There’s a lot of prep work, thinking, planning and decisions you can — and should or must — do before you begin working the soil for a food plot.
- Shape and size of your intended plot.
- Soil test.
- Lime and fertilizer.
- Approach/exit to and from your tree stand area(s) to hunt your food plot.
- A list of knowledgeable people and governmental agencies who can advise and help you.
- Search for soil-working equipment if you plan to do the work yourself.
- Your budget, time available and affordable costs.
- Nearby water source.
First, what’s the location and size of your intended plot? Is it to be a staging area near a bedding area, part of a larger field, or some place between a bedding area and a major food source? There can be relatively narrow plots you can shoot an arrow at deer across. There can be food plots very near or around the tree you have your tree stand positioned in. How accessible is it? Will you need to cut some trees, saplings or brush to get to the area where you want to create a food plot? Look at these items in more depth:
Shape and Size
You want to be able to shoot across the food plot, if all possible. With the relatively limited range of a bow and arrow, this will mean a small plot or a long, skinny and winding larger plot. This also is the best shape for firearms hunting. Obviously, if you will be shooting a firearm, the plot can be wider.
The plot should have bends so deer won’t be able to see the entire food plot, and so they will feel more comfortable entering the plot. Deer like to enter a food plot where they feel protected. This will give you more within-range shot opportunities. Think of a plot shaped like a V or W.
Will your food plot be near ideal trees in which you can place tree stands?
If you will have a relatively narrow plot, be sure enough direct sunlight can get to it. So will the plot need to be north-south or east-west or triangular? If any part of your plot will be in shade from neighboring trees, plant shade tolerant seeds in shaded areas. Clover is good. Different deer food plants that green up earlier in the spring than the plants you have seeded in the sunlight will make the plot attractive longer; planting fall brassicas will extend the plot’s attractiveness later in the season.
The Soil Test
This is a requirement. You need to know the quality of the soil, the mineral elements it has in good supply and those it is short of. You need to know the soil’s pH. A pH of 6.5 to 7.0 is neutral. A soil testing below 6.0 will need lime to increase the pH to the desired level. The soil test will tell you if you need to add fertilizer, and if so, the quantity and NPK to add.
How sandy is the soil? Will it lose water quickly? If the soil is a low elevation, how wet is it? This will affect what you should and should not plant. Both factors will tell you what should be done.
Approach and Exit Strategies
First, you want to approach into the wind or quartering it, so deer that may be in the area now or later will not smell you. You do not want to enter on a game trail; that could leave an alarming human scent, even if you are bathed in human-scent neutralizer or masking scent. You want to enter quietly at any time, before or after daylight. Will you need to clear a trail so you can move quietly? If so, do this far before season.
A List of Go-To Helpers
Get to know your county (or multiple county) extension agricultural agent. He can tell you something about your soils, and he may have food plot programs available. Get to know your county or area Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) people. The NRCS is within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
THE NRCS has a Pollinator Program that will plant forbs (weeds) and grasses, and possibly other plants, that benefit bees, butterflies and birds — the pollinators — which the natural world needs and are in short supply in many areas. This is a cost-sharing program.
Most areas also have individuals who will do the necessary food plot field work — working the soil, planting and maybe more — for you. This work is not free, but it may be something to look into. There also are people who work with the NRCS and its Pollinator Program. The NRCS has different seed plans, depending on your soil and what you want to do in and with your food plot.
My friend Stan Godfrey works with such a person. Stan said his NRCS seed cost this year was $475 per acre, and his planting cost was $125 per acre. But he didn’t have to do the work, which is a factor to consider.
An Equipment Plan
A boss at a former job had a favorite slogan — THINK BIG CHEAP. You should practice this when you search for suitable food plot equipment. Stan Godfrey got his cultipacker from a friend who no longer needed it. I got a drag section with adjustable teeth from a college friend who had to pull it out of weeds behind his machine shed. And so it goes. There’s nothing wrong with scrounging.
Look at places that sell used farm equipment to see what’s for sale and what it costs. Attend farm auctions; you may find good bargains there.
The size of your food plot(s) and its surroundings come into play here, too. A riding garden tractor and a 36-inch rototiller works well for me. I have small, accessible plots. If you’re planning to create a food plot in a woodlot, the presence and location of trees and brush will affect what you can use. Can you remove blocking trees and brush to get medium-sized or smaller equipment into the planned site, if that site is back in trees and brush?
Budget, Time and Affordability
How much can you spend on soil tilling equipment and the power to pull it? How much will you need to spend on lime, fertilizer and seed? What will it cost to spray the intended food plot to kill the weeds? How much time can you spend doing the spraying, tilling and planting? Should you hire some of the work and do some yourself? Should you hire all of it or none of it?
What About Water?
Deer need water, more than we often think. When deer can eat and drink in a setting at which they feel comfortable, you will immensely improve the food plot’s attractiveness for them, especially in early-season hot weather and during the rut when deer are especially active. The water source doesn’t need to be large; often a puddle or seep will work, but how long will it last. If you have to create a water source, position it to catch as much runoff water as possible when it rains. Create a couple of furrows that will direct water to the pond. You won’t have to fill it as often. Line the water source with a rubber pond liner.
When a water source is to be next to a food plot or field, locate it at the same elevation or higher so fertilizer, mineral or soil from the plot/field cannot wash into it. Flat or rolling land is a natural setting for a dug pond, or a created water hole above ground framed by logs, old railroad ties, sections of telephone or light poles, with a pond liner to ensure water doesn’t leak out.
Consider picking a good tree stand tree, then creating a pond 18-20 yards from the tree.
Open water, such as rivers, large ponds and lakes can be a protective barrier for deer, too.
— Glenn Helgeland is former president and owner of one of the country’s largest deer and turkey expos, and has been an avid whitetail bowhunter since the 1960s.