Build a field of dreams for wildlife

Many baseball fans remember Kevin Costner in the blockbuster hit, A Field of Dreams, saying, “Build it and they will come…” and the famous baseball players started magically appearing out of the corn. Food plots can be a similar experience for deer and turkey hunters, as properly placed plots can create an awesome experience that will seem just like magic. Properties really can’t have too many food options, but land managers need to make sure to incorporate food plots into their overall land plan.

Food plots can provide wildlife groceries 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Few places are more exciting to hunt over during the heat of the rut than a food plot that’s bustling with forage and is being hammered every day. And the cool season food plots can be real hotspots when temperatures are plummeting in the fall season when much of the natural foods are dwindling away.

The easiest places to propagate food plots are areas that are already cleared and have seen some past agricultural practices like the back of fields or field edges. But a plot tucked well within a wood line or deep inside the woodlot will see more use during all hours of the day.

Worth the hassle

Creating new food plots from a previously wooded area has its challenges, but can be the best plots of the farm for persistent and patient land managers. Making a new plot takes time and plenty of effort before the plots produce.

Most hunters and land managers already know where the deer hotspots are on their farms, and its typically a normal situation for them to already have a place or area they know would be good for a new potential plot. After the general area is selected, then plots need to be created in the part of the area that contains the most fertile soils and with good drainage. In order for plots to grow well, the soil needs the capacity to hold nutrients and to also drain well after rains.

The best way to clear a new plot is undoubtedly with large equipment, such as a track hoe, especially when large trees and stumps are present. The large equipment can remove the stumps, trees and all, of the debris to make a solid seed bed for the new plot. However, sometimes this equipment may not be financially available for all landowners and hunters wanting to create a new food plot.

If the vegetation in the future plot is mostly over-grown brush, shrubs, and vines with some small trees trying to grow, then a forestry-style mulcher can be used to grind up the existing vegetation to the ground. Removing or reducing down the existing vegetation is a must in order to prepare a new plot.

Don’t skimp on disking

Afterwards, the mulched material should be disked into the soil in preparation of the future plantings. Sometimes depending on the level of residual debris, the plot may need to be disked a second or third time to further break up and allow the material to rot and decompose. The plot will generally still have a lot of sticks and other woody debris that should be removed anytime they are observed. Such debris will cause issues when disking and should always be removed.

At this point, the plot will start looking like a real food plot here. Soil tests are the next step, and you shouldn’t be surprised if the soils are very acidic and are lacking necessary nutrients. Over the next couple of seasons, it will take a series of soil amendments to get the pH corrected and to build up the necessary nutrients within the soil to grow a solid plot. And some debris will always appear out of the soil when plowed. It is just the nature of a newly created plot. Just remember to remove the debris when it appears.

Making a new plot takes time, and sometimes it can become a multi-year endeavor before the plots are prime and cranking out nutritious forage. But these new plots can be real hotspots and a pleasure to hunt over.