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 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 the 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
do so 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 if 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
to some degree. 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
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-year-old 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.
