Another "Creating a Food Plot" thread:

Wild Thing

5 year old buck +
Enjoyed seeing Natty Bumppo and Prof Kent's threads on creating their food plots from scratch and thought I would contribute one that I have done, albeit on a little larger scale. All of our 160 acres was completely wooded when we purchased the property, so if we wanted a food plot we had to begin by logging off the timber. The proceeds from the timber sales (we've had 3 now) have all more than covered the cost of creating the food plots but it is still a fairly expensive endeavor if you don't own your own equipment.

Here are some before and after pics to give you an idea of what can be done after logging. This particular area had low value scrub timber along with some areas of Balsam Fir and White Spruce which was infested with spruce budworm disease. I decided it would make a nice "horseshoe" shaped food plot of about 3.5 acres with a little knob of higher ground in the center of it which could be turned into a bedding area.

Here is what it looked like at the end of the timber harvest after it was logged:

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Tops have all been chipped and it is time to start excavating out the stumps and rocks:

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There is no shortage of rocks around here but we do have good soils once you pick the rocks out. Obviously, this was the most laborious part of the project:

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It didn't happen overnight but after picking out the rocks and wood, cultivating the soil and getting it somewhat level, I spread several tons of ag-lime per the soil test and had it ready to seed:

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This is part of 3.5 acres of corn which my deer fed on until it ran out in mid February:
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I have since planted a number of other crops in this field including, soybeans, brassicas, sugar beets and cereal grains. I have also planted about 75-80 oak trees around the outside perimeter of the plot and will be adding crabapples and maybe some full sized apple trees as well this year. The outside of the plot is mostly planted with a ring of perennial clovers.

Here are a few more pics of my woods turned food plot.​
Sugar beets surrounded by corn:​
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Here is a Google Earth Map of our property. This particular plot highlighted above is the larger "Boomerang" or horse shoe shaped plot at the south end of the property but all of the plots you see were created in the same manner by first logging it off.

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Sometimes I wished that I was starting with a clean slate of ag land to begin with....but on the other hand it is probably faster to get where you are going if you have the mature timber to start with...Either way it is a "labor of love". If you don't have the commitment to stay with it you probably shouldn't even start. And I'm sure that Natty Bumppo and Prof Kent will agree that there is a great deal of satisfaction in sitting back when it is done and looking at what you have created. Being a good steward of the land does have its rewards.
 
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For some reason, I’m not seeing all the pictures. Is this just my problem or do others have the same problem? I hope this can be fixed or that I can figure it out as I want to see this thread in its entirety.
 
I can't see them either. Just black boxes with an X in them.
 
I can't see them either. Just black boxes with an X in them.

Could be on my end. I did copy and paste some of the pics rather than upload them from this site. If I can still edit I will go back through and upload them from here. Sorry about that...
 
OK - I think I have deleted all those that I had copied and pasted and replaced them with downloads. I can only attach 10 photos to any one thread so the last couple are attached here. Hopefully this has straightened out the original post.

View from a ladder stand on the east side of the knob bedding area. The Sugar Maples you see on the far end of the field are part of a 5 acre "Sugarbush" we maintain to get our maple syrup fix.

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This is the view from a ladder stand on the west side of the knob bedding area. My wife arrowed a 3 year old 9 point whom we had named "Lucky" so this ended up being the "Lucky Stand".

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Yes that helps. I always like to see habitat improvements, particularly when it’s someone in the “neighborhood “. Not sure what happened to my “location” but I’m in the Upper Peninsula, south of Escanaba.
 
Yes that helps. I always like to see habitat improvements, particularly when it’s someone in the “neighborhood “. Not sure what happened to my “location” but I’m in the Upper Peninsula, south of Escanaba.

Thanks "James P.." Nice to know we are neighbors. I am actually between Iron Mtn and Esky so not really that far.
 
Nice work!
 
Wow! That's a lot of work, and those are some really beautiful looking plots. Sometimes food plots come out looking sterile....they look "forced" and they don't really fit into the lay of the land. It looks like somebody is hunting overlooking a golf course. Your are beautiful. Look like old ag fields that have been there forever. Nice job and thanks for sharing!
 
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That does look great. It's funny how what you have always seems like the opposite might be better.
I started with almost all Ag land and always wished it was all timber. I've spent years trying to build cover.
Human nature I guess.
 
That does look great. It's funny how what you have always seems like the opposite might be better.
I started with almost all Ag land and always wished it was all timber. I've spent years trying to build cover.
Human nature I guess.

All depends on what the limiting factory of each individual property is. Sounds like your was cover. Big woods environment it will be food.
 
All depends on what the limiting factory of each individual property is. Sounds like your was cover. Big woods environment it will be food.

That's it in a nutshell. Very hard to get deer to live in a hay field that had its second or third cut in early September.
Probably equally frustrating trying to force moment in large tracts of timber.
 
Natty Bumppo - Thanks - had another guy tell me when I get tired of doing habitat work I can go into golf course design. Truthfully....I did find my first shed antler on a golf course many years ago - a little spike .... in the rough, of course, I never spent much time in the fairways when I was golfing. :emoji_sunglasses:

Thanks Bueller - As I mentioned, we do have good soils once we get the rocks out. It just seems like it takes forever to get the rocks out...and then new ones grow over winter. Since going to "no-till" it is a rare day that I have to pick any rocks nowadays - thankfully.

Bill & S.T.Fanatic - So true about addressing the "limiting factor" or filling the lowest hole in the bucket first. When you start with all ag land you have to work at growing cover first which can take some time. Starting out with mature forest gives you some cover immediately and better cover can be developed but even that takes some time. One thing we all know is that it is never really done. This habitat improvement is a never-ending endeavor - it isn't a destination....it is a journey...

Here are more photos of food plots we opened up by having a timber harvest first:

Pepper's Post Plot. Opened this one up in 2013. About 75% of this is being converted to Cave In Rock Switchgrass this year:

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Pete's Place plot - one of my favorites:

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Art's Field: Opened this up in 2013. Shaded foreground is now in perennial clovers. Have planted a variety of annuals in the rest of it including, pumpkins, brassicas, sugar beets, etc. We have several seeded travel corridors leading to/from this plot with a few stands along the way.

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Pond Food Plot: Excavated the pond about 10 years ago and planted perennial clovers around it. This is being converted to CIR Switchgrass this year as well:

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This plot is in the process of being converted to a bedding area. We have started planting Norway Spruce and several apple trees. Will plant more shrubs, crabapples and conifers here soon.

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Small kill plot downhill and north of Burnt Hill firearms blind.

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3 Point Lane Plot - Popped up a 3 Point shed antler out of the dirt while opening up this plot. Half of this plot has been planted to Norway Spruce. Will add some crabapples this year.

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Some areas we left for natural regeneration after our 2013 timber harvest. This photo was taken 3 years after the harvest:

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Big Field: Beans and sugar beets. This plot started out as a 2 acre food plot and we expanded it to 3.5 acres with the 2013 timber harvest. The apple orchard was planted with the original 2 acre plot but black bears continue to wreak havoc with the trees. They like to climb up and break the branches down to get the apples. We have only 4 of the original 20 trees remaining. This is the larger destination plot near the north end. We seldom hunt this plot. We are still in the process of creating travel corridors to and from this plot from bedding and other food plots.

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Found 6 shed antlers in this 1/2 acre sugar beet plot the following spring:

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We have almost all of the food plots we need now. Emphasis is now on enhancing bedding cover and travel corridors with thick side cover.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of Lone Oak.
 
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Love it!!!
 
Looks great! How did your soil test results come out after logging and clearing the plot
 
First soil test after logging in 2013 showed a PH of 6.5 and low - medium nutrient levels. Not really too bad for soil that had never had anything but trees on it before.

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I think I needed about 12-13 tons of ag-lime for the new plots we had opened up but I couldn't buy anything less than a full truckload (26 tons) so I ended up applying a little more than I actually needed on the new ones and then top-dressed all of my older plots with the remainder. The next soil tests I did in 2015 showed a Ph level of 7.5 in part of the field and 7.3 in the other half.

I now just test the entire 3.5 acres in one sample and it showed a Ph of 7.1 last year. I have only been applying about 70% of the recommended fertilizers but I am still struggling to get my P & K levels up so I think I will have to go ahead and give it what it needs this year. I bought a no-till drill 2 years ago and have not tilled since so I am hoping to see my CEC and OM levels increase in the future as well.

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Wildthing - If you're gonna post pix of something, at least make them eye-appealing. :emoji_grin:

WOW !! I'm slobbering just looking at your place. I didn't even read all of your post - I kept scrolling to see all the pix !!! Those pix should be on a hunting calendar for kooks like us. Great job for sure. How many guys are involved ?? I had to scroll back to see how many acres you have. 160. Soil looks pretty good after logging. I'm with you on the rocks deal. If that place doesn't draw lots of deer - I don't know what would. Congrats on a job well done.
 
Wildthing - If you're gonna post pix of something, at least make them eye-appealing. :emoji_grin:

WOW !! I'm slobbering just looking at your place. I didn't even read all of your post - I kept scrolling to see all the pix !!! Those pix should be on a hunting calendar for kooks like us. Great job for sure. How many guys are involved ?? I had to scroll back to see how many acres you have. 160. Soil looks pretty good after logging. I'm with you on the rocks deal. If that place doesn't draw lots of deer - I don't know what would. Congrats on a job well done.

Ha Ha! Thanks Bowsnbucks - I'll try to do better next time :emoji_wink:

My wife and I are the only 2 that hunt the early archery season. We do have a few other friends that hunt with us - and last year my son and his wife moved back to Michigan and hunted with us, but they only hunt for part of the firearms deer season and occasionally part of black powder season. Everyone lives so far away (Minnesota and lower Michigan) that it is hard to get any of them here for work weekends although I do get some help from time to time. I picked rocks by myself for many years, then I blew out a knee one year and tore the meniscus in the other knee the next year so I had to start hiring high school/college age kids to help out with that for 2 or 3 years. I have them pretty well picked clean and use a no-till drill now so planting has become much less painful. Yes - 160 acres. We are only a 40 wide but a mile deep.

We do draw a lot of deer since we have quite a bit of food. The dairy farm to our east on the north side kill a lot of deer on summer crop damage permits and they are allowed to shoot until 11 PM so the smart deer shy away from that place and the survivors take over our place. I've had to expand my use of E-Fence and we really need to step up the harvest of does this year. We try to hold out for 3 and 4 year old bucks but once in a while we get some ground shrinkage with a 2 year old. We don't see a lot of good antler growth here with our better 3 and 4 year olds only getting into the mid 120's. We have learned to be happy with that as you can only kill what you have available in your area. If we held out for 130's + we would never kill a deer. My wife killed a 5 1/2 year old a few years ago that barely made 100".

The hunting is still fun - and the food plot and habitat work keeps us working on deer season all year long.
 
Holy cow that looks like you put a lot of work into that!
AWESOME plots, your place looks great.
 
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