grains make up a large perentage of just about any mix, so that would be why a co-op/ feed store sells more cereal grains than anything else. Anyway, back to my original point ANY kind of foodplot will provide more food, for a longer time period than a pile of bait.



you finally have a good point, but same store also uses that seed to blend for hunters that plant blends with clover every fall.

Yeah, you trust in that and see what happens to you. The warden still has the discretion to write you up if he feels like the corn/feeder benefitted your hunt.

I have no idea how I got sucked in to arguing with someone that will not even read what I said, and then picks and chooses certain parts, leaves out parts, then uses what I've already said to argue with me (supplemental feeding for example). anyway, keep on keeping on and tell your green patch hunting buddies that only plant cereal grains that at least those green patches will feed the deer longer than the bait piles.

First time Alabama hunter here. I've spent my years as a FL resident hunting right over corn sometimes. I've killed them on it and off it.

I'll share my ticket story now that it's done and over with and I tried to fight it in court.

I was placing corn in my plot in front of a camera in the summer to see what kind of deer I had on this new to me club spot. It was my spot to hunt! It came time to plant our winter/fall plot and I did not put a single bit of corn out once my plot was tilled under and planted. This was a month prior to season opener.

But we planted corn stalks on our plots in July. So I had a ton of "LEGAL" corn still on my plot that the raccoons did a good job of spreading out all over the place on my plot.

Again, I placed no corn out over a month prior to opening day of bow season.

Come opening day of bow season, the man walks in on me and goes right to where I used to put corn out over the summer (he had been in there before and knew exactly where to go). He walked right past all my "LEGAL" corn stalks and cob corn on the ground.

He kicked the dirt and started digging into the dirt with his boots. He found about 5 kernels of old corn that had roots etc... This corn had been tilled under, was growing roots etc... My corn stalks were about 15 yards away! He WROTE ME A TICKET! I asked and pleaded with him why that he was writing me a ticket for this when I had a ton of LEGAL corn everywhere. He just said, "I'm just doing my job and there's still corn there where you placed it!"

Being the truthful person I am, I said, sure I put it there a long time ago and it had been tilled under and was old and you had to dig it out of the dirt with your boots etc... It didn't help. Went to court over it and that officer got up there and lied through his teeth saying that I had fresh scattered corn in a larger area. Lied right to the judge under oath.

Even when he wrote me the ticket, he said, he pretty much knew I was not "baiting" but he wrote the ticket anyway.

Alabama's rules are simply crazy!!!!! Either allow it or don't! Planting corn or putting it out on the ground is no different! And writing me a ticket for month old corn growing roots when I have fresh "LEGAL" corn 15 yards away is just ridiculous!!!!!!