OUTDOOR LOGIC WITH BIOLOGIC
Bring the Deer To the Food, or the Food To the Deer? Proper Food Plot Location, Size and Design Regardless of your food plot goals, variety can be very important. There are so many changes happening in the whitetails’ world during the year that if you would like a well-rounded program you want to have a food available that covers their needs regardless of the time or conditions.
Every property is different – from the obvious disparities such as topography, natural flora and the type of agricultural crops grown in the region, to more specific, subtle variances like herd dynamics, property history and each land manager’s goals. So the job of food plot design is definitely not a “cookie-cutter” procedure. Although we want to base our management decisions on science and facts, food plot design may be more of an art than a science. Breaking it down to its most basic elements, you must weigh the property manager’s goals, read a deer herd’s potential reactions and design a plan for each food plot. An often-asked question of our management consultants at Mossy Oak is, “How many acres do I need in food plots?” Some claim to have formulas, but in reality, it’s impossible to tell you how much acreage you should put into food plots simply by going off 30
Cooperative Farming News
of how many total acres the property consists of. There are so many variables – the number of deer per square mile, the quality of your native vegetation, agricultural area vs. big woods, what your neighbors are doing, etc. I’ve heard people say that you should put roughly 5% to 6% of the total acreage of a property into food plots. But that doesn’t make sense … what if someone owns 10 acres in the middle of a 3,000acre chunk of state land? They could plant their total acreage in food plots and it still wouldn’t be enough. Granted, that’s a very extreme example, but about the only thing you can do is to plant what you think is enough and monitor everything closely. Put a utilization cage on each plot, record body weights, examine your native vegetation, etc. So, how many and what size food plots do you need? For the most part, like many land managers, I
