Time to plot your plots – Make food-plot plans part of your 12-month, deer-hunting prospects

A plan for year-round wildlife-habitat improvement begins with which food plots to plant and when. Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Deer hunting is one of the most-popular forms of outdoor recreation; its roots run deep in the Carolinas. Through modern technology and the availability of information — much through the social-media explosion — deer hunters are carrying out a new vision that is enhancing the herd.

Not only are hunters reaching goals more quickly, with huge, high-scoring bucks; deer are benefiting from the improved habitat. And hunters who want to reap the biggest rewards, they can plant an endless supply of nutrient-packed food plots to help feed whitetails year-round and set themselves apart from their neighbors.

Deer and other wildlife have three basic needs: food, cover and water. In the Carolinas, these habitat needs are available in just about every rural and suburban area. Even with highways and suburbia encroaching on wildlife-rich areas, deer don’t face boundaries they can’t cross.

However, the availability and quality of that habitat varies greatly across the landscape and throughout the year. Hunters who invest time sifting through trail-camera photos and spending hours and hours in their tree stands would be missing out if they leave their deer herds out in the cold on Jan. 2. They need to look at the whole picture and provide adequate nutrition year-round to keep their bucks and does on the property.

Ben Lecroy of Big Six Outdoors, based in South Carolina’s Upstate, believes land enhancement with year-round, high-quality food plots that are critical to a whitetail’s life journey.

“Maintaining a constant food source in the same location can dramatically cut down on seasonal patterns and concentrate deer into tighter home ranges,” said Lecroy (864-505-6287). “Additionally, deer will experience less stress during key times of the year — like late summer and late winter — when native food sources are less nutritious and less palatable.”

Because Mother Nature provides for the majority of the Carolinas’ acreage, with relatively mild winters and 50 inches of annual rainfall, deer have access to a wide range of foods for most of the year. But native foods rich in vital nutrition are only available intermittently through the seasons, and the best foods will quickly dry up or get consumed. It’s a rat race, and the strong survive.

Deer are routinely faced with times of less-available and less-palatable natural foods, and this will cause them to head to greener pastures; that may not be good for hunters with less-than-optimum habitat. Hunters with a food-plot program spanning over all 12 months benefit greatly. The last thing hunters want to see are bucks and does leaving for a neighboring farm.

Lecroy said mid-summer and mid-winter are two critical periods to have food to keep their deer grounded.

“Mid-summer season is a very high stress time for whitetails due to the excessive heat and insects,” he said. “Summer conditions degrade native vegetation by making it unpalatable. When you have a lush soybean field, deer will come from miles around. Winter is important, too, because the high-energy and protein-packed food plots help keep deer fat and happy all winter, when natural foods are depleted.”

Spring and early summer are also periods when deer require advanced nutrition.

T.J. Hallman, plantation manager at The Territories Saluda Preserve in Chappells, S.C., said a food-plot program is the cornerstone of success on his properties. He times some for springtime availability.

“By mid-April, bucks are starting velvet antler growth, and we like to have as much food available as possible to get the bucks off to a good start,” said Hallman (864-360-1052). “Also, fawns are hitting the ground anywhere from the last week of March through the middle of May. Does also need enormous amounts of preferred nutrition to provide milk for nursing fawns.”

One of the benefits of spring food plots is often overlooked. They provide cover that newborn fawns desperately require.

“Spring cover in food plots is crucial to help hide those fawns while mamma is out feeding herself,” Hallman said.

In the fall, deer have plenty of natural food available in the form of agriculture, hard mast and soft mast, but if those foods are lacking, supplemental foods that hunters can provide come into play. Deer have no complaints about coming to these caches of sweet temptations like corn and sweet potatoes.

Fall is a super-critical time to provide a strong food source because deer are on the move and looking for rich foods to prepare for winter — and because if they aren’t grounded and happy on their home range, they may pack their bags and travel to find a bumper food source, it may be on another person’s corn pile where they meet their maker.

Many fall food plots are planted with the good intentions of feeding deer and keeping them close to shooting range once the season arrives. While they can definitely put deer in position to be tagged by savvy hunters, food plots can promote a longer-lasting result by improving herd stability.

Hallman said his 12-month food-plot program provides benefits that are very clear.

“We should provide for the very animals we strive after,” he said. “A solid food-plot program provides better nutrition so we can see more deer, bigger deer and have the opportunity to harvest that buck of a lifetime.”