Food Plots Food plot size, shape, and location

[JCDEERMAN]

One of my current plots is rectangular and I rarely if ever see a mature buck in it.

Several of ours are like this and yes, it's rare to see a mature buck in those especially during daylight. Next year, we are going to have a cross in each of our rectangular plots of Sudan sorghum (8-12' tall)….essentially creating 4 plots in one. Cross will be Sudan and the 4 main areas will be regular food plots. Will make bucks move more to check out more area, thus should create more shot opportunities …as opposed to appearing at the end of the field, scanning and not seeing anything, then move on

 

[hbg1]

Is your property flat? Contours change winds.
The prevailing winds also leave days of other than prevailing, if you concentrate on one side the deer will simply learn to use the other.
I would be more concerned with how and why the deer travel. Where is bedding vs native food sources, neighbors properties contribution. What about why do you plot? Meat or antlers or pictures.
Locating plots often is delegated by the topography and how unable the plot would be considering weapon, wind, thermals and target animals. Consider that many big mature bucks don't enter food plots, especially in the daylight, are you hunting the plot or the trails to, from and bypassing the plot.
We can all state what our preferences are but without a lot more information it's all speculation.

Property isn't flat but it also isn't mountainous like east tn either. My plan is to concentrate food on the east side and mainly hunt them on their way to and from the plots. Plus I am the only person hunting roughly 600 acres so hunting pressure is minimal on my property. Deer travel vastly different from year to year depending on acorn crop but also just in general. Right now there is quite a bit of browse in the pines but I anticipate even more after the thinning. I plot mainly to hold deer on my property and attempt to improve antlers but occasionally will hunt them as well. I rarely ever hunt my current plots but that's because I've never seen mature bucks using them in daylight. Hope this helps if not feel free to ask more questions.

 

[megalomaniac]

Property isn't flat but it also isn't mountainous like east tn either. My plan is to concentrate food on the east side and mainly hunt them on their way to and from the plots. Plus I am the only person hunting roughly 600 acres so hunting pressure is minimal on my property. Deer travel vastly different from year to year depending on acorn crop but also just in general. Right now there is quite a bit of browse in the pines but I anticipate even more after the thinning. I plot mainly to hold deer on my property and attempt to improve antlers but occasionally will hunt them as well. I rarely ever hunt my current plots but that's because I've never seen mature bucks using them in daylight. Hope this helps if not feel free to ask more questions.

If you arent going to hunt the plots, make them as big as possible. Maximize food production. Keep the edges irregular and you will still see deer in daylight. Make smaller plots in between the big nighttime destination plot and the major bedding areas. These can be small and are great to hunt over, esp in the evenings.

 

[hbg1]

If you arent going to hunt the plots, make them as big as possible. Maximize food production. Keep the edges irregular and you will still see deer in daylight. Make smaller plots in between the big nighttime destination plot and the major bedding areas. These can be small and are great to hunt over, esp in the evenings.

I've read about the smaller plots but I believe if I sat on one of them I'd constantly be thinking I'd need to be somewhere else

 

[yellalinehunter]

Lots of folks use Egyptian wheat as food plot screening and inside big open plots to create compartments. I tried it once and it worked but it also stunted some of the growth that was in its shadow once it got tall. It gets around 8ft tall. I tried other grain sorghum next that only got about 4ft tall and it worked the same way to block deer vision but didn't shade out as much other stuff as the EW did.

Deer will also eat the sorghum seed heads

 

[hammer33]

In a perfect world, you would design & locate your plots based on 1. bedding & security cover 2. Travel 3. Outside factors such as neighbors 4. food.
Food is easy to see, sell, and market to hunters. Truth is, in the South, deer rarely run out of food and the majority of the year they have something nutritious to eat.
My top priority would be to create bedding/security thickets spaced out to encourage travel in a manner that benefits my hunting. Pepper in a few small "kill" plots and have big night time hang out plots or fields. Keep in mind your access to stands and how to get in and out without deer seeing or scenting where you have been. Basically you are making a daisy chain of spots that are attractive to deer/bucks, each of which might be a good location for a stand. & some not attractive zones to funnel the deer movements.
Lots of small attractive spots will hold more deer than one big spot and create many stand opportunities instead of just a few on say a 50 acre food plot.

 

[redblood]

Even though i dont have one, i like the idea of a dog bone of qtip shaped plot

 

[tellico4x4]

Several of ours are like this and yes, it's rare to see a mature buck in those especially during daylight. Next year, we are going to have a cross in each of our rectangular plots of Sudan sorghum (8-12' tall)….essentially creating 4 plots in one. Cross will be Sudan and the 4 main areas will be regular food plots. Will make bucks move more to check out more area, thus should create more shot opportunities …as opposed to appearing at the end of the field, scanning and not seeing anything, then move on

That's a great idea! Have a couple I might try same

 

[BSK]

That video is awesome, thanks for sharing. I've tried using loading docks with little success. The compacted debris is just hard to overcome. I even hired a dozer to come in and try to clear the debris.

Old loading docks can be a real problem for use as food plots, because of soil compaction and the fact loggers often scrape away any soil beforehand to make the ground more solid for heavy equipment. This doesn't mean they're impossible to use as food plots, but they will take some work. Most of my food plots started as log-loading decks. And I'll be honest, it took about 3 years to turn them into productive plots. But the important part is, it can be done.

After trying multiple techniques to get these old log-loading deck plots in shape, my recommendations would be:

1) Deal with soil compaction first. If rock is not a problem in these soils, go with Boll Weevil's suggest - a ripper to break the soil as deep as possible. Unfortunately, in my situation big rock just below the surface limited this type of equipment. A ripper would have just brought a bunch of grapefruit to basketball-sized chunks of chert to the surface. Because of our rock problems, we went with an industrial-grade tiller. It doesn't take a monster tractor to run one of these - we used only a 32 HP 4x4 tractor - but it is going to be a slow process. Early on, I would spend half a day tilling a 1-acre plot. I would be travelling slower than walking speed. All we were trying to accomplish was water penetration into the soil, so only tilling down 6-8" was adequate (this also prevented too much large rock from being pulled to the surface). We also poured the lime and fertilizer to the plots before tilling. We wanted the tilling to distribute that lime and fertilizer throughout the 6-8" of soil. It also helps to wait until a day or two after a good rain - anything to help soften what is normally concrete hard ground.

I would recommend tilling - spring and fall - for one to two seasons. After that comes soil building.

2) Soil building is the next critical step. As Megalomaniac and Popcorn often preach, proper soil building takes time. A true soil profile cannot develop if the ground is constantly being turned. "Green manure" - biological material - must sit and break down for years before a true soil profile develops. Once a new poor-soil plot has been broken a few times - either with a ripper, bog disk, or tiller - I would HIGHLY recommend planting with the throw-and-mow technique. This process allows for a soil profile to develop. An even more productive method is drilling in seed through mowed thatch. Seed drills are expensive, but they unquestionably do the best job of getting seed into the ground while maintaining the protective thatch. Mowed thatch greatly reduces soil moisture loss during dry conditions. And again, left alone, that thatch eventually breaks down to become rich topsoil.

For my poor-quality thin-soiled, rocky ridge-top plots, we tilled them spring and fall for two years. Looking back, for those specific conditions, I might not even recommend tilling in spring. The soil is softest then and most easily tilled, but exposed soil going into a hot, dry summer is guaranteed to evaporate any soil moisture the soil has collected over the winter. I would probably just recommend throw-and-mow seeding of a summer crop that produces the maximum amount of green manure possible for mowing down and tilling in at fall planting.

Once you have your soil building regime in place, plantings such as perennial clovers are going to be the most cost effective over time. However, if deer food production is critical, and food plot acreage limited, I would go with annuals because annuals generally produce more "deer food" per season. But I would also plant annuals that are notorious for being able to be grown in poorer soil conditions. And if possible, look towards annuals that will reseed themselves. Then letting surviving plants go to seed before mowing.

Below are three pictures of one of our plots. The first picture is while it was being bulldozed out after it was used as a log-loading deck. The second picture is after I tilled it the first time. The first growing season, the soil was so poor it would barely grow Elbon Rye, which is notorious for growing anywhere. However, four growing seasons later it looked like the third picture, taken in spring, with a full crop of crimson clover and wheat.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Mine are always long and narrow, and hug the edge.

 

[hbg1]

Old loading docks can be a real problem for use as food plots, because of soil compaction and the fact loggers often scrape away any soil beforehand to make the ground more solid for heavy equipment. This doesn't mean they're impossible to use as food plots, but they will take some work. Most of my food plots started as log-loading decks. And I'll be honest, it took about 3 years to turn them into productive plots. But the important part is, it can be done.

After trying multiple techniques to get these old log-loading deck plots in shape, my recommendations would be:

1) Deal with soil compaction first. If rock is not a problem in these soils, go with Boll Weevil's suggest - a ripper to break the soil as deep as possible. Unfortunately, in my situation big rock just below the surface limited this type of equipment. A ripper would have just brought a bunch of grapefruit to basketball-sized chunks of chert to the surface. Because of our rock problems, we went with an industrial-grade tiller. It doesn't take a monster tractor to run one of these - we used only a 32 HP 4x4 tractor - but it is going to be a slow process. Early on, I would spend half a day tilling a 1-acre plot. I would be travelling slower than walking speed. All we were trying to accomplish was water penetration into the soil, so only tilling down 6-8" was adequate (this also prevented too much large rock from being pulled to the surface). We also poured the lime and fertilizer to the plots before tilling. We wanted the tilling to distribute that lime and fertilizer throughout the 6-8" of soil. It also helps to wait until a day or two after a good rain - anything to help soften what is normally concrete hard ground.

I would recommend tilling - spring and fall - for one to two seasons. After that comes soil building.

2) Soil building is the next critical step. As Megalomaniac and Popcorn often preach, proper soil building takes time. A true soil profile cannot develop if the ground is constantly being turned. "Green manure" - biological material - must sit and break down for years before a true soil profile develops. Once a new poor-soil plot has been broken a few times - either with a ripper, bog disk, or tiller - I would HIGHLY recommend planting with the throw-and-mow technique. This process allows for a soil profile to develop. An even more productive method is drilling in seed through mowed thatch. Seed drills are expensive, but they unquestionably do the best job of getting seed into the ground while maintaining the protective thatch. Mowed thatch greatly reduces soil moisture loss during dry conditions. And again, left alone, that thatch eventually breaks down to become rich topsoil.

For my poor-quality thin-soiled, rocky ridge-top plots, we tilled them spring and fall for two years. Looking back, for those specific conditions, I might not even recommend tilling in spring. The soil is softest then and most easily tilled, but exposed soil going into a hot, dry summer is guaranteed to evaporate any soil moisture the soil has collected over the winter. I would probably just recommend throw-and-mow seeding of a summer crop that produces the maximum amount of green manure possible for mowing down and tilling in at fall planting.

Once you have your soil building regime in place, plantings such as perennial clovers are going to be the most cost effective over time. However, if deer food production is critical, and food plot acreage limited, I would go with annuals because annuals generally produce more "deer food" per season. But I would also plant annuals that are notorious for being able to be grown in poorer soil conditions. And if possible, look towards annuals that will reseed themselves. Then letting surviving plants go to seed before mowing.

Below are three pictures of one of our plots. The first picture is while it was being bulldozed out after it was used as a log-loading deck. The second picture is after I tilled it the first time. The first growing season, the soil was so poor it would barely grow Elbon Rye, which is notorious for growing anywhere. However, four growing seasons later it looked like the third picture, taken in spring, with a full crop of crimson clover and wheat.

What summer crop produces the most green manure?

Would you recommend this same process for plots in fresh clear cut pine plantations or is soil building easier there?

Amazing what y'all did in just three years, that clover plot looks amazing!!

What is your favorite annual that reseeds itself?

Is it possible to no till drill clover?