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10-15-2019, 06:05 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 51
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Elk favorite food
Up until October there is various and abundance of plants that elk feed on, but we all know when the leaves have fallen and everything on the ground turns brown, elk have no choice to move to new feeding area,, i'm guessing at this time of year most elk are killed at/to or from field. what has been your living experience on this subject?
What is their favorite food at that time October,November.
Thanks
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10-15-2019, 06:08 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: onoway, Ab
Posts: 7,025
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Second cut alfalfa that wasn’t cut or canola swaths.
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10-15-2019, 06:59 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 6,496
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokinyotes
Second cut alfalfa that wasn’t cut or canola swaths.
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Haven't seen one in canola. Lots traveling to and from alfalfa second cuts though. Passing right through barley both ways.
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10-15-2019, 07:04 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: onoway, Ab
Posts: 7,025
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 270person
Haven't seen one in canola. Lots traveling to and from alfalfa second cuts though. Passing right through barley both ways.
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A few years ago I had a antlerless elk tag and the wife had a antlerless moose tag. We had permission on some land where they didn’t get the canola off. The game was just like cattle pasturing out there. I got my elk and she got her moose 50 yards apart.
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10-15-2019, 09:17 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Iron River
Posts: 5,158
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokinyotes
A few years ago I had a antlerless elk tag and the wife had a antlerless moose tag. We had permission on some land where they didn’t get the canola off. The game was just like cattle pasturing out there. I got my elk and she got her moose 50 yards apart.
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Was the canola late/still in bloom?
Or were they eating the new growth from cracked pods?
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10-15-2019, 09:20 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Wheatland County
Posts: 5,678
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Seen 3 very nice bulls west of the Red Deer river couple summers back in a floweredcanola field. Also a favorite haunt for Muley bucks. A new one to me they're on it after the flowers drop. Good luck on the hunt!
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10-15-2019, 09:33 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,060
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Many of the grains and peas are hard on the game, it can heat up their belly, digestive upset, which I’m sure their not too fond of.
I’ve walked many field edges, loads of game trails coming out the bush of and going back in. Biggest thing I have noticed is that the elk will hang out on field edges feeding on the clover. Doesn’t seem to matter which crop is seeded other than alfalfa..
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10-15-2019, 09:41 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Look behind you :)
Posts: 27,789
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Standing corn or standing or swathed oats and wheat. Alfalfa is a given, any green regrowth also.
LC
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Last edited by Lefty-Canuck; 10-15-2019 at 10:03 PM.
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10-15-2019, 09:55 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: onoway, Ab
Posts: 7,025
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IR_mike
Was the canola late/still in bloom?
Or were they eating the new growth from cracked pods?
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I didn’t see any new growth. It had been laying a couple months as this was mid November
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10-15-2019, 10:25 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,257
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Can't say it ise the favorite food for elk,,, but they seem to like faba beans preferentially to alfalfa.
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10-16-2019, 08:54 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 248
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They love out alfalfa 5/7 nights a week we have elk in our field
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10-16-2019, 10:04 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 51
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Glad to see everyone's input here, this help a lot, I had the same experience saw elk along barley field but they would not venture out to eat it but rather they stayed on the fringe, and I was wondering what food source they are looking for or at least avoid to hunt.
Thank you
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10-16-2019, 10:25 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 10,257
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IR_mike
Was the canola late/still in bloom?
Or were they eating the new growth from cracked pods?
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Rape seed has been used as livestock forage for centuries.
Animals will eat it at all stages of growth, leaves, green and mature oil pods.
It produces a much more flavourful meat than grains.
If I was to choose between rape/canola fed game and grain fed, it would be rape, every time.
I'm watching a swathed field right now, 300 acres of oats with lots of volunteer wheat and 20 acres of canola. Deer, moose and horses are all wading through the grains to feed in the canola.
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10-16-2019, 11:44 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 51
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Ummm ...all that time I thought elk disliked canola, this is really opening my eyes now, keep them coming.
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10-16-2019, 12:06 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,819
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Just from my brief personal experience and observations, all game, including deer, elk, moose, even bear, prefer canola to other crops, at any growth stage. I almost never see them feeding in wheat if there is canola around.
In fact, I know that larger mule deer would move every year to where canola is within reasonable distance. I learned this the hard way by watching half a dozen or so of brute mule bucks to use my priority and draw a tag to only find out that all of them were gone and were back next season when canola was back on the fields, lol. Keep that in mind when you target some bucks and decide to pull your tag.
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10-16-2019, 12:16 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 728
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Oats and its not even close in my opinion.
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10-16-2019, 12:56 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 997
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roper1
Seen 3 very nice bulls west of the Red Deer river couple summers back in a floweredcanola field. Also a favorite haunt for Muley bucks. A new one to me they're on it after the flowers drop. Good luck on the hunt!
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funny. though only Geese/ducks fed in standing canola
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10-16-2019, 02:06 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: GRAND PRAIRIE
Posts: 5,720
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I have canola all-around my place last week there was everything in it elk, moose deer, bear, grouse they seem to like something in it
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10-18-2019, 11:58 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,011
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So for the elk that don’t hit the farmland crops what do people think elk eat in the winter? I have seen them browsing on willow, young aspen and alder just like moose. They eat a lot of different leaves also, I dont know the name of them unfortunately. They don’t always paw for grass.
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10-18-2019, 12:43 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: My House
Posts: 13,486
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountainaccent
They love out alfalfa 5/7 nights a week we have elk in our field
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I know who's inbox is about to light up. LOL.
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10-18-2019, 12:53 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 752
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peas then canola in my area, walking through the canola fields across a gravel road to get to the peas here
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10-18-2019, 02:10 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 248
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sns2
I know who's inbox is about to light up. LOL.
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Can all it wants lol I don’t even hunt my field lol
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10-18-2019, 03:09 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Dodge City
Posts: 1,283
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I've seen elk go a long way for standing oats and hay but really haven't seen the Canola be much of a magnet to more than the odd critter once the flowers are gone. Maybe it's a different strain where I'm at .
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10-18-2019, 03:40 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 728
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountainaccent
Can all it wants lol I don’t even hunt my field lol
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Why dont you hunt your own field if its full of elk? safety concerns ? or prefer the experience elsewhere?
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10-18-2019, 04:54 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 248
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The moose
Why dont you hunt your own field if its full of elk? safety concerns ? or prefer the experience elsewhere?
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Not much of a challenge and save them mostly for the sweetheart to hunt
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10-19-2019, 10:58 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,522
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Here’s one most have never heard. Turnips. Used to hunt in a turnip field and the elk moose and deer would send the farmer into fits. They would walk along and take one bite out of the turnip and move on to the next as if the were looking for a sweet one leaving the turnip useless to the farmer. He showed me a giant set of moose antlers around 50” and a six point bull elk that he claimed he found dead in his field with large turnips stuck in their throats. Not sure if it was true or not but makes a hell of a story.
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10-19-2019, 05:11 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 6,496
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Hunting pvt land for the last month. 12,000 acres of canola on the property, freshly swathed, swathed 2 weeks, and still standing.
Haven't seen one animal on any of it. In fact the deer that ran from us hated running through the swathed stuff. Punji sticks.
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You matter. Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared... ...then you energy.
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10-19-2019, 05:27 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 608
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2nd cut alfalfa where I hunt.
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10-19-2019, 08:35 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 766
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[QUOTE=270person;4042458
Haven't seen one animal on any of it. In fact the deer that ran from us hated running through the swathed stuff. Punji sticks.[/QUOTE]
I'm not sure if I prefer walking through cut canola or standing canola. Both suck in their own way.
I have never seen an animal except bears eat canola, but there is much I haven't seen.
Alfalfa is the favorite amongst Cervids in my experience.
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