The first step when considering food plots is planning. When choosing sites on your land, start by looking at overhead maps and images of your property. Keep in mind that you need to look for areas with lots of sunlight. Once you have marked a few prime locations, visit those areas. Typically, look for small open areas with dense cover nearby that is easily accessible by foot or ATV.
Food plots are an effective method of providing food sources for game birds, deer, turkey, and other species. Food plots are planted with corn, grains, and other plants with high nutritional value for wildlife.
It is best to provide food for wildlife year-round by planting both cool‑ and warm-season food plots. You should attempt to plant your cool‑ and warm-season food plots in different sections. This will help to avoid removing available food in preparation to plant the next season’s food plot. Also, be sure to plant a mixture of different plants in each food plot every season. These mixed plantings reduce the risk of losing entire food plots to poor weather, diseases, and insect pests. They also provide a diverse food source and as different plant species grow at different rates within a season, ensure that new plant species are available to replace those that have died out. Diverse food plots also attract a wider variety of insects, which are important to certain wildlife such as turkey and quail–particularly when they are rearing their young.
Properties vary, so food plot design is not a “cookie-cutter” situation. Breaking it down to its most basic elements, you must weigh your goals, read potential reactions of wildlife, and design a plan for each food plot.
Once you have chosen potential sites for your food plots, it is vital that you have the soil tested. With the prices of specialty seeds and fertilizer, and the amount of time it takes to prepare the ground and plant a food plot, it is critical to measure the pH of the soil. If the pH of the soil is incorrect then the food plot will be sparse or completely barren. So, before you even break ground or throw your first seed, test your soil.
There are different ways to determine pH in your food plot. One way is to use a food plot tester. These give you a reading that you can take to your local farm supply store or county agricultural agent to help determine the amount of lime and fertilizer your plot needs.
If you have limited available acreage for plots, then you should be precise in your goals–what is most important to you. Most people with extremely limited acreage tend to devote all they have to “hunting-time attraction.”
However, if you have plenty of ground so that you can seed enough acreage to do it all, then most of what a plot is used for is your choice. By what you plant, how you design the plot and how you treat the area, you direct the action.
