I said it to myself this spring.  ‘Stupid turkeys were all over the lease this fall.  It’s spring and I can’t even find a track.’  I knew part of the problem.  Unfortunately, this was just the first year we had the lease and we had little time and money to whip the property into shape.  And part of the problem was a lack of quality food plots.

And although most hunters are doing a much better job growing quality food plots, most of us are still faced with not having enough acreage in food plots to really provide adequate forage to improve deer nutrition or provide enough openings to keep turkeys on the property during the spring.   Most private landowners and hunting clubs I work with are lucky if they have one half of one percent of their property in food plots.  I know my own hunting club is no different.  As of last year, we only had 0.38 percent of the property in food plots.  That’s correct, less than one half of one percent.  And it’s no surprise that when spring rolled around, wild turkeys were impossible to find.  Come spring, our turkeys moved, literally, to greener pastures.  Unfortunately, these greener pastures are off our lease.

Another challenge most of us face it that we don’t own the property where we hunt. If we owned the property, we would probably create more food plots on the property.  

Even if you don’t own the land, there are ways, working with the landowner, to take advantage of ongoing forest management activities to get the food plots we are looking for.  Here are five tips to help you get more and better food plots on your land:

Skid trails are areas where logging equipment drags trees out of the forest to the logging deck. The width of the skid trail depends on the operator. However, there are usually two to three main skid trails that you can use to create long wildlife openings. Eventually, the trees along the skid trails will expand and shade out portions of the skid trail...but even then, the opening will still help wildlife on your land.

For the hunter, daylit roads represent a tremendous opportunity for a food plot.  In just one mile of road, with only 25 feet of trees removed from either side of the road, you will end up with six acres of food plots.  The key is to work with the landowner BEFORE the harvest is planned.  For example, our club met with the forester that manages the timber on our lease.  We discussed several options, including the option of daylighting the road that ran through the planned timber harvest.  Our forester agreed that the daylighting would help improve the road access to the property.  In addition, allowing more sunlight to hit the roads helps the roads dry out faster after a rain, thus reducing the amount of maintenance.  After all, providing good access for the logging equipment is necessary for him to maximize his return on timber.  The landowner also agreed and by the end of the harvest our club went from a grand total of four acres of food plots on the 1,300-acre lease to 12 acres – a 200 percent increase!

Since the roadbed is 12-feet wide and the loggers removed 25 feet on each side, our total food plot is actually 62 feet wide.  Although we won’t plant the roadbed itself, the 62-foot wide area is large enough to allow sunlight to reach the ground…a necessity if you want to grow anything.  Of that, we can now plant the 25-foot wide area on each side of the road.  However, we will not plant the entire length of the road.  Instead, we will select the areas with high quality soils and flat topography to clear and plant a food plot.  We will annually mow and fertilize the remaining sections to provide quality browse for deer and cover for quail and turkeys.

Removing stumps is always a challenge, especially if the harvested trees were large.  You have several options: hire a bulldozer or backhoe and operator, or wait until the stumps rot.  Hiring a bulldozer or backhoe will probably run you about $600 to $800 per acre… pretty steep for most of us.

If mechanically removing the stumps is not an option, you are not out of luck.  The smaller ATV implements are ideally designed to tackle this type of project; simply disk and plant around the stumps until they rot away.  And if that is not an option, simply mow the area mid summer each year and apply lime and fertilizer.  You would be surprised how fertilized “weeds” will attract deer and provide feeding areas for turkey and other wildlife.  After three to five years, you can then move in and push out the rotted stumps.

Logging decks are a perfect opportunity for creating a high quality food plot. However, once you have cleared the deck of debris, there is still much work that lies ahead. After clearing, you ideally should subsoil the site, or at least use a chisel plow to break up the soil. Next, take a soil test and add the recommended amounts of lime and fertilizer.

Your first challenge is to remove the debris that is usually in the trails.  Everything from branches, tree tops, small logs, and of course stumps will stand in your way.  A tractor with a back blade will go a long way toward helping you clear some of these sites of loose debris.  However, you will still have to deal with the stumps.

Another challenge is the length of time the skid trial will be useful.  Over time, the trees on either side of the trail will continue to grow until the trail is shaded to the point where not enough sunlight will reach the ground.  If you are dealing with a hardwood site, this may not be of an issue for cool-season plantings since the trees will not have leaves during the winter and should still allow enough sunlight to hit.  In pine forests, your window of opportunity is narrow since these trees grow fast and stay green year round.

If the work required to create a food plot on skid trails is out of reach, then you can still annually mow and fertilize these areas to provide quality habitat for wildlife.  Never overlook the value of native plants….managed well, they are just as good as any food plot for the time and expense required!

Tip #3 Logging Decks
Logging decks, often called loading decks, are also part of any logging operation.  This is the site where the trees are hauled to and loaded onto trucks. But transforming these decks into a food plot is a lot of work.

The first challenge is size.  I personally don’t spend too much of our club’s resources on any opening less than ½ acre in size.  On openings less then ½ acre, we manage for native plants using fire, annual mowing and fertilizing.  On these smaller openings, we just can’t get enough sunlight to the ground to make is worth the expense.  And unless you work with your landowner, most logging decks will end up about 1/3 acre in size.  This is where your relationship with the landowner is critical.  If approached correctly, many landowners will agree to making the logging deck at least a ½ acre in size.

There are two important facts to pass on to the landowner when approaching them about keeping opening size to at least a ½ acre.  First, the amount of lost timber production, in the big picture, is little to none.  Second, creating quality food plots is something that adds to the overall value of the property.  In the future, if the landowner decides to sell the property, having quality food plots of adequate size will add to the value of the property.  As the hunters, we just hope they will never capitalize on this and sell the land.  But it is an important sales point.

It will take some work to transform a logging deck into a quality food plot.  First, removing the debris will take some effort; plan on 4 to 8 hours with a bulldozer for a 1-acre landing if there is a lot of debris left over.  And after the dozer is finished, be prepared for several more hours of removing debris by hand.  Second, the heavy equipment that was used on the site to load the logs will often create some soil compaction issues.  You will need to really break up the soil and treat with the recommended amounts of lime and fertilizer to get good results.

To help reduce the amount of clearing needed, get to know the loggers.  On our lease, we took some time to meet them, shake hands, and thank them for all the good work they were doing.  I stressed to them how important their work was to our hunting club members and we planned to clear the logging decks when they were finished.  When I visited the site after they were finished I found that they have cleared the majority of the debris for us.  Many of the loggers I meet are hunters as well.  If they know you are planning on using the logging deck as a food plot, they will sometimes do some of the clearing for you.  These are hard working, dedicated professionals.  Treat them with the respect they deserve and you will be surprised with how well they will help you out if they have the time and equipment available.

Daylighting roads is one of the best was to get quality food plots without impacting timber production. These road edges can be planted in a variety of plant species, depending on the width of the cleared area.

Prioritize your new food plots according to size.  Clear the larger openings first and then move to the smaller openings.  If you are short on funds for lime and fertilizer, focus your efforts on the plots you can afford to lime and fertilize.  As your plots take shape, your cost to manage each opening will lessen, especially if you have several perennial food plots.  Over time, you can shift your efforts to the new plots.

Focus on openings with the highest quality soils.  Creating an opening on rocky, dry soils on a ridge top will not provide near the quality food plot compared to a site with better soils on lower ground.  If the soil is shallow and really poor, consider managing these sites for native browse.

Focus on openings where equipment access is the easiest.  Over the long run, you will need to get a tractor to these sites.  Leave openings that are on wet ground or with poor access roads until you have completed the better sites.

This food plot, just prior to this photo, was nothing more than a scattering of pine trees. For some reason, the trees planted on this site did not grow very well. Working with the landowner and forester on the property, this South Carolina hunting club was able to get permission to clear the site and plant a high quality food plot.

This can create some contention within hunting clubs.  Everyone wants a nice “green plot” to hunt over.  Unfortunately, many clubs succumb to the “more is better” philosophy and end up with a bunch of food plots that don’t produce enough forage for a miniature groundhog.  Yes, it may be green, but your deer and turkeys will likely go elsewhere to find some better options.

Make the Forest Work for You
Don’t miss out on all the opportunities created by periodic timber thinning and harvesting.  Even a final clearcut will offer the some fantastic opportunities to create more openings for wildlife.  An actively managed forest, one that include periodic timber thinning or harvest, will provide much better wildlife habitat than a forest that is just let go. Throw in some other management, such as invasive plant control and prescribed fire and you have the stage set for success.

In addition, take advantage of the free technical assistance available.  Contact your local state forestry and wildlife agency and your Natural Resources Conservation Service office and request they send a wildlife biologist to look at the property and provide recommendations.  This advice is free!  These professionals will help you identify the best projects to undertake on your property that will help you reach your goals.  If you prefer, a private wildlife consultant is another option that is well worth the investment.  In addition, there may be state or federal cost-share programs to help you fund these practices.  But in the end, take advantage of what is available on your property and don’t ignore the largest opportunity you have to keep wildlife on your property – a well managed forest.

Bryan Burhans, CWB
Director of Land Management Programs
National Wild Turkey Federation