Once you’ve had your soil tested, identified your soil’s pH, and corrected any issues, the next concern is how much fertilizer will you need? Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are the main concerns. Typically, one of the most obvious signs of a lack of nitrogen is stunted forage growth and yellow leaves or stems. Why? Because nitrogen makes forage grow green and grow fast, especially if you are planting and growing grasses. However, if you are planting clover, the nitrogen won’t clearly help the plant since clover fixes nitrogen, but planting clover with grassy plants does work in a mutually positive way.

On each bag of fertilizer there will be three numbers corresponding to the ratio or nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium per 100 pounds. For example, a fertilizer marked as 5-10-15 has five pounds of nitrogen, 10 pounds of phosphorus, and 15 pounds of potassium for every 100 pounds of fertilizer. If your soil test results show that nitrogen is the biggest deficiency of the soil, ammonium nitrate may be your best option. Ammonium nitrate is listed as 34-0-0, so 34 pounds of nitrogen per 100 and zero phosphorus or potassium.

Soil reports also list secondary nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur as well as the micronutrients zinc and manganese, but one optimum pH is achieved, the secondary and micronutrients will often be corrected. Ideally, you want to get the pH level around 6.5 for optimum growth. Buying lime in bulk is a very considerable savings over the 40-pound bags of pelletized lime. In some areas, you can buy and have bulk lime spread over the land for around $50 a ton. Pelletized lime is about $3 per 40-pounds, so it would take 50 bags to equal one ton. That’s $50 for a bulk ton versus $150 a pelletized ton. It adds up!

In short, once you have your soil analyzed, do what is necessary to correct for your soil’s deficiencies, but shop around and head to the feed store/ag dealer to save some money! Now, you are just about ready for that cool season or warm season food plot.

No soil is perfect. And by the way, it’s soil, not dirt. Dirt is a four letter word. Well, at least according to the professor during my “Introduction to Soils” class I took in college. But once again, no soil is perfect. Rain and previous growth will remove nutrients and affect pH. A soil test will reveal these deficiencies and that is exactly why it is necessary.

Soil testing involves collecting samples of soil from your food plots, filling out a form describing your plans for the plot, and mailing the samples to a lab for analysis. Once the lab makes an appraisal of the soil, you will receive a soil sample report containing the soils deficiencies and recommendations to maximize its growing potential.

It cost about $8 to $10 to have soil analyzed at a university lab and your county extension agent can supply the paperwork and supplies for collecting and mailing soil samples. Contact them through the listing in your phone book or get online and either call or email. Mossy Oak’s Web site provides soil testing service for a mere $7.50. You can contact them at www.mossyoakbiologic.com.

For every 1 to 3-acre food plot, it is recommended that you collect 10 to 20 sub samples of soil. First, remove any plant residue from the ground. Using a shovel, garden spade, or soil probe, make a vertical core or thin slice down to the depth that will be plowed, which is typically about 4-inches. Place the sub-sample into a clean bucket and mix it well. Be sure the soil is not excessively wet and use a clean bucket without lime, fertilizer, or pesticide residue because this will skew the lab results. Next, mix the soil thoroughly and pack the soil into boxes or bags for shipping to the testing lab.

Once you receive your test report, an important measurement to pay attention to is the pH. Soil pH affects the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients and grow. A common problem with many soils is that they are too acidic (which means they have a low pH). In fact, it’s quite common for soil test reports to come back recommending three tons of lime per acre! Too much lime is rarely a problem, so don’t worry if you think you put out slightly more limestone than the soil report recommends.

In acidic soils, the nitrogen and phosphorus will be bonded to the soil and will be unavailable for the plant. Even when fertilizer is applied, only a small amount can be used by the plant and the rest will remain locked in the soil particles. Lime raises the pH level unlocking soil nutrients and helping in the break down of organic matter for use by the plants.

Food plots go hand-in-hand with most properties practicing white-tailed deer management. Alfalfa can be one of the many plant species used to provide supplemental food for your whitetail herd. Most hunters do not know this, but there are over 205 varieties of alfalfa! Which one is right for your property and deer? For those landowners and hunters looking to plant and establish an alfalfa food plot, this article covers information that can help you learn more about high-quality alfalfa.

Alfalfa varieties with the best forage quality will be marked high quality (HQ) or multifoliolate (ML). These select varieties have high yield, are resistant to insects and heavy grazing, and are somewhat winter hardy. Because there are so many varieties of alfalfa, there are a lot of differents between alfalfa varieties. The key is finding the variety that is best-suited for your ranch. (more…)

Well planned food plots can increase forage availability and at least partially compensate for decreases in suitable deer habitat. However, maximum benefits can be obtained only if forages complement the diet available from native vegetation and if forages are availalbe when vegetation is lacking or is low in nutritional value.

In most areas these stress periods occur during late summer and late winter. In addition to timing the availability of supplemental forage properly, landowners must also plant appropriate species in the best available sites, use correct planting techniques, and ensure soil fertility.

The area selected for planting will depend on the plant species to be establlished, warm- versus cool-season) and the goals of the landowner or deer manager. As a landowner, you may want to plant both types to supplement the usual lack of nutritous native forage in both late summer and late winter.

The white-tailed deer is the most popular big game species in the United States. Landowners and ranch managers are becoming more interested in intensive deer management strategies including supplemental food plots in order to conserve and further enhance deer populations, in some cases in areas with rapidly decreasing amounts of deer habitat. The establishment of supplemental food plots can be an important deer management strategy which has become widely accepted throughout the southeastern part of the U.S. out to east Texas.

However, it should be noted that most plot plantings are not aimed at improving nutrition of white-tailed deer despite the fact that much of the southeastern deer range provides substandard nutrition for quality deer production. This is compounded by the fact that often times the number of deer (deer density) is greater than the number of animals the habitat can support under optimal body and antler growing condition. (more…)

Soybeans are a good plant species for a food plot, but they are not perfect. Soybeans do have a couple of downsides. First, the growing point on the plant is above ground — and if deer, hogs, or turkey remove the top of the plant the two-leaf stage — it simply will not grow back. Thus, in areas with a high deer density, soybeans just are not feasible. Even in areas with low to moderate deer numbers, beans should be planted early enough to get past the deer while the does are fawning.

Another great option thanks to new technology: with the entrance of Round-Up Ready beans to the market you can drill seeds into residue and let the growing weeds “hide” your beans until the young plants are past the critical stage. Then, clean the food plot up by spraying the field and removing the competition.

Second, although soybeans are fairly drought tolerant, they do not yield as many tons of food per acre as alfalfa or even clover. In areas with lots of whitetail, the susceptible young plants combined with forage production could be a big limiting factor for your food plot.

Have you ever noticed that the first plants to return in a plowed, scraped, or otherwise disturbed area are weeds? Although this may not seem like much, these natural food plots could be of big benefit to your deer management program. When exposed to air, light, and water, seeds that were lying dormant in the soil begin to germinate following soil disturbance. These young, succulent plants are high in nutrient value and attract a variety of wildlife species looking for valuable forage, particularly white-tailed deer.

Disturbed sites can also serve as excellent food plot locations to supplement white-tailed deer diets during the stressful late winter or late summer periods. Areas can be lightly disked during late winter for the production of spring annuals, and then be heavily disked in early fall for winter food plots. This process can be repeated over and over and you can even sprinkle in some seeds during the spring disking to enhance  the plot. Remember, you are trying to create supplemental food for deer. You are not trying to grow a lawn. It does not have to look like a perfect stand of manicured plants. (more…)

Food plots have become widely used deer management practices, but not all plots are created equal. Cool-season (fall and winter) food plots for white-tailed deer are not as susceptible to drought or weed competition when compared to warm-season (spring) food plots. This fact holds true for cool season food plots found throughout the whitetail’s range in most cases. One exception may be legumes, which may require delayed planting if rainfall is deficient in the early fall months of September and October. Cool-season plant species can be planted on either upland or bottomland sites because of cooler temperatures and increased water availability during fall and winter periods. 

Cool season forages commonly consist of oats, rye, ryegrass, wheat, arrowleaf clover, sweetclover, subterranean clover, Austrian winter peas, and brassicas. Various seed companies provide a plethera of cool-season seed mixes that incorporate a number of plants into a single food plot mix. And speaking of food plot mixes, I recommend that landowners never plant food plots with a single plant species, especially in new food plots or where low input from the landowner is expected. Although at least 2 plant species are suggested in fall and winter food plots, I recommend that spring plots contain a minimum of 3 plant species. (more…)