Powell Kemp is one of the three owner/operators of Carolina Woods and Water based in Halifax Co., N.C. With more than 15,000 acres of privately owned lands under its control, Kemp is able to practice true herd management in one of the most productive agriculture regions in the state. Not to mention, huge record-sized bucks make it to the scoring session at the Annual Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh each and every year from Halifax County.
For 11 seasons, Kemp (252-341-9804) and his partners have actively-managed their conglomeration of properties for trophy bucks through controlled harvests, habitat management timber management and forage availability. Luckily, half of their acreage is under active agriculture, with corn, peanuts and soybeans making up most of the crop coverage, providing a huge food source for their herd.
In addition, Kemp and his crew maintain 35 acres of additional food plots with clover as the primary ingredient. Carolina Woods and Water has a whopping 230 stands scattered around its properties. Each comes with several shooting lanes, and the majority of the shooting lanes are planted with cool-season forages.
“We have about 32 miles of shooting lanes distributed around our stands that we plant in oats,” he says. “Oats are inexpensive but highly attractive forage our deer love.”
Out of the agriculture, food plots, forest management and shooting lanes, food is not in short supply on Carolina Woods and Water’s properties. But Kemp also attributes its success to the way they hunt.
“Except on rare occasions, we only hunt our stands once per week — if that much. We usually limit our hunting participation to 15 hunters per week, and only 150 of our 230 stands get hunted per week.”
The deer get little pressure from Kemp’s hunters, and they get a chance to grow to maturity with a good food base. Last season alone, hunters on Carolina Woods and Water took slightly fewer than 100 bucks, with 25 of the season total coming off their 10,000-acre, 8-point-or-better management area.
This month, Kemp and his crew will be only preparing for fall food plots in thought. Not until next month will he begin spraying plots with glyphosate and preparing for the fall plantings. However, the deer on Carolina Woods and Water properties will begin seeing regular onlookers during July as Kemp begins scouting agriculture fields in the evenings and mornings looking for bachelor groups and deer usage in preparation for the upcoming deer season.
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