Deer Food Plot Basics Part 1

Deer Food Plot Basics -- Part 1

Preparing a food buffet for the whitetails on your property by Larry Self

A four-pointer and a six-point buck haphazardly sparred below me, keeping a close eye behind them. At the far end of the acre-sized food plot, a very wide eight-pointer teased me, staying out of bow range, while the younger bucks were unaware of the danger they weren’t really in. I hadn’t traveled to this place to shoot a routine October whitetail. What I was looking for was standing out of range, but this was the first evening of my experience. No rush -- this place was loaded with food plots and quality whitetail deer. Tomorrow would offer another opportunity.

As with most worthwhile tasks, getting started is half the battle. It’s no different when it comes to creating a productive food plots aimed at whitetail deer. Productive for both the deer and the hunter.

Everybody wants to know a lot about everything, but the truth is we all know just a little about a few things. The question I get asked most often in the months leading up to deer season is about food plots -- where, when, what, and why lead the way.

Up until last fall, I was unable to answer most of the questions because I flat out didn’t know. Spending three days with some experts on the subject at the first ever Biologic Food Plot Field Days in South Alabama last fall was more than a crash course in food plot-ology, it was the education I was looking for. And it’s an education I’m ready to pass on before we start hanging treestands in early September. To do food plots right, you have to start the process now.

Whitetail food plots can be about as simple or as complicated as you want to make them. Whatever avenue you decide to take, you’ll need a little direction either way. In continuing with what we do here at OVO in providing the most important information on the subjects you want to hear about, we’re going to condense three days of food plot education into a three-part series determined to help you learn more about a subject most of us know little about. Sit back, open your mind, take notes, or get out a highlighter -- it’s time to be educated in food plot basics.

11 Steps

When God created the earth it was perfect and it still is, but there’s a piece of ground here and there that can use some enhancement when we’re talking about attracting or nourishing a deer herd. Before you run out with a tiller, turn some ground, throw out some seed, and sit back on the porch waiting for Boone and Crockett bucks to show up, there is a method to this madness about food plots.

The biggest thing you need to embed into your thought process is success will not happen overnight. But the phrase "build it and they’ll come" can apply with the additional application of patience and hard work. In just a few minutes of listening to Dr. Grant Woods, it was obvious why the Mossy Oak BioLogic expert is considered the authority on food plots. The noted wildlife research biologist has developed an "11 Steps To Successful Food Plots" program that begins with planning and leads to hunting. In this first part of our series, we’ll look at the first four steps.

Define Your Mission

Woods said to begin at the beginning, and that means determining on the front end what the mission of your food plot is -- a feeder plot, hunting plot, or a combination.

A feeder plot is designed to improve the quantity and the quality of forage available in a specific area. A hunting plot is designed to attract deer to a specific location for observation -- most often through a scope or peep sight. A combination food plot is a little of both, but may not be as efficient as a plot with a specific design. Hunting food plots tend to be smaller in size than feeder plots. They are also normally designed narrower with shooting opportunities in mind.

"You don’t have to farm like a farmer to have a great food plot," explained Woods. He said a 4-Wheeler or ATV replaces a tractor in many instances. Several manufacturers make complete lines of food plot accessories designed for use behind an ATV, from discs, harrows, spreaders, graders, and rakes. Hunting plot designs that Woods said are effective include the horseshoe and five-spoke shaped plot. He said deer aren’t always social and these shapes don’t always let them see each other, allowing them to feed on their own time.

Food Plot Location

It doesn’t take someone with the lineage of Einstein to figure out a food plot location should be near areas deer are already currently using. The planting of any food plot doesn’t create whitetail deer. Woods said key factors to consider are areas where you tend to find sheds after deer season, the proximity of good cover, sign like droppings, and of course habitat bottlenecks and established travel corridors. Dr. Woods said food plot locations should be planned with an aspect to where the afternoon sun will be. He recommends locating food plots with them running north to south. It’s a good idea to block the west side of the plot from the afternoon sun with a tree line or other natural shelter.

Another factor or feature to consider before planting the first seed is an area’s accessibility for planting equipment such as tractors, disks, lime trucks, or at least ATV equipment. Proper terrain should be considered as well. Terrain with steep slopes, dry ridge tops, and bottoms prone to flooding or erosion may not be best suited for your food plot. Some of the more obvious situations that determine food plot location are related to those hunters around you. Woods said putting any food plot in view of a public road is an obvious mistake. One other mistake is to put it in view of your neighbor’s property. When the leaves are off the trees, the temptation to harvest a buck that you’ve increased quality-wise may be too great.

What To Plant

When it comes to food plots there are two typical plant varieties -- annuals and perennials. Annuals are considered excellent for hunting plots because they require less management than perennials. Annuals provide instant attraction, while perennials are excellent at limiting a deer’s home range. For those of us that lack a green thumb, an annual is defined as a plant whose natural term of life is one year or one season. Perennial plants are longer lasting and continue from season to season. Perennials do require a little more management but feature a lower cost per pounds produced, and most provide instant attraction as well. The best option for whitetail food plots is the planting of blends that feature several seed types that offer differing palatability and maturation rates.

Blends find success by growing in a wide variety of soil types, having varying drought tolerance levels, being resistant to multiple diseases and pests, and resistant to total crop failure. Brassicas are extremely digestible, and some others contain clovers, chicories, oats, wheat and more.

The Best $7.50 You’ll Ever Spend

The prior three steps are important but this one is critical to food plot success. Once you’ve decided what type of food plot you’re planting and where it’ll be located, the next step is to test the soil. "We know that any food plot will only be as effective as the soil that contains it," said Sherman Berry, a BioLogic wildlife consultant. "We’re just taking a lot of what used to be expensive guesswork out of the food plot equation." As a part of this initiative, anyone planning to plant a food plot on a given piece of land can submit a soil sample to the BioLogic Labs and have the test result returned within 36 hours by fax, mail, or e-mail. The submission form and soil collection guidelines can be downloaded from the Mossy Oak BioLogic Web site at www.mossyoakbiologic.com. The whole soil testing processing fee will cost you around $7.50. That’s best $7.50 you’ll ever spend on whitetail hunting and management.

Within this step is another critical decision and that’s informing the lab what product you plan to plant. Dr. Woods said different plants require different nutrients. For instance, grains require more nitrogen while legumes require more phosphorous and potassium. The soil test will help determine the amount of lime or fertilizer you’ll need to help the soil be the most productive it can be for your food plot. If you’re still not sure planting a food plot will increase the number of deer you’re seeing or help you in the quality management department, look over these figures Dr. Woods presented.

He said mature hardwoods will typically produce 50- to 500 pounds of food per acre. Maturing clear cuts will render two to three tons of food per acre. A well-designed and managed food plot will produce 5- to 10 tons of food for whitetails.

Pick up next month’s issue where we’ll continue this look at food plot basics with steps on when to plant, how to plant, and seedbed preparation.