It was one of those hunts where I just
wasn’t getting the vibe. An outing where my head tells me I’m making the right
choice, but my gut carries on a nagging argument that knee-caps my confidence. On
a late October afternoon, the debate went something like this: Head: Cool
little ladder stand, tucked sweetly against a leafy white oak. Gut: It’s 12
feet high, idiot.
No cover between you and the food plot. You’ll never draw a
bow without spooking deer. Head: But I like the food plot. Strip of oats, a
swath of brassicas, and even a few beans for variety. Gut: Yes, and you could
shoot an arrow into your neighbor’s barn from here. Listen to all that banging,
clanking and mooing. And do you recall that a nice buck has already been shot
from this spot this fall? How many times do you think you can go to the well,
anyway?
You get the picture. This is why I carry a book in my backpack; to provide
distraction from the mental wars and keep my butt in the seat. Some of those
hunts live up to my worst expectations. But this one surprised me. Within an
hour, I’d seen a handful of does and a small buck, and in the last minutes of
prime time a 3-1/2-year-old 10-point fed within 16 yards of that little ladder.
I decided to pass on the shot, but the hunt was one of my most exciting of the
fall. Such is the power of small food plots, planted close to security cover. The
plot I hunted that evening is a perfect example of these tight-cover plots, and
though it’s only a few years old, has always fascinated me. As described, it’s
located within a stone’s throw of my neighbor’s dairy barn, which is always a
busy and noisy place. Yet because of the adjacent cover — an old pasture that
Dave has allowed to grow up into dense brush and young trees — the deer feel
safe there. This plot sucks in not only a lot of deer, but mature bucks as
well. In fact, close to a month before my evening hunt, Dave shot a gorgeous
10-point buck that grossed in the high 150s — not a bad reward for a plot not much
bigger than a couple of full-sized pickup trucks. My hunting buddies and I have
been experimenting with these types of plots for several seasons now, and have
made enough mistakes to feel like we’re finally learning something. Here are a
few of the lessons we’ve learned.
No. 1: Plot Location
Small plots —
which I define as anything less than one-half acre — are best situated
somewhere close to dense cover. The reason for this is simple. Because a small
plot is never going to feed a lot of deer for a long period of time, their main
purpose is to lure deer in for a shot. And to coax any deer into an open area
during daylight, you need to make deer feel safe. Situate a small plot close to
cover and deer don’t have to travel far to reach the food. Plus, the presence
of nearby cover affords a feeding whitetail with a sense of security. This is
particularly critical when you’re trying to lure in mature bucks. While there
are many areas suitable to these small kill plots, the three best I’ve helped
create were all in or near naturally occurring openings. The first is just off
a small clearcut close to my home. My neighbor and I made the clearcut over
several winter weekends spent with a chainsaw in hand; and just off the edge of
the clearcut was a small area — about one-eighth of an acre, to be exact —
grown up to sumac, honeysuckle and grass. It was a small matter to clear the
brush and grass and establish a plot, which I’ve maintained for several years now.
The plot described in the beginning of this story is another excellent example.
Though close to buildings and other human activity, the plot (actually several
small ones linked together) lies tight to cover so dense it’s barely
penetrable. The thick morass of briers, saplings and weeds keeps deer feeling
secure; an illusion maintained because those areas are never penetrated by
humans and the plots are hunted sparingly (and then only under perfect wind
conditions). Finally, I’ve helped a friend establish and maintain a pair of
plots on his small property for many years now. Those plots are located
adjacent to the headwaters of a tiny trout stream, which flows through an old
brushy pasture choked by box elder, cedar and cottonwood trees, with a
smattering of switchgrass and other native prairie species. These plots attract
deer throughout the year and have allowed my friend to tag many deer. While our
plantings offer deer a nutritional boost, I’m convinced their true
effectiveness lies in location; even mature bucks (my friend missed a
legitimate Booner there last fall) feel safe grabbing a bite because safety is
only a leap away.
No. 2: Plot Establishment and Weed Control
Small plots
can be deadly, but some of them are just plain difficult to start. Ideally, I
like to work with natural openings which require less brush and woody
vegetation removal and already enjoy a good dose of sunlight. But sometimes I’m
forced to get stubborn. One of my friend’s plots next to the creek (mentioned above)
was basically hacked out of a gnarly little stand of box elder trees. For that
task I hired a buddy who owns a skid loader and a bucket. Mark ripped trees out
of the ground by their roots in an hour’s worth of labor, and the $100 I paid him
was chicken feed compared to the labor of cutting trees and digging out stumps
by hand. Of course, your time/labor investment will be much smaller if you focus
your efforts on natural openings. Here, the main concern is usually eliminating
grass and weed competition, a job that’s usually a snap for a sprayer loaded
with a quality herbicide. In most scenarios, I like to spray the plot and let
it sit for a week or two, which allows stubborn broadleaf weeds and grasses a
chance to absorb the chemical in their roots and get a great kill. When the
plot has “browned up” nicely, tillage is much simpler and more effective. One
of the most frequent questions I’m asked about starting food plots like these
is, “Can I use an ATV to do the job?” I confess I’m torn and spoiled on this
issue. As far as being spoiled, I’m blessed to have friends, neighbors and
hunting buds who possess — and know how to run — some serious equipment. This
means I can turn to them, point to a brush-choked thicket and say, “Hey, do you
think it’s possible to get a tractor in there and work that up for me?” I’m
devious this way, as I’ve learned my buddies take these tasks as a personal challenge;
a test of their farming skills, as it were. The next thing I know, there’s a
John Deere in a place where it shouldn’t be, turning Back to the “torn” half of
the equation. I know some guys who have good ATVs and top-of-the-line
accessories. In most areas — I’m stressing the word “most” — they can till up a
small plot just fine, assuming they let the herbicide do its work and aren’t
battling a root system quagmire. The process just takes a little longer than it
would with heavy equipment. This, of course, is fine. But every once in a while
there’s a nasty, brushy, rocky patch where an ATV is just not a big enough gun
for the game. In such cases, seek out someone who’ll bring in the artillery you
need and you won’t regret the cash it takes to get the job done right. One
surprising thing I’ve learned about small plots is the amount of continuing
weed control required. When I first started planting these mini-plots, I
figured that when the initial weed-war was fought my headaches would be over.
Wrong. In fact, I feel that small-plot farmers face even stiffer weed
competition, not because of what we spray or till in the plot itself, but the
stuff we ignore on its borders. A classic example is a plot I planted a few
years back that was infested with burdock. I sprayed those nasty, sprawling
broadleaves like I was hosing down a house fire … and they just kept coming
back. I was mystified, until I took my eyes off the plot itself. On its
fringes, and growing in a sweeping arc under neighboring trees and shrubs, were
hundreds of burdock plants that were casting seeds into my plot on a continual
basis. When I expanded the burdock war to a broader front, I was able to nearly
eliminate the competition. These days when I plant a small plot, the first
thing I do is look around the perimeter and identify potential enemies that
will spread their seed into the perfect growing conditions I’m about to create.
No. 3: The Planting Question
Deciding what to plant in a mini-plot is a
thorny issue. If I had my druthers, I’d plant Imperial Whitetail Clover in almost
every one I could. Clover is just such a year-round whitetail attractant that
it’s tough to beat, and I’ve tested enough brand names to feel that Imperial is
the best stuff going. Also, I’m a passionate turkey hunter, and clover sucks in
spring birds like no other food source around. Finally, getting a great clover
patch established means that, with a little yearly maintenance, you’ll have a
great plot going for several years. That said, weed control often forces me to
consider other options for the first couple years of a small plot. One tactic
that has worked well is to work up the plot in spring or early summer and plant
something like a Roundup ready soybean. As noted above, mini-plots are grass-
and broadleaf-magnets, and in my experience Roundup whacks weeds like nothing
else. After a season or two of Roundup ready beans, I usually have weed
competition defeated and I can get my clover going. Yet even beans aren’t a
magic bullet. The curse of beans in a small plot is that deer can wipe them
out; sometimes before they can even throw a pod or reach the hunting season.
Here’s the solution to that problem; monitor your plot into the late summer
months. If it looks like deer will have the thing destroyed before it can do
you any good, simply till the plot up and plant a late-season annual. Two of my
favorite nominees are Tall Tine Tubers, or Winter-Greens. In addition to
producing amazing food mass, these offerings typically aren’t attractive to
deer until the first frost. This timing can help a small plot produce well into
the hunting season. Last year, I experienced a final, and highly exciting,
option for small plot success. My hunting partner and I were looking for
something to plant in a pair of plots that had been brassica fields for three
seasons. Deer had so adored these plots that it was tough to walk away from Winter-Greens,
but the experts at Whitetail Institute told me doing so was following the good
agricultural practice of rotation. When I asked for a substitute they suggested
Whitetail Oats Plus. We’d never planted oats before, but after last fall
they’re going to be a staple on our food plot menu. I’ve come to love Whitetail
Oats for a variety of reasons, but the short list goes like this: 1. They’re
simple to plant; 2. they’re a late-summer, early-fall planting (which means
weed competition is minimal); 3. they’re low maintenance and, finally; 4.
whitetails just hammer them. We were thrilled with the whitetail response to
Whitetail oats and impressed by their ability to take heavy grazing and still
rebound to grow even more.
Conclusion
Small plots will never accomplish
the management goals of their larger counterparts — feeding great numbers of
deer and improving herd health and survival. But I’m convinced they’re an
integral part of any serious deer manager’s plans. Micro plots placed close to
dense security cover allow us to add more variety and tonnage to our food plot
plans, and they provide excellent spots for killing does and mature bucks. And
finally, I view small plots as the perfect stepping stone into the fascinating
world of food plotting. With a small investment of time, money and materials,
small plots provide the ideal laboratory for learning.
