Buckmasters Magazine

A little extra thought and effort can make your food plot stand out.

Just 20 years ago, leaving some standing farm crops or planting anything to attract deer was considered cutting edge. It was such a novelty that deer would come from miles to take advantage of the extra food.

Ten years ago, planting one of the better food plot blends achieved equally impressive results.

Today, food plots are almost blasé. If you expect to hold deer on your property or pull them from the neighbor’s, you’d better do something special.

I make my living turning ho hum hunting properties into whitetail paradises, but you don’t have to be a professional to create an effective food plot. You just have to apply a little elbow grease and do the little things that will set off your plot from the run-of-the-mill clover patch.

What follows is the basic formula I use when beginning work on a new property.

Before you break ground, it’s important to think about your food plot plants like a deer does. Almost every plant a deer eats goes through stages when it’s more desirable. If you expect your food plot to attract deer throughout an entire hunting season, it must contain plants that are desirable throughout that entire time frame.

For example, most leafy growth is higher in nutritional content, is more easily digestible and more prized by deer when it’s in a rapidly growing, immature state. As the leafy growth matures, the plant’s cell walls thicken, making it harder to digest. Its nutritional value and desirability also drop.

The opposite occurs for some brassicas. For many rapes, the leafy growth isn’t desirable until exposed to several frosts. Sugars then come up from the roots into the leafy growth, making it seem like deer candy.

I start by ringing the plot’s outer 5 yards or so with clover. Because most plots are bordered by woods on at least two edges, clovers work great there. They don’t need the sunlight many other plants require, and their shallower root system allows them to better compete with trees. The partial shading also helps soil hold moisture.

What I plant in the middle usually depends on the size of the plot.

For smaller plots of 1/2 to three acres, I like a brassica mix. Once a brassica plot reaches about 4 inches of growth, I surface broadcast a mix of three parts cereal rye and one part oats at 100 pounds per acre.

For larger plots, a split between soybeans and corn is a good choice. When corn begins yellowing, I surface broadcast that same mix at the same rate between corn rows.

For bean plots, surface broadcast a brassica mix when the leaves start to turn yellow.

The next step is to feather-edge the plot. This is simply hinge-cutting the non-mast-producing trees in a 5-yard band around the food plot.

Hinge-cutting is the act of cutting partway through a tree and pushing it over in such a way that the top retains a connection to the root system.

Because of that connection, many of the trees will live for years. All those low-lying branches produce deer browse and increase protective cover. Whitetails will visit the plot more often because they feel safe, and the decreased visibility into the plot means bucks have to come into the open to look for does (when they’re not cruising by and scent-checking the plot from downwind).

An added benefit of hinge-cutting is the extra sunlight will help your food plot crop. Finally, a variety of desirable weeds, briars and fresh woody sprouts will take root in the hinge cut area.

The result of all of this is a plot that offers at least one highly desirable plant throughout the entire hunting season.

Getting deer to use the plot is only half the battle. You still have to be able to hunt it.

The best way to have a plot that can be hunted successfully is to think about hunting strategies long before you break ground.

There are three key issues you must address to have a huntable food plot.

The first is how you will get to and from stands that make use of the plot. If you spook deer getting in and out, you’ll never see deer during daylight hours. Start by figuring out how deer will access the food plot. Next make sure you can then get in and out without disturbing those areas.

It’s also a good idea to think about predominant winds and to identify trees that would be good for stands. You don’t want to go through all the effort to have a great plot and realize you hinge-cut the best treestand trees.

If you plan well in advance, you can even use the feathering process to steer deer closer to your stands. Taking wind direction into account, leave or cut openings within shooting distance of your marked stand trees.

Whitetails can always find a way through thickets, but they tend to be lazy and take the path of least resistance. Leave openings where you want deer to enter and exit the plot, and make it more difficult for them to use other areas.

To really make a food plot stand out, add water. By combining several things deer want in a small area, you can increase the amount of time they’re likely to spend in your food plot.

In the North where blue tongue and EHD aren’t concerns, dig a 3’x10’ round hole within shooting distance of a stand and fill it with water.

If you are concerned about midge-transmitted diseases, bury a 20-gallon water trough to the lip, pack dirt tight around the edges, put a few inches of dirt at the bottom and place a branch in it so rodents can climb out.

With either method, limit access to the far side of the water source to force a good shot angle. Adding a water hole is effective even in areas with plenty of other water sources.

The final touch is a trick I’ve perfected over the years and has been the sole reason I’ve gotten shot opportunities on many occasions.

Whitetail bucks can’t resist visiting a scrape and checking out its corresponding licking branch, so I create them in the exact spot I most want to take a shot.

It’s actually very easy to do. Start by cutting a suitable tree about the diameter of a small coffee can. Use a post hole digger to make a 3-foot hole about 20 yards upwind of your stand. Next, “plant” the tree so that it offers a licking branch that points directly to your stand. The licking branch should be about 5 feet from the ground. Hardwoods are good choices because their licking branches can last up to four years.

Create a mock scrape under the licking branch and add a scrape dripper to increase its drawing power. By pointing the licking branch toward your stand, you are almost guaranteed a quartering-away shot at at a known yardage. Best of all, the buck’s attention is focused away from you.

The days of throwing some seed in the dirt and watching the stampede of approaching deer might be over, but food plots are here to stay. Those who put a little extra thought and effort into their plots will have a competitive advantage and the higher taxidermy bills that go with it.

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