Providing needs with Food Plots for our

wilderness friends

If at all  possible, you should try to find sites that are level or nearly level. Very dry ridge tops and very wet bottoms should be avoided if other places are available. Locate your plots away from boundary lines, and try not to plant in areas that are easily visible from public roads. If you have to plant near a road, you may want to plant a thick screen of pine trees or other evergreen trees or shrubs between the road and the food plot. Deer preferences vary from one location to another and within the season. Their preferences are influenced by the availability and variety of natural foods they encounter during their daily movements, as well as planted foods. As the abundance and quality of foods change, so does the deer’s feeding habits. Deer select foods that provide certain nutrients that they need at certain times of the year. Food plots are planted without  forethought in regard to timing or need. Most deer food plots are established with cool season plants that attempt to manage deer distribution or help deer through stress in winter. However,there is another season of the year that white-tailed deer may be nutritionally stressed. Late summer is a time when native warm season plants mature and decline in quality. At this time does are lactating,and fawns are growing and being weaned, and bucks are developing their antlers. All of these biological functions require a quality diet that only comes from actively growing plants. There are some situations when the summer stress period is more critical than the winter stress period.