Some
people are thinkers. Ray Scott is one such person. In the beginning, his mind
revolved around big bass and how to catch them, so he formed the now-famous
Bass Anglers Sportsman’s Society (B.A.S.S.). Awhile later, his creative
thoughts turned toward whitetail deer in addition to big bass. He wanted his
Alabama whitetails to be healthier and produce bigger racks.
He made an obvious
connection to nutrition and thus began his quest for the best forage product. A
product specifically for deer. In 1986, Scott planted a food plot of wheat, rye
and clover. Surprisingly, he discovered his whitetails loved the clover far
better than wheat and rye. By doing some investigating, Scott discovered that
Dr. Wiley Johnson, an agronomist and plant geneticist at nearby Auburn
University, had developed the clover variety. Scott immediately hired Johnson
as a consultant and assigned him a project: create a superior deer forage. In
1988, The Whitetail Institute of North America introduced Imperial Whitetail
Clover. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
A
BREAKTHROUGH
Although quality deer management was in its infancy in
1988, savvy deer hunters started latching onto the concept that the more
quality forage deer consumed, the healthier they would be. Also, if bucks were
allowed to reach 3.5 years or older, that added nutrition would result in more
massive and higher scoring antlers. During the 1990s, more and more Imperial
Whitetail Clover was planted, and eventually it became the norm among whitetail
enthusiasts. Meanwhile, deer hunters started leasing or buying land — a trend
that continues. Those hunters also started learning about strange terms such as
pH, soil tests and more. Scott, by the way, was still observing, thinking and
learning. There was always room for improvement. Soon, No-Plow was introduced
for logging roads and other hard-to-access areas, and Alfa- Rack, a seed blend
designed for good, well-drained soils, and nutritional supplements such as
30-06 and Cutting Edge hit the market. As I have documented, food plots using
these nutritious products resulted in a significantly higher number of entries
into the Pope & Young and Boone and Crocket record books. Even as that was
occurring, though, other events troubled many food plot managers. For example,
just because a quality-deer manager limed to get the best pH, used the proper
type and amount of fertilizer, killed unwanted grass and weeds, and mowed his
plots in a timely manner, it didn’t mean he would kill the deer he grew all
summer. In fact, big roaming bucks were sometimes picked off by neighbors who
had not invested any time or money.
CHANGING
WITH THE TIMES
At this time, as QDM managers were studying options
regarding protecting trophy bucks, they also faced another problem — an
explosion of deer numbers during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hunters who
used to enjoy the sight of does and fawns — and never shot one — were faced
with making an about face and shooting lots of them. Some hunters recognized
the importance of keeping deer numbers in check, but sadly, many others did not.
As a result, over-browsing of native habitat occurred in many
regions. That, of course, put more pressure on food plots and added to the
problem of bucks roaming more during the rut, post-rut and late seasons. About
that time, many hunters recognized the importance of having a quality forage
product that would serve as both a food source and attractant during the colder
months of the year. This was doubly important because farming methods had
changed, leaving little food in the fields after harvest. With fine tuned modern
farm machinery, shelling a corn field leaves almost no corn on the cob.
Actually, there are few kernels even left in the field. Soybean fields are equally
devoid of food. One alternative was to pay a farmer to leave an acre or so of
corn or soybeans to hold deer on a lease or hunting area. I did that with
success a few years ago, but with corn at $4/bushel and soybeans at $12/bushel today,
that's no longer a consideration for most of us.
RAY’S
STILL THINKING
Maybe you have encountered those problems. I have. Without question, as most of us have traveled the quality- deer-management road, we've found it to be a complex endeavor — one on which we must continue to change course, learning and experimenting. Well, the good news is that Scott is still thinking, and what he's added to the product line at Whitetail Institute can help solve several of those problems. Two recent products have helped reduce our roaming buck problem, and they also provide quality food sources for deer herds. I’m talking about Imperial Winter-Greens and Pure Attraction. Winter-Greens is a late-season brassica blend designed to hold and attract deer, especially during the late season. Deer will sometimes eat Winter-Greens before the first hard frost, but a hard frost triggers plant maturity, which results in even sweeter taste. As the late season progresses, a plot of Winter-Greens might look like a mine field. Deer love them. Pure Attraction, with its blend of oats, winter peas and brassicas, provides whitetails with a wide variety of food they can use from early fall until deer seasons end. Before frost hits, deer love to eat the winter peas and oats. When that first hard freeze occurs, they will also tear up the brassicas in the blend. Obviously, this food source serves as a holding location for whitetails, and you can pull in neighboring deer when the weather gets brutal and good food sources are scarce. It’s no wonder many deer managers have planted these products with such great success.
THE
VERSATILITY OF ANNUALS
On
our lease, we have used Winter-Greens and Pure Attraction a lot and with great
success. Many other hunters in my area, and throughout the country, have done
likewise with these and other Imperial annual blends. One reason is that
they’re so versatile. Many managers who already have perennial plots in place
also plant annuals to target the unique needs of specific times of the year.
Imperial perennials are designed to last up to 5 years. Pure Attraction and Winter-Greens
are annuals that can provide deer with even more new growth in the early fall
and abundant, high-carbohydrate food during the colder months of winter. Others
elect to plant only annual blends. This can also be a good solution, for
example, if you know you won’t have time to perform perennial maintenance next
spring. Fall annuals such as Winter-Greens and Pure Attraction can provide deer
with the forage they need for fall and winter. Annuals such as No Plow and Secret
Spot can also be a great option if you can’t access your plot sites with
equipment, or if you have a year-to-year lease and don’t want to plant a
perennial on property that you may not have to hunt next year. If you rely
solely on annuals for the fall and winter, be sure you also plant a
high-protein annual for spring. Otherwise, the deer you hunt in the fall may
not be as healthy, large or have antlers as big as they might have Protein is
critical during the spring and summer for antler growth, doe pregnancy, fawn
growth and herd health. Some hunters figure that whitetails can find enough native
food and waste grain throughout spring and summer to keep them fat and sassy.
That reasoning is a big mistake, especially when you consider habitat destruction
in many regions and clean farming methods. My in-depth studies reveal that you
can’t beat having food plots that provide nutrition for deer most of the year.
That keeps stress to a minimum, and can, at times, mean the difference between
life and death. This past year in Indiana and several other states, epizootic hemorrhagic
disease killed many deer. In southern Indiana, where I live, 75 percent to 80
percent of deer in some areas were killed by EHD. It is, incidentally, a disease
some deer will survive, and I think a healthy whitetail has a greater chance of
surviving than a nutritionally stressed deer. Likewise, Indiana hunters are finding
that many of the older bucks they kill are crawling with ticks. Ten years ago
in Indiana, that was unheard of. Again, when the deer herd explodes, and the
quantity and quality of the food diminishes, whitetails are nutritionally
weakened, resulting in an infestation of ticks. This has been fairly well
documented but little understood by many hunters. So bite the bullet, and plant
food plot products that will feed deer throughout the year.
ONE
PLAN THAT WORKS
On
one of our leases, my wife, Carol, and I have three food plots planted for
wildlife. These plots are about one-half mile apart, and each plot is located
to let us enter and exit our stands without danger of detection. These plots
are on the eastern side of our lease, and they can be hunted with most westerly
winds. Some can he hunted with a south wind. Each plot is located in a
Conservation Reserve Program field, and we can park on a road to the east and
enter our stands by going through the CRP field — an area our deer rarely use.
Usually, deer never know we have been there. We carefully planned these plot locations
to give us every hunting advantage, and none of the plots can be seen by people
driving down the nearby road. You might find it interesting that we hunt the
plots exclusively out of ground blinds. These are left up year-around and are
in the open CRP fields. Deer and turkeys pay no attention to them. Each blind is
placed at the edge of each food plot so no deer entering the plots come into
the CRP field behind us, where they could wind us. It’s a perfect setup for archers
and gun-hunters. It’s especially ideal for children and our grandchildren. We
keep about half of the plots planted in Imperial Whitetail Clover and Imperial Extreme.
Extreme has worked extremely well in our region because the land is hilly,
rocky and well-drained. This past year was one of the worst droughts in Indiana
history, and Extreme lasted all summer and fall, yet you can see by some of the
pictures with this article that the Imperial Whitetail Clover and Pure
Attraction performed amazingly well too. We are limited in the number of deer
we can kill out of these plots only by the precarious condition of my back.
PLOT
DESIGN
We are very careful about how we design our plots. Explaining the various plot designs would take another article, but one design we tried for the first time was the “T” design. We used the T-design for bow-hunting, and it worked perfectly. Here is how it's laid out: Our Rocky Top food plot is at the southern edge of the top of a gully that runs east and west. Our blind is on the eastern side of the plot, and most deer usually come out of the gully at the northern edge of the plot to feed. On the southern end of this plot, I planted Pure Attraction. On the northern end, we have Extreme planted. That gives whitetails food for a long period. To make sure we got excellent bow shots as deer season progressed into fall and winter, we planted a strip of Pure Attraction about 10 feet wide that runs from the edge of the woods southward to the large Pure Attraction plot. I figured deer would come out of the woods to our north and feed south down the thin strip of Pure Attraction, which we located at 20 yards from the blind. The plan worked perfectly. Hourglass shapes also work well for food plots as do many other designs. Again, Imust caution that plot location will, to a large extent, determine your success while hunting food plots, especially if you’re a bow-bender. If you have a plot in the middle of a tract of timber and deer come into it from every direction, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll get busted sometimes when you hunt it. Conversely, a narrow tract of timber that leads from a large woods to one of your food plots would be a high-odds stand location during any hunting season. Each year, we should re-evaluate our food plot strategies. If we plant only products that provide deer nutrition during late spring, summer and early fall, we'll likely lose some of the bucks we grow to neighboring hunters. Planting additional plots in Winter-Greens or Pure Attraction will quickly solve most of that problem. To grow the healthiest deer with the largest possible racks, keep deer numbers in check, and provide them with food throughout the year. I can assure you that your hard work will pay off in the late hunting seasons, just as it has for countless other quality-deer managers.
Tips for GoodManagement
Forage Selection: Your first step is to choose the correct forage for your specific
intended application. Factors include whether or not you can perform ground
tillage and spring maintenance, and the soil type and drainage of the plot
site.
Planting: Planting Imperial forages is easy. Each step in the instructions
is important. Don’t cut corners. Soil test to determine soil pH and nutrient
levels. Add lime to raise the pH of soils with a pH lower than 6.5. Fertilize
immediately before planting. If no soil test is available, follow the published
instructions. Note that fertilizer requirements are not the same for all
forages. Plant the forage seeds at the correct depth. Pure Attraction and Power
Plant are “large-seed” blends, which should be covered under an inch or less of
loose soil. All other Imperial forages are “small-seed,” blends which should
never be covered when planted.
Brassicas and Alfalfas: Brassica has a tendency to become diseased with fungus or insect
larvae if planted repeatedly in the same plot without a break. Disease is
usually apparent through a general stand decline. To diagnose such problems,
pull up some of the plants and look at the roots. They should appear firm and fleshy.
Roots appearing spindly, soft or mushy may indicate disease. A new alfalfa
planting should never be made into or immediately following a prior alfalfa
crop due to alfalfa’s “autotoxicity” characteristic. Mature alfalfa plants drop
a toxin from their leaves and crown to inhibit the growth of new alfalfa
seedlings, a trait alfalfa developed as a low-moisture plant to prevent
competition for water. If a new brassica or alfalfa planting is planned for a
site already planted in the same forage, the soil should be cleaned out first.
Remove the existing forage plants in spring. Then, the site can be tilled a few
times during the spring and summer but left fallow until fall. Another option
is to plant entirely different plant species in the site during the spring and
summer. Imperial PowerPlant is an excellent rotation choice for both brassica and
alfalfa.
