Dave Richey OUTDOORS

My food plot is starting to take off despite a lack of rain. I've hauled what seems to be a half-mile of hose through the woods to give my plots a drink. A rain is sorely needed, and I'll take this opportunity to warm people about the danger of wild fires.. Conditions for an out-of-control fire are present so be careful.

Things are a bit different this year than previous years. I did a spring planting again after a few seasons of fall plantings, but mostly because I've always like to see green things growing at this time of year..

It's a great feeling to watch a food plot grown.

I was out checking out the location of my closest food plots this morning, and crops have been planted. The area has limed earlier to raise the Ph levels of the soil, and my plantings were made just after the last major rain fall.

This year I'll be planted Braasica, clover, purple-top turnips and rape. I decided to try chicory in one small area to see if the deer like it. I find it helpful to rotate my crops even though it means more work. It also helps the soil by plowing last year's crop remnants back into the soil where it will help build up the soil's fertility.

Working on my food plots are a labor of love. It's a way to put something back into nature, and we have more plans for our green fields. My neighbor also plants corn that he leaves stand all winter, and he also plants soy beans which dearly deer love.

It's impossible to compete with a standing corn field during the late fall deer seasons so I don't try. My thought is to offer the local deer something they can't find anywhere else.

What has helped is getting a neighbor with excavating equipment to come in, and he removed about 20 nonessential trees. He scraped up the top soil, which now has a 6.9 Ph, thus eliminating most of the weeds, and then disced it up three times before putting the top soil back in place. The result is a flatter and more stable food plot location, and the removal of those trees allows another two or three hours of daily sun.

I try to plant crops that my neighbors do not.

My neighbor's land is more open and available to planting crops than my hardwoods. I plan to plant several fruit trees next year, and I'm studying a way to get some water for the deer. Food plots need water, and the more water they have (within reason) the greater the yield.

Ten years of working on food plots has given me some insights into whitetail deer and deer habits. Deer use use food plots for cover and for food. If the fruit trees become a reality next year, it will add still another dimension to our plantings.

We have a heavy growth of wild riverine grapes that mature in the fall, and grapes, as would be true with apple or other fruit trees, provide a generous mix of different foods that will attract deer, grouse and wild turkeys.

My neighbor says the deer hit his soy beans as soon as the legumes being to grow, and they keep nibbling away at them. They hit the Imperial Whitetail Clover, rape and other growing foods on a daily basis once it is planted. We have erected wire guards in certain areas, and you know what, it's difficult to determine how much deer eat until some of it is protected from foraging animals.

I put up a small wire protective device in certain areas last year, and after a few weeks everything was growing but not as fast as within the protected areas. Those areas had major growth while the rest of it was much shorter. It proved the deer were happily munching away on the unprotected growth. I did add some dogwood and a couple of mast-producing trees, but it will be some time before I'll see the fruits of that labor.

Fruit trees will help but perhaps next year.

The fruit trees will hopefully get planted next spring, and we hope to create a water supply. With water, the deer won't have to travel one mile in one direction or two miles in another direction to drink. Although water is important, deer usually get enough moisture from dew or rain resting on the ground or vegetation.

We thought, when we first embarked on putting in food plots, that planting green fields was good. And this is not meant to imply that just having a green field isn't desirable, because it is. The creation of more food sources is even better because it helps all wildlife.

Supplementing available natural foods with food plots, fruit trees and water, means taking a far more active approach to managing our land. These plantings are not just for deer but they benefit all game and non-game species.

I've flushed ruffed grouse out of the wild grapes and the green fields,  and by doing small timber cuts to remove prime trees, it also provides a bit more land to creat edge openings and small plots. It also generates new timber growth. Our most recent timber cut was two years ago, and wild grapes are growing where those cuts were made.

We've fought long and hard battles with wooded trails that were originally skid trails for hauling out logs. We've had minimal success with clover in these areas, and will do a soil test this summer on those trails. And then we will lime them as needed, fertilize them as needed, and plant winter wheat. It will be up and growing well when deer season opens.

Putting something back is part of who we are and what we do, and by putting something back into nature, we are helping our land and the wildlife that lives here. And that is a good thing to do… for us and the wildlife.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors