Chad Vanderroest - Michigan


I feel that the food plots that I have incorporated into my management strategy have been the biggest factor in my ever increasing success. Four years ago I purchased a meager 35 acres in southwest Michigan. The area is NOT known for having very many deer and obviously there are not many big bucks around either. I never saw a buck the first year, and only saw does periodically. I didn’t even see a turkey that first year. My property wasn’t as good as the local state land. The following spring I decided that I was going to try putting in a food plot to improve my odds for the next season. I had soil tests conducted and worked in lime and fertilizer and planted Imperial Whitetail Clover.
Deer started coming into the plot regularly by mid August. That October I bow hunted off and on, and saw a few smaller bucks and a number of does. Deer would come in and around the clover on a daily basis. Turkeys were always around the fields too. I was impressed with the change from the year before. In muzzleloader season I shot a nice 8 pointer. He wasn’t a huge deer, but I was thrilled that deer like that were starting to hang around
my property.

The third year started with a bang by shooting a big tom turkey in the clover field. With my new found confidence in food plots, I decided to add a couple more. I planted Chicory Plus, PowerPlant and No-Plow deep in the woods on the back of my property. The second weekend of gun season I went out on my property and hunted in the woods just off the back of the original Imperial Whitetail Clover field (in between a major bedding area and the clover). I saw three bucks that first day and shot the biggest one. He actually came down the edge of the clover field and walked right past me. That deer was a 10 point that gross scored 125 inches.

This past year started again with a bang. I shot a tom turkey in the clover field again. In the late summer I added some long narrow (shooting lane) plots out in the old farm field using Winter-Greens. I hunted hard through October and passed up seven different bucks (some of which were 100 inches or more. In November (prime rut) I had nine does out in the original clover field eating, and a good buck came in to check them out. I decided that this one was worth shooting. He was a 12 point and has been green gross scored at 145 inches. It is almost comical looking back how I have gone from seeing very few deer/turkeys to consistently taking good bucks and turkeys from the same field year after year. The progression from 8 to 10 to 12 points and the incremental increase in score is a shining example of what quality food plots and other management efforts can do. I will continue to add food plots and maintain the ones I have for years to come. I try to get every one I know who has property to plant food plots now. I have even helped others plant food plots the last two springs, and they too are seeing results. Thanks Whitetail Institute for the great line of products.