About J. Wayne Fears

“Why aren’t the deer coming to my food plots? I lime, fertilize, and plant according to wildlife biologist recommendations, and still I do not have deer utilizing the plots.”

This is a question I get every fall after food plots have been planted and are established.

A related question I get during the same period is, “I plant my food plots according to recommendations and they do not come up as high as my friend’s food plots. Why?”

Exclusion cages can be made out of 2" x 4" welded wire fencing. Roll out 10 feet of wire, and straighten.

In many cases the answer to both questions is the same – deer are utilizing the food plots – but during the night or during times when no one is around. Many times I have visited food plots where the property owner has done everything right, but the crop appears to be short and not growing vigorously. This is because the crop is fed on heavily at night, beginning as soon as the crop comes up. The night feeding keeps the crop eaten down so that it is hard to determine the plants’ growth. The owner does not realize it and thinks he has a poor crop.

It is important for you as a food plot farmer to know if deer are actually feeding on your food plots, and if so, how much. Having this knowledge will help you understand your food plot success and influence future food plot management decisions.

	Using wire cutters or fence tool, cut wire.

Evaluating Usage

There are several ways to evaluate deer usage of a food plot. Some are expensive and time consuming. Others are very scientific. The least expensive and most easily done is to construct an exclusion cage – sometimes called a browse enclosure, utilization cage, or utilization barrier – on each food plot you plant. This simple device prevents deer and other animals from eating on a small area inside a cage. By observing how much and what kind of forage grows inside the cage and comparing it with the rest of the food plot, you can see how much forage is being produced and, by comparison, how much the deer are eating.

It usually comes as a surprise to new food plot farmers as to how much forage is inside the exclusion cage when compared to the remainder of the food plot. This is especially true after the crop has reached its full potential. Deer usually eat much more of a crop than casual observers think, and many food plot crops that appear to not be doing well are simply eaten down from constant utilization by deer.

Exclusion cages can be any shape. I have seen them round, square, and rectangular. While I like the round shape, there is no right or wrong, as long as it is built so deer cannot feed inside the cage.

	Form circle and connect wire with plastic cable ties.

How to Make an Exclusion Cage

To make an exclusion cage, follow these simple instructions:

1. Obtain a roll of 2" x 4" welded wire fence that is four feet high. A 50-foot roll of this wire will cost you about $38, and will make five exclusion cages.
2. Roll the wire out on a flat surface and straighten it so that it is easy to cut. It is best to wear leather gloves when handling the wire.
3. Using wire shears or a fencing tool, cut a 10-foot length of the fence.
4. Be sure to cut the fence so that the cut is made on one edge of the 2-inch horizontal wires. This will leave a 2-inch wire closure tab on the vertical wire.
5. Make a circle with the 10-foot section of fence and fasten with the wire tabs or, as I like to do, cut off the wire tabs and use plastic cable ties to form the cylinder.
6. Set the circular cage upright in a food plot just after it is planted and stake it down to prevent deer, wild hogs, or other wildlife from knocking it over. Use two to three rebar or T-posts as stakes. Secure the exclusion cage to the stakes with heavy duty plastic cable ties. If you are using rebar as stakes, you can weave the stake in and out of the wire to hold it in place.
7. Be sure to remove the cage or mark it with bright orange tape before mowing or breaking the plot. It can be difficult for a tractor operator to see.

Using rebar or T-post, stake exclusion cage to ground in newly planted food plot. Secure cage to stakes with heavy duty plastic cable ties.

What the Exclusion Cage Will Tell You

By putting an exclusion cage in each of your food plots when you plant, you will learn a lot about the food plot use during the coming months. Studying the amount and type of growth within the cage as compared with what is on the outside of it will tell you just how much the deer are feeding on the food plot. On small food plots, the crop seems to come up an inch or two and never get any higher. Often the exclusion cage shows that it was not a crop failure, but simply heavy browsing.

The unbrowsed plants in the exclusion cage also show the overall health of the plants growing in the plot. It is a good barometer as to how the crop would have done if unbrowsed, and will help you select plants for that food plot in the future.

Also, the plants growing in the exclusion cage can help you determine what plants in your food plot are the first choice plants with deer in the area. In a food plot I was monitoring while working on this article, I had Trophy Radishes planted with winter wheat and Durana clover. In the enclosure, the wheat and radishes were thriving but on the outside the radishes were eaten down to the ground and the wheat and clover were thriving. Next year I will plant more Trophy Radishes, especially in the plots I like to hunt in the early bow season.

If the crop inside your cage is equal to the crop outside, this is a good indication that little browsing is taking place. This can mean several different things. Few deer in the area, abundant natural food, or poor weather conditions for deer movement, are just some examples. I have seen years of heavy acorn and other mast crop production when it wasn’t until the late winter that deer began using food plots. Also, I have seen food plots planted with crops the deer didn’t like, and it wasn’t until the crop was changed that the food plot was used. Compare what’s going on inside your exclusion cage with what is going on in the area, and you’ll learn a lot.

	The exclusion cage allows you to compare the unbrowsed food in the cage to the browsed food plot around it.

The exclusion cage can also help you determine if you have too many deer on your property. If the plants inside your exclusion cage are thriving and the food plot outside the cage is eaten to the ground with little but weeds and crop stubble showing, your deer population is probably beyond the carrying capacity of the habitat. It is time to call in your local wildlife biologist for recommendations.

The exclusion cage is an inexpensive, simple food plot management tool that, when properly used, can teach you a lot about each and every one of your food plots.

Great Reference Books

Since I recently wrote columns about managing mast producing trees such as oaks, I have heard from many readers wanting to know what book I used to identify trees and shrubs in the woods and in food lots. The answer is a new book entitled Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs. This is a huge reference book with 950 pages and 3,500 photographs, and was written by Dr. Michael Dirr who for more than three decades was a professor of horticulture at my alma mater, the University of Georgia. This book provides essential details for identification, planting, and care of over 3,700 species of trees and shrubs. It is richly illustrated and easy to use.

Most of my articles are about how to attract deer with plants, but I hear from a number of readers wanting to know how they can plant landscaping and not have deer eat it up. I just received an email from a reader’s wife who said I helped her husband attract deer to their farm, so now I was obligated to help her select plants to plant around their new home that deer would not eat. I recommend those readers get a copy of the book 50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants by Ruth Rogers Clausen. It is a guide to annuals, perennials, bulbs, and shrubs that deer don’t eat. It is a 225-page paperback with color illustrations.

Both of these books are available through Timber Press Books, www.timberpress.com.