AWESOME FOOD PLOTS ON MARGINAL SITES

How to produce world-class food plots on rough and tough terrain

By Michael Veine

It would be great if all new food plot sites were on level ground, already cleared and easily accessible, with rich, heavy, neutral pH soils and no rocks or other debris in the way. In the real world, though, especially in woodlands, most food plot sites are far from ideal. There’s no reason to be discouraged, though, just because your land poses some food plotting challenges. In fact, the satisfaction level is even higher when productive plots are produced on marginal sites. Read on for some tips and know-how on how to cost effectively produce world-class food plots on rough and tough ground. 

21 years ago, I realized a dream and purchased a chunk of land for recreational hunting. This remote 160-acre parcel was unimproved, rugged land composed of an even mix of high and low ground. A brush-choked, beaver-pond-studded stream bottom runs through the property, adding character and logistical issues. The property was a gem in the rough, with lots of potential that would take a considerable investment in time, money and effort to realize.

The land hadn’t been timbered in more than 100 years, so I didn’t waste time contracting for a timber treatment on the property. About 40 acres of mostly aspen were clear-cut, and those areas quickly sprang back into lush, thick, deer-preferred habitat. Other areas were select-cut, and we also had some strip-cuts done in some of the white cedar stands. Those strip-cuts created some highly deer preferred habitat too.

Next on the hit list was improving access to the property and improving the deer nutrition there with food plots. After walking the property with a local excavator, I hired him to make some roads through the property and create a couple of initial food plots. I had no natural openings on my property, so the food plots would need to be carved out of the forests by clearing stumps, tops and standing trees along with pushing rocks and other debris out of the way. This excavator had an hourly rate that seemed very reasonable, so he seemed like a logical choice.

Unfortunately, I failed to research him adequately and ended up paying for that mistake big time. It first became apparent that I had made a mistake when he showed up with just an old, run-down bulldozer that seemed inadequate for the task. Sure enough, the small dozer had great difficulty pushing bigger trees and stumps, and he floundered in wet spots. He labored all day using up my budgeted expenditure on the project while only completing about one quarter of what he claimed he could get done in a day. What was done was poor at best, too. The roads were miserable, muddy things that were mostly impassable, and the food plots were only partially cleared.

Lesson learned: When hiring an excavator for hunting property work, the hourly rate needs to be factored into the size and quality of the machines being used. Also, do yourself a favor and really learn all the nuances of whatever excavation work you’ll need performed so you can plan and conduct those projects with confidence about doing it properly while minimizing expenses.

Regardless of the shortcomings of that first food plot project, I was among the legends of official food plotters as I enthusiastically worked on those two small plots until they were covered with a thick stand of Imperial Whitetail Clover. The deer took notice, too, and inspired by that limited success, I made more plans to really improve the access on my property along with greatly expanding my food plot acreage. This time, though, I was determined to do it right, but I’m no rich dude, so it would still have to be done on a budget.

After a lot of research, I decided to rent an excavator and perform a lot of the roadbed prep work myself. I contracted for three days’ rental on a mid-sized machine that was big enough that it needed to be delivered by a semi-truck. I had never operated an excavator before, but those things are actually pretty easy to master, and within minutes, I was good to go.

Actually, it was a downright blast to operate that magnificent machine. It was big enough that I could knock over trees or just reach out and yank them up from their roots and toss them aside. I built up existing roads and cleared and built-up new roadways with great efficiency. In just a few days of work, my property was laced with new roads, and I dug some real nice water holes in strategic spots, too. Had I hired an excavator contractor to do all that work, it would have cost me thousands of dollars more than the rental rate, so I saved a lot of cash in the process.

Because bulldozers are expensive to rent and haul, especially for a big-enough one, I decided to contract with an excavator to grade my new roads and to clear more food plot sites. This time I did a lot more research though and found an excavator that had the right tools for the job and also lots of experience making food plots. In eight hours of pushing, that experienced and highly skilled operator had nicely finished off my roads and had also cleared five more acres of food plots. It was money well spent. 

The closest community to my hunting property is a little hamlet called Rock. There’s a reason for that name as the area is very rocky. Clearing small rocks (and other debris) from a food plot is not really complicated. There’s the manual way (the way I mostly did it), and there is the easy way by using a rake attachment on a tractor. Where possible I would just toss them off to the side, otherwise I would deposit them in a small, dump trailer pulled behind my ATV and then relocate them to a better home off my food plots. Big boulders though require more work. My ATV has a winch mounted on the front of it.

For a bunch of boulders that the dozer missed, I had to dig around them with a shovel and then winch them out with my ATV. It took many hours of labor to remove most of the rocks from my food plots, and every time I run a disc over it, more always work their way to the surface and need to be removed. It just goes with the territory.

Through the years, I have created additional roads and small food plots on my own by renting mini-excavators. These machines are widely available at heavy equipment rental outlets and are a true bargain because of their utility and the broad range of projects they are great for. The best mini-excavators for taming rough terrain are going to be on the larger side, although small ones can suffice but will require additional time.

A couple of years ago, I rented a John Deere 27D, with a 9-foot digging depth and a 2-foot-wide bucket. That machine weighed in at about 6,500 pounds, and it was great for pulling stumps and small trees. Also, it had a dozer blade, which was awesome for pushing stuff out of the way and leveling things out. With it, I cleared and built up a new roadway, piling up dirt from holes previously dug. Afterwards, I leveled off the road using the dozer blade. The road was about 1/8 mile long.

I also created two smaller food plots of about 1/4 acre each that day. That mini-excavator also had a rock picker bucket, so ridding the plot of boulders and other debris was especially nice. I even dug some water holes with the machine and did some landscaping by my cabin too — all in just eight hours of working time. I’m planning on installing another road and food plot this year with that machine and highly recommend it for do-it-yourself food plot work.

A great spot to install food plots is in and along wetlands, as deer tend to gravitate to these areas because of the thick cover provided. Swampy areas often dry up during summer, allowing food plotters to access these areas with a mini-excavator to dig out water holes with the dredge spoils being spread around the holes forming the food plot area. I have created several of these types of food plots/water holes, and they have all turned out to be fantastic hunting sites that draw in loads of deer and also get lots of use by waterfowl and other wildlife.

There are spots on my property where I wanted food plots but not even an ATV can easily access the locations. The stream that flows through my land creates an obstacle, but I can still have excellent food plots even in areas where access is limited to foot travel. The simple solution is no-till food plots. I have created a bunch of small food plots using nothing but hand tools and a backpack-style sprayer. If there are too many trees in the area, a chainsaw can remedy that situation.

I like to clear all the trees and brush from the site and pile up the debris in strategic locations. Leaving stumps on the site is no problem. The next step is to spray the site with a glyphosate-based herbicide like Roundup®. After it is really “browned down,” go over the site with a big leaf rake, removing most of the dead grass and debris and exposing the soil. I usually take a soil test of any potential food plot site before starting any work there and add some lime right away, if needed. After raking the site, I add even more lime right at the time of seeding. Like the name implies, seed selection for these no-till food

plots is perfect for Imperial No-Plow. Another awesome annual that I like on my no-till plots is Imperial Whitetail Secret Spot. Deer love forage variety, so in many of my No-Plow food plots, I have some parts of the plot planted with annuals and other sections are planted with perennials like Imperial Whitetail Clover.

Most of the time when a new food plot is carved out of forest land where trees once stood, the pH will likely be rather low and acidic. My pH was about 5.0 on most of my U.P. plots, so lime was recommended, and lots of it. At first, I applied lime from 50-pound bags, which worked OK on the small plots. When I expanded my food plot acreage, though, I knew I’d have to get serious about liming. I bought a small tow-behind lime spreader that I pull with my ATV. I get a bulk delivery of lime dumped in a centralized location on my property along the edge of my largest food plot and then spread the lime from there. I still spread the lime by hand from bags on my no-till plots. Liming is certainly a dirty, time-consuming job, but the improvement in forage production is amazing and well worth the investment.

I rely upon regular herbicide applications on my food plots to keep them thriving. I mainly use an ATV sprayer with a double nozzle boom that sprays about a 6-foot swath with each pass. I also use a 5-gallon backpack sprayer on my small plots. These sprayers require lots of water and unfortunately, my property does not have a well, and even if it did, I don’t have electricity to pump it. In the past, I would just take water from the stream that flows through my land. Even a trout stream has dirty water that needs to be filtered, or it will plug up the sprayer nozzles.

I made a filter using multiple layers of cheesecloth fastened over the fill-opening of the tank with a big rubber band. I filled the tank with buckets of water, pouring it through the cheesecloth. Eventually, though, I dug waterholes on or near all of my larger food plots and rigged up a 12-volt pump to fill my tanks. I still filter the water through the cheesecloth. The pump hooks up to my ATV battery and makes quick work of the filling process, making the spraying tasks go much faster.

My hunting property certainly presented food plot challenges galore. After my plots were established and tamed, though, they really produce a lot of high-quality forage for deer and other wildlife. I have seen a marked increase in the average body sizes of the deer on my property that I attribute to better deer nutrition. In fact, 19 bucks that weighed more than 180 pounds dressed have occupied my buck pole the past 15 years, which is proof that food plots using Whitetail Institute products on marginal sites can pay big dividends.