Crop land Vs pasture land

[samabell]

Just wanted to get some opinions on different hunting grounds. I am from Louisiana and looking at trying to lease some land in Kansas or Missouri and want to know if the deer quality is better on land that has crop rotations corn and soy bean, or regular pasture land that raise cattle. I would also make sure it had some type of hardwood trees also for good stand location. I have been hunting southern LA and MS and have never had the chance to hunt property like I have described. All the property that I have hunted for for many years has been cutover and piney woods with a moisture of hardwoods and it seems hard to pattern deer and find out where they bed and feed. So just wanted to know what type y'all hunt and what kind of success

 

[Fink]

Without a doubt, crop ground. Since you're from LA, I'm assuming you probably won't make but 1-2 trips up a year, correct? If that were the case, I'd try to find a farm that had a mix of ag fields, with some CRP ground, with small finger ridges running through it. Deer love rutting in those CRP fields, and with the ag close by, you should always have does.

If I was looking for a lease, I'd concentrate on finding one that created a bunch of pinch points to limit travel, something like this one:
http://nationalhuntingleases.com/hflListings/display.asp?ListingID=2306
Don't be too concerned about finding bigger chunks of timber, as it just makes the hunting a little more difficult.

 

[tdcour]

I agree with fink. Deer densities are usually higher in my opinion with CRP but your bigger deer will be around crops. If there are cattle on the CRP your early season hunts may be tough as with my experience deer shy away from where cattle are and move in after the cattle are taken off pasture. My buddy shot a 163 for his third be buck in kansas, but it had also been 3 years since he had seen a buck worth shooting.

 

[faris]

Too hard to tell for sure without seeing him from all directions. The rear view is always the most deceiving.

 

[packmule]

It will depend on the area and what Mother Nature has done on any given year. In a drought year I'd want CRP with cattle bc those cattle have to have water and those tanks/guzzlers will do you a lot more good than burnt up crops.

 

[Fink]

It will depend on the area and what Mother Nature has done on any given year. In a drought year I'd want CRP with cattle bc those cattle have to have water and those tanks/guzzlers will do you a lot more good than burnt up crops.

A good point, but honestly, in Missouri and Eastern Kansas, even in really bad drought years water is pretty easy to come by. Just about every section has several decent sized ponds. We never hunt water here. Corn is king here, unless you're hunting really early, and the beans are still green.

 

[bowhiker]

I would stay with the crop land as well. The place I hunt in MO had a good rotation of soybeans and corn, but also alot of creek bottom timber. That stuff can get thick in areas, but it makes for good cover for deer. Don't overlook fields of milo as when it matures, deer will bed down inside of it and feed.