20 02, 2024

How to Build the Best Food Plots for Deer

2024-02-20T08:34:42-05:00February 20th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|0 Comments

This is a tutorial on how to create small and affordable food plots that whitetail deer will love, and which are actually easier to hunt than 2- to 4-acre green fields. The Plan Roll out an aerial photograph of your property, and pull up the Google Earth coordinates for a secondary source. Look closely for strips and openings where you might plant some clover, tucked away—and this is key—in areas where you don’t have to cut down many if any trees, or otherwise do extensive clearing and leveling. Look for easy-to-work spots that are part of the natural landscape and your herd’s habitat. Now think back to previous scouts and hunts on the property. Where are major deer trails and [...]

2 06, 2023

Deer Management: Why You Should Create a Diverse Habitat Plan

2023-06-02T07:55:27-04:00June 2nd, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Deer Management: Why You Should Create a Diverse Habitat Plan

In any given year, spring/summer weather conditions—either drought or flood—can delay or in some way impact planting and seed germination. The conditions keep soybeans, corn, alfalfa and the like from producing throughout the growing season, and in turn deer do not pack on as much weight, or in the case of bucks grow their largest antlers. Each week that quality forage is not able to grow and mature (it’s either too dry or too wet) it reduces a deer’s ability to express its full genetic potential. The lack of ag crops can be buffered by quality native forage for deer. But then poor weather conditions can impact the growth and availability of forbs, woodland plants and other natural food sources. As [...]

1 05, 2023

Plant Cover Crops for All-Year Food Plots

2023-04-30T09:36:39-04:00May 1st, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Plant Cover Crops for All-Year Food Plots

Kip Adams, who works for the National Deer Association and who is a whitetail habitat expert, is a big believer in keeping food plots “covered” throughout the year. The best way to keep a plot covered is to have some plants growing in it for as many months as possible. As different varieties of plants grow in a plot, they hold the soil and help to continuously build organic matter. That is why cover cropping has become so big in commercial agriculture. Farmers used to harvest corn or soybeans, and then leave the soil open until the next planting season. Now they seed winter wheat, winter rye or brassicas onto those harvested row crop fields.” A good example in food plots for deer would [...]

31 03, 2023

13 Facts from the 2023 Deer Report

2023-04-02T08:34:30-04:00March 31st, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, whitetail deer|Comments Off on 13 Facts from the 2023 Deer Report

The National Deer Association’s 2023 Deer Report is hot off the press, and it’s jam-packed with interesting information for us whitetail nuts, like these 13 gems. Hunters in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest regions combined killed 2,969,596 whitetail bucks during the 2021-22 season, the fourth highest buck kill in the past 10 seasons. The data shows that an impressive 40% of those were 3½ years of age or older. Hunters in the Southeast get the gold star for passing yearlings and shooting more mature deer; 84% of the bucks tagged in Dixie in 2021-22 were 2½ years or older. Top 5 states for buck harvest: Texas (447,972 bucks); Michigan (223,476); Wisconsin (153,112); Pennsylvania (145,320); Missouri (143,815). Top 3 states for [...]

29 03, 2023

How to Plant Tiny Food Plots for Bowhunting

2023-03-26T13:46:31-04:00March 29th, 2023|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Bowhunting, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on How to Plant Tiny Food Plots for Bowhunting

My friend Grant Woods, one of the top whitetail biologists in America and a hard-core bowhunter to boot, has designed, built and planted every size and shape of food plot that you could imagine. One of his favorite things to do right now is to scout a property and find 3 or 4 out-of-the-way spots where he can plant and hunt micro food plots later this summer. Think Tiny Scout a property and look for a 20- to 40-yard strip of old road bed, or maybe a 30 x 30-foot opening in a staging thicket near an ag field. Any hidden, remote spot where other people would never dream of planting, but where your gut says you might entice a [...]

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