Greener Pastures Archives - Page 18 of 20

June 1, 2026

Applying lime and/or fertilizer will give your food plots a leg up on reaching their maximum growth and production.

Food-plot success is hard work

Typically, wildlife move back and forth to the best and most-available emerging food sources throughout the year. […]

Trail cameras set up to snoop on bucks feeding around agricultural food sources can give hunters or land managers a leg up on knowing what their herd looks like.

Get to know all your ‘bachelors’

Preseason scouting is essential when determining the quality and abundance of deer on your land. Since May, bucks have been growing their headgear, brewing individualism in the herd. […]

Wildlife habitat must be constantly managed to consistently produce bumper crops of nice bucks, as well as turkeys, quail and rabbits.

Wildlife management never rests

Jeff Burleson

Any seasoned hunter understands the investments needed to grow quality deer and bumper populations of ducks and quail on their hunting lands. […]

Monitoring the number of “poor-bob-white” calls from cock birds during the spring mating season can give land managers a chance to document changes in the local population — up or down.

Call counts are critical in spring

Jeff Burleson

Quail hunters put their guns and blaze-orange shell vests away better than three months ago for a long period of inactivity. […]

May is the primary month to get warm-season food plots planted; the chances of a cold-weather kill are almost nill, and your seeds get a head-start on competing weeds.

Plant warm-season food plots soon

Jeff Burleson

Warm-season food plots are already established by many habitat managers, with the exception of a choice few chasing Thanksgiving’s main squeeze, the tom turkey. […]

Land managers should cultivate only as much acreage in food plots as they can maintain; a few high-quality acres is better than dozens of acres of lower quality.

Expand your food-plot acreage

Jeff Burleson

Where legal, most deer hunters elect supplemental feeding, usually with corn, over renewable, cultivated food plots. […]

An ideal tract of deer-hunting land should have lush food sources, such as this food plot, interspersed among timbered areas.

Hunting for the ideal deer tract

Jeff Burleson

A deer hunter’s dream is to have the perfect property littered with lush, natural food sources and covered with trophy bucks. […]

Treating a food plot with fertilizer later in the fall will keep it viable and near the top of a deer’s daily travel itinerary.

Replenish nutrients in your food plots to keep them on deer’s main menu

Jeff Burleson

A nutritious, palatable food plot will draw wildlife from clear across the county — or at least one would hope for such a scenario. […]

A harvested corn field will still have plenty of grain, enough to be a major food source for deer and other wildlife.

Food-plot alternatives? Of course

Jeff Burleson

Deer hunting has its highs and lows, but there is nothing like sitting in a tree stand, peering through the predawn darkness, anxiously awaiting the gentle glow from the eastern sky. […]

Planting different seed mixes in the same field or staggering the planting times of the same seeds can provide deer and other wildlife with prime grazing for a longer period of time.

Preparation is fall food-plot key

Jeff Burleson

Even though a few game zones in South Carolina are already open for early-season velvet hunts, the remaining deer hunters in the Carolinas are anxiously awaiting Opening Day while plowing and planning out the last details of their fall food plots. […]