Corn: Cut or Leave Standing?
Filed under: Ask Grant, Food Plots
Dr. Woods, I planted 20 acres of corn this year on my 100 acre farm. I have always read about people not having great success when hunting adjacent to farms that did not have corn cut yet, so I figured that it must be good to have a lot of corn on one’s property. My assumption was right. So far I’ve gotten more bucks on camera than I’ve ever seen. These pictures are mostly near green plots (I have 5 acres of clover, WW, WR, AWPs, and brassicas planted in different plots) since they are the only place I can get photos of deer in the open. I’m not sure if the corn contributed to the amount of photos, but I suspect the corn is a good thing. I’ve walked around my farm on three occasions and have jumped three different deer bedded in the corn after getting 5 feet from them. It is legal here to bait deer and cut corn down for deer (mow it). How do you recommend I hunt the corn? Muzzleloader season starts soon, when the rut is beginning to kick in, and I’m wondering how to use the corn to my advantage. I presume if I cut all the corn down they would use it at night since they wouldn’t have any cover. Alternatively, I could leave it standing and hope deer use the green fields or that bucks are chasing through the corn and green fields. Or should I cut strips from my stands as the season progresses? I remember watching a video where you said you tend to leave yours standing. I’ve noticed that the deer haven’t really “learned” how to eat the corn off the stalk, but can consume ears of knocked down stalks over night. Eric
Eric,
I agree with your observations that deer readily use corn. They do tend to prefer it shelled or at least mowed versus standing. However, so do turkeys, crows, mice, squirrels, etc. If you believe you don’t have enough corn to feed all of the critters until spring green-up, it might fit your objective to leave all or most of it standing. I think mowing corn to create feeding and/or shooting lanes is a great tool. I enjoy using narrow stalking lanes in corn (about ATV wide). I simply sneak through the field with the wind in my face. This technique requires much patience and skill as the hunter must spot the deer before the deer detects the hunter. This usually means moving extremely slow.
If you prefer to hunt with a gun and believe you have plenty of corn to last until spring green-up, then mowing the entire field may be a good option.
Deer will certainly learn to consume ears on standing corn. Deer tend to make a bunch of noise while feeding on standing corn, which can be a huge benefit to the hunter. It allows the hunter to locate deer and limits the ability of deer to hear the hunter approaching. My most common mistake when hunting deer in standing corn is that I get tunnel vision. I locate a deer I wish to harvest and begin stalking toward it. I sometimes forget to constantly monitor other deer and subsequently get busted by them while approaching the deer I’m wishing to harvest.
Growing Deer together,
Grant
