Creating and Hunting New Food Plots
Planting food plants and providing food and nutrition year-round is the single most important factor to hold, grow and keep deer and your property 12 months out of the year. With spring fast approaching, most people have turkey hunting on their mind. I’ll admit I love turkey hunting, but as a land manager, something else comes to mind first: planting food plots. Hunters around the country will begin planting their food plots or creating new ones in the next few months with hopes to harvest deer come next hunting season. Before you plant your food plots or create new ones I’d like to give you some important tips to consider while you plan out your next food plot project.
Access, Access, Access
Undoubtedly the first and most important thing you need to consider before you create your food plot is access to and from it. When hunting over food, you want to make sure your access in and out is not through the food plot, or you will jump deer walking in for a morning hunt and out after an evening hunt. If you plan on harvesting deer in your food plot you need to make sure you are not alerting their eyes, ears or nose when you’re entering or exiting your stand location. Keep in mind the prevailing wind direction in your area, this will allow you to set-up without blowing your scent out into the food plot. By doing this you can access your stand-in and out without spooking deer in or near your plot. If you alert any of the three deer senses while hunting or accessing the food plot you are doing more harm than good. Overhunting your plots or constantly checking trail cameras in your food plots will also alert deer of human presence and push them to feed at night or possibly somewhere else. Once deer realize they are not safe, nothing you plant will persuade them to ignore their most important instinct: survival.
Where to Plant
The next thing to consider is where you are going to create the food plot. I recommend creating a food plot in between or nearby a known bedding area, and adjacent to larger food sources such as large crop fields or destination plots. A typical day in a deer’s life involves feeding in the early morning, going back to bedding during the day and feeding again at night. Deer move from bedding to food or water usually early in the morning and in the afternoons. That’s because deer are crepuscular, meaning they are a species that is most active during both dawn and dusk because they feel most safe. Deer generally gravitate to large food sources such as crop fields during the night which provide little hunting opportunity. Yet, small transition food plots in the woods, no more than a ½ acre, create ideal safety and security for deer to feed during hunting hours. Deer will make their way from bedding and stop to eat in your small, safe food plot before making their way to the large crop fields later on at night. Additionally, during the breeding season, this is a great place for does to congregate and feed, meaning bucks will frequently stop by to scent-check for hot does during hunting hours knowing they are safe to do so.
What to Plant
The first and most important thing you need to do before planting your food plot is to check the soil’s pH levels. If the soil tests below a 5.5 you will probably not get the results you are looking for when the seeds germinate. The optimum soil pH level is between a 6.0 and 7.0 for ideal soil conditions and maximum food plot yield. If your soil’s pH tests below a 5.5 you need to add the correct amount of lime to raise the pH to an ideal level. Antler King offers an Instant pH Soil Test Kit that is easy to use and is very accurate. Each test kit comes with four testing strips so you can test multiple plots. The next thing you need to consider is the amount of deer and browse pressure. Small food plots less than a ½ acre run a high risk of overeating if deer densities are high in your area. Depending on the time of year you plan on hunting in your plot you want to make sure you have food available at that time. If you plant something and it gets eaten up early in the year before you hunt, you’ll want to replant that area late Summer so you’ll have something to hunt over or attract deer come season.
I have broken the seed down into two categories:
Perennials
If deer numbers are high I recommend a perennial food plot mix that can withstand high browse pressure while providing a lot of high-protein forage such as Antler King’s Trophy Clover Mix or Game Changer Clover. I like to plant my perennial seed mixes in early spring to early summer. That way it has a chance to get established and provide food long before hunting season begins and cold weather rolls in. Trophy Clover needs ideal soil conditions and at least 4-6 hours of sunlight a day. If soil conditions are less optimal and the plot gets less than 4-6 hours I recommend the Game Changer Clover. The special clover varieties in these mixes are a high-protein food source that provide food almost every month out of the year while being extremely attractive to deer. The other positive is that if it is properly taken care of and the soil is ideal, these mixes will come back for multiple years.
Annuals
Annual seed mixes are ones that need to be replanted every year. They generally get planted from April-May in the Spring and July-September/October (depending on location) in the Summer. Antler King offers a wide variety of annual food plot mixes that are great food and hunt plots. If planting in the Spring the first that comes to mind is Red Zone. Red Zone provides tons and tons of high protein forage (peas and soybeans.) But in small plots have a plan for late Summer in case the deer eat the entire plot by August. Another that comes to mind is Slam Dunk All Fall Hunt Plot. Slam Dunk consists of Radishes, Peas, Canola and Buckwheat. The forage peas and buckwheat are extremely attractive to deer as soon as they sprout and for most of the fall, while the radishes and canola are ideal while the weather becomes cold and the ground begins to freeze. Another long-time favorite is Antler King’s Honey Hole mix. It consists of a mixture of five unique varieties of brassicas: three varieties of rape and two varieties of turnips. These brassicas are great all fall but become extremely attractive when it gets cold and begins to freeze because they become sugary and sweet, while providing loads of energy.
Creating and planting food plots is one of my favorite hobbies. Being able to work with the land and continue to improve the habitat in my area while knowing I am providing highly-nutritious food for wildlife that I may one day harvest is a very rewarding feeling. But to be successful at it you must put some thought into your choices and how to go about doing it. Where you plant your food plot, how you access it and what you plant in it are very important things to consider before you decide to create and hunt your new food plots. I can tell you from experience that when all of these steps come together and you harvest a deer in your food plot, it is one of the most rewarding feelings a hunter and land-manager can ever experience.
Good luck and happy planting!
Hunter Flanders – Antler King Pro-Staff