A Healthy Stand of Frigid Forage - Wild Game Buffet
Planting food plots on your land has numerous benefits for wildlife and can be used strategically to help increase your chances of success when hunting. There are many different ideas on the best times to plant food plots and what varieties of wildlife foods to plant to maximize the effectiveness of the food plot. One of the strategies that I am employing on one of our whitetail properties is to use a perennial food plot in a new area of the property to help modify travel patterns and provide a safe food source near thick cover for when hunting pressure builds.
This spring we spent a significant amount of time reclaiming a piece of land between a big swamp and a 50 acre field that is used for agriculture. The swamp is a traditional bedding area for Whitetails and is a place of refuge for them during hunting season. However, after the crops come off the field they have to expose themselves in an open field in order to access their food source. We have designated the first 60 yards into the field as a ‘buffer’ strip and the 30 yards closest to the agriculture is planted with a Pheasants Forever grass mix that is mixed with Russian Olives and provides excellent cover. The 30 yards closest to the fencerow and swamp we have designated as another buffer strip where we can plant food plots. In addition, we cleared ¾ of an acre on the inside of the fencerow even closer to the swamp for another food plot.
The 60 yard ‘buffer’ strip was planted 7 years ago and has proved invaluable as a tool for helping make the property more huntable. This spring we tilled up and the 30 yard ‘food zone’ and replanted it with a premium Trophy Clover mixture from Frigid Forage. The deer use this area as a staging area in the morning and evening as they move from bedding to the agriculture field. It provides them a good food source late into the year and they feel safe because of the tall grass between them and the field. Because they see this as a safe area they move into it well before dark and provide me an opportunity to hunt them.
Bucks Utilizing the Protected Interior Food Plot
The ¾ acre food plot on the interior of the woodline also provides a protected food source for the deer but it also serves another purpose as well. This small food plot is located in the southwest corner of the property and is furthest away from neighboring properties and deer hunters. It is also in a location that is easy to get in and out of without being detected by the deer. This spring we planted this food plot with Frigid Forage’s Wild Game Buffet which includes Mammoth Red Clover, Medium Red Clover, Alsike Clover, White Dutch Clover, Ladino Clover, Dwarf Essex Rapeseed, Perennial Ryegrass, Creeping Red Fescue, and Vernal Alfalfa. So in addition to providing a good food source closer to cover the deer are now establishing travel routes to get to this food source and becoming accustomed to spending more time in this area of the property. By creating a new and desirable food source we are encouraging the deer to develop patterns and habits that keep them safe from hunters and direct them to locations where we can selectively harvest them.
These are only two of many ways that food plots can be used and we will show more strategies for late summer and early fall food plots as we get closer to planting them.
See you all in the woods,
Opie