It’s not a world-beater buck, but it’s my Dad’s. And when your father is 82 years old, still climbs up to tree stands, continues to shoot a bow, and works as hard at deer hunting as men half his age, well, the buck doesn’t have to win any contests but the one held in the hearts of a family. As far as the Bestul Clan is concerned, a certain Minnesota 9- point is the biggest whitetail that ever walked the planet.
Dad
shot the buck off the corner of a little food plot this past fall, and it was
the third mature whitetail that swung through that patch of Imperial BowStand
that day. The plot, planted on a log landing created by a timber sale this past
spring, is far from large; a truly good archer could shoot the entire plot from
the stand we hung. But the Pine Tree Plot — imaginatively named for a huge
white pine growing nearby — didn’t have to be big to draw deer. Instead, the
small food source accomplished its one and only mission: attracting does throughout
the early season and, by default, acting as a buck magnet when the rut kicked in.
When a plot you can throw a rock across manages to do everything you wanted it
to — and results in a trophy buck my family will treasure forever — it’s cause
for celebration. If it sounds like I’m celebrating any kind of personal
success, I apologize. The Pine Tree Plot blossomed as a food source only
because I saw the bare dirt left by a logger and mumbled, “That might make a
good food plot.” The person I said that to happened to be a farmer. And in the
course of several seasons my neighbor Alan (the farmer and my bowhunting buddy)
has shown me how someone who makes things grow for a living approaches food
plots. What follows, then, is what I’ve learned.
Weeds
Are Your Enemy
Farmers
abhor weeds like Democrats detest a tax cut, and a food plotter should be just
as serious about keeping his plantings clean. Alan taught me early that
herbicides can work wonders on a plot, even a small spot like the Pine Tree
Plot. After we’d selected the site, Alan blitzed the weeds with a liberal dose
of Roundup in early summer, followed by another application a week or two before
planting in August. Anyone who’s paid attention to today’s modern agriculture recognizes
that the days of a weed-choked corn or soybean field are largely gone. By the time
we were ready to plant, our dirt was black-soil bare; devoid of
nutrient-grabbing invaders. The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot
of money or buy fancy equipment to achieve a largely weed-free plot. Roundup (and
its generic equivalents) is widely available and relatively cheap. And you can
spray most plots with an ATV boom sprayer (also getting cheaper) or even a
backpack type sprayer like those used by homeowners. Also, by planting plots
later in the growing season — we planted the Pine Tree Plot in August — you can
often reduce weed competition by tilling after many weed species have
germinated for the year. This approach helped our cause tremendously.
Sun
Is Your Friend
Getting adequate sunlight to a plot is no problem in some areas, but in others — particularly log landings like the Pine Tree Plot — it represents one of the chief challenges. Granted, the seed types included in a bag of Bowstand will succeed in minimal sunlight, but in virtually every case, the more light you can shine on a plot, the better. Farmers know this like second nature, and Alan made sure that I got my lesson before I tossed the first seed in the ground. The Pine Tree Plot was virtually surrounded by sun-blocking trees. Clear-cutting the area was an option, but not the most attractive one in this case. So we identified a few critical trees that were shading the plot and removed them. In each case, the tree we cut was on the southern side of the plot and shaded our planting during the mid- to late afternoon hours when the summer sun could benefit our plants the most. The trees we removed were also low in timber value (elm, basswood), which wasn’t hard to determine, because the loggers had taken all the good stuff. Felling a few sun-blockers was a no brainer and resulted in enough light to keep our plants thriving.
Machinery
Is Good
You
can make a fine little plot with nothing more than a steel rake and a whole lot
of sweat. But I won’t lie: You can make an even better one with a diesel
engine. An increasing number of food plotters are investing in small tractors
to do the heavy lifting on plot installation and maintenance (if you doubt this
burgeoning market, price one of these nifty little numbers someday; the sticker
shock will knock you over). Alas, I can’t afford this investment, but I have
neighbors — like Alan — who I can call on to help me out. Alan’s tractor not
only made short work of tilling our plot, but he also had a blade that cleared some
heavy debris from the plot and expanded its borders. What if you lack the
next-door neighbor with machinery? One option is to ask around the neighborhood
and find someone who’ll do your heavy lifting. I know several property owners
who have knocked on the doors of area farmers and arranged a per-hour fee for doing
plot work. One of my close friends pays his neighbor a mere $300 per summer to
work three small plots. This computes to a small annual investment for my
friend (and a whole of saved labor) and a $40 per hour rate for the farmer. The
arrangement satisfies both parties. Obviously rates will vary, but most fees
will seem a bargain when you compare them to buying your own tractor.
Commit
To The Long Haul
The
final lesson I’ve learned from farmers is perhaps the most important: They look
at things long-term. Beefing up the corn production in a certain field isn’t a
one-shot deal, it’s a commitment. Alan and his dad are some of the best corn
and soybean growers in our county (I’m not just bragging up my friends; they
actually hold competitions for this stuff, and my buddies have the ribbons to
prove their prowess), and they didn’t achieve that success by a “good-enough”
attitude. If a field produces 200 bushels of corn one year, they shoot for 210
the next, and they usually make good on their goal. It’s important to note that
achieving such success isn’t a matter of cross-your-fingers and- pray-for-rain;
it’s a logical, step-by-step process with measurable results. Building pH or
inputting adequate fertilizer in a field isn’t done overnight, and there are no
quick fixes. I’ve seen this first-hand when Alan and I planted a small plot
with Imperial Whitetail Clover a couple of years back. That first season we had
the most beautiful clover I’ve ever planted, thanks to soil testing and
applications of fertilizer. I was tickled to death with our results, but guess
what? The next year the plot grew an even prettier crop. And I expect similar
results in the Pine Tree Plot.
Conclusion
I
doubt that most food plotters are different than me. I don’t have a ton of
money, my free time comes in inconvenient streaks, and my greatest temptation
is to step back from a newly planted food plot and say, “Well, that’s a heckuva
lot better than nothing.” And indeed it might be. But I also know this much; I
got a whole lot better at growing stuff when I started listening to and
mimicking the practices of folks who grow plants for a living. Judging from the
success we enjoyed at the Pine Tree Plot this past fall, I think it’s a practice
I’ll keep repeating.
