I have planted in the past corn fields as much as six acres and left the whole field standing except for just a small portion. Corn fields can draw deer in the early season but is more beneficial to deer in the late winter months. Deer take in the carbohydrates of the corn and add needed weight for the extreme cold months to come. Placing too much pressure on these fields will hurt you from seeing that big buck in the late season. The deer get to understand the hunters behavior and change their daily routs into night routs. This is how the old bucks that you may get on your trail camera get old. You may see them and think you have them mapped out and they change their moves on you in a heart beat.

If you are hunting small acreage the older bucks are more likely to stay if you put less pressure and watch your doe herd that you may have. I see no harm in harvesting a mature doe in the early season such as bow season. Allow them to walk when gun season comes in. Where the does are the bucks want be far behind when the rut kicks into full swing. I have learned this the hard way on my own and by watching others mess their hunting locations up as I have done in the past. My favorite stand is a shooting house that sits square dead in the middle of an old pasture field that once held cows. It is standing underneath and beside a large pine tree all alone. Forty yards out in front of the stand is six rows of seven-year old sawtooth oak, live oaks, and Chinese chestnut trees that are all bearing nuts this season.

The trees are planted every twenty feet apart so that they can be kept clean through the summer months and fertilized twice a year. Once in the spring and once again in the fall when the small food plots are planted around them. In between each row and all around these trees there is some sort of winter food source there for my deer. There are five rows all together that get planted. Each row has something different except the two outside rows. These rows are planted in Brassica plants Georgia collard. Each row between the trees is roughly about 75 yards long and 20 yards wide. Inside the Brassica plants you have crimson, arrow leaf, and yuchi clovers planted. The last row left is planted in chicory.

By planting the clover it also acts as a food source in the spring time for my turkeys. So I am killing two birds with one stone. When planting different types of plants for wildlife it gives them a choice to eat something over the other. On small properties the more you plant the better the odds move into your favor. Even though your neighbor next door may have 200 to 300 acres more. You still have a chance at drawing some good deer onto your property and the odds increase into your favor. Do not ever give up on your dream of harvesting a great deer. You and I as outdoors-men stand the chance of taking a trophy in our own back yard just as much as the next hunter. We as hunters manage our money as we do our land and deer herd. What I mean by this, is if we are tight wads with what kind of deer we shoot then we are just as tight with our money. And I understand that in today’s economy everything sucks and we as citizens of the United States have to deal with it.

When writing for an Outdoor paper, magazine, and a web site there is so much that can be written on. It is almost like trying to come up with new words for a special book. I would almost say that on a count of 100 words to 100 words that the Aurthur Tom Kelly dose not have as much trouble of coming up with words to go into his own books.

Tom Kelly is by far one of the greatest outdoor writers of this time. I say this to you as the reader that this is my own opinion and i do not wish to change it by any means necessary. When he writes it’s like words just fall into place and you seem to read them one after another and they just make since. Some would disagree and say that he is not the best writer of this time but we are all entitled to our own opinion.

What comes to mind when you hear the word Outdoors? It can mean many things in this day and age. It is like the adds that you read on the back of some everyday outdoor magazine that is there for one reason. That reason is to promote the company that has paid for that add. The adds that I enjoy reading the most are like the one’s that just come from the heart. Let’s take a look at Mossy Oak adds and just sit and read one and think of what you may read while you read it. Here is one for example.

” Law of Nature ”
” It’s a law of nature: the more dirt gets under your fingernails, the higher your spirit gets lifted.”

There are plenty more of where this add comes from and you can find it at Mossy Oak. I have to say that even when Realtree placed add’s they never even matched up to Mossy Oak. These two companies are competing for who has the best camo. But Mossy Oak go’s further than that.

Mossy Oak also works best with Biologic, a seed blend for every type of wildlife out there that mother nature has to put forward to us. Whitetail Institute has planted over 1 million acres but I would say that Biologic is rite there with them if not equal.

Outdoor companies compete each and every year for something new to be placed on the shelf. There is still thousands of things out there to be discovered and it only take a little time in the outdoors to do it. When it comes to camo I will more than likely choose Realtree over Mossy Oak but i have had my chances to plant Whitetail Institute products and here in the south the Biologic brand is just a little better.

As Toxey Haas once said: ” It all started with a fist full of dirt.”

Planting can be tricky in many ways. What do I plant? How do I plant it? Where do I need to plant? Will it grow under shady areas? How well dose it hold up in the early spring?

The first question I ask is what do you want out of your food source for your deer herd. Do you want to plant an Annual or a Perennial. There is a big difference between the two.

Annuals are plants that require only one growing season to complete their life cycle. This means that if you want them to keep growing then you must replant these forges each year. Some annuals can be encouraged to reseed themselves through proper management of the food plot. This management may include mowing, fertilizing, and disking, and will depending on the forage species you have planted. Annuals such as soy-beans, corn, rye, oats, and wheat will need to be planted each year for maximum growth.

Now Perennials on the other hand can be planted one time and may last from 3 to 5 years in a single planting. Most of these forges produce their own nitrogen from their roots. Things like clovers, alfalfa, chicory, and some vetches. These are all perennials. They do this by developing specialized root systems that allow them to regenerate from their roots after the leaves and stems of the plant die at the end of the growing season. The number of seasons  you will get from a single planting depends of the specific forage species, how well you maintain the food plot, and the region you are in.

By far, the biggest benefit of planting perennial forages is that you can get more than one year of good forage production from a single planting. This will allow you to keep your seed and labor costs lower than required on annual plots, which must usually be disked and often replanted each year.

Most of the Perennial food plots will have to have plenty of moisture and some of these can be planted in an area where sun hit’s for only four hours a day. Annuals will need more sun light to produce the tonnage of food per the acre. You wouldn’t plant corn or soy-beans in a swamp.

Remember that you have two different types of annuals as well. The winter annuals are planted in the late summer and early fall. They will begin growing soon there after and go dormant in the winter and begin growing in early spring and die in mid summer.

Summer annuals are planted in early spring through early summer and will put on most of their forges in summer time and will die in early fall or early winter. This is where your grains such as beans and corn are here.

It is important to know whether the forages you are planting are annuals, or perennials. Most importantly, the life cycle of your forages determines how often you will have to replant them. There are also some situations when you might want to select to plant an annual forage instead of a perennial, and vise-versa. Also remember that the foods that you plant for you deer may even benefit your turkey as well. So the next time you decide to plant make sure your planting the right food source.

In 1986 Ray Scott became a man who started a small company in the southern part of Montgomery,AL. He wanted to find a way to produce and and hold bigger bucks on his property. So the food plot revolution began and a new era for planting for whitetail deer became one of today’s most famous way’s to grow bigger rack and larger body deer.

With wildlife seed’s such as Imperial whitetail clover, whitetail extreme, chicory plus, “chic magnet”, Imperial Alfa-Rack plus, winter greens, and the new Double Cross have sky rocketed into a high protein feeding frenzy for wildlife managers or today. With over one million acres planted the whitetail seed’s have gone to all time high’s.

With Ray Scott’s two son’s Wilson and Steve Scott they together have mad the food plot industry what it is today. I have had the pleasure of working under these two fine men and also under the late Dr. Wiley Johnson an agronomist and plant geneticist from the University of Auburn. I will always remember the things that the Institute’s once Biologist Jody Holdbrooks a graduate of Auburn and the late Dr. Johnson told me was to always make sure to put the seed in the rite spot.

Dr. Johnson was a loved and caring man at the office and away from it. He will be missed forever. My days at the Institute were always filled with fun things to learn and the staff there were like none else anywhere I had ever worked. I can still remember every morning getting there about the same time as Mr. Steve and him asking me have you turned the alarm off yet. He was always there to meet me and do it for me cause I never learned how to operate the darn thing. Steve was always standing behind me to help me and leed me in the rite direction.

Wilson Scott was a man that you were always ready to get to work and see when he arrived. He is a man of his word and would stand beside you and help you when you needed help the most. One thing I can say about him is a true outdoors-man could never ask for a greater friend and boss. He is in my book the true conservationist of the year. If I ever had a chance to choose and work for any boss that I’ve ever had in the past he would be him and his brother Steve.

If you have any questions on the Whitetail Institute products and how they will help you grow and hold bigger deer on your hunting land give them a call at 1-800-688-3030 or log onto the web site at http://whitetailinstitute.com and check to see their special deals that they always have.

When someone ask you how high the PH level in your soil is what can you tell them? If someone asked you how high their PH level needs to be for certain plants could you give them the rite answer? If I told you I’m gonna plant clover in my field what would I need?

In this article I will talk about how your PH level in your soil can help produce more tonnage of food for you deer and turkey herd on your property. If you wanted to plant clover I would suggest that the first steps in doing this it to take a soil sample. Your local extension office should be able to help you on this. People sometimes will not use their local extension office cause they think it may cost them money. People that why you pay taxes and your local extension office is your tax money at work. They can provide you with a soil bag and all you have to do from here is put some dirt into it and send it off. Now the sending off part may cost a little but it will be worth every dime you spend.

Now back to the PH thing. So you plant some clover and you didn’t take that soil test what happened. It might have come up but it’s not gonna produce what you expect. Your PH level should be between 6.5 and higher. My soil on my land is roughly 6.0 and I get a very good stand of clover every year and mainly it is because of the red clay soil that is here.

Chicory is another big seed that has come to our attention that we see that deer love it also needs a PH level of about 6.5 to 7.5 in most places to have a great stand and to produce what it should produce. I have sent soil samples on many occasions to Auburn University to have them checked. I may send a many as 5 to 10 samples off at a time. Marking each bag as a field name or field 1 or 2 even. When marking your bags make sure they have a field name on them in case you forget what field needs what when your test come back.

The way you bring your PH level up is to get you test back and add the recommended lime needed to bring it up. I will say you can never have to much lime when it comes to putting it out. If you don’t have time to take a soil test then place 500 lbs to 1,000 lbs of lime to the acre along with the rite fertilizer. For clovers put about 400 lbs of 0-20-20 to the acre and add about 500 lbs of lime in with it until you can get a test done. Chicory is pretty much the same way it could take a little more fertilizer though. Just make sure that your first number in your fertilizer is as low as a number can get. If you use a 13-13-13 you may not have to use as much but still add a lot more lime to the mix. So make sure you do a soil sample and watch your food source take off.