Start Planning For Next Season… Now
This is the first part of a three part blog on food plots, there is just not enough time or interest of the reader to want to read 2000 word spread on food plots all at once, we hunters are busy people. This is why I’m going to break it into three segments. Some info is timely for fall seeded food plots well other is good information for next spring.
So you think you have what it takes to grow the complete and ideal food plot. Great! Let’s get you started in the right direction, what kind of a food plot is it you want to grow? In a perfect world, you would be able to plant a variety of foods that deer prefer at different times of the year so that there is always something attractive on their plate. In a perfect world, each spring would provide a leftover gift of high-carbohydrate waste grain and an early green-up of clover plots. As spring advances, the deer will quickly shift to your high protein clover/alfalfa plots. During the heat of summer, they will be hammering your soybeans and alfalfa hay fields. In early fall, freshly mowed or planted clover will be the tastiest thing around, as deer shift out of the beans and into the clover and grains. Then, in late fall and winter, they’ll flock to the high carbohydrate content of your corn and soybean plots to fuel their furnaces.
Unfortunately, providing deer with everything under the sun isn’t practicable for most of us. Obviously, there is the need for good tillable land. Without adequate acreage the deer will wipe out each seasonal planting before it even has chance to produce, and just because you have the open ground available to plant the perfect food for every season, that doesn’t mean you have the budget or the manpower to pull it off. High quality food plots aren’t cheap and there is plenty of hard work involved. While this is definitely a labor of love and a good way to get away from the office, unless you’re a farmer, it still takes time. I’m not saying you can’t do it all, I’m just saying don’t bite off more than you can chew, until you have come up with a system that works for you and your property. It’s suffice to say that most of us will never be able to do everything we would like to do to improve nutrition, so we need to set some realistic goals and scale our plans accordingly. For most deer hunters, planning and planting one or two small food plots, about three to five acres total, every year is a realistic starting point. If you want to stay smaller that’s okay too, but remember that if it’s too small the deer might just eat you out of house and home. Next week we will talk Soybeans and Corn food plots!!
