Edge feathering vs. screens for food plots

[Hoytvectrix]

I've seen a few youtube hunting channels planting "plot screens" on edges of some of their food plots. The idea being that if they have the edge of the food plot screened in, a cruising buck will need to come into the plot to check to see if there are any does present. Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose, but it seems like this is at odds with edge feathering. I was under the understanding that edge feathering was removing the hard edge that many food plots have, and it extends the border more naturally into the surrounding cover. Are these two strategies at odds with one another? Are these food plot screens just another way for bagged seed to get moved off the shelves? Is this something that makes sense to us but is not actually how deer behave?

 

[Bassattackr]

I think adding a hard edge like a plot screen does negatively affect edge feathering. You're robbing sunlight (and potentially nutrients) that allows the newly formed "edge" to explode by "farming" right up to the field edge. Exactly the technique that edge feathering was implemented to prevent.

That being said, I think you can still edge feather, and drop trees in specific patterns and locations to allow both a travel and a visual barrier to form. This is what I'm planning on doing on one of our properties this coming winter after the season. Visual barrier + direct deer movement, all while increasing turkey, rabbit, deer bedding cover and habitat.

I will plant a section of plot screen - Egyptian Wheat, etc. to access a stand, but not for the purpose of screening the plot. Probably right on the last part, another way to sell seed..

Great topic for discussion btw..

 

[Bill]

I like edge feathering better. It’s more natural and just looks better.
“To me”. Don’t know what the deer think.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I prefer to screen access and road frontage...... edge feather plots

bill

 

[CooterBrown]

I'm new but can someone explain edge feathering.

 

[jsasker007]

Hard edge is tree line to open area without different height shrubs or brush or taller grasses layering. Feathering is different height things growing like "steps" transitioning from tallest to shortest.

 

[jsasker007]

Hard to put that into words---maybe someone has a couple pics showing the difference?

 

[Bassattackr]

timber management for whitetails

PDF files are available at the bottom of Dbltree's post showing the pictures he posted 1 Cover is the single most important habitat improvement we can make, yet most landowners completely overlook it. Whitetails don’t need food plots, they are merely a means of manipulating deer to make...

habitat-talk.com

 

[Boll Weevil]

Not sure what states ya'll are in but in the south/midsouth it's so dang thick virtually every edge is pretty much naturally feathered if mowed periodically. I've done it mechanically and it's great to clean up field edges but within a year or 3 it's right back like it was. For me, just mowing tight to the treeline and keeping it knocked back maintains the feathering aspect and keeps it forby and grassy vs. woody.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Here is a photo of an old pasture that was turned into a food plot on our property. There are some hard edges surrounding the entire plot. The fence row on the east I can't do much about, but on the south, west, and northwest, I can go in and hinge cut in the blue outlined areas, creating edge feathering. The areas I selected in blue are natural pathways into the plots by deer already. If all goes as planned, they might be entering the plots sooner.

This is just a mock-up for what I would like to do with this plot. I have a few others I need to convince before making changes on our property but they are slowly coming around to the concept.

I brought this topic up because I have seen a few others who have proposed doing hinge cutting just inside the tree line that runs parallel with the plot, effectively serving the same purpose as the plot screen. The idea being that it would obscure the view of bucks who are crossing doe trails and would circle around this plot without ever actually coming out into it during daylight. I am somewhat torn because I have seen bucks do this on several occasions. Are the bucks not coming out into this plot during daylight hours because it is a hard edge and it makes them uncomfortable, or would they be more likely to come out into a plot they can't see into?

I'm on board with edge feathering but wanted to throw this out to the group.

 

[TreeDaddy]

timber management for whitetails

PDF files are available at the bottom of Dbltree's post showing the pictures he posted 1 Cover is the single most important habitat improvement we can make, yet most landowners completely overlook it. Whitetails don’t need food plots, they are merely a means of manipulating deer to make...

habitat-talk.com

habitat gospel.......what a great thread

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

Not sure what states ya'll are in but in the south/midsouth it's so dang thick virtually every edge is pretty much naturally feathered if mowed periodically. I've done it mechanically and it's great to clean up field edges but within a year or 3 it's right back like it was. For me, just mowing tight to the treeline and keeping it knocked back maintains the feathering aspect and keeps it forby and grassy vs. woody.

And i learnt a new word......."forby!!"

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

View attachment 35473
Here is a photo of an old pasture that was turned into a food plot on our property. There are some hard edges surrounding the entire plot. The fence row on the east I can't do much about, but on the south, west, and northwest, I can go in and hinge cut in the blue outlined areas, creating edge feathering. The areas I selected in blue are natural pathways into the plots by deer already. If all goes as planned, they might be entering the plots sooner.

This is just a mock-up for what I would like to do with this plot. I have a few others I need to convince before making changes on our property but they are slowly coming around to the concept.

I brought this topic up because I have seen a few others who have proposed doing hinge cutting just inside the tree line that runs parallel with the plot, effectively serving the same purpose as the plot screen. The idea being that it would obscure the view of bucks who are crossing doe trails and would circle around this plot without ever actually coming out into it during daylight. I am somewhat torn because I have seen bucks do this on several occasions. Are the bucks not coming out into this plot during daylight hours because it is a hard edge and it makes them uncomfortable, or would they be more likely to come out into a plot they can't see into?

I'm on board with edge feathering but wanted to throw this out to the group.

i like this set up^^^^^

Several inside corners outlined in blue

Treeline down middle looks like a good funnel as well

Where are your stands?

bill

 

[yoderjac]

View attachment 35473
Here is a photo of an old pasture that was turned into a food plot on our property. There are some hard edges surrounding the entire plot. The fence row on the east I can't do much about, but on the south, west, and northwest, I can go in and hinge cut in the blue outlined areas, creating edge feathering. The areas I selected in blue are natural pathways into the plots by deer already. If all goes as planned, they might be entering the plots sooner.

This is just a mock-up for what I would like to do with this plot. I have a few others I need to convince before making changes on our property but they are slowly coming around to the concept.

I brought this topic up because I have seen a few others who have proposed doing hinge cutting just inside the tree line that runs parallel with the plot, effectively serving the same purpose as the plot

Maybe you misunderstood the videos you watched or maybe their were trash or maybe I'm missing something. Bucks don't use their eyes to find hot does, they user their noses. They will often travel 50-100 yards downwind of a food plot. If they scent something, they may come looking. You best bet is to hunt them in cover as they approach the plot but you need to stay scent free. To my way of thinking, edge feathering makes the plots more comfortable for deer to enter regardless of sex or maturity. Edge feathering is great for all kinds of wildlife. I prefer natural edge feathering the best. It is inexpensive and easy to maintain. You just clear 20 yards and let it go. Then as it grow up you use a bush hog to knock it back just as it is getting too big for your equipment. You can also plant taller plants around the perimeter of the field.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[IkemanTx]

I think it’s a matter of context. A screen is handy when you can’t do edge feathering. I know a lot of people lease land and every landowner I know thinks cutting trees just to leave them to lay is sacrilege. Heck, it took me 2 years of explaining to my parents before they let me do it with all the cedars I’m removing, and my step-dad still asks me once or twice a year when we are going to pile up the cedars to burn them…

Screening is also dynamite to break up larger open areas into smaller, more comfortable sizes for the deer. I used a screen last year to break a 5 acre field up for a 2 acre food plot. I wanted to even run a line of screening down the middle of the 2 acres to break it up even more, but didn’t end up doing it.

Given the choice, I would choose edge feathering every time. It is just FAR more diverse in both species and structure type.


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