Food Plots For Deer-Knowing Your Planting Strategy
The use of food plots for deer as well as their overall importance to the quality of the deer herd in your area has evolved over the past 15 years or so. If you have the right plan, you can meet the deer herds nutritional needs while increasing your hunting opportunities.
This idea of using food plots to provide adequate deer management for herds across the United States is not only big business, but has developed into a vital piece of the deer hunters pie. Pick up any outdoor publication or perform a search on the internet and you can easily find any number of articles providing advice and suggestions regarding the planning of food plots for whitetail deer.
However, to understand why this has become such an important aspect of overall deer management as well as deer hunting strategy; you must understand why planting food plots are vital in the first place. Deer food plots serve two purposes; first is nutrition and second is to create a harvest plot.
As you may suspect by the name, a nutrition plot is planting to improve the overall nutritional needs of deer in your area. These need change throughout the year and when planting food plots, you should consider a 365 day per year approach to ensure that the entire herd has what they need when they need it. This can be a difficult to accomplish and is greatly affected by a number of factors such as area of the country, herd population, planting and soil conditions and natural cover and vegetation. However, getting these plots right, will almost guarantee a healthy herd, larger antlers and more harvesting opportunities.
A harvest plot is what most hunters across this country usually focus their attention on when they speak about planting food plots for whitetails. This can be beneficial in areas of the country where the indigenous whitetail population is in need of reduction to get it in line with the carrying capacity of the land. However, these plots generally only seduce deer during the rut, which is a very small period of the whitetails overall cycle.
No matter what forage product you intend to plant on your land, finding the best location is key. Quality deer management experts say that it is best to plant only one food plot per every 80 acres of land. So, if you do not own enough land to lend itself to planting multiple food plots, it may be in your and your neighbors best interest to coordinate your planting efforts to complement each other.
Other considerations for food plots location is most food plots will thrive better in low lying locations. This is due to the fact that water and nutrients are usually more plentiful. Be sure that these areas do not flood as most forage products will not survive in a flood zone.
Lastly, be sure that your food plots are near natural vegetation which provides the whitetail with cover. This will help them to feel more comfortable about wandering into your food plot safely. By taking all of these items into account, you ensure proper nutrition for the herd throughout the year and ultimately increase harvesting opportunities during hunting season.
As a deer hunter, you should seriously consider supplementing your deer herds diet with food plots. By doing some homework for your area of the country and practicing good deer management, it is possible to provide year round nutrition for the deer while increasing your harvesting opportunities during hunting season.
