Deer Plots & Oaks

Deer Feeding Plots Are Brown and Oaks Offer Limited Browse

The drought in Mississippi is letting some bow hunting boost their chances by setting up stands near the few oaks which have dropped acorns, providing food for deer.  But hunters who have planted food plots are getting little more than dirt.

Only a few oaks are dropping acorns and giving deer a spot to browse, Kyle Sandidge of Clinton said.

"The deer are basically limited," he said.  "They are eating briers or they are eating select oaks.

He said he's been using trail cameras to watch bucks on his land, knew where the biggest was bedding and eating, and shot that buck on October 7, when the wind changed to blow his scent away from the tree.

"I got in the stand roughly at 4:30," Sandidge said.  "I didn't see any deer until about six o'clock."

Several does were eaten acorns below him when a group of bucks, including the big one he wanted, showed up.  That buck chased most of the other deer away, then started to eat.  Within five minutes, Sandidge had killed a buck that green-scored 142-6/8 inches.

With rainfall since July 1 nearly a foot below normal, red oaks are so stressed they're dropping acorns more than a month early, said Mississippi State University Professor of Forestry Steve Dicke.

White oaks are producing less than normal because the cool wet spring kept winds from their pollen from tree to tree, he said, and lack of rain has stunted usually succulent green plants.

Deer will need food plots this winter but people should wait to plant until there's been a substantial amount of rain, said Chris McDonald, director of the state wildlife bureau in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

Stan Rasberry of Wesson said he tried to plant recently.

"Some of the plots we disked up were like sand consistency they were so dry.  A couple of them we tried to disk and you couldn't because the grounds was so hard," he said.   
Courtesy of Kyle Sandidge (Hunter)