A bit more work on the front end, but once it's done I'd take a plot over a feeder every time. This one I did in early fall of 2012. A little field, almost two acres had gone feral from years past. All I did was shred it, disc it twice in August exposing roots to be killed by the sun. One more disc in early Oct before seeding, and one more go round to bury seed. Wheat, oats, and rye mix. This was a small place on the Frio river. I counted 49 deer in the field on opening weekend. Some weeds came back but the majority of the plot remained, feeding critters through winter. IMHRO, deer are more relaxed at a plot. The sow with the large football piglet, we let her live until the end of deer season. She was great at driving deer. I whacked one the pigs in the vid, it's in part two.



Cheers

Cool video. That tall buck was the 'Mac-daddy' of that pasture.

I will take a good winter oats food plot in South Texas any day over a feeder. If you can get the rain and get the plot going it will draw deer from a long distance(if there is not another plot anywhere close by). Rut hunting is great on a food plot.
Very nice video. That tall narrow buck needs an attitude adjustment

We plant a 10 acre plot of oats for our sheep each year, but they don't get in until December, usually. I've seen as many as 13 different bucks in the field at one time during daylight hours, out of 39 total deer at that point. They go crazy for a green oat patch.

Food plots all day and every day over feeders. Resort to feeders if you don't get the moisture for the plots to grow.

I do both every year. Rain just isn't dependable enough.

I do both because the deer like both. If somebody comes up with a third option, I'll do that too!!! My thinking is that everything possible should be done to bring them in.

Eddie

I like to do both, currently have about 45 acres of food plots, along with 4 free choice protein feeders on 401 acres.

Nice video. Food plots are always the best if you can get them to take.

Interesting to see that buck let the big sow move him. Our bucks lower their antlers at any hog approaching and will run the hogs off. The mature bucks that is.

Feeder is a good back-up plan. I like my plots, but always have a feeder somewhere close by, if not on the edge of a plot.

Last year I had 2 feeders and planted oats. All the deer killed on my lease were eating oats either in the morning or night. On opening weekend we at 12 deer come into the field about 45 minutes before sundown.

The feeders did not get hit nearly that much.

We named that sow "mono tit" as that's all she was feeding, one piglet.
She had a screw loose. The little 400 acre lease on the Frio, we'd often
see one or more bucks charging around in the brush or across the plot
followed soon after by "mono tit" at full charge. She didn't get along
with any of the other pigs and was an outcast. We let all the bucks walk
or that was our plan that first year. About mid December we caught the
land owners kin on game cams we set up to watch roads after we found tire
tracks that weren't ours, and we had exclusive rights. They killed three
of the 3 to 4 year old bucks we let walk for later years.
We terminated the lease agreement at the end of the season even when the
land owner dropped the price by 2/3rds. The GW told us he could do nothing
and we'd have to go to civil court if we wanted to pursue damages. We
decided to cut our losses and move on.

Great video ...

Great video. I do both every year but the lack of rain has made the food plots just one more money pit...

I have done both for years, prior to both was back in the day when electronic feeders were really unheard of 30+/- years ago (at least to our group). I still remember as a kid watching for a wet cold front to come in on the evening news (this was before internet), plowing up old laid out field, just a long couple of passing strips, going to the creek with a couple of 5 gallon buckets, filling with creek water and then dumping oats in so they could absorb the water & swell up to germinate, tossing out on the freshly plowed ground a few days before the front was supposed to blow thru and dragging an old gate behind the tractor to partially cover the seeds. We didn't have any feeders other than a 5 gallon bucket hanging off a tree limb with a hole cut in the bottom and a broom handle in the hole held in place by a coat hanger thru a drilled hole and a cedar branch wired onto the bottom ... the wind would blow the branch releasing the corn a little at a time. Killed a bunch of deer without the electronic feeders ... was a much simpler time and way of hunting.

great video, thanks for sharing!

As a supplemental food source, you can't beat a food plot. However, if the goal is harvest deer, feeders have the edge IMO. Once they feel the pressure, deer will begin hitting food plots mostly at night. Feeders, on the other hand, encourage deer to hit them at specific times each day. And as others have noted, they don't require moisture.

I've made and used plots as small as 12' X 12' with nothing but rye grass.
Raking leaves out of the patch, scratching up the dirt, tossing handfulls of seed around, and one more dirt scratching. That was back in the late 80's.
Deer were taken off those tiny plots.

I miss seeing mornings like that. Just a batch of coffee and no where needing to be.

I will do both so you have good antler growth.