Category: Other Blog Posts By Dr. Grant Woods

Deer are very attracted to soybeans. Soybeans provide excellent quality forage for deer! So planting soybeans in food plots seems like an easy win win. However, deer can damage soybeans to the point they won’t grow or produce pods during the late winter if there are a lot of deer in the area and/or the…Read MORE Here

Deer love most types of grain. Grain is full of energy and sources of high quality energy are rare in nature (acorns on the ground are a low quality source of energy).

Many folks plant corn as a source of energy, but corn can be a tough crop for food plot farmers to grow. Corn takes up valuable food plot acres for months before it produces grain. Read More HERE

Deer love soybeans! They crave the protein rich forage during the summer and the energy rich grains during the winter. In fact, deer crave soybeans so much that they can totally consume a young soybean crop in smaller fields such as food plots long before hunting season. Does that mean soybeans are a bad choice Read More HERE

I enjoy watching deer year round! It’s often relatively easy to locate deer during the summer because they often are on a daily pattern of food, cover, food, cover.

Deer will seek the best quality forage within their range that they don’t associate with danger. It’s easy to forget the last part of that sentence (don’t associate with danger).

Knowing what types of foods deer prefer during each time of year helps locate where deer will be feeding. Deer crave protein during the summer so they often feed on ag crops such as soybeans… Read MORE HERE

Antlers can grow very fast this time of year. They grow rapidly due to massive amounts of blood flowing through the developing antlers. This blood flow carries the material, primarily protein, necessary to build the antlers. Later during the summer the protein will be replaced with hard minerals that give the antlers their rigid form…Read MORE HERE

Most folks know that raccoons, opossums, coyotes, snakes, rats, etc., are turkey nest predators. The mammal predators probably find the nest by trailing the hen. Wet hens have such a strong odor that even I can smell them. There is an entirely different class of predators that uses a totally different technique. Crows primarily use….Read MORE Here

Are you spending the off-season wishing you had changed your hunting tactics? Many of us have experienced the frustration of hunting an elusive, mature buck. Research shows each year more hunters are passing immature bucks. More than 60% of bucks harvested in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma were 3.5 years old or older (Quality Deer Management)…Read MORE HERE.

Turkey season has closed and my thoughts have switched to creating better habitat and to the coming deer season. Patterning bucks is one reason I keep my trail cameras out during the summer. Not only do I enjoy watching antlers develop, but the cameras help me learn about travel patterns that may be helpful during…Read MORE HERE

A few weeks ago we found a turkey nest while clearing some brush from the edge of a bedding area to create a new hidey-hole food plot. The nest had six eggs in it at the time. I put a Reconyx trail camera with video capabilities on the nest and have enjoyed watching what hens…Read MORE HERE

Turkey season is still open in some northern states. I really like hunting turkeys during the late season! Typically a majority of hens have started nesting by this time of year and stopped responding to gobblers. Gobblers that were almost impossible to call for weeks because hens were going to them daily are now very….Read MORE HERE