Photo by Charles J. Alsheimer
Two hours and change. That’s how long I hunted
two years ago before my new food plot began paying off. It was only
a few weeks earlier that I’d sprayed, disked and broadcast several bags of Pure
Attraction into the previously barren soil, and I was already seeing dividends.
At first, the pay-off looked like a flicker of movement, but then it was a
silhouette. Finally, I realized it was a mature buck. Many prospective food
plotters worry that it might take years to see the benefits of their work come
to fruition, but on that cool October evening hunt, I could see that wasn’t
true. There’s no doubt that food plots offer tremendous long-term benefits to
deer and deer hunting prospects, but you don’t need to wait years to see
positive changes on your property. From what I’ve seen, the benefits of food
plots come in many forms at many times — and not necessarily after a long wait.
Year
1
As
evidenced by the encounter I described, the benefits of food plots can manifest
themselves the first year you use them or even the first day of the season. But
the ways those benefits come to be are many. Most notably, the first year
you’ve established a food plot, you should expect to see more deer and
increased deer activity on your property. Whitetails aren’t too different than
teenage boys, as they’re always searching for their next meal. If you can
provide the best food in the neighborhood, you’ll likely reap the rewards. More
deer on your property, in most cases, will result in increased hunting
opportunities. In addition to attracting more deer to your land, food plots can
help you target those deer more effectively. With a well-placed food plot and
smart hunting, even in the first year, you’ll likely see some deer develop a
consistent pattern between a bedding area and your plot — especially in the
early or late seasons. According to an Ohio wildlife habitat specialist I know,
the key to seeing those immediate benefits depends just as much on how you treat
the surrounding area as the food plot itself. “If you can provide a stress-free
environment around a quality food plot, whether it’s the first or second year,
it’s going to be attractive,” he said. “And then you can really start to
dictate things.” On the other hand, if you’re sloppy with your access or entry,
hunt the area too much or generally just stress the deer, you’re not likely to
see these benefits, as most deer, especially mature bucks using your plots will
be much more likely to use the plot during darkness. Given the immediate
ability of food plots to attract deer, they can also provide benefits in the
form of increased viewing/hunting opportunities for young or new hunters. You
can place a ground or elevated box blind at these locations that will make for
a terrific and comfortable hunt while also giving new hunters the chance to see
plenty of wildlife. That kind of experience can’t be easily replicated with
consistency while deep in the timber hanging from a tree. I have enjoyed this
benefit, as a box blind on my aforementioned food plot allowed my
sight-impaired father to harvest his first buck in decades.
Year
2
If
you played your cards right in Year 1 with food plots, you’ll likely have
enjoyed plenty of success in the way of increased deer activity and hunting
opportunities. During Year 2, you should continue to enjoy those benefits. In
many cases, those types of results should actually improve, as deer become more
accustomed to a new food source and develop more consistent patterns.
Additionally, as deer learn to use your food plot, you can also learn how
they’re doing it and then better adjust your hunting strategy to take
advantage. In the second year, you’ll also begin to see another return. With
increased hunting opportunities at a plot and by attracting more bucks to your
property, you’ll have more opportunities to make management decisions. This is
one of the greatest benefits of food plots. You’re going to be able to attract
deer to your food source, and once you do that, now you can make the decision
whether you want to harvest this deer or if you want to wait another year. Those
increased harvest decisions, enabled in part by the opportunities afforded by
your food plots, can really help you make a difference in your area. If you
have more deer and bucks at your plot and around it, you’ll get to be
disproportionately responsible for whether bucks make it to older age classes.
If you’re targeting mature bucks, this can make a huge difference. In addition
to hunting and management benefits, if you’ve implemented a substantial
year-round food plot plan with perennials providing high levels of protein in
spring and summer, you’ll likely begin to see the nutritional benefits for your
deer herd. You should also see some of the bucks you passed the year before,
and with added age and nutrition you’ll likely see better antler and body size.
You’ll also likely see benefits such as healthier fawns and better winter
recovery in the herd.
Longer
Term
Moving
forward, every successive year in your food plot plan should bring more
noticeable benefits. Hunting and viewing opportunities will continue to be
strong, as more deer are attracted to your property and more deer make your
land their home. As a result, your opportunities to make management decisions
will continue to increase every year, too. Nutritional benefits, though, will
most likely provide the greatest improvements during the longer term. With a
year-round food plot system filling the gaps during lulls in natural food
availability, fawn recruitment, body size, antler growth and many other metrics
for deer health will likely continue to improve. In fact, according to a report
from Texas A&M University, “Researchers in Mississippi found that maintaining
0.5 percent of an area in year-round agronomic food plots increased body mass,
number of antler points, beam circumferences and beam lengths of whitetail
deer.” A study in Louisiana showed that yearling deer “exhibited a 19 percent
increase in live weights following establishment of cool season food plots.” Those
types of results will, of course, vary depending on the food sources available
outside your plots. But whether you’re in an area of heavy agriculture production
or the big woods of the Northeast, providing additional high-nutrition options
for the herd will certainly help.
Conclusion
Two
years and change. That’s how long it’s been since that initial encounter
described at the beginning of this piece. Just last night, the benefits of that
plot came to a head. It was 45 minutes before dark, and I was again perched high
above the food plot, now an established, consistent all-you-can-eat buffet for
local deer. As light faded, numerous deer emerged and headed into the plot, plump,
content and comfortable — a pattern that has become nearly like clockwork. And
then, a shining white set of antlers atop a stout 3-yearold Michigan buck
emerged from the nearby standing corn and headed toward me on a mission. He’d
obviously been there before — possibly many times during his three years. First,
he nibbled on some Whitetail Oats Plus. Then he meandered into a strip of
Winter-Greens and finally returned to the oats. And there in the lush carpet of
green, my arrow met its mark and completed a cycle that was years in the
making. During the three seasons that plot has been in the ground, I’ve seen
multiple mature bucks, fed and nourished dozens of deer, watched and harvested
numerous does, shared a successful hunt with my dad for the first time in years,
and finally, three years later, filled my tag on a big-racked buck. Whether
it’s Year 1, 3 or 10, the answer to the food plot question seems obvious. The
benefits are immediate, long-term and everything in between. So what are you
waiting for? It’s time to get planting.
