Natures Bounty

The 2014 summer season draws to an end here in far Northern Maine. But with the end of summer begins the best season, Fall/Hunting season. With many varieties of fruit bearing trees becoming ripe, the animals will begin to feed on them storing fat reserves for the upcoming winter months. Berry season this year was one of the best I have seen in years in the County. Many of the berries becoming ripe a couple weeks "early".

High bush cranberry

The food plots are doing well. The moose have started feeding on the cabbage and brassica leaves and will pick up with intensity as the colder nights approach. The deer have found our corn stalks and are lightly feeding on the small tender ears of corn. As we receive more freezing temps in mid to late November the winter bulbs will be pawed up and fed on for that little extra fat reserve for the harsh winter ahead. 

"Nova-Joe" corn

Winter bulb mix

The clover fields are doing very well. With lots of lime being applied throughout the growing season it should be "sweet" for the deer. We also like to plant Dixie Crimson clover in our plots. It has to be replanted each season because of the severity of our winter. The Dixie crimson clover has a very sweet fragrance when being mowed and is a great attractant for the whitetail deer in our area. The soybean plants also grew very well this year. But I have yet to see any soybeans on the plants. The soybean plants were browsed upon throughout the summer growing season by many a deer getting the "taste" for soybeans. We find here in Northern Maine that it most often takes a season or two for the deer to realize that some of the plants in the food plots are "food". Most of what we plant is not natural to them as a food source. We most likely are the only food plots in the area that these deer will ever see.

Dixie Crimson clover

soybeans