Whitetail News Vol 22.1

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T | INSULATION | SOFT SHELL | HARD SHELL | HEADWEAR | HANDWEAR | PACKS

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Whitetail InstituteOFFICERS AND STAFF

Ray Scott Founder and PresidentWilson Scott Vice President of Operations Steve Scott Vice President, Executive Editor

William Cousins Operations Manager Wayne Hanna, Ph.D. Agronomist & Director of Forage Research Mark Trudeau National Sales ManagerJustin Moore, Frank DeeseWildlife Biologists Jon Cooner Director of Special Projects

Brandon Self, John White Product Consultants Daryl Cherry, Greg Aston, Javin Thomas Dealer/Distributor Sales Steffani Hood Dealer/Distributor Analyst Dawn McGough Office Manager Mary Jones Internet Customer Service Manager Teri Hudson Internet and Office Assistant Marlin Swain Shipping Manager

Bart LandsverkWhitetail News Senior EditorCharles Alsheimer, Tracy Breen, Jim Casada, Matt Harper, Brad Herndon, Bill Winke, R.G. Bernier, Bill Marchel, Michael Veine, Dr. Carroll Johnson, III,

Ted Nugent, Dean Weimer, David Hart Contributing WritersSusan Scott Copy Editor George Pudzis Art Director Wade Atchley, Atchley Media Advertising Director

®

Page 12

Page 22

Page 64

In This Issue…

Features5 What Are Y

ou Hunting?

Manage for Deer N

ot Cattle

By Matt Har

per

Although th

e knowledge base

for deer

hunters has grown

drastically over th

e

years, the fact still

remains that many

believe cow and de

er have the same

nutritional needs. T

his just isn’t true.

10 Winter-Greens… Key

to

Success in Wisconsin

By Roger M

lsna

Imperial Wi

nter-Greens is the r

eal deal.

Mlsna planted part

s of his six food

plots in Winter-Gre

ens and shot a

huge buck that had

17 scorable points.

12 Forget the Co

rn

By Bill Wink

e

As importan

t as corn can be to

deer at

times, it is hard to

get past the fact

that it is very expen

sive to grow

correctly. This forc

ed the author into

other alternatives.

18 New Imperial

No-Plow

Better than Ever a

nd Here’s

Why

By Whitetail In

stitute Staff

22 Cooperation

Vital to QDM

Success

By Charles A

lsheimer

Alsheimer i

s a leading authori

ty about

what has worked o

ver the years with

Quality Deer Mana

gement. In this

article he explains

how vital

cooperation is to m

ake the program

work in your hunti

ng area.

26 Understandin

g Your Soil

Test Report

By Dr. Wayn

e Hanna

32 From the Bunk

er

By Steve Sc

ott

Are you on

the sidelines or in

the

game?

34 Whitetail Salad

By Joe Blak

e

For pure ton

nage, palatability,

and

overall benefits, few

offerings excel like

brassicas.

40 Why Food Plots are

Needed Even in Fa

rm

Country

By Matt Har

per

Simply rely

ing on agricultural

practices

to produce great d

eer will give you

minor league resul

ts. To achieve majo

r

league results food

plots are a

necessity.

46 A Buck Betw

een Friends

By Scott Be

stul

54 Hogs and Coy

otes Offer

Hunting Opportunit

ies

By Bob Hum

phrey

62 The Benefits

of Blends

By David Ha

rt

64 The Wonderm

ent of

Not Knowing

By R.G. Bern

ier

Departments4 A M

essage from Ray S

cott

16 Stale Seedbe

ds: A

Weed Control Too

l When

Herbicide Choices

Are

Limited

By Dr. Carro

ll Johnson

20 Field Testers

Report

Stories and

Photos

27 Food Plot Pla

nting Dates

38 Record Book

Bucks

Stories and

Photos

70 First Deer —

The Future of

Our Sport

4 WHITETAIL NEWS / Vol. 22, No. 1 For the latest promotions, sales and news visit www.Facebook.com/WhitetailInstitute www.whitetailinstitute.com

A M E S S A G E F R O M R AY S C O T TFounder and President Whitetail Institute of North America

The Art of Convenience

Convenience has risen to an art form in modern times. I am constantlyamazed at the creativity and technology that saves time and energy forthe 21st century.

And today’s grocery stores have got to be the ultimate showcase for everyday“quick ‘n easy.” I know that convenience can be a dirty word in some nutrition quarters, so let

me qualify my admiration for the kind of convenience that does NOT sacrificequality. I’m certainly not talking about the chemical-laden “fake food” that somemay describe as convenience foods.This topic really hit home when I made a rare store visit to get supplies for a

big pot of Ray’s famous chili. The produce section was an eye-opener with allkinds of cleaned and prepped fruits and vegetables ready for use and/or con-sumption. I know I have benefitted from the freshly chopped onions and peppersthat make my favorite pork chop dish so easy for my wife to prep. My wife lovesthem because she is the first to tell me she is no Martha Stewart.So all this food talk is bringing me to the subject of groceries for whitetail

deer, more precisely convenience groceries for whitetails. I’m talking specificallyabout our best-selling No-Plow of course — the Whitetail Institute product thatwas introduced just a few years after our ground-breaking Imperial Clover.When it was clear that Imperial Whitetail Clover was going to be a landmark

product for hunters and land managers, the requests began to flood in for a

nutritious planting for deer that could be broadcast on the ground without thebenefit of a lot of soil preparation and equipment. In short, a convenience foodplot.Believe me, Ray Scott was at the head of the line to use No-Plow. My wife is

no Martha Stewart and I am not Mr. Green Thumb. But I was one of the hunterswho embraced the principles of quality deer management and knew that one ofthe best things I could do as a herd manager was to improve the whitetail dietwith food plot plantings. Even if my time and/or resources were limited I stillwanted to do the best I could. And No-Plow let me and thousands of field testersaround the country do exactly that. Since its inception, No-Plow has been a steady top seller. But you must know

by now our professionals at Whitetail Institute headquarters are never contentwith the status quo. If a product can be improved they’ll do it. And that’s exactlywhat they’ve done with the new and improved No-Plow. Believe it or not, it’s better than ever!Our staff has the whole story on page 18. I urge you to read it because it’s an

inspiring story of our continuing quest for the best and an example of the perfectmarriage of convenience and quality for everyone who cares about nutrition fortheir whitetail.

Ray Scott

By Matt HarperPhotos by the Author

For many years, most hunters,farmers and land managersconsidered deer and cattlerelatively equal in terms of theirhabitat needs, including thefood they consumed and thenutrients they required. Whilethe knowledge base has grownto the point where many peoplerecognize there are differences,the two species are still oftentimes lumped together. This isan understandable theory sincewe often find deer and cattleco-existing in the same areas.

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Food plot varieties should be heavily leafed, thin stemmed and high in nutrients, like Imperial Whitetail Clover.

This type of forage works best for deer.

A cow’s milk, while rich in nutrients, is far lessnutrient dense than a doe’s milk.

Ihave always considered hearing as one ofmy strongest sensory assets when huntingdeer. That my hearing is still good after

years of tractor driving, target shooting, loudmusic and so on is nothing short of a miracle.Nonetheless, I normally can hear deer cominglong before I see them. On one particular fallevening a couple years ago, I was hunting alonga creek bank that overlooked an 8-acre ImperialWhitetail Clover and Imperial Winter-Greensfield when I heard the tell-tale sound of hoovesmoving through the fallen dried oak leaves. Thewind was virtually non-existent that day so Idetected the sound far up the creek. In all hon-esty, I would have been able to hear them com-ing even if gale force winds were blowing as itsounded like a lost herd of pachyderms werebarreling down the trail. My heart rate immedi-ately approached stroke stage as I thought thedeer that were going to emerge from the brushybank had to be giants based on the noise theywere making. Well, indeed they were big, probably 1,400

pounds or more. No, they weren’t deer butrather a marauding band of rogue cattle thathad busted through multiple fences and hadbeen living in the dense strip of briars, cedarsand samplings that rings the southern edge ofour farm. This was not the first time I had seenthem; I had a few trail camera pictures of thembefore they broke and stole the camera. I knowwhat you must be thinking, but I swear I saw oneof those cows pick up a cardboard box I leftnear a field gate and take off running with it, soI am sure they stole the camera in like manner. Ihave heard of hogs going feral quickly but overthe course of one summer and fall, these cattlebecame truly wild even to the point that whenthey caught my scent, they would bolt back intothe snarl of vegetation along the creek. So you may ask, how did the hunt end? Did I

shoot them? No…wanted to really bad as theycaused incredible damage, but I didn’t shootthem. Like a band of raiding Mongols, theyeventually moved on to some other farm to con-tinue their reign of terror. I did have some slightbit of retribution, however. You see, they wereeating my food plots. The food plots, likeImperial Whitetail Clover, were designed fordeer not cattle. The nutrient levels and

digestibility of my plots were much higher thanwhat is appropriate for cattle. Thus, theyscoured, probably bloated some and for sureexperienced some digestive discomfort duringtheir occupation of the Harper Farm.

THE CONFUSION

For many years, most hunters, farmers andland managers considered deer and cattle rela-tively equal in terms of their habitat needsincluding the food they consumed and thenutrients they required. While the knowledgebase has grown to the point where many peoplerecognize there are differences, the two speciesare still often times lumped together. This is anunderstandable theory since we often find deerand cattle co-existing in the same areas.Furthermore they are both ruminants and herbi-vores and do eat some of the same types of for-ages. Even many of the food plot products youfind on the market today are basically foragesdesigned for cattle that have been repackagedin a bag emblazoned with a deer head. Likewise,most mineral products are old cattle formulasthat have been given a new name to make themmore marketable to deer hunters. The truth,however, is that while there are similaritiesbetween cattle and deer, there are vast differ-ences between the two species when it comesto desired forage types, nutrient requirementsand habitat management.

EATING HABITS

Herbivores can be classified based on theireating habits. Cattle fall in the class of grazerswhich are animals that consume vegetationsomewhat non-selectively. Watch cattle out in apasture and you will see them slowly movingalong nipping off practically anything that hap-pens to be under their nose. Like other grazers,cattle have large, wide muzzles that are adaptedto this type of forage consumption. Deer areclassified as browsers or concentrate selectorswhich mean they pick and choose specific for-ages or specific parts of a plant such as the leafof a plant but not the stem. Deer rarely feed inone place too long but rather continually movefrom place to place, picking off plants or plant

parts of their choice. A deer’s muzzle is long andnarrow and is equipped with a long tongue thatis perfectly suited for perusing through a briarpatch nipping off selected leaves.

NUTRITIONAL NEEDS DIFFERENCES

Both deer and cattle require energy (carbo-hydrates, fats etc.), protein, minerals and vita-mins. All of these must be present in diets ofcattle and deer for proper growth, health,maintenance and production. However, thepercentage of each in relationship to the over-all diet varies between the two species. Takefor example the protein requirements of deerversus cattle. The protein requirements for growing cattle

vary between 10 percent and 14 percent (+/-)depending on the stage of growth, where grow-ing deer have a protein requirement that rangesfrom 18 percent to 26 percent again dependingon the stage of growth. The protein requirementfor bulls ranges from 8 percent to 14 percent,where a buck’s protein requirement duringantler growth ranges from 16 percent to 18 per-cent. Protein requirements for young calves arearound 20 percent to 22 percent where a youngfawn needs as much as 35 percent protein foroptimal growth. The only protein requirementfor cattle that rivals the protein needs for deer ispeak lactating dairy cattle which require about18 percent protein. However, does in lactationrequire a minimum of 18 percent protein andsome estimate the need to be closer to 20 per-cent or more. Mineral requirements for deer are likewise

greater as compared to those of cattle. Calcium requirements for growing cattle

rarely exceed 44 percent. Even a lactating dairycow will normally not have more than .60 per-cent to 75 percent calcium in their diet.Lactating does, bucks growing antlers andyoung growing deer are estimated to requireone percent to 1.5 percent or more calcium intheir diet. Phosphorus requirement variancesfollow the same pattern when comparing cattleand deer. A typical phosphorus level in a cattlediet will range from 22 percent on the low sideto up to 4 percent or higher for peak lactatingdairy cattle. Deer phosphorus requirements are


Cattle can do well on forages consisting largely ofgrass but deer can only efficiently digest grass that

is young and vegetative.

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typically 6 percent to nearly one percentdepending on the stage of growth and whetheror not antler growth or lactation is occurring.Trace mineral requirements differ as well, withmost cattle rations containing 10 ppm or less ofcopper where many deer diets range from 15 to20 ppm or more.When you consider the high demand for

nutrients caused by antler growth and lactation,there is little wonder why the nutrient needs fordeer (as a percentage of diet) exceed that ofcattle. Growing antlers is basically the same asre-growing a large portion of the skeletal struc-ture each year, which requires large quantities ofprotein, energy, minerals and vitamins. Doe milkis extremely nutrient dense, much more so thancow’s milk, thus increasing the need for a higherpercentage of protein and mineral in a doe’sdiet. The only situation where a cow’s nutrientrequirements are even close to that of antlergrowth or doe lactation is a peak-producingdairy cow which even then is typically less thandeer on a percentage-of-diet basis.

RUMEN DIFFERENCE

Deer and cattle are both ruminant animalsmeaning that they have a stomach that has fourdistinct areas with distinct functions. These fourstomach regions consist of the reticulum,rumen, omasum and abomasum. Of theseregions, the largest is the rumen which is the“heart” of a ruminant’s digestive system. Therumen is a large sack-like structure which is thehome of millions of microbial colonies. Thesemicrobial colonies give ruminants the ability todigest fibrous material by breaking downfibrous compounds, the process of which pro-duces nutrients that can be absorbed and uti-lized by the host animal. The rumen has an ecol-ogy all to its own and requires specific environ-mental conditions such as pH level in order for ahealthy microbial population to exist and in turnallow the host ruminant animal to properlydigest the food it consumes. Changes in the dietcan affect this environment such as the intro-duction of highly digestible starch which canlower the pH level of the rumen and alter themicrobial population. The surface of the rumenis covered by long, finger-like projections calledpapillae which have many functions in therumen such as affecting material flow and arewhere many of the microbes reside.Cattle are considered large ruminants with a

mature cow having a rumen roughly the size ofa beach ball. Deer, on the other hand, are con-sidered small ruminants with a rumen the size ofa volley ball or basketball. This difference inrumen size is one of the main reasons for thedifferent eating habits and forage digestibilityneeds of cattle and deer. The larger the rumen,the greater the ability of the animal to digest awide range of forage types and forage quality. A

large rumen will have a greater surface area,larger microbial populations and typically havea slower rate of digesta passage, all of whichresult in a greater capacity to digest fibrousmaterial even of a poorer quality. Because smallruminants lack the extent to which they candigest poorer quality fibrous material, they mustconsume the most highly digestible foragesand/or parts of forages. For example, cattle have the ability to digest

anything from thick-stemmed grasses to cornstover (stalks) where deer would literally starveto death on items such as these. As a plantmatures, the stem produces dense fibrous com-pounds in order to give the stem the structure itneeds to grow taller. A cow with its large rumencan digest much of this fibrous material. Deer,however, being a small ruminant do not have theability to digest this fibrous material to the samedegree. If you fed alfalfa bales to deer, they willeat the leaves but ignore the stems. Feed thesame hay to cattle and they will eat it allbecause they can effectively digest all of it. Thisdifference can be seen in alfalfa hay fields. Deer

will feed much heavier on the alfalfa field whenit is short, tender and heavily leaved. As is growsand matures and the stems get thicker, deer willutilize the field progressively less frequently.Mow the field, and in a few days the deer will beback on the field in droves, browsing on themore highly digestible new growth.

PUTTING THE KNOWLEDGE INTO PRACTICE

I began this article recalling one of myencounters with the rogue cattle. You mayremember my enjoyment over the small victoryI had seeing the cattle having stomach discom-fort brought on by the annihilation of my foodplots. The forages growing in the plots wereImperial Whitetail Clover and Winter-Greens.Both of these food plot forages were designedspecifically for deer and are rich in nutrients andhighly digestible. They were so rich anddigestible that the large ruminant cattle digest-ed the forages too highly, producing scours andbloating from the rapid fermentation. ImperialClover for example provides up to 35 percentprotein and was bred to be heavily leaved whichmatches deer perfectly. Clover designed for cat-tle, however, is normally only in the mid-20 per-cent range for protein and grows thicker stemsin order to grow taller.You can now see why it is so important when

choosing your food plot products to use thosethat have been designed for deer instead of cat-tle. Imperial Alfa-Rack Plus for instance is a farbetter choice than a standard alfalfa designedfor cattle. The alfalfa variety found in Alfa-RackPlus is a specific breed that is designed to stayvegetative longer and be heavier leaved thanregular alfalfa. In general, your perennial plotsmust be highly digestible and extremely high innutrient content to match the needs of deer. Ifyou use a variety whose origin was designed forcattle, you will not get the best results youcould. I have planted Imperial Clover in the mid-dle of a hay-variety clover field that we mowedfor our cattle operation and watched deer walkthrough the hay-variety clover to get to theImperial Clover. It wasn’t magic or some slickmarketing trick, it was because Imperial Cloverwas designed to match a deer’s needs and theother was designed to match a cow’s needs. Choosing the right mineral supplement also

involves selecting one designed for deer. As wepreviously discussed, the mineral needs aregreater for deer than cattle, thus a deer mineralneeds to be more nutrient dense especially con-sidering the lower intake of deer as opposed tocattle.So make sure you keep in mind what you are

managing. If you are managing deer, make sureyou keep in mind the differences between cattleand deer and choose products and practicesthat are designed for deer and leave the cattlemanaging to the cattle farmers and ranchers. W

The muzzle of a cow is broad and wide making itwell adapted to non-selective grazing.

A deer muzzle is long and narrow, an adaptationfor selective grazing.

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Afew years ago, my son purchased 300acres of hunting land in northwesternWisconsin. His goal was to develop it

into a future home for a healthy deer herd. Itwould then become a place where he, his twin4-year-old sons and his dad could successfullyhunt for many years. Although we couldn’t waitto dig in, we had no idea as to the amount ofwork it would take to get the property in thecondition we imagined for the future. The firstthing we needed to do was clear some strategi-

cally located food plots — six in total. Afterclearing those the first spring, it was time to pre-pare them for planting. We tested the plots andthen added the correct amount of lime and fer-tilizer to provide the perfect soil conditions. Wedecided to try seed from six of the better knownnames in food plot seeds. We planted in latespring and again in August, trying to experi-ment with as many seeds as possible. Much ofnorthwestern Wisconsin consists of light, sandysoil, so we needed to be mindful of the dry con-

ditions when selecting our seeds. That first September, we noticed one of our

brassica plots was growing extremely well. Thatsaid, the deer did not seem to be feeding in itearly on. It grew to 12 to 14-inches high the nextfew weeks, and then we finally had our first hardfrost. During the next two weeks, the entire foodplot had been consumed. We realized we had aseed we were looking for. We also realized aslong as the seed received a moderate rainfall inAugust or September, we would get the growth


By Roger MlsnaPhotos by the Author Winter-Greens Photo by Whitetail Institute

we needed. The seed, Whitetail Institute’sWinter-Greens, seemed to be the real deal. Thenext year we planted parts of all six food plotsin Winter-Greens. Our herd seemed healthy andgrowing. That fall, we shot bucks scoring 141 and155. Most recently, we shot the 175-plus buck(green-scored) pictured in this article. All of ourfood plots have cameras on them. Becausemost of the cameras only pick up movementabout 15 yards out, we sprinkle a little corn infront of each camera to see what bucks we havein the area. It is legal to use bait inWisconsin. Deer seldom eat onlyone kind of food for more than 20or 30 minutes. As a result, they usu-ally come to the corn for a couple ofminutes. We were amazed at howmany times the deer would walkright past the corn and go directlyto the Winter-Greens. We couldn’tbelieve what we were seeing. Otherthan acorns, I didn’t know of any-thing deer preferred over corn. Thishas happened regularly. Winter-Greens is head and shoul-

ders above any food plot seed wehave ever used. We plant Winter-Greens about Aug. 10 here inWisconsin. It’s recommended toplant about 60 days before the pro-jected first frost.

Winter-Greens is a brassica, and brassicasshould not be used in the same food plot inback-to-back plantings. However, if you plantalternative seeds in spring, follow it up withbrassica again in August. That works quite well.We have used this method with great success.We had pictures of the buck shown in this arti-cle as early as this past year. When he showedup this year on camera, we got some greatclose-ups to see that he had at least 17 scorablepoints. Every photo we had the previous year, as

well as thus far this year, had been after dark.We needed to get him on those food plots dur-ing daylight. After bowhunting him for the past two years,

with no daytime pictures, we realized that wewere simply educating him as to our location inthe area. About two weeks before our gun sea-son, we decided to leave him alone. Less thantwo weeks later, we finally got him on camera at8:15 a.m. before gun season. Four days later, hewalked out on one of our Winter-Greens food

plots and started feeding. A well-placed shot dropped him where hewas standing. We are firm believersthat food trumps many things in thedeer’s world. When hunting the rut,bucks will be where the does are,and the does will eventually bewhere the food is. What that says isthat even in the rut, food trumpseverything. In conclusion, if you are trying to

figure out what works best on yourfood plots, don’t overlook thepotential of a planting of WhitetailInstitute’s Winter-Greens. Thank you Whitetail Institute for

contributing in a major way to oursuccess. W


Ihave finally been broken, figuratively and literally. Thehunting season two years ago was the final straw in mymassive, years-long campaign to provide my deer with a

winter’s worth of maize each year. I went into that springlike all good farmers, filled with the optimism born from theseveral-month gap since my last failure. I envisioned tallcorn and a field full of big ears beckoning every buck in athree-county area. “I will surely slaughter them this year,” Ithought with satisfaction.

Then came the rains, good at first then concerning, finally tragic. It never stoppedraining all spring and summer. Next came the bills. Nitrogen is not cheap these dayswith the high prices of commercial corn pushing so much money into the system thateveryone in the supply chain is frothing at the mouth to get their piece. By the time allthe bills settled, I had nearly $200 per acre in my food plots—and that was with freeseed. That was bad enough, but the stuff was severely stunted from all the rains to the


By Bill WinkePhotos by the Author

When brassicas arebulb forming, deer willdefinitely learn to eatthe bulbs. Generally,the bulbs are most

attractive after the firsthard freeze. ImperialWinter-Greens and TallTine Tubers featurebulb producing plants

in their mix.

Corn is at its best when the temper-atures are brutally cold. That iswhen deer will walk past all otherfood sources to hit corn. As impor-tant as this is, it is hard to get pastthe fact that corn is also very expen-sive to grow right now, forcing us to

look for alternatives.

point where I barely got anything out of it. A friend of mine once said, “I would just burn

my money, but planting corn on a wet year is atleast a bit more dramatic.” I felt the same way,might as well have just burned it. So, not onlywas I broken by the lack of production of mycorn food plots, but my bank account was bro-ken too.I would tell you how much I spent, but I am

afraid my wife may stumble across this articleand see that our net worth would have doubledif I had skipped the food plots for a year.So that brings me to my new conclusion. If I

plant corn again, it is going to be on a muchsmaller scale and maybe not until the price ofthe inputs drops considerably. My mission now:find an alternative with all the upside of cornand none of its downside.

FINDING AN ALTERNATIVE

So what are the tradeoffs? What am I givingup by turning a cold shoulder to the maize? I’llstart with the negatives. Corn is too sensitive togrowing conditions for a reliable food plot sta-ple. It is fine if you are big farmer with cropinsurance to cover the risk. It doesn’t work sowell if you are only growing it for the deer. If the spring is too wet, corn does very poorly.

Nor is it a good summer food source even ingood years because it is not high in protein andis essentially sugar-rich junk food for deer atthat time of year. And it is very expensive togrow, especially right now. That is the left side of the ledger. On the other

side (the positive side) is the fact that corn pro-vides a high degree of energy for deer in the falland winter. It is a great source of carbohydratesand deer love it. They need energy to handle acold winter. Corn stands up well above theground so when the snows come it is veryaccessible and deer take advantage of this fact.They will walk across other food sources to getto standing corn when snow buries most every-thing else. They would rather feed than dig. OK, so now that we know the challenge, let’s

get to work finding a good alternative. Here arethe ones that came most readily to my mind.Soybeans: Deer eat the leaves of this legume

aggressively during the summer, nearly with thegusto they go after clover and alfalfa. Soybeansare reasonably affordable to plant because theydon’t require expensive nitrogen and the herbi-cides are easy to use and affordable. Though they don’t love having their feet wet

all the time, beans do better under wet condi-tions than corn does. Also, beans do pretty wellunder periods of dry, as well. They are easier togrow and not overly temperamental. I like that.You pretty much know (unless the deer wipeyou out early) that you will have a crop of somesort regardless of weather.On the downside, the actual beans (deer eat

the entire pod after they dry down) aren’t asattractive as corn during the fall and winter. Thedifference is slight, but deer move more aggres-sively to corn when the temperatures are cold.This urgency often is the difference betweensuccess and failure during the late season. Thesame urgency isn’t quite as evident when deerare heading to soybeans. Yes, they will eat themduring the cold days of winter, but given achoice between beans and corn, they generallyselect corn and will go out of their way to find it. Clover: I love clover for my spring/summer

and fall food plots. Nothing else comes closethe efficiency of clover. Clover feeds deer whatthey need when they need it and it is inexpen-sive to maintain. A seeding generally will lastthree years, with only the need for annual fertil-izer and at least one mowing (two is better) peryear. For spring and summer food, I don’t thinkanything beats clover. The only downside of clover is that it is not as

attractive during the late fall and winter as someother options. So clover is not a true alternativeto corn in the northern states like Iowa andWisconsin. It fills an important niche as a topspring, summer and early seasonal fall foodsource, however, and will always be a big part ofwhat I plant on my farm.Sorghum: Deer like sorghum once they have

gotten used to it. I have planted sorghuminstead of corn many times. The biggest advan-tage of sorghum is the fact that deer won’ttouch it during the summer. They eat cornaggressively during the summer if there arelarge numbers of deer. By fall, much of the cornis gone. Sorghum has an advantage here and isthe reason it can produce a big healthy plantcapable of bearing a full seed head even with

moderate to high deer numbers. The deer eatthe seed head in the fall and winter. One big negative for sorghum: I learned the

hard way that deer love sorghum when the seedis in the dough stage (usually late August andearly September, depending on planting date).Once the deer get used to sorghum, they willnearly wipe it out during the dough stage leav-ing little for fall and winter consumption. The other downside of sorghum is the fact

that it requires a lot of nitrogen to grow well.Nitrogen is expensive now, as I have already dis-cussed. You don’t need to add as much phos-phorous and potassium to the soil for sorghumas you do for corn, but sorghum also doesn’tyield as many bushels per acre (about half) as agood corn crop. It makes sense to consider sorghum in some

situations, especially if you have pheasants andquail that you are also trying to manage. Thegame birds do very well on table scraps—theseeds that sloppy deer drop onto the ground—and they will live very well in the cover of thesorghum patches. However, if you are focusingstrictly on deer, sorghum is a bit costly for whatit produces in terms of winter food. Cereal grains: Winter wheat and oats are

affordable to plant and they grow quickly. Theydo require some nitrogen to grow well, but notto the extent required for corn or sorghum. Theyare also quite attractive to deer in the fall andearly winter. For this reason, they do serve somepurpose in certain food plot situations. However,on the downside, they don’t produce a highamount of forage compared to other optionsand tend to flatten when snow comes, makingthem less attractive than other options for lateseason hunting in the snow belt. In areas with-


out snow, cereal grains are a viable option, notat the top of the list, but at least in the running.Brassicas: In my own personal experience,

this is where it starts to get interesting. If thereis a simple alternative to corn’s late seasonattractiveness, maybe it is brassicas. In fact, weneed to spend some real time here sorting outthe pros and cons of brassicas and see wherewe end up.First, I will look at attractiveness. From what I

have seen on our farm and heard from others,deer love certain brassicas after the first hardfreeze. They will run to them when the time isright. With a good mix, the attractiveness of thebrassica blend is not in question. Once they getused to it, the deer will crave it. Of course, youwant to stick with mixes that are proven toassure that you are getting this benefit. Second, the brassicas do supply a lot of what

the deer need in the late season. The leaves arevery rich in protein, rivaling most legumes andwhen the brassica also bears tubers (not all do),these also are fairly high in protein. So protein isnot a problem either. Brassicas (leaves andtubers) tend to become more palatable later inthe fall/winter (after at least one hard freeze)which suggests that there is some kind of sugaror starch (carbs) there that will also provideenergy. Third, brassicas produce a lot of forage.

Information I have seen suggests that a goodmix will produce between 1.5 and 5 tons per

acre depending on soil quality, weather and fer-tilizer. I always figure two to three tons per acreof any food source (forage or grain) is prettydarn good. So, brassicas also produce a good(great) supply of forage. We are up to threepluses for brassicas. On the downside, brassicas can be tempera-

mental. I have had some bad luck with pureturnip plantings when the conditions were toowet. They died and withered away during thelate summer during wet years. Properly selectedblends do much better because there is usuallysomething in the mix that will hold up under wetconditions. That is another reason why I likeblends—you never are completely wiped out ifthe growing conditions turn less than ideal. Youdo have the option of a summer or early fallplanting so generally, you are going into a moist(not wet) seedbed. You can time the planting tocoincide with a good rain.Finally, we need to look at the cost of brassi-

cas versus corn. I think I have established thefact that a good brassica blend is definitely aworthy addition to the food plot regimen, butwe don’t want to jump out of frying pan and intothe fire on this one, so let’s see what it costs togrow a robust crop of brassicas before we con-vert all the acres over. Studying the informationI have at my disposal, as well as looking backover my own experiences, brassicas requireabout 70 percent as much nitrogen per acre ascorn and slightly less phosphorous and potassi-

um. After properly killing the existing plants andtilling the seedbed, there is no herbicide treat-ment needed in most cases. Therefore, to keep this simple, you can figure

that brassicas are less expensive to plant thancorn and they yield greater amounts of forageand produce a good combination of protein andcarbohydrates for winter attraction.

THE ROTATION PLAN

I am always going to keep the farm lush andgreen with clover so the deer have many secure,small plots in which to feed during the spring,summer and early fall, but I still need to figureout a cost-effective food source for winterattraction. Here is my solution.My plan is to use a rotation of soybeans and

brassicas. It is never a good idea to plant brassi-cas for more than two years in the same plot, sorotation is inevitable anyway. Besides, the bras-sicas can benefit from the nitrogen credit left inthe ground from the prior year’s soybean crop.It is a natural way to get the most out of yourplots for the least amount of money. I will fertil-ize the brassicas as required on the bag andthen depend on the P and K carryover to helpmy soybeans the following year. The two cropscomplement each other just as nicely as cornand beans, but at a lower cost and with less riskof a failed crop. There are two ways to create this rotation.


When the conditions are right, you can over-seed thin areas within other food plot cropswith brassica-like Imperial Winter-Greens. Thisproduces additional forage and gives you the

most possible forage in your plots.


You can swap entire fields from one year to thenext or you can split the field roughly in half andswap back and forth within that field annually.Splitting the field is really the best way to createmaximum attraction in your plots as long as thesoybean portion is big enough to sustain sum-mer grazing pressure. Beans are going to get hitharder because the brassica portion of the plotis fallow until planted in summer or early fall.However, there is a nice way around this if youplan, and that is what I will cover next.

UTILIZING GREEN MANURE

To take the complementary nature of thesetwo crops one step farther, you can include aplow-down mix into your soybean plot toenhance the soil fertility for your brassica blendthe next year. This also gives the deer some-thing to eat during the spring and summerrather than simply a fallow field of weeds. Thisconcept is known as green manure. You frost seed a blend of a clover into your

soybean plot around the time the leaves start toturn yellow on the soybeans (early fall). Theclover seeding will germinate and start to growin the fall but will really hit its stride the follow-ing spring. By late summer, you will have a thickstand of some rangy looking clover that you canmow down and till into the soil. Believe it or not, a good stand of clover

plowed down like this will provide nearly all thenutrients you need for the ensuing crop of bras-sicas. Organic farmers use this practice all thetime.You also benefit from having some weed con-

trol in the form of a plant that deer will eat dur-ing the spring and early summer leading up tothe time when you till it in and establish thebrassicas. Just to be on the safe side, you should still

include a half dose of conventional fertilizerbefore tilling and planting the brassicas.Seeding a blend of clovers in the late summerwill save you a lot of money on fertilizer the nextyear while getting the absolute most possibleout of your food plot acres.

CONCLUSION

If commodity prices ever drop and fertilizercosts come back to earth, I may start plantingcorn again, but for now, I would rather foregocorn plots in favor of paying my mortgage. Theyare of about equal size! I am sure the family willappreciate a place to live and some food. Yes,corn is attractive in the winter, but man, is it everexpensive. Fortunately, there are very effectivestrategies you can use to eliminate corn withoutreducing the late season attractiveness of yourproperty. W

Brassicas like Imperial Winter-Greens areparticularly attractive to deer after a hardfreeze making, them a great choice for

mid-fall through late season.


T H E W E E D D O C T O RBy W. Carroll Johnson, III, Ph.D., Agronomist and Weed Scientist

Stale Seedbeds: A Weed-Control Tool WhenHerbicide Choices are Limited

Interesting questions arise from tele-phone calls and e-mails. One series ofweed-control questions came from a

customer who had hunting rights on a certi-fied organic dairy. Herbicides that are typi-cally used for weed control in food plotscannot be used in certified organic produc-tion systems, and the customer neededguidance on how to manage weeds withoutcompromising the dairy's organic certifica-tion. This is a unique and challenging ques-tion that closely parallels my area of researchin my full-time job. This question is equallyrelevant when multi-species forage blendsare planted for food plots and the specieshave varying tolerance to herbicides. In bothexamples, the panic-fueled question is thesame: “How are weeds managed withoutherbicides?”Forage crop production practices that

suppress weeds and encourage crop growthare the foundation for any weed manage-ment system, in any crop. In situations whereherbicides are not an option, cultural weedcontrol transforms from a foundational prac-tice to the primary means of weed control. Acultural weed control practice commonlyrecommended is the use of stale seedbeds,also called false seedbeds. A stale seedbedis a seedbed prepared several weeks ormonths prior to seeding the forage. Staleseedbed weed control works by stimulatingthe germination of non-dormant weed seedand simultaneously controlling newlyemerged weed seedlings before plantingfood plots.There are a finite number of weed seeds in

the soil and those that potentially infestcrops are present in the upper two to threeinches of the soil. Granted, the number ofweed seeds may be in the millions per acreand there is no practical way to predict thatnumber. Furthermore, weed seed germina-tion varies according to weed species, soiltype, geographical location, and currentenvironmental conditions. As a general rule,repeated shallow tillage of stale seedbedswill stimulate germination of a large portion

of the non-dormant weed seed in the uppertwo to three inches of the soil profile.Repeating shallow tillage at two-week inter-vals will simultaneously control the emergedweed seedlings and stimulate germination ofa fresh batch of weed seed. Continuing thiscycle of intermittent shallow tillage of staleseedbeds during fallow periods will reducebaseline weed densities before the forageblend is seeded. This does not deplete allviable weed seeds in the soil since some aredormant and located well below the depth oftillage. However, research has shown this sys-tem of cultural weed control is a provenmeans to substantially lower the baselineweed density.Compared to the U. S., Europe has tradi-

tionally relied more on cultural and mechani-cal weed control strategies than herbicides,and much of the useful supporting researchis European. Studies conducted in Denmarkshowed that stale seedbed weed controlreduced weed growth up to 84 percent com-pared to plantings that did not use stale

seedbed weed control. It should be obviousthat stale seedbed weed control is not astand-alone weed control strategy. It is sim-ply one tool in the weed control tool box thatcan be used in virtually every food plot sys-tem — a crescent wrench of sorts.There are three critical characteristics of a

successful stale seedbed weed control pro-gram. First, start the process early, severalweeks or months prior to seeding the forageblend if possible. Second, shallow-till theseedbeds at two-week intervals. Third, usean implement that thoroughly tills the toptwo to three inches of the soil. The bestimplement is a PTO-tiller since it is a shallowtillage implement that pulverizes the soil.However, two perpendicular passes with adisk harrow is an acceptable alternative.Regardless of the implement, repeat theprocess three or four times for maximumbenefit.A variation on stale seedbed weed control

is the use of a non-selective, broad-spec-trum herbicide such as glyphosate

Whitetail Institute

Herbicides that are typically used for weed control in food plots cannot be used in certified

organic production systems.


(Roundup and generics) to control emerged weeds on the seedbedbefore planting forages. Glyphosate has basically no soil-residualproperties and will not affect forages when applied before planting.The key to using glyphosate as a stale seedbed weed control tool istiming; weeds need to be emerged and actively growing for opti-mum performance. In addition, time is needed to allow glyphosateto translocate in the vascular system of weeds to the roots for opti-mum performance; meaning that treated weeds need to remainundisturbed for several days after treatment.Glyphosate for stale seedbed weed control is particularly useful

where perennial weeds (briars, bramble, Johnsongrass, commonbermudagrass, quackgrass, etc.) infest the site. Seedbed tillagealone will not control perennial weeds outright, but glyphosate canprovide valuable control of perennial weeds. In fact, the tandem sys-tem of stale seedbed tillage coupled with an application ofglyphosate is probably the best stale seedbed weed control system,with the combination being synergistic to each component alone.For the tangible benefits of stale seedbed weed control, there are

disadvantages that need to be considered. Frequent and intensestale seedbed tillage in not a good soil stewardship practice, partic-ularly in areas where soil erosion is problematic. When done correct-ly, stale seedbed tillage eliminates all vegetation (i.e. weeds) short-term and creates a condition for erosion. Secondly, stale seedbedtillage alters soil physical structure and can cause soil compaction.The degree to which this occurs varies according to tillage imple-ment, frequency of tillage, and soil type. These are unfortunate out-comes that cannot be overlooked.In professional agricultural circles, there are many advocates of

no-tillage crop production with a stated advantage of no-tillagebeing fewer weeds due to non-disturbed soil and weed suppressionby cover or smother crops. While research data does not alwayssupport their position, they are repulsed by the idea of repeatedstale seedbed tillage. I will not use this article as a means of refutingtheir contention. In fact, no-tillage advocates have legitimate points.So, we have a paradox; promote soil health and practice good soil

stewardship by reducing or eliminating seedbed tillage; or intensive-ly till seedbeds before planting forages to deplete weed seed. Thatis a tough choice. I have been beaten senseless by my organic cropproduction customers with the same argument. My response backto organic growers (and in our case customers who plant multi-species forage blends in food plots): How will weeds be controlledif tillage is removed? Pick your poison. When considered long-term,it makes sense to me as someone who studies weeds and personallystruggles with weed control in food plots, that a system built aroundstale seedbed weed control does not have to be a permanent pro-duction practice. It can be gradually transformed into a minimum-tillage system once baseline weed populations are reduced to amanageable level. This article began with a discussion about food plot management

on a certified organic dairy and the need to manage food plots with-out compromising the owner’s organic certification. This real-worldexample parallels the constraints of weed control in food plotsplanted to a blend of several forage species. In both cases, the toolsfor successful weed control are limited and selective herbicides arenot always an option. Study the entire system of forage crop pro-duction practices and focus on the weed control benefits that theyprovide. Stale seedbed weed control is a useful and versatile weedcontrol strategy; a crescent wrench of sorts. While stale seedbedweed control is not stand-alone and certainly has a down-side, con-sider it to be the ‘go-to’ method to reduce weed populations andstay ahead of weeds in food plots. W


neWImperIal WhItetaIl no-ploWBetter than

ever, and

here’s Why

Designed to deliver excel-lent attraction and nutri-tion in fully prepared

seedbeds or with minimalground preparation, ImperialWhitetail No-Plow is one of theWhitetail Institute’s most suc-cessful and long-running prod-ucts. With all that, what more isthere to say? How about, “Now,No-Plow is even better with theinclusion of two new, highlyattractive and nutritious for-ages.”

WHAT MAKES NO-PLOW SPECIAL?

There’s a reason why No-Plow is one of theWhitetail Institute’s longest-running products:It’s a result of the Whitetail Institute’s customer-driven approach. When it comes to new productdevelopment, the Whitetail Institute has alwaysbeen customer-driven. Most of its new productideas come from folks who actually use foodplot products in the field: hunters and man-agers. And when the Whitetail Institute recog-nizes a need, it acts by starting research anddevelopment toward a product that will meet it.That was the driving force behind the develop-ment of the Whitetail Institute’s first product,Imperial Whitetail Clover, which to this day con-tains the only clover varieties ever specifically

developed for deer. The same is true of ImperialWhitetail Extreme, (designed to meet the needsof folks in lower rainfall areas), Winter-Greens,Tall Tine Tubers, and the rest of the WhitetailInstitute’s product line. For perhaps as long ashumans have planted food plots for deer,hunters have always been faced with a dilemma:finding a food plot product that would attractand hold deer like a magnet even in sites that

couldn’t be accessed with tillage equipment.That’s why the Whitetail Institute started work-ing to meet that need so early in its history.The first step the Whitetail Institute’s scien-

tists and agronomists took when they startedthe research-and-development project thatwould ultimately lead to No-Plow was to identi-fy specific attributes the new forage productwould need to possess. One might assume that

Brad Herndon


their primary research and development goalwas to develop a product that could performwell even with minimal ground preparation.Certainly the no-till aspect was important, butthe overriding research goal was somethingelse: attractiveness to deer. Without that, theproduct would be doomed from the outset andnever make it to Whitetail Institute product sta-tus. Other research goals included rapid standestablishment; early seedling vigor; drought andheat tolerance; the ability to perform well fromearly fall, through the coldest months of theyear, and even into the spring; and yes, thecapability to thrive even when planted with min-imal ground preparation. Rarely will a single plant variety excel in all

these performance categories. Accordingly, theWhitetail Institute worked toward developing ablend of multiple plant varieties that, acting incombination, would satisfy all these perform-ance goals. Was the effort successful?Absolutely. All you have to do is look at howlong No-Plow has been on the market to knowthat. The final test blends that went on for real-

world testing on free-ranging deer consisted ofthree main component groups: forage grainsand grasses, annual clovers and brassica. Thesewere the same basic component groups in No-Plow when it was first introduced, and they have

remained so even as the Whitetail Institute hascontinued to improve No-Plow through theyears. The reason is simple: This structure worksand has helped No-Plow maintain its dominantplace in the market. All the components estab-lish and grow quickly, often appearing aboveground just a few days after planting, and startdrawing deer right away. Usually, deer tend toconcentrate on the forage grains and grassesfirst and then the clovers. Once the first frosts offall arrive, the brassicas in No-Plow becomeeven sweeter and continue to attract and holddeer into the coldest months of the year. Afterwinter, the annual clovers continue to providemuch-needed nutrition for deer as they recovertheir winter health losses and bucks begin to re-grow antlers.All that is nothing new to folks who’ve used

No-Plow before. The Whitetail Institute regularlyreceives testimonials from hunters and man-agers from across the United States and Canadatelling the Whitetail Institute of the successthey’ve had with No-Plow. Even so, the WhitetailInstitute is always looking for ways to makeeven its most popular products better and bet-ter, and No-Plow is yet another example.

WHAT’S NEW?

No-Plow still contains the same components

that have made it a favorite with WhitetailInstitute customers, plus two new forage com-ponents: a specially selected radish and a newlettuce. The newly added radish and lettuce are highly

attractive and help No-Plow draw and hold deereven better. But that’s not all they do. They alsoimprove soil structure and fertility. The speciallyselected radish grows a large root. As the plant-ing reaches the end of its life, any roots notdevoured by your deer will decompose andleave air spaces, which help aerate the soil. Thisallows better water filtration and air movementthroughout the soil, both of which are importantto root development and the growth of healthyplants. The large roots also recycle nutrients tothe top 8 to 12 inches of the soil, making themavailable to plants in subsequent food plotplantings. In short, if you’ve used No-Plow before and

liked it the way it was, don’t worry — you’ll findthe same components in the new No-Plow thatworked so well for you before. Plus, you’ll begetting even better attraction, and you’ll beimproving your soil structure at the same time,whether you plant new No-Plow in a fully pre-pared seedbed or according to our no-tillageinstructions. If you’re one of the few who is newto No-Plow, I have only one question: What areyou waiting for? W


Jason Miller — IowaOlivia's first deer hunt: Deer and turkeys were already feeding in the

first food plot that we came to. That plot isplanted in Whitetai Forage Oats Plus and alsoanother forage that we are currently testing forWhitetail Institute. We continued on to the secondfood plot which is planted with Tall Tine Tubers— trust me it’s unbelievable. We got to the blindabout 2:45 pm. About 10 minutes after we gotthere, and until Olivia shot at about 7 p.m., it wasa steady stream of deer in/out eating/gorging inthe plot. Most deer out at one time was about 15but I suppose we saw about 25 does / fawnsand one spike. About 7 p.m. he stepped out ofthe brush just east of the blind at about 45 yardsand immediately went to feeding on the food

plot. There were a few tense moments as I triedto get Olivia calmed down but after a deepbreath, she was fine and unbelievably focused. Ifilmed the deer for about one minute. When heturned broadside, Olivia was ready and made agreat hit on him with her new Thompson CenterPro Hunter — highlighted in pink of course. After the shot, the buck ran right at us and

went by the tower blind about 10 to 15 feetaway. I reviewed the footage a couple times andjust wasn't 100 percent sure of the hit becauseof the smoke or if the spot on his side I thoughtI could see was even a hit? About five minutesafter she shot I decided I better get down andlook for blood right by the blind — dark was ap-proaching and rain was in the forecast. Fortunately,I found blood immediately which made me feelpretty confident the spot I thought I could seeon his side (while reviewing the video) wasindeed a good hit. Five minutes later we foundhim about 30 yards in the brush. He is approxi-mately 170 inches and at least 5-1/2 or 6-1/2years old I’d say. A shed from the same buck

three years ago is in the enclosed photo. It wasreally a good family time and a great, greatbuck.Side note: As I'm sure you guessed, I am ex-

tremely proud of my beautiful six-year old daugh-ter. She was a real trooper — very excited topractice shooting, look at trail camera pics, watchdeer, hunt, etc. We practiced shooting most ofthe summer (about 300 rounds) — primarilywith a scoped .22 caliber gun. She didn’t practiceas much with the muzzleloader but often timeslooked through the scope to be sure she couldfind things easily on 3X, 6X, or 9X power. Whenshe did shoot the muzzleloader (80 grains ofpowder and a 200-grain bullet), she was neverspooked by the recoil — which was always alittle worrisome to me.I'm still smiling about the whole memorable

event.

Scott Reedy — Ohio

As a new hunter, I was advised by friends thatif I was going to hunt my property, the only foodplot to plant was Imperial Whitetail Clover. Ibegan my first season ever hunting whitetails insouthwestern Ohio and scored a nice mature 8-point buck with a crossbow. I observed manydeer throughout the season. As I prepared forthis past season, I expanded my food plots withmore Imperial Whitetail Clover and Double Cross

and developed a hit list that included at leasteight different mature bucks. I harvested mysecond mature buck, this time a 9-point againover an Imperial Whitetail Clover plot. Given thefact that I’m a novice bowhunter, I credit thefood plots as the primary reason I have beensuccessful. I have been very happy with WhitetailInstitute products and look forward to expandingthe plots for next season. I have included a fewpictures of my hit list.

Anthony Southard — Pennsylvania

I planted my first food plot using Alfa-RackPlus five years ago. Since then my family and Ihave planted more Whitetail Institute seed thanI can remember.Every year my brother and I use 30-06 Plus

Protein. Our deer herds are much larger thansurrounding land owners and our bucks haveblossomed. This year I harvested my largestbuck ever with bow. He dressed at 185 lbs. Hesported a 20-inch inside spread with main beamsof 21 and 21-1/2 inches. We hold does, thereforewe hold bucks. I will continue using Whitetail In-stitute products and the enclosed photo showswhy. Thanks again Whitetail Institute. You makemy hunting better.

David Mandravelis — MaineSince using Whitetail Institute products the

deer in my area seem to stay right in the samearea, not traveling very far from my two littlefood plots. This buck is the second deer that Iwas fortunate enough to shoot that has madethe Maine record book. Maine does not have alot of deer, but we do have some nice ones andmany go over 200 pounds dressed out. Unfor-tunately, the forest in Maine is not managed fora better herd. Much of the land in my area andfurther north has been logged in excess, withmany deer yards overcut. Over the years, the


yearly deer harvest has gone down while thewood harvest has gone up. If it weren’t forWhitetail Institute products, I don’t think I wouldhave the few deer that are left, on my propertyfeeding in my food plots. Thank you WhitetailInstitute and keep up the great service. Thisbuck had 10 points and a rough green score of157. He was shot while making a scrape on theedge of my Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot.

Eddie Taylor — Tennessee

Four years ago planted Imperial WhitetailClover. I see more deer on my property, biggerantlers on the bucks, heavier bodied deer andincreased doe and buck activity. I also baggedmy biggest buck in 20 years of hunting, 150-inch gross, net 148 5/8. I have also killed mybiggest buck with a bow — 130 inch gross, 127net.

Billy Ham — KentuckyI have been using Chicory Plus on my farm for

several years now along with 30-06 Mineral and

have seen nothingbut improvementson our farm. Hereare just a few deertaken in last threeyears.

Photo 1 is of thispast years bucktaken from ChicoryPlus plot. He has awesome mass and field dressedat 226 pounds at 7-1/2 years old. He hasn’t beenofficially scored but was green scored at 2023/8”.

Clint Freeman — Arkansas

I first used Whitetail Institute products lastyear on a farm I have permission to hunt. Thefarm is a small 100-acre tract surrounded byhardcore deer hunters who shoot anything. Iknew my only chance was to keep as many deeron the 100 acres as possible, so I planted twosmall plots of No-Plow and Secret Spot in thefall. I was amazed how many deer spent muchmore time on the property, and I was actuallydrawing more bucks in. My buddy killed his twolargest bucks ever off the farm last year. I unfor-tunately missed when the opportunity came myway. This past fall, we decided to see how muchbetter Whitetail Institute products were comparedto the ordinary brands you can find at the localco-op. So we planted half our plots in “store-bought” turnips/rape/oats. The other half wereplanted in Whitetail Institute Winter-Greens andNo-Plow. The difference was unreal. The deerate the Whitetail Institute down to almost thedirt. The store-bought stuff is still standing-un-eaten. I am convinced! This past rifle season, Ikilled my biggest buck ever on a No-Plow plot.He was with a doe that was eating in the plot.He scored 165. This year we have more bucksshowing up every week and can’t wait to plantthis spring. Thanks Whitetail Institute for suchgreat products.

Todd Fisk — Indiana

Let me start by saying if you’re not usingWhitetail Institute products, you’re missing out. Istarted using Imperial Whitetail Clover 10 yearsago on my 36 acres and have had great successwith it. Body size, antler mass and antler scoreshave increased drastically. Overall, deer havegained body weight and overall health. It haschanged deer travel routes to visit food plotsdaily so when the rut kicks in you know where tofind the deer!I have also started using PowerPlant the last

three years with great success! Three years agoI harvested a 9-point with 21-inch spread scoring154. Two years ago I harvested a 9-point with24-inch spread scoring 167. Last year I harvesteda 10-point scoring 156.I’m very anxious for the coming hunting season.

(Continued on page 52)

�


Cooperation Vitalto QDM Success

By Charles J. AlsheimerPhotos by the Author


Snowflakes floated to theground as I made my wayfrom the parking lot to

the school entrance. I foundthe auditorium where I was toset up my projection equip-ment for a seminar I’d bedoing. Before I could get setup several men approachedand introduced themselves.They were part of a group oflandowners who hoped togenerate interest in qualitydeer management by hostingan antler round up. My role inthe evening’s event was toshare with attendees how aquality deer management pro-gram could provide betterdeer and better hunting.

When my show prep was complete, I mademy way into the gymnasium where vendors’ dis-plays were set up. Throughout the room, peoplewere mingling around displays, enjoying theevening. Working my way around the gym, Istopped to chat with people who had comeearly to see the variety of archery, taxidermistsand food plot displays before taking in the sem-inar I’d be doing. In one corner of the gym theNew York State Big Buck Club’s antler measur-ing tables were drawing a lot of attention asofficials measured racks that attendees werebringing in to have scored. The sight was festive.

When my seminar was finished and the roomhad cleared, I had a chance to sit down and dis-cuss with the show’s sponsors what had takenplace. One of their goals was to introduce thepublic to a better form of deer management. Allagreed that the night went well and hoped theevening’s events would be a springboard to gethunters and landowners interested in QDM.

During my two-hour drive home, I comparedwhat I had just seen to Winter 1991, whenlandowners in my part of New York state decid-ed to form an organization with a goal to havebetter deer and better hunting. In that year,seven other landowners and I formed theSteuben County Quality Whitetail Group. By theWinter 1992, we were able to put together aQDM brochure and conduct our first AntlerRound Up, in Avoca, N.Y. The event was a huge

success, prompting us to turn it into an annualevent.

In the years that followed, our Antler RoundUp drew hunters and landowners from acrossNew York and northern Pennsylvania who cameto learn about deer management, food plots,forest management, hunting strategies and somuch more. In retrospect none of us had anyidea that what we had started would one daymorph into the quality deer management move-ment our part of the Northeast has experienced.Now, 20 years after The Steuben County QualityWhitetail Group was formed, other groupsacross the Northeast and Midwest have formedand flourished, thanks to the efforts of dedicat-ed sportsman and The Quality DeerManagement Association.

WHAT IS QDM?

If you are reading Whitetail News for the firsttime, I’ll bring you up to speed on traditionaldeer management and the concept of qualitydeer management, and why so many sportsmenare embracing the QDM philosophy.

For decades America’s whitetail populationshave been managed under a concept known astraditional deer management. In a nutshell,TDM was used to rebuild America’s whitetailherds after the market-hunting era (1880 to1910) and is still practiced today in many areas.

Basically it lets hunters kill any legal antleredbuck while protecting all or part of the antler-less population.

Quality deer management differs greatlyfrom TDM. It is a philosophy/practice that uniteslandowners, hunters and biologists in a commongoal of producing biologically and socially bal-anced deer herds. It produces quality does,fawns and bucks. Yearling and 2-year-old bucksare protected to produce mature males, anddoe harvesting is emphasized to control theadult-doe-to-antlered-buck ratio. In addition,the practice strives to keep deer habitat at aquality level. QDM, if done right, also improveslandowner relations and creates better hunters.The end result is better deer, better habitat andbetter hunting—a win-win program.

One might ask after reading the last para-graph, “QDM sounds great, so why doesn’tevery state agency and hunter want to embracethe concept?” The answer can be complex butbasically some view it as threatening and otherssimply resist anything that smacks of change.

MAKING IT HAPPEN

Approaching the public with the QDM mes-sage can be a touchy affair. I’ll never forget thefirst two seminars held by our fledgling SteubenCounty Quality Whitetail Group in New York,soon after we organized. The first seminar wentsmoothly, and no one in the audience voicedtheir disapproval with what we were proposing.

A couple of weeks later, the group was askedto speak to a gathering in a bordering county.During the question and answer segment of theprogram, several individuals were vocal in theirdisapproval of any type of quality deer manage-

ment. One person accused us of trying to turnNew York into an Illinois, where the commonman could no longer hunt because all the landwas leased to the wealthy.

Another called quality deer management theworst type of deer management ever devised.When we asked the person to elaborate, hewent off on a tangent and never addressed theissue. Two other attendees chimed in with neg-ative comments, as well. I’m sure the opinions ofthose four individuals left many in the audiencescratching their heads.

One of the frustrating things for QDM organ-izers is the snail’s pace at which the public

accepts the concept. I can share from experi-ence that you often feel like you’re taking twosteps forward and one step back. There willalways be dissenters, but a little planning cankeep them to a minimum.

Being organized is the gold standard when itcomes to selling a concept. The best sales peo-ple are those who not only have a vision but alsoa plan to make the vision a reality. Having yourducks in a row is critical when selling qualitydeer management to hunters and landowners.For starters, QDM’s benefits must take centerstage. And one of the biggest benefits is thatthe concept has always worked where it wasgiven a chance.

In my travels as a seminar speaker, I’veworked for many QDM cooperatives the past 15years, and few do it as well as the Thumb AreaBranch of the QDMA, located in the easternThumb area of Michigan. Made up of a cluster ofsmaller co-ops, this branch has put togethertwo very informative booklets (QDM 101 andQDM 201) to help educate the public on thevirtues of quality deer management. The branchdistributes them free, at a cost to the branch of$1 each for printing. To date, more than 20,000of the booklets have been made available toThumb area residents.

One of the Thumb’s co-ops, the Rubicon co-op, uses large roadside billboards to show thehunting successes their members are having.Concerning this, Rubicon organizer PaulPlantinga said, “The roadside billboards havebeen great. For the past three years the boardshave run from June through December, withthree to four new locations being posted eachmonth. We have displayed as many as 33 loca-tions in one season. Because this is a stronghunting area we’ve had no resistance from


Keys to Cooperative QDM1. Be organized: Failing to plan is a plan to fail. So before forming a QDM cooperative set

goals.

2. Think long term: Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s important not to hurry the process. Winthe public’s trust with facts, results, and a heavy dose of kindness.

3. Keep the fire lit: Keep QDM and its virtues before the public by hosting seminars, fielddays, etc.

4. Set a good example: “More is caught than is taught.” Setting a good example for fellowhunters can be far more convincing than lecturing them on whitetail management.

5. Don’t be pushy: Never try to force the QDM concept on people. By breaking down theconcept and presenting it in bite-size pieces, you’ll be more successful.

6. Love your neighbor: To have a successful cooperative requires getting along with neigh-boring landowners. Treat them like you want to be treated.

7. Share ideas: Education is power. Sharing what works for you will help to sell the QDM con-cept with interested parties.

Charles Alsheimer has spoken tomany gatherings over the years

about QDM.

locals. As a result, area hunters have not beenafraid to send us photos to be considered forthe billboards. We also use permanent mini-boards with great success. Currently we haveabout 20 locations for these mini-boardsaround Huron County and have a waiting list ofproperty owners who are willing to displaythem. So, the billboards and the QDM 101 and201 booklets have allowed us to reach the publicwith the QDM message.”

INFORMAL QDM

Certainly, great things can be done throughan organized QDM branch, but it’s safe to saythat many QDM practitioners are not part of anorganized group. In the past 20 years, I’ve seenhundreds of QDM programs formed by individ-ual landowners who chose not to organize.Many landowners in Bradford County, Pa. (in therich natural gas region known as MarcellusShale) have a very successful quality deer man-agement program, without any organizationalstructure. They’ve been successful through self-education, sharing ideas, and benefiting fromthe Bradford County Trophy Deer and BearClub, which was founded by farmer and aviddeer hunter, Roger Kingsley. I first met Kingsleywhen he and several other Bradford Countylandowners attended our Steuben CountyWhitetail Group seminars in hopes of findingout more about the practice of quality deermanagement.

Through the years, I’ve been intrigued by thesuccess of the quality deer management move-ment in Bradford County. In discussing this withKingsley, he said, “Many landowners here inBradford County have seen tremendous successgrowing better deer by being better educatedon what it takes to have a quality deer manage-ment program. Though we are not officiallyorganized we have a great network amonglandowners here in the county, so we’ve beenable to learn from each other.

“The Bradford County Trophy Deer and BearClub does not go out of its way to promotequality deer management, but I feel it has anindirect impact on the QDM movement in thecounty because of what the club does toencourage sound wildlife management. Oneway we do it is by having an annual banquet tohonor the trophies that have been harvested inthe county. Showcasing the quality of animalsharvested here has influenced many landownersto manage their property for better wildlife. So,I’d have to say that what the club does has hada significant impact on the QDM philosophy.”

The success my immediate area has hadgrowing better deer is a direct result of theSteuben County Quality Whitetail Group. Theinformation the group disseminated got the ballrolling and kept the fire lit for more than 20years. It birthed numerous small QDM co-ops

here in my part of New York State, including ourfarm and three surrounding properties.Together the four farms encompass about 750acres. Though all of us manage our land a littledifferently, we all strive to have better deer,habitat and hunting. The bottom line is that suc-

cess never happens in a vacuum. It’s a process.We’ve been able to do it in part by the informa-tion Whitetail News provides, other media ded-icated to quality deer management, and thecooperative that got us started. W


This is one of the more creative QDMsigns the author has seen.

If you’re a long-time reader ofWhitetail News, then you’ll haveread these statements before:

Having a qualified soil-testinglaboratory test your soil anytime you’reconsidering buying lime and/or fertilizeris the best tool available to you forensuring optimum forage growth, andsaving money in the process. It can bethe difference between having the bestfood plot you can imagine and totalfailure.

The first time you see a laboratory soil-test report, though, you may notknow exactly how to use the information it provides. That’s especially trueof reports that, unlike the Whitetail Institute soil-test report, are structuredprimarily for commercial farmers. The Whitetail Institute soil-test kit andreport are specifically designed for food plotters and can be much easierto read. Even so, it helps to know what information in the report is usefulto you, and why. Hopefully, this article will help you easily understand anylaboratory soil-test report so that you can quickly take from it the informa-tion you need to optimize soil conditions for forage growth.

The first thing to know is that the information in all laboratory soil-test reports can be divided into two main categories, which are oftenreferred to in conversation as “Readings” and “Recommendations.” Inshort, the Readings tell you what the soil pH, soil-nutrient levels and soilstructure of the sampled soil are, based on the laboratory’s analysis; andthe Recommendations tell you what to do about the Readings to assureoptimum forage growth for the specific forage you’ll be planting ormaintaining.

The most important category from the grower’s perspective are the lab-oratory’s Recommendations, since they tell you what action you need totake to get certain Readings into optimum range. Even so, you also needto know why the laboratory takes the Readings it does and what theymean if you want to understand why the following statement is true: Only a soil test performed by a qualified soil-testing laboratory can

assure you that you buy the correct amount of lime, and the exact amountand blend of fertilizer, to assure optimum forage growth and allow you toeliminate wasted lime and fertilizer expenditures!

READINGS

(Soil pH, Soil Fertility, and Soil Structure)As previously mentioned, the Readings in a soil-test report are the

results of the laboratory’s analysis of your soil, and they’re used by the lab-oratory to arrive at its Recommendations. But, what is it that the lab is“reading” in the soil, and why?

SOIL PH

Just as humans need to take in food to survive and grow, plants musttake nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from the soil.In each case, two situations must exist: the food (soil nutrients) must bethere, and they must be freely available for intake by the plants.

The first Reading you should look for when you receive your soil-testreport is the Soil pH Reading (also sometimes stated as “Water pH”), sinceit immediately tells you whether or not nutrients in your soil may be inac-cessible to your forage plants. Unless soil pH is within the optimum rangefor the forage being planted or maintained, the forage plants will not beable to freely uptake nutrients from the soil. That makes the soil pHReading (and when soil pH is low then also the attendant limeRecommendation we’ll discuss later) the most important information onyour soil-test report.

Put simply, soil pH is a measurement of the alkalinity or acidity of soil,and that measurement is represented by a number, most commonly fromabout 4 to about 8. A number from 6.5 – 7.5 defines “neutral” soil pH.Numbers below that range indicate “acidic” soil, and higher numbersdefine soil that is “alkaline”.

Most fallow soils are acidic. And since we often find fallow sites coveredwith grass and other weeds, it stands to reason that many naturally occur-ring grasses and weeds can freely uptake nutrients from soils within a fairlywide soil pH range, including neutral and acidic soils. And that’s the reasonfor the common misconception that a site will sustain forage plantings welljust because grass and other weeds flourish there. Most high-quality for-age plantings can freely uptake soil nutrients only in soils with neutral soil


UnderstandingYour Soil-TestReportBy Wayne Hanna, PhDPhoto by Brad Herndon


PLANTING DATES FOR DOUBLE-CROSS, PURE ATTRACTION, SECRET SPOT AND BOWSTAND � Call for planting dates

� Call for planting dates

� Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Coastal: Sept 1 - Oct 15 Piedmont: Aug 15 - Oct 1 Mountain Valleys: Aug 1 - Sept 15

� Aug 1 - Sept 30

� Sept 1 - Nov 1

� North: Aug 1 - Sept 15 South: Aug 15 - Oct 15

� July 15 - Aug 25

Aug 1 - Aug 31

Aug 1 - Sept 15

� Sept 15 - Nov 15

� North: Sept 5 - Nov 15 South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

Sept 1 - Oct 30


� Coastal: Sept 25 - Oct 15 Piedmont: Sept 1 - Oct 5 Mountain: Aug 25 - Oct 15

� North: Sept 15 - Nov 25 South: Oct 5 - Nov 30

� Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Aug 20 - Sept 30

� July 1 - Aug 15

� June 15 - July 15

� July 15 - Aug 31

� July 1 - Aug 15

PLANTING DATES FOR WINTER-GREENS™ AND TALL TINE TUBERS™



� July1 - August 1*

� Coastal: Aug 15 - Sept 30 Southern Piedmont: Aug 1 - Sept 15 Mountain Valleys: July 15 - Sept 15

� July 15 - Sept 15

� Aug 1 - Oct 1

� North: July 15 - Sept 15 South: Aug1 - Oct 1

� North: July 20 - Aug 1* South: July 5 - Aug 15*

July 1 - Aug 15

July 15 - Sept 15*

� Sept 15 - Nov 15

� North: Sept 5 - Nov 1 Central: Sept 15 - Nov 15 South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

North: Aug 15 - Oct 1 South: Sept 5 - Oct 20

� North: Sept 5 - Oct 30 Central: Sept 15 - Nov 15 South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� Coastal: Sept 1 - Oct 1 Piedmont: Aug 15 - Sept 20 Mountain Valleys: Aug 5 - Sept 15

� North: Sept 15 - Nov 15 Central: Sept 25 - Nov 15 South: Oct 5 - Nov 30

� July 15 - Sept 1

� Aug 1 - Sept 30

� July 1 - Aug 15

� June 15 - July 15

� July 15 - Aug 31

� July 1 - Aug 15

* Earlier (spring) planting dates may be ap-plicable. Call Whitetail institute for moreinformation.

** For northern Pennsylvania, earlier (spring)planting dates may be applicable. CallWhitetail Institute for more information

IMPORTANT!For optimal production, plant atleast 50 days before first frost.

Food Plot Planting Guide…


� Apr 1 - July 1

� Apr 15 - June 15 Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Coastal: Feb 1 - Mar 1 Sept 1 - Oct 15 Southern Piedmont: Feb 15 - Apr 1 Aug 15 - Oct 1 Mountain Valleys: Mar 1 - Apr 15 Aug 1 - Sept 15

� Feb 1 - Apr 1 Aug 1 - Sept 30

� Feb 1 - Apr 15 Sept 1 - Nov 1

� North: Mar 15 - May 1 Aug 1 - Sept 15 South: Mar 1 - Apr 15 Aug 15 - Oct 15

� Apr 1 - June 15 July 15 - Aug 25

Apr 1 - May 15 Aug 1 - Aug 31

Mar 20 - May 15 Aug 1 - Sept 15

� Sept 15 - Nov 15

� Feb 5 - Mar 1 North: Sept 5 - Nov 15 South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

Feb 15 - Apr 1 Sept 1 - Oct 30


� Feb 1 - Mar 1 Coastal: Sept 25 - Oct 15 Piedmont: Sept 1 - Oct 5 Mountain Valleys: Aug 25 - Oct 15

� North: Sept 15 - Nov 25 South: Oct 5 - Nov 30

� Mar 1 - May 15 Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Feb 1 - Apr 15 Aug 20 - Sept 30

� Apr 15 - June 15 July 1 - Aug 15

� May 15 -July 1

� May 1 - June 15 July 1 - Aug 15

� May 15 - July 1

21

22

2122

2122

PLANTING DATES FOR IMPERIAL CLOVER,ALFA-RACK PLUS, EXTREME, NO-PLOW,CHICORY PLUS, CHIC MAGNET AND EDGE

pH — a much narrower range. Why is that important to understand?Because plants growing in the site cannot freely uptake nutrients from thesoil unless soil pH is within the range in which they can do so.

Still not convinced? Okay, let’s put it in terms your wallet can under-stand. High-quality forages planted in a site with a soil pH of 5.0 can onlyaccess about 46 percent of the nutrients in the soil. That means if youspend $100 on fertilizer for the plants in that plot, you just wasted $54!

SOIL FERTILITY INDEX

(Soil-Nutrient Levels)Most laboratory soil-test reports list soil nutrient Readings in parts per

million (ppm). “Optimum level” doesn’t mean the same thing for all crops;some require higher levels of specific nutrients than others, so if your soil-test report only lists these levels in ppm, then you’ll need to find out whatthe optimum level of that specific nutrient is for the specific forage you’llbe planting or maintaining.

Some reports such as the Whitetail Institute’s soil-test report, though,also provide this information in a format that’s much easier for food-plot-ters to understand. For example, the Whitetail Institute report’s Readingsare also expressed in lbs./acre, which is more familiar to many folks, andeven provides an easy-to-read bar graph that tells you in an instantwhether the level of a particular nutrient in your soil is low, sufficient forthe coming year, high, or even too high.

Specific nutrient levels specified in most soil-test Readings include nitro-gen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, copper, iron,manganese, sulfer and zinc. Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The most important nutrients

by far to most food plotters are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potas-sium (K). Focus on these. They’re the “Big Three”. Calcium, magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, sulfur and zinc.

Other nutrient Readings you may find on your soil-test report may includecalcium, magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, sulfur and zinc.When the crop being planted is intended as a food plot to attract and holddeer rather than for harvest, these Readings can be largely ignored. Whilethat’s not true in all cases, it’s true in such a majority that the role of thesenutrients and the effect of their levels won’t be covered within the scopeof this article. Also, as previously mentioned, calcium and/or magnesium,if low, will be addressed if the vastly more common dolomitic type of limeis used to raise soil pH.

SOIL STRUCTURE

So far, we’ve covered why soil pH and soilnutrient levels must be at (or brought up to)certain levels for the forage plants to haveaccess to all the nutrient levels they need.

Why, then, isn’t there a chart out there thatsays exactly how many pounds of lime shouldbe added in all cases to raise the soil pH of allsoils with the same starting soil pH to the sametarget soil pH? The answer reveals why when itcomes to having your soil tested, a laboratorysoil test is the only way to go; and it will makesense to anyone who has ever noticed that dark,bottomland soil doesn’t look like the soil in asandy ridgetop: all soils aren’t the same. Andjust as they don’t look the same, not all soiltypes hold lime activity and nutrients as long oras well as others. For example, “heavy” soilssuch as clays or soils with lots of organic mattertend to hold lime activity and nutrients betterthan soils that are “lighter” or have a higher

sand content. That’s why only a laboratory soil test can precisely tell youexactly how much lime and/or fertilizer you need. If the lab’s nutrient andsoil pH Readings are below optimum, then the lab will consider what levelsof nutrients are already in the soil, apply its findings as to how well (orpoorly) your soil can hold lime and fertilizer activity, and develop itsRecommendations accordingly — based on the unique physical character-istics of the soil in your sample.

Since the laboratory’s soil structure Readings are simply sub-calcula-tions the laboratory used in arriving at its final Recommendations, they arethings you can ignore as a practical matter. If you’re still interested, though,here’s what they mean: Buffer pH. On some soil test reports, you may see “Buffer pH” listed.

Buffer pH really tells you nothing. It’s simply the result of a test done at thelaboratory to help it form its final Recommendations for how much lime tobe added to soils with low soil pH. A liming material called a buffer solutionis added to the soil sample, and the increase in soil pH is then measuredand used by the laboratory in reaching its final lime Recommendation. Abig jump in soil pH suggests that the soil pH of the sample is easilychanged, and vice versa if the change is small. The laboratory then usesthis calculation in reaching its final lime Recommendation. Organic Matter and CEC: The “Organic Matter” Reading indicates the

amount of organic matter in your soil. “CEC” (Cation Exchange Capacity)is a measurement of the soil’s ability to release positively charged nutri-ents, or “Cations.” Together, Organic Matter and CEC tell the laboratoryhow well (or poorly) the soil can hold nutrients. The lab uses the OrganicMatter and CEC Readings together as part of its final calculations for itsRecommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

(Lime and Fertilizer)Recommendations are the most important things on a laboratory soil-

test report, since they tell you what action you need to take (what youneed to add to the soil) to bring it into optimum condition if planting, orto maintain optimum condition if maintaining an established forage stand.

LIME

If your soil pH Reading is below optimum for the forage being plantedor maintained, then the soil-test report will also make a Recommendation



as to how much lime to add to the soil to raise it. This is one of — if notthe most — critical Recommendations your soil-test report will make.That’s because high-quality forages that grow best in soils with a neutralsoil pH won’t be able to freely uptake soil nutrients if soil pH is low, so limeshould be added to raise soil pH in such cases, if possible several monthsin advance of planting.

Most laboratory soil-test reports will provide Recommendations for theamount of lime that needs to be added when the soil pH reading is low.Don’t be surprised if you see the lime recommendation expressed in tonsper acre. (The good news is that lime is relatively inexpensive, especiallywhen purchased in bulk.) The reason it takes so much lime to raise soil pHis that lime does its work by acting in particle to particle contact with thesoil. In other words, a particle of lime needs to touch a particle of dirt toneutralize its pH. The fact that tons of lime are usually required makesmore sense when you understand that and consider how many particles ofdirt are in the top few inches of a one-acre seedbed.

The recommended liming material to raise soil pH is crushed limestonerock. There are two types of limestone rock that are mined and thencrushed for use in raising soil pH: dolomitic and calcitic. How quickly theycan raise soil pH depends on whether it’s dolomitic or calcitic limestone,how finely it’s crushed, and how thoroughly it is incorporated into the soil.

While both dolomitic and calcitic limestone are used as liming materialsto raise soil pH, dolomitic is far more common. In fact, if you buy lime foryour food plot, chances are extremely high that it will be dolomitic lime-stone. In most cases, dolomitic is preferable for several reasons: (A) cal-citic acts more quickly, but it carries an attendant risk of over-liming, whichis not presented with dolomitic; (B) dolomitic already has magnesium in it;and (C) dolomotic’s liming effect lasts longer. Whether the lime isdolomitic or calcitic, it can’t work overnight. That’s why for best results,you should try to plan ahead and, if possible, incorporate lime at least sev-eral months in advance of planting.

FERTILIZER

Most soils already have some nutrients in them, although most fallowsoils usually don’t have sufficient levels for high-quality forage plants toreally thrive, so we add fertilizer to the seedbed to bring those levels up.

As we mentioned earlier, the “Big Three” nutrients addressed withblended fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. When youreview the fertilizer Recommendations in your soil-test report, though, youmay notice that those terms don’t appear. Instead, you’ll see similar sound-ing titles such as “nitrate” and “phosphate.” Don’t let that confuse you. Forour purposes, just remember that nutrient Readings are shown by thenames of their natural forms, and the Recommendations are for thosesame elements, but in compounds used in fertilizers to make those ele-ments available to plants. Here’s how you’ll see the Big Three listed:

Element Compound (Fertilizer Form)Nitrogen (N) NitratePhosphorous (P) PhosphatePotassium (K) Potash** The commonly used name for potassium-compound fertilizers.

Calculating fertilizer rates. Most, if not all, laboratory soil-test reportsmake fertilizer Recommendations in two formats: pounds per acre, and forsmaller plots, pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Blended fertilizers in bags are labeled with a series of three numbersseparated by dashes, for example 13-13-13 and 6-24-24. In order fromleft to right, those numbers tell you the percentage of N, P and K in thepackage.

The Whitetail Institute soil-test report provides a chart (Table 2) thatsuggests different combinations and amounts of readily available baggedfertilizers common to many areas that will satisfy the nutrient

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SOIL TEST KITSWhitetail Institute

Soil testing is one of the most important things you cando to ensure the success of your plantings — of anykind. The Institute is pleased to now provide soil test kits andresults for all Imperial products or any other type seeds. (Com-plete instructions and all related information will come with kits.) Testresults include pH, phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Fertilizer and limerecommendations for maximum performance from your plantings will be provided.The average turnaround time is 24-48 hours after our lab receives the sample.

The charge for the kit and results is $9.95. If ordered alone, add $2.50 shippingand handling for unlimited number of kits. If ordered with other Imperial productsthere is no shipping charge.Please send ______ soil test kits at $9.95 each. Add $2.50 shipping and handlingfor each order regardless of number of kits desired. (There is NO shipping chargeif kit is ordered with other Imperial products.) Cost of kit includes test results.SHIP TO:Name ________________________________________________________________Address ______________________________________________________________City _______________________________________State ______Zip _____________Phone _______________________Email ___________________________________Payment: : �� Check or Money Order enclosedCharge to: �� MasterCard �� Visa �� DiscoverCredit Card # _______________________________________ Exp. Date __________Signature _____________________________________________________________

Mail to: Whitetail Institute • 239 Whitetail Trail • Pintlala, AL 36043or CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-688-3030

Recommendations in the report. Each block may suggest one, two or threedifferent fertilizers. It’s important to understand that each block (andeverything in it) is a single option, and that all the other blocks (and every-thing in them) are alternatives.

For example, take a look at Table 2 in this article. In the first block (high-lighted in red), you can see that 10-10-10, 0-20-20 and 0-46-0 are recom-mended. If you can find all three of these fertilizer blends in your area, thenapply all three, each in the amount (lbs./ac or lbs./1,000 sq. feet) as rec-ommended in Table 2. If you aren’t able to locate all three of the fertilizersrecommended in the first block, then go to the second block (highlightedin blue), which recommends 15-15-15, 0-20-20 and 0-46-0. Not all soil-testreports have more than one recommendation. If you can’t locate fertilizersin your area that satisfy at least one of the Table 2 blocks, then call theWhitetail Institute for additional advice.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Preparing And Sending the Soil Sample to the LaboratoryMost, if not all, laboratory soil-test kits come with at least two items: a

submission form, which asks you for specific information the lab will needto process the sample and prepare a precise report for you, and a contain-er for sending in the soil you want to have tested. Submission Form. Most, if not all, submission forms ask for the same

basic information, such as your name and address. Be sure to write legiblyso the lab can correctly label the report for mailing. Two more things: it’s very important to tell the lab (A) whether you will

be planting or maintaining a forage in the site, and (B) what that forage is.The reason is that soil pH and fertilizer requirements differ among planttypes, and among those, some differ with regard to planting and mainte-nance. The Whitetail Institute soil-test kit also makes this step very easy. Allyou have to do is check a block beside either “Establishing New Field” or“Maintaining Existing Field,” and another block beside the name of theWhitetail Institute forage product you’ve chosen. Or, you can choose“other” if you have decided to plant something other than a WhitetailInstitute forage product. If you haven’t completely decided on what forageyou’ll be planting, you can even check up to two forage-product blocks,and the lab will provide Recommendations for both at no additionalcharge. Preparing the Soil Sample: Keep in mind that you’ll be sending in a rel-

atively small amount of soil (about a pint), and that sample must be rep-resentative of all the soil in the top few inches of the entire seedbed. Ifyou’re planning on plowing the seedbed with a moldboard plow, whichinverts dirt in a column, try to do your plowing before you take your sam-ples if possible. That way, you’ll be testing the soil in which the plants willactually be growing.

Take samples one to six inches deep in 10 to 20 locations within theseedbed after scraping away plant residue from each sample location. Mixall the samples together thoroughly in a clean, plastic container. If the soilis wet, then allow it to air dry to a workable condition before packaging it.Then, put the representative sample into the soil-sample container provid-ed in the kit. Sending the sample to the laboratory. Be sure to package the soil-sam-

ple container and the submission form together. Do not mail them sepa-rately. If you have more than one sample, it can also be a good idea to sealeach sample container and its accompanying submission form in a sepa-rate shipping envelope, and then put all the sealed envelopes into one boxto ship. That way, you can be sure all the samples arrived at the same time,and you can track the shipment.

If you need assistance interpreting your Whitetail Institute soil-testreport, or a soil-test report from any other laboratory, call the WhitetailInstitute’s in-house consultants at (800) 688-3030. The call and advice arefree. W


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Imagine it’s April 2014 and lawenforcement is knocking onyour door to confiscate all

your guns. You see, civilunrest across the countrybecame uncontrollable in2012 leading up to the elec-tion. The liberals in D.C. usedit as an excuse to crack downon gun owners, passing legisla-tion that effectively eliminated theSecond Amendment. Of course theyused the same old “never let a crisis goto waste” method of scaring enoughpeople into believing that taking gunsaway from all Americans was best forthe safety of society.

Here’s the question for you. Would you pay $35 for those at your doorto go away so that you could keep your firearms and continue to protectyourself, your family and your property? Of course you would. I sure asheck hope you would.

Roughly a third of Americans own guns, but some naively believe thatnothing could ever happen to take their guns away. Or perhaps they’re justlackadaisical, with the false sense of security that the Second Amendmenthas been there for “us” for over 200 years and always will be there. Ifyou’re one of these folks, then you need to get your head out of the sand

and get some skin in the game, because there isstrength in numbers.

There are an estimated 80 to 100 milliongun owners in America, yet only four mil-lion of these people are members ofthe NRA. That means there are 76 to96 million people letting the fourmillion “tote the mail.” What theheck is wrong with you people?This has to change, because theanti-gun crowd is working every-day on ways to minimize andeventually eliminate our SecondAmendment rights.

For $35 a year you can be amember of the NRA, the most effec-

tive group in the country at preserv-ing our Second Amendment rights. I

honestly don’t understand how at least75 percent (really 100 percent) of gun own-

ers aren’t passionate members of the NRA. Butanyway, let’s just say we can get half the gun own-

ers in America to join forces with the NRA. That’s 40-50million people. Imagine the effectiveness of such a massive group of pas-sionate people. No politician (except the fringe liberal wackos) would evereven attempt to go near our Second Amendment rights.

One of the only complaints I have ever heard about being a member ofthe NRA is that they send all kinds of mailings asking for donations. Sowhat? Do you have a trash can? The donations they ask for are to help payfor the fights that the NRA fights against the anti-gun crowd. But if youdon’t want to donate more, that’s fine. But get off the sideline, and spendthe $35 a year to join the NRA and encourage others to join us and helpcontinue to fight the good fight so the NRA will be even more effective.Remember there is STRENGTH IN NUMBERS.

Become an NRA member:Website: www.NRA.orgPhone: 877-NRA-2000Mail: NRA Processing Center

P.O. Box 420648Palm Coast, FL 32142


FROM THE BUNKER! By Steve Scott

Are you on the sideline or in

the game?

For pure tonnage,palatability andoverall benefits,few food plotofferings excellike brassicas.

The morning sun had warmed considerably,and the frost had all but disappeared from theedges of the field of brassicas stretched out infront of me. By 10:30 a.m. I was getting drowsyand needed to perk up a little, so I stood,stretched, and eased my rattling antlers fromthe cut limb where they had been hanging sincewell before daylight. Scanning the surroundingoak woods one last time to make sure no deerwere moving close by, I clashed the bonetogether with as much force as I could muster,and then began twisting and turning the pairtogether to simulate a couple of angry white-

tails engaged in a pre-rut challenge. Returningthe rack to its resting place I grunted aggres-sively several times before slipping the call backinside my wool jacket and wrapping my lefthand around the familiar, worn, elk-hide grip ofmy 60-pound longbow.

Long moments passed. A red-tailed hawksoared overhead, backed by azure-blue skies; abeaver thumped his disproval of my racket anddisappeared into the depths of the pond behindme; and somewhere off to my right a stickcracked under the weight of a heavy hoof.Turning in that direction and swinging my bent


By Joe BlakePhotos by the Author

The author is checking out a field of Tall Tine Turnips on his Minnesota farm; noticethe tonnage available from the tall, green

'salad' in early fall.


stick around I saw for the first time the tawny, muscular form and dark,mahogany antlers of the mature buck as he stalked the source of the battlehe had heard. At 25 yards he turned on the trail that paralleled the field ofbrassicas and came steadily in my direction; as he did I tried to ignore hisheavy rack and tall, bladed tines. Scanning his line of advancement, Ipicked out a big pin oak at six yards: this would be my opportunity to draw,and as the trophy deer’s head disappeared behind the gnarly, old trunk Ibrought my longbow to bear.

This hunt took place in late October in my home state of Minnesota, andreminds me of why brassicas are my favorite food plot offering. Despiteabove-average temperatures and a late, sunny morning, the heavy-hornedbuck mentioned was still cruising the downwind edge of my Tall TineTubers field looking for does… and with good reason. Does, fawns, andsmall bucks were in the field at first light and throughout the morning,offering a perfect attractant to amorous bucks on the prowl. After firstplanting a small field of Winter-Greens two years ago, brassicas havebecome a staple in my management plan for the 1,200 acres I oversee hereat home and this is why.

EASY DOES IT

Brassicas are easy to establish and grow with a minimal amount ofeffort. Here in Minnesota I usually plant my brassica plots in late July orearly August, yet even with this late start the fields are one or even two-feet tall by mid-September when bow season opens. Name me one otherplanting with that type of incredible growth. And brassicas don’t needexpensive drills or planters. The seeds need only make good contact withthe soil, so hand-seeding or a hand-held or ATV-mounted spreader workperfectly.

Once a field is worked, it is important to firm up the seed bed. I use acultipacker pulled behind the tractor that I use on all my food plots, thensimply broadcast the seeds on top and watch them grow. I’ve had greatsuccess with the above steps, but this past year I started running the cul-tipacker over the fields immediately after seeding to ‘push’ the seed firmlyto contact the dirt, and this seems to improve things even more. Eitherway, brassicas are easy to plant and fast growers.

TONNAGE, TONNAGE, TONNAGE

As mentioned, brassicas are extremely fast growers, and the leavesalone provide tons of highly desirable food for area whitetails. If you areplanting brassicas such as turnips, the tonnage increases even morebecause of the tubers in the ground. Even after the leaves are eaten, thetubers continue to grow until cold weather settles in to stay, providingeven more tonnage for hungry deer during the last season. Generally, bras-sicas become more palatable to deer after a good frost or two, so they areallowed to grow tall and thick for at least the first few weeks of their grow-ing season, but after that — watch out. The first year I planted brassicas Itried Winter-Greens in a small plot across the meadow about 250 yardsfrom my house, and as soon as we had one frost the deer poured into thefield each and every night, reducing the foot-tall stand of leafy salad tonothing but black dirt. Every evening we could watch anywhere from 10 to20 whitetails fill up the food plot — and then fill up their bellies. The onlynegative was that the herd devoured the field so quickly there was literallynothing left once bow season rolled around, a problem I have remediedever since by planting larger fields.

SALADS ON A BUDGET

As seed goes, brassicas are relatively inexpensive to buy, to maintainand make flourish. Compared to many other food plot offerings, brassicasare a bargain, especially when you consider how much tonnage they pro-vide. And it isn’t just the cost of the seed that offers savings: because bras-

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sicas such as Winter-Greens and Tall TinesTubers grow so quickly, they immediatelyshade-out competing vegetation, makingexpensive herbicides unnecessary. I have neversprayed any of my fields of brassicas and havenot had one field overrun with weeds or grasses,which leads to another cost-saving benefit:because the deer will eventually eat the fielddown to bare dirt, and because there is little orno competing vegetation, your food plot will bemuch easier and quicker to work the followingspring.

Of course, you may live in an area where thesoil is richer or poorer than it is around here, solime and/or fertilizer may be necessary for yoursalad plots to reach their maximum potential, somy advice would always be to take a soil samplebefore planting. The Whitetail Institute providessoil test kits and the recommendations are easyto understand and follow. After applying whatthe soil tests recommended this past year, I hadplants that were two-feet tall and turnips thesize of softballs filling my three fields. As I writethis in late December, all of my fields have beeneaten right down to dirt, but the huge turnipsremain and the area whitetails are really ham-mering the sweet tubers now.

ONE, TWO PUNCH

Probably the thing I like most about brassicasis the one-two punch they offer: first, deerbecome attracted to the leafy greens above

ground and start hammering them during earlybow season. This makes for a dynamite ambushspot from mid-September all the way up to therut in my neighborhood.

After which comes punch number two: assoon as all the brassica leaves are cleaned upthe deer start nipping the tops off the tubers

themselves, slowly at first but with increasedravenous intensity as cold weather settles in. Asmore and more deer start feeding on theremaining ‘salad’, your plots will look like mine-fields as the deer paw and kick and bite at thedirt to expose and eat the remaining tubers.Last year I had a two-acre field of Tall TineTubers that got buried by three-feet of snowearly, so the deer moved off it once theycouldn’t dig down to the tubers. But when thesnow melted in the spring, they were right backat it. I have actually found that brassica plotsmake great places to look for shed antlers. Ifthere are any tubers remaining after winter’scold and snow recedes, the deer will clean upthe rest of their ‘salad’ and often leave theirheadgear behind in return.

TROUBLESHOOTING

As mentioned, brassicas are fast and easy toestablish and provide loads of high-quality foodfor your deer herd, but as with any food plotofferings there are a couple points to remember.First, no matter how tempting it may be afteryou see how the deer respond to your brassicaplots, don’t want to continually plant brassicasin the same fields year after year. If you do, youwill see a noticeable decline in your plots, sorotating in other offerings is important to keepyour plots producing at the highest level.Second, I found out this year that well-drainedsoils are preferred by brassicas. We had atremendous amount of snow last winter and acold, wet spring and early summer. I planted anew field that was fairly low along the edge of acattail slough with Winter-Greens and they


The author often pulls up a fewturnips and slices them into pieceswhere deer commonly enter a field...this often gets the deer feeding on

the tubers early.

The author is shown filling his broadcastspreader with Winter-Greens.

came up fast like always but never amounted tomuch and actually turned yellow and purple byearly fall. A call to the experts at the WhitetailInstitute revealed the problem: too much mois-ture on already wet soil. Of course, no one cancontrol Mother Nature, but from now on I’ll plantmy brassicas in well-drained fields, like the onebordering the strip of oaks in the opening story.

As the big buck’s head disappeared brieflybehind the oak trunk I brought my longbow upand started to draw, but something stopped me;and as the big deer’s vitals came into view, Irelaxed the tension on the string and watchedthe deer make his way out into the field of TallTine Tubers, wolf down several mouthfuls of theleafy planting, and then trot off to the westlooking for love. Although the buck was matureand had a heavy rack, I had a long history withthis deer with lots of trail cam photos and sev-eral sightings, and I knew there were severalbigger deer in the immediate area. I also knewthat at any moment one of these giants couldmake a visit to my personal Whitetail Salad bar.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

If you have any questions, concerns, or com-ments about your brassica plots, or any othermanagement issues for that matter, give thegood folks at the Whitetail Institute a call or visitthem on-line. They have been a huge part of thesuccesses I’ve enjoyed managing properties forwildlife and they will be more than happy to dothe same for you. Give them a call at (800) 688-3030 or visit them on-line at www.whitetailinsti-tute.com. You’ll be glad you did… and so willyour deer! W


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Cultipacking or dragging the field before andafter spreading your “whitetail salad” seeds

helps ensure a great plot.

The author at full draw from a late season treestand along a field of Tall Tine Tubers. Since plant-ing brassicas for the first time a couple of yearsago, they have become the author's favorite foodplot option.

Whitetail Institute


Brent VanHoveln — Illinois

In my hunting area here in Illinois, everythingis virtually the same, agriculture fields and woods.We are blessed that whitetails have their choiceof plenty of nutritious foods. I have found that ifyou give them a choice of something else theylike that is not readily available, such as WhitetailInstitute products, and choose the right plantingsite that allows the deer to feel comfortablefeeding during anytime of the day or night, youhave now given yourself a big advantage. Deerare by nature curious and just like humans theylike different things. By providing them with alush new food source that is not in every farmer’sfield, it peaks both their curiosity and their ap-petite. Just like you wouldn’t want to eat thesame food every day, I am convinced that deerdon’t, either. They love to browse on new greengrowth.

Whitetail Institute products have been arounda long time (more than 20 years). Why? Quitesimply THEY WORK! Now I don’t know all thescientific research that goes into their products

and I probably wouldn’t understand half of itanyway. All I know is that they got it figured outand my deer and I along with many other huntersare benefitting from their hard work and I wantto thank them.

I would also like to mention this about huntingaround food plots. I try not to hunt directly overany one food plot too often. If I do hunt overone in the evening I always have someone comeand “extract me” as we call it so the deer don’tsee me climbing down from a tree or out of aground blind that they just walked by. I thinkthat unnerves a lot of deer and they becomemuch more suspicious making them harder toharvest. By “extract” I mean after the eveninghunt, if there are deer still in your plots havesomeone drive a truck or 4-wheeler out to yourplot to let the deer see that and run off insteadof you climbing out of a tree and walking acrosstheir dinner table. They won’t be as scared andthis will allow you to be able to sneak out withoutthe deer really knowing you were there. Most ofthe time based on my experiences and trail campictures, within an hour or sometimes less thesame deer are right back feeding after they hearthe truck drive out of the field.

I wanted to send some pictures of our bucksfrom last season and a little story about eachone.

The first two pictures are of a beautiful 160-inch buck that grew all summer eating on a plotof Imperial Whitetail Clover. Notice how healthyand fat he looks. Healthy bodies translate intobig antlers. Deer have to be well fed before theycan ever reach their genetic potential to producebig racks or healthy fawns. With the high proteinlevels in Whitetail Clover and Chicory Plus I think

Whitetail Institute hit a home run with theseproducts. I got more than 20 pictures of thisbuck from late July when I finally put out mycamera over the Imperial Whitetail Clover plot.He was there virtually every night.

Then on Nov. 6 I was fortunate enough to har-vest this buck with my bow less than 200 yardsfrom this plot as he was heading back to beddown for the day.

The third photo is of my good friend GeorgeHuston and an incredible buck he shot with hisbow. Ironically George shot this buck out of thesame tree stand I had shot mine out of just 10days before. George’s bucks grossed right at190-inch as a basic 10 point. It took best of showat the Illinois Deer Classic in the 11 point andunder category. George is always helping meplant my food plots and overall property man-agement so it was great for both of us to beable to reap the rewards of all our year round ef-forts.

Thanks Whitetail Institute for continuing toproduce the best food plot products out there.

P.S. We are getting some more great bucks inthis same plot this year, so I hope to have asequel to this story for the upcoming season.

Toney Soard Jr. — KentuckyI shot this buck going to a field of Imperial

Whitetail Clover. I’ve used Whitetail Instituteproducts since 1988. Since then I’ve seen betterquality whitetails. Bigger antlers and mass. White-tail Institute products are the best.

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Thomas Johnson — VirginiaI have used Imperial Whitetail Clover and 30-

06 Mineral/Vitamin Supplement for the past 10years. This year I am also trying Tall Tine Tubers.The deer have started eating them since theweather is starting to get cold. I am sending youa photo of a nice buck I killed opening day ofmuzzleloading season in Virginia. This buck had19 points at least 1 inch long. The lengths of thebeams are 27 6/8, and 27 2/8 inches. Circumfer-ences of burr are 8 6/8 and 9 0/8. Outsidespread is 23 2/8. The Virginia green score was220 6/8.

Mark Hoffman — WisconsinI own 68 acres in Central Wisconsin. I bought

the land in October 20 years ago. The next yearI hunted it and there were a lot of deer. Smallbucks, does and fawns were prominent at thetime. I was lucky in the next few years if I saw an

8-point with a 12-inch spread. About 10 yearsago I cleared one square acre of land somewhatin the middle of my property. I planted ImperialClover and Alfa-Rack. They grew fantastically.Two or three years later with my bow I shot a140-inch 8-point with an 18-inch spread and aweight of 186 pounds. I have seen several bucksthat are 8- to 12-pointers with 18-inch spreadsevery year. I also shot a 10 point 137-inch buck,183 pounds two years ago. Deer are fewer nowbecause the DNR wants the numbers down, butI still see great bucks every year. I have used Ex-treme, Chicory Plus, No-Plow and Winter-Greenswith good to excellent results. Cutting Edge Op-timize is the best. The deer just gobble it up andyou can see it really works on all deer. Thiscoming year I can’t wait to try Tall Tine Tubers.Thanks Whitetail Institute for the great productsthat really grow bigger and healthier deer. Keepup all the great work. Enclosed are the picturesof the two of the deer that I mentioned earlier.

Danny Demers — New JerseyI have a small track of 87.9 acres. Originally I

was not a believer in food plots but my buddytalked me into putting one in so I put in the Im-perial Whitetail Clover first. That year I took oneof my nicest bucks ever. That made me a believer.Now I have about eight acres of food plotsplanted on my land. I have seen an increase inthe deer I hold on my land. Every year I seethree or four big bucks on my land. I have seenan increase in the amount of does using myfood plots and as we all know they bring in thebucks. In the past 7 years I have taken four

bucks in the 130 to 140 range. I can’t believe theincrease in the size of the deer I see every year. Iam truly hooked on food plots and Whitetail In-stitute products. Whitetail Institute really canmake a hunters dreams come true.

Larry Lallithan — Ohio

I first started using Whitetail Institute productson some family owned property. We immediatelystarted seeing more deer in the areas of thefood plots. I have used almost every productWhitetail Institute has but the deer really seemto favor the Imperial Whitetail Clover for yearround use. Pure Attraction is also one of my fa-vorites. It seems like the deer just can’t get tothe Pure Attraction plots quick enough once weget the first hard frost of fall. My largest buck todate, a 172-inch 12-point, was shot only a fewyards away from the first plot of Imperial WhitetailClover I ever planted. I’ve been blessed to take afew nice bucks over the years since I beganusing these products (see the enclosed photos)and there are still more showing up every year.

(Continued on page 61)

Ascending to the ranks ofprofessional sports is anaccomplishment attained by

very few. It takes a combination ofnatural ability, good genetics,incredible effort and focus in honingone’s physical skills—and maybe evena dash of luck. Even more rare arethose handful of special athletes whomade it to the big time in more thanone sport. The natural athletic talentfound in people such as Bo Jacksonand Deion Sanders that gave them theability to compete in both professionalbaseball and football (and do it prettywell) is more than just unique.

Although, there are those that would arguethat this is really not all that incredible sincemany of the same physical abilities are neededto excel in different sports. Speed, hand-eyecoordination, strength, endurance and so on areattributes common among most sporting activ-ities. But to reach the professional level in anysporting endeavor, nearly all athletes find them-selves at a point in their career where they real-ize that to achieve the highest level of perform-ance they must doggedly practice and focus onthe particular skills their chosen sport requires.Would Aaron Rogers or Tom Brady have beengood baseball or basketball players? Probably,because like most professional sports figures,Rogers and Brady are natural athletes. But tobecome great and to make it to the pinnacle oftheir chosen sport, they made a decision tohone the specific skills they needed to push

them to greatness.I have had the fortune of taking some pretty

good deer through the years. To harvest gooddeer one must work on the game strategy(reading sign, planning tree stand locationsetc.), perfect the necessary skills (making sureyou can hit what you aim at) and have a goodbit of luck on your side. But even with all ofthese things, there must be good deer whereyou are hunting in order to harvest them. Thislast piece of the puzzle comes as a result of dili-gent management. When I tell people that I livein southern Iowa, the normal response is some-thing like, “well, it’s no wonder you kill big deer,they are all corn fed.” While admittedly Iowa is agreat place for deer hunting, to simply rely onthe agricultural practices around you to producegreat deer can result in “OK” results— let’s call itminor league Single A results. But to get to the


By Matt HarperPhotos by the Author

Diversity is key when planting food plots wherediversity is not a key consideration for farmers

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majors where you have good deer year afteryear on your property, you can’t just rely on yourneighbor’s corn fields. You must approach themanagement of your hunting land as a profes-sional athlete approaches the perfection of hisor her skills needed to play at the highest levels.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF AGRICULTURE ANDDEER HABITAT

Unquestionably, deer that call farmland theirhome derive benefit from the grain and hayfields planted by the local farmers. When com-bined with sound herd management practices,the nutrition derived from agricultural fields willhelp produce a deer herd the quality of whichtypically exceeds that of deer found in non-agri-cultural areas. However, I can name countlessexamples of properties that, through the use offood plots, have produced deer that will rivalany deer found in the Corn Belt. In fact, on manyof these properties, the quality of deer exceed-ed that of their farmland brethren especiallywhen compared to farms that did not practicedeer management. When you target the specif-ic nutritional needs of whitetail deer and growfood sources on a property that are intendedsolely for deer utilization, you can’t help butimprove the quality of deer on that property.This is true whether or not the property is locat-ed in agricultural country.

Agricultural agronomics, regardless of thecrop, are dictated by production goals of thefarmer. The type of crop planted, the varietiesused, timing of harvest etc. are all decisions thatare made with the goal of maximizing the eco-nomic return of the crop. In most instancesthere is little or no thought given to how thefarming practices will affect the deer herd. Forexample, we know that diversification of habitat

and food sources are good deer managementpractices. But if the rotation calls for planting allthe crop fields to corn, that is what is going tohappen even though it does not offer diversifi-cation. Let’s say a farm may have good diversi-fication with grain crops and alfalfa fields, butbecause of the high price of corn, the farmerdecides to till up the hay field and plant it tocorn also. The farmer is making these decisionson what to plant/grow in order to maximize thefarm’s income just like any other business ownerwould do.

One might think that corn would be beneficialto the deer herd as a carbohydrate source tomeet energy needs during fall and wintermonths. If the corn was available to the deerherd during the fall and winter it indeed wouldbe a great source of carbohydrates. The prob-lem is that corn is harvested betweenSeptember and November (depending onwhere you are in the country), leaving little or nocorn left during the most nutritionally stressfulwinter months. You may argue that waste cropsor grains that were lost in the harvest wouldsupply deer with a good food source.

Again, it is true that any grain that the com-bine missed will be a good food source butmost people overestimate the amount of grainleft lying on the ground after harvest.Equipment manufacturers and farmers bothknow that waste grains are the same as moneythrown away, so equipment is designed to cap-ture nearly all the grain, and farmers utilize har-vesting practices that will make sure they don’tlose a large amount of their crop. In otherwords, if you are going to sell or buy a$300,000 combine you’re probably going tomake sure it doesn’t miss much of the grain. Iwill admit that there are times when a field mayappear to have abundant waste, but if you went

out there with a bucket and tried to pick it up,you would be hard pressed to find enough tofeed a deer herd thru the winter. Furthermore,deer are not the only animals looking for wastecrops. Turkey, crows, geese, raccoons and a hostof other animals are out picking up the scraps aswell.

From a nutritional perspective, some agricul-tural crops can supply needed nutrients to thedeer herd. Soybean fields for example are oftenbrowsed by deer, and they contain good levelsof protein. However, digestibility varies depend-ing on the maturity of the soybean plant. Corn issometimes nipped off by deer when it is veryyoung, but for the most part, deer eat the actualear produced by the plant and not the plantitself. Deer require high levels of protein andother nutrients during the spring and summermonths when bucks are growing antlers anddoes are lactating. Considering that corn is fairlylow in protein and that the ear is not formeduntil late summer, a corn field will supply littlenutrition during the vital spring and summermonths.

Hay fields, planted to alfalfa or clover can benutritionally beneficial to the deer herd. Keep inmind, however, that the varieties used aredesigned primarily to be used as hay for cattle.These varieties are designed to grow andmature quickly and produce large amounts oftonnage. This rapid growth must be supportedby a sturdy plant stem. Because of their largerumen, cattle have the ability to utilize both theleaf and the stem of a hay crop. Deer on theother hand, being small ruminants, require amuch more digestible forage and have little abil-ity to digest stems and/or mature vegetation.Therefore, deer benefit from hay fields mostlywhen they consist of short vegetative plants. Asthe field grows, digestibility decreases alongwith the benefit to the deer herd.

Furthermore, most agricultural hay fields area combination of legumes (alfalfa, clover etc.)and grasses such as orchard grass, timothy andso on. Grasses tend to not be preferred by deeras they lack the more highly digestible leaf of alegume and are higher in fibrous compoundsthat deer have difficulty digesting. Cattle, withtheir large rumen, can utilize grasses very welland in fact a legume/grass hay is typically morepreferred for cattle than a straight legume crop.

HOW FOOD PLOTS WORK IN FARM COUNTRY

I have had many people ask me how foodplots would work when their hunting property issurrounded by agricultural fields. Why woulddeer come to a food plot when they have all thefood they want elsewhere? The answer is thatyour success of drawing and holding deer in themidst of thousands of acres of farm fields is amatter of variety selection, food plot location,plot management and human pressure. Plot


The Imperial Winter-Greens and Whitetail Oats in theforeground will still be available long after the corn

field in the back ground has been harvested.

location is important in that if deer feel secureusing a food plot, they will use that plot morethan a neighboring field where they don’t feel assecure.

Security comes from being close to escapecover, so a plot that is surrounded partially orcompletely by cover will greatly encourage deerusage. Human pressure also affects the amountof usage your food plots receive, again due to amatter of security felt by the deer herd.Minimizing human pressure by strategicallyplanning food plot locations and stand locationsalong with using sanctuary zones on your prop-erty will greatly increase deer usage on yourfood plots. Choosing the right food plot vari-eties is also a major key to drawing and holdingdeer on your property. Merely borrowing vari-eties from the agricultural sector, whether or notthey have been renamed as “deer food plotseed,” will probably not give you the desiredresults.

One may argue that planting corn or soybeansin food plots, even though they are agricultural

crops, will draw deer tothose plots. I don’t disagreethat corn and beans will at-tract deer, but deeperthought into that plan willreveal a few problems.First, remember the goalis not just to draw deeronto your property duringthe fall, but rather to en-courage deer to use yourproperty all year long.Something different andmore preferred by deercan help accomplish thisgoal. Year-round, attrac-tive food sources will in-crease the odds yourproperty will becomea core area or homerange. Furthermore,just attracting deer isnot the total goal.


The corn fields are bare of ears in the winter, but thesedeer still find brassicas under the snow.

This deer was taken on the author’s farm which issurrounded by agricultural fields. With good

management practices, deer utilized the author’s farmmore than the neighboring farms.


We are also trying to provide nutrients that will maximize the quality of theherd. In order to accomplish this, the property must contain food sourcesthat provide needed nutrients throughout the year, not just for a specifictime frame. Corn and beans can be part of your food plot program, butshould be only that— a part of the total plan.

The backbone of my food plot program is perennial legumes. Beingperennials, these food plots provide a consistent food source year afteryear and are the main source of spring and summer nutrition. The productsI incorporate in my perennial food plot program are Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus and Extreme, with soil type determining which product I use ina specific location. Why wouldn’t I use a standard hay variety red clover oralfalfa? They are certainly readily available and competitively pricedalthough not necessarily always cheaper. I use the Whitetail Instituteperennials because they are designed specifically for whitetail deer. In fact,unique to Whitetail Institute perennials is that they contain certain varietiesthat are genetically developed specifically for whitetail deer. What thismeans to me as a property manager is that the perennials I am using in myfood plot program contain traits that trump agricultural varieties in bothattractiveness and nutrition.

In southern Iowa, I have hay/alfalfa fields all around me, and I even havealfalfa fields right on our farm. Deer consistently use my food plots moreaggressively than the hay fields because of the variety characteristics wediscussed early in the article. The Whitetail Institute products are designedto be heavily leafed, thin stemmed and remain vegetative for a long periodof time. Furthermore, Whitetail Institute perennials are higher in proteinand digestible energy than commonly used hay variety perennials.

The second part of a good food plot program in farm country is the uti-lization of annuals. Where the contribution of perennials is more broadbased, annuals are used to pinpoint specific food source managementgoals. For example, I plant several acres of Winter-Greens, soybeans andoccasional corn for a late fall/winter food source when my perennials godormant in the winter. These plots are primarily designed to supply carbo-hydrate-sourced energy. Since my neighbors have typically harvested theircrops by then, it is important to make sure you plant adequate acres ofwinter food as you will likely have most of the deer in the area visiting yourplots. I also use annuals such as oats and wheat or blends such as PureAttraction to target certain time frames such as mid to late fall. Theseannuals also work well in rotational programs when I’m transitioning fieldsout of perennials. As you can see, I have a great diversity of food sourceson my property. Diversity is critical when it comes to whitetail habitat andmost agricultural operations lack diversification. One year the fields maybe planted to all corn, the next soybeans or even some of both; but com-pared to my farm, the neighbor’s farms are like a pitcher that only has afast ball.

CONCLUSION

Peruse the Boone and Crocket or Pope and Young record books and itbecomes very apparent that farmland deer are the benefactors of goodsoil and agricultural crops. But with some management strategies targetedtoward a deer’s needs you can raise your game to a whole new level. If youhave ever wondered how people consistently produce great deer on theirproperty while neighboring properties only occasionally achieve theseresults, the answer is most often a specifically designed management plan.Of course that is easy to say and what else would you expect me to saysince we are talking deer management. I can back this statement up, how-ever, using my own farm as an example. In the past four years I have har-vested a 150, 162, 170 and a 193 and I can tell you it is not because I amsome mystical deer hunting guru. I simply have put a management plan inplace that consistently produces a quantity of quality deer that are aboveaverage even in farm country. For comparison, before I started managingmy farms, I had harvested one buck more than 150 inches in the previous10 years of hunting. W

“Power Scrape was key to

patterning this buck.”

– Jason Cleveland

Iknow some truly good deerhunters. Men who gather alittle information about a

good buck, let it percolateawhile, come up with a gameplan, and then kill the deer. I amnot one of these people.

I have a handful of pretty nice whitetail headson my wall, and they all share a common thread;they are the result of a generous friend or akindly neighbor who gave me access to theirproperty. Sure I hang my own stands and burnmy share of time sitting in them, but when agreat buck shows up I am, frankly, a littleshocked. I have whiled away too many hourswatching empty trails to kid myself aboutpossessing unusual skill or cunning strategy.So that’s the deep background for a hunt on

a late-September evening just a couple fallsback. The woods were lush and sweet, stillsmelling of summer, when I heard whitetailhooves, pounding dirt…a distinct thumping thatyou hear during the rut, but rarely in those pre-


By Scott BestulPhotos by the Author

cious early weeks of fall that we still call “IndianSummer” here in the Midwest. But there was lit-tle doubt; there was more than one deer, com-ing fast, downhill and right toward me.

Three bucks showed at first, two 6-points thathad to be twins, then a tall, thin 8, wearing hissecond rack and feeling proud. The little guysjuked heads when they hit the bottom of the hill,playing like fawns, then feeling macho andsquaring off to spar. The two-year old cockedhis head and stared at them like a teenager doeswhen he sees a pair of little kids shove eachother on the playground. Then somethingbehind him caught his attention. By the time hepointed his nose back uphill I heard it; anotherdeer, trotting like the others.

I gulped hard as soon as the fourth buck hitthe bottom of the slope. Buck Four was one ofthe few I’ve ever had trail cam photos of and,later, recognized instantly in the field. My mouthwent paper-dry when I connected the dots. Iwhispered “the Big 10” and I reached for mybow. I also heard a slight squeak, far below me.The legs of the tripod stand, wobbling. I wincedand then grinned. Knocking knees—still a curseafter 35 years of bowhunting.

The property I was hunting, tucked in the bot-tom-right corner of Minnesota, wasn’t large butit was in the right neighborhood. It was also,

conveniently, a recent purchase of my neighborand close friend, Dave Olson. Oddly, Dave invit-ed me to hunt the place for no other reasonthan my ability to stand around and scratch myhead. Shortly after closing on the rugged 80

acres, Dave invited me to “come down and lookat things. You know, give me some ideas aboutstuff to do and how to hunt it.” So we’d drivedown to “The 80” walk around, and look at“stuff.” When we’d pause, I’d lift my hat, mas-sage my graying hair, and give my unprofession-al two cents about where to stick a stand orplant a food plot.

My neighbor, you see, lives with the delusionthat I know something about bowhuntingbecause I write about it for a living. I try to con-vince my friend that this is like believing a pim-ple-faced teenager knows something aboutmusic because you see him on an album cover.But he remains unmoved.

But by the end of spring we’d already hadspent a lot of hours on The 80, making plans forfall. First there was just a lot of walking aroundand more head-scratching. Dave and I found oldrubs, mused about funnels and pondered bed-ding areas. It was a neat chance to play the roleof landowner; looking at a property, deciding itsshortcomings, and deciding what to do aboutthem. Many places I hunt you simply play thehand you’re dealt.

So we started with some obvious steps, likehanging stands. Dave had actually hunted theproperty for many seasons before buying it, sowe stuck some platforms up in traditionalhotspots. Then we explored new areas and cre-ated sets based on two criteria; first, close-range bowhunting ambushes, and second,comfy places where Dave could place his threechildren during firearms season. Dave has threedaughters (actually young women) who notonly like to deer hunt; but are attractive, smart,and good natured. Sorry, younger readers, theyare all currently taken.

Did I mention those girls also grew up on a


The author had several photos of his monster buck.

dairy farm? If you’re familiar with this particularbreed of agri-business, you know that no farmerworks harder. It also means that when it’s timeto clear, plant and maintain food plots, there isno shortage of knowledge or heavy equipment.We’d identified four areas that might grow deerfood during our spring walks, and by early sum-mer we had started spraying weeds, clearingbrush, and tilling ground. Dave operated theheavy equipment (a John Deere tractor that hedrove places where angels fear to tread) while Idid menial labor like spraying Roundup from anATV and picking rocks. By the way, I am some-thing of an expert rock-picker, having swappedthat sweaty, spine-crunching task for bowhunt-ing permission for many years.

We used a lot of Whitetail Institute products,and as those little green things started to sproutin our food plots, we decided to stick some trailcameras out. Dave knew that technology is onearea where I really shine, as I can identify a AAbattery from a D-cell, and have learned that youneed to hit the “on” button to optimize the per-formance of electronic devices. So I helpedplace surveillance gear, and swapped cards andviewed the photos that might indicate nice deerwere about. We didn’t have to scan many tonotice a couple shooter bucks, and then oneday Dave called to say he had a picture of “apretty good deer that I think you should see.”

I should be clear on this; Dave’s capacity forunderstatement is something of a running gagin my family. My friend could hold the title to aNASCAR champion auto and, only if pressed,admit “it’s got a little juice under the hood.” Andthis is more than simple Minnesota modesty. IfDave sensed you disagreed with him evenslightly, he would—not wanting to appear brag-gy—blush, shrug and retract his statement.

When a guy like that says a buck is “prettygood,” you run to look at the photo.

At first we thought it was an 8-pointer. Dave’sfirst photos of the giant were from 20 yards out,a long shot for any trail camera, and we couldn’tspot a G-4 on either beam. The rest of the rack,however, did its best to make up for that defi-ciency. Long, sweeping brows looked like a pairof bananas, the beams were velvet-covered bathandles, and the buck’s torso and shouldersseemed a broad slab. In that first photo thebuck is silhouetted by dawn sunlight and almostappears spectral; as if someone had photo-shopped it — just to tease a pair of slobberingdeer nerds.

Dave and I have monkeyed with trail camslong enough to know a one-shot buck is farmore likely than a perpetual poser, so we justchuckled in appreciation. “Probably the lasttime we see him,” was our consensus. Thankfullywe were wrong. In the weeks separating mid-summer and the September archery opener,that buck morphed into a runway model. Andlike so many college football teams, he switched


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conferences, dropping the Big 8 and defectingto the Big 10 by growing a smallish pair of G-4’s.Another buck—a 3-year old 10-point—liked torun with him, and snuck into most of the pics wegathered. He was a shooter, too, though helooked kind of miserable standing by such aspecimen.

But as we learned the Big 10 seemed to becalling The 80 home, my discomfort grew. Fromthe get-go Dave had insisted we’d hunt the spottogether, something I was thrilled to do until theBig 10 went Hollywood on us. Our camerasracked up multiple daytime photos of the buckand I knew he was killable, so I wanted my friendto claim honors. It was, after all, his farm and Icould think of nothing neater than to see mybuddy—who slips in hunts between milkingcows and a fall full of hectic field work—put histag on such a deer.

So when the opener arrived I spent the week-end on another farm. But three days later Davecalled. “I’m heading for The 80 this afternoon,”he said. “What time should I pick you up?” I con-sidered making up an excuse, but decided tojust come clean.

“Well, I’m not sure I should go.”“Too busy with work?”“Well, not really,” I stammered. “I just think

you should hunt it alone for awhile. You know,try to kill that big one.”

“That’s silly,” my friend snorted. “What are thechances we’ll even see him? And we both knowthat if one of us spots him, we’re only gonna getone shot. Whoever gets it better take it, and I’dbe mad if you let him walk. I’ll be there in a halfhour.”

It was windy enough that Dave had to musclethe steering wheel as we drove to The 80. Andit was cold for September, with dark clouds thatpromised rain later that night. We chit-chatted

until we neared the property, then discussedstrategy. Dave decided he’d pop up a standclose to where he took the first photo of The Big10. The buck sign there was as good as I’d seenit less than a month after velvet-shed. I decidedto hunt one of the food plots in a tripod standwe’d hauled down a steep logging road andtucked up against an apple tree. The tripod wasthere for the express purpose of providing com-fort for Dave’s daughters, and at the time itseemed the least likely place to shoot anymature deer — much less the mature deer weboth had on our minds.

Of course, bowhunting is a sport full of irony.We can spend untold hours and countless daysstrategizing an encounter with a big buck—any

big buck—and eat our tag. I went out of my wayto avoid a specific deer and he ran to me like apuppy dog. When I heard, then spotted, The Big10 gallop down to join the three bucks dorkingaround on the edge of the food plot, I knew Iwas witnessing a surreal moment. And it justgot funkier after finishing their sparring match,the young bucks walked purposefully towardanother food plot, staying well out of bowrange. The two-year old followed, and of courseI fully expected The Big 10 to assume cabooseposition in the train. Instead, he watched theyoungsters depart. Then he lowered his head,walked into my food plot, and began feedingtoward the tripod stand.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch a few dandybucks approach while I have a bow in hand. Myreactions have ranged from outright idiocy tocontrolled jitters. Thankfully, the Big 10 wasambling so slowly toward me I had time to drawslowly and have a little talk with myself. Therewas a small island of rock and brush in the mid-

dle of the plotthat I’d ranged at35 steps, andwhen the buckburied his head inb r a s s i c a sbetween me andthe brush, I buriedmy sight pinbehind his shoul-der. Then I let outmy breath andtouched therelease.

On those raredays when I do killa big whitetail, Ihave a little tradi-tion. First I take apicture. That’s forme; it capturesthe hunt betterthan taxidermy.And then, onlybecause it will

make them mad if I don’t do so, I drive the buckaround to show a handful of close friends. Ofcourse there is back-slapping and hand-shakingand antler-fondling at each stop. But I alwaysfind myself oddly detached during these cele-brations, when I look down at a beautiful bigdeer and wonder “how did that thing get in theback of my truck?”

But this time was different, because this timeI knew exactly why the biggest buck I hadkilled—and perhaps ever would kill—was wear-ing my tag. The Big 10 was in my truck for noother reason than I was lucky enough to callDave Olson my friend. W


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I will be adding a fall planting of Winter-Greens. Thanks Whitetail Institute for your incredible

product line.

Billy Norris — Maryland

I have owned my farm in Kent County, MD forseven years now and have finally gotten myfood plots correctly established. My son, Miles,and I have been practicing QDM and it is payingoff. We have seen a noticeable improvement inthe quality of our herd since beginning to useWhitetail institute products! I harvested this 5 to6 year old 12-pointer with 24-inch inside spreadon the second to last day of last year’s shotgunseason over our 3 acre Imperial Clover Foodplot! I enjoy Whitetail Institute’s website andWhitetail News and thought I would show theresults of what I have learned from Whitetail In-stitute’s advice, products and stories! I’ve moved the game cam to my Alfa-Rack

Plus plot, and I just finished preparing andplanting my field behind my house (about two-plus acres) in Imperial Whitetail Clover. Plantedon June 15 due to a really wet spring. It’s up outof the ground today, June 18.Thanks Whitetail institute for your products

and advice!

Danny Wahl — Missouri

Imperial Whitetail Clover is by far the productI use most. In only two years I went from seeingthree to five deer in a week to seeing three tofive deer daily. I highly recommend this product!I also use many other Whitetail Institute products.This year I added Tall Tine Tubers and it has justnow gotten cold enough to turn the deer on to itand it looks like hogs have rooted up theseturnips. It is a great food source to build thehealth back up after the rut. I am all tagged out,or I would be sitting on the Tall Tine Tubers plotnow!The size of my bucks are getting better and

bigger! Enclosed is a picture of me and my bestbuck yet. I took him last season, and he scores169 4/8. The other picture is of my son Colt’sfirst buck.

Darin Uhlir — NebraskaOur ranch was always a good wildlife destina-

tion. We would have several nice bucks aroundeach year in the fall. As a young hunter growingup in the late 1970s getting a shot at a buck over125-inch was something very special. We startedputting in more and bigger food plots about 12years ago. Started using Extreme, Winter-Greensand 30-06 Mineral. Since then we watched ourbuck body size and antler scores get biggereach year. We were also able to see a lot of

bucks over 150 inches! We have planted Extremeand we also use the 30-06 mineral year round.

Thomas Baker — New YorkWe live in western New York and have 80

acres surrounding our home. We purchased thisproperty about 10 years ago at which time Itested the soil where I planned to create foodplots. After several tons of bagged, pelletizedlime and many aches and pains later, I finally gotthe pH at a level I was comfortable with.Now came the challenge of what to plant! “So

many products” and “so many claims.” Afterabout three years a friend of mine put me on toImperial Whitetail Clover which has worked ex-tremely well as a year round perennial, sustainablecrop. I still had the challenge of what to plant ina 2-acre plot I had dedicated to plant an annual.I tried other Whitetail Institute products which

have worked well to build a sustained deer pop-ulation, but none has worked as well as Winter-Greens and Tall Tine Tubers. The attached picturetaken the end of January this past year, showsthe Winter-Greens food plot and the effort thedeer make to dig for them even in the harshestconditions. There were 27 deer in the food plotbut they were too spread out to get them all inone picture. I thought the photos would be in-teresting because most pictures are usually ofdeer standing in lush, green plots with no effortto eat.

Jim Halley — VirginiaThis buck is number three in a row that I have

killed over my Imperial Whitetail Clover. Another3-1/2 year old. He is an 11-pointer that scored 1586/8 inches with 4 inches of antler broken off.I’ve let a big 8 and a 12-pointer go that should

be awesome next year. Plus four other 2-year-

(Continued from page 21)


olds that could possibly jump into something. Ido also have a huge 5-year-old that won’t showhimself until well after dark. He is a 14-pointerwith a huge rack. I think he will score in the 180-class Boone & Crocket range.

Stephen Graham — West Virginia

Many deer are seen in the Imperial WhitetailClover all spring, summer and fall. If not for theSlay and Arrest herbicides I would have no cloverbecause of weed and grass competition. Theyare excellent.

Ron Cuddie — WisconsinI have planted Whitetail Institute products for

about six years and I have had great results.

More deer stayed on my property and I seebigger racked bucks. I also do Quality Deer Man-agement. My Imperial Whitetail Clover and Ex-treme have done great for five seasons now,with the help from Arrest and Slay herbicide. Ihave been using 30-06 Minerals and Vitaminsfor about five years also. Enclosed is a photo ofthe buck I got this past December. It grossscored 155 4/8. I will continue to use WhitetailInstitute products because I know they will keepgiving great results.

Pam Tetrick-Tadyck — MinnesotaMy husband and I have been using Whitetail

Institute products for around 15 years now. It

would take more than three to four paragraphsto explain how great the Whitetail Institute prod-ucts work for us. And the pictures would be nu-merous of past deer. From our 30-06 Mineralsites which are 20 feet x 20 feet x 3 feet deepnow, to our plots of Imperial Whitetail Clover,Chicory Plus and Winter-Greens. The health ofour deer, well, you be the judge of my brutefrom last year.

Ronald Michael — Mississippi

I’ve used Whitetail Institute products for 10years and have seen an increase in the numberof bucks on my property as well as increase inboth antler and body size. I began by using Im-perial Whitetail Clover and Alfa-Rack Plus andthis year added the No-Plow, Winter-Greens,and Tall Tine Tubers. I’m a firm believer in yearround food plots and Whitetail Institute productshave worked exceptionally well.I live and hunt in northeastern Mississippi and

have killed one deer with a gross score of 1657/8 inches, and I’ve seen several more in the 140to 160 class since beginning the use of WhitetailInstitute products.I’m also attracting and maintaining a healthier

doe population and thus I’m growing and at-tracting a better buck population. I’m a believerin Whitetail Institute products for growing, at-tracting, and maintaining a healthy deer herd.Also my turkey population has skyrocketed! W

Send Us Your Photos!Do you have a photo and/or story of a big buck, a smallbuck or a doe that you took with the help of Imperialproducts? Send it to us and you might find it in the FieldTester section of the next issue of Whitetail News. Sendyour photo and a 3 to 4 paragraph story telling how youharvested the deer and the role our products played to:

Whitetail News, Attn: Field Tester Response239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043

Hogs andCoyotes OfferHuntingOpportunities

By Bob HumphreyPhotos by the Author

At first, the scene before me didn’t regis-ter. Acre upon acre of what had obvious-ly been lush green fields was now a sea

of overturned soil. Assuming it was the work ofmachinery, I naively asked my hunting compan-ion, “What are they planting there?” He chuck-led and replied, “That’s hogs.” Disbelief turned

to awe as I noticed the somewhat random pat-tern of tilling. Staring at the devastation left mespeechless.

Like many who live outside their range, Iviewed feral hogs as sort of a novelty, targets ofopportunity that occasionally showed up whilepursuing deer or turkeys. I was vaguely awarethey sometimes chewed up food plots andcould be a nuisance at corn feeders, but I had noidea just how widespread and devastating theirinfluence could be on the landscape.

Several months later, I was snowshoeingthrough a northern deer yard when I cameupon scattered tufts of deer hair. Following theclues, I found parts of a leg bone, more hideand hair and faded remnants of blood in thedeep snow. Abundant canid tracks soon revealedthe culprit.

Hogs are not the only problem facing moderndeer managers. Also once a novelty, Easterncoyotes have now elevated their status to thatof a serious deer predator. Only recently havewe begun to realize their impacts. And as pop-ulations of hogs and coyotes continue to growin range and number, their combined impact isbecoming greater than the sum of its parts.

BACKGROUND

Domestic European hogs were introduced toNorth America in 1539 in Florida. Sportsmenlater brought Russian wild boars to the UnitedStates in the late 1800s. Both hog species even-tually escaped or were released into the wild, ul-timately resulting in three types — feral hogs,wild boars and hybrids. In the early 1980s, theirrange was limited largely to the extreme South-east, Texas and parts of coastal California. By2004, they had expanded into most southernand midwestern states, and much of Californiaand Texas. Since then, populations have continuedto grow across their range.

Coyotes came east on their own and withhelp. After wolves were extirpated from the east-ern United States and southern Canada, Westerncoyotes expanded eastward, first appearing inwestern Ontario in the early 1900s and in NewYork in the 1920s. Along the way, they interbredwith remnant populations of Eastern timberwolves, creating a larger, more robust predator.They arrived in Maine around the late 1960s andearly 1970s, expanding into eastern Atlantic


Removing nuisance hogs is a good way toendear yourself to a landowner plagued with

habitat damage.

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Canada, and later spreading southward in a wavethat continues to this day. Meanwhile, a secondfront advanced eastward, initially from Arkansasand Louisiana. They combined with escapeesfrom dog-training pens in the Southeast. Southernand northern populations converged during themid-1980s in the central Appalachian mountainsof Virginia and West Virginia, and coyotes arenow common across most of the eastern UnitedStates.

ISSUES

Feral hogs present several problems.According to the Quality Deer ManagementAssociation’s 2010 Whitetail Report, the esti-mated annual agricultural damage from feralhogs in Texas alone is $52 million, and the annu-al cost to control feral hogs is $7 million. In theSoutheast, they can do significant damage tocommercial pine plantations. Extrapolate allthat across their range, and the costs becomestaggering.

And it’s not just agriculture. They tear upfood plots planted for deer, turkeys and otherwildlife. They can also take a substantial biteout of natural foods like hard and soft mast,leaving that much less for more desirablespecies. Add to all that the possible spread ofdisease to livestock and humans and it presentsa sobering scenario. If you don’t have issues yet,

it’s just a matter of time. Coyotes represent a more direct threat to

whitetails. In the mid-1990s, coyotes were killingan estimated 20,000 deer in Maine — as manyas hunters. Coyote numbers and their influencehave since grown substantially. Healthy deerpopulations can withstand a certain level of pre-dation. But a combination of several severe win-ters and coyote predation has reduced deerpopulations across much of northern NewEngland (and possibly elsewhere) to the pointwhere predation is now holding deer popula-tions below a level where they can compensatefor it.

Meanwhile, research from Georgia, Alabamaand South Carolina shows a similarly alarmingtrend. In a South Carolina study area, coyotepredation accounted for as much as 84 percentof all deer mortality, including 62 percent offawn mortality, and the statewide deer popula-tion has declined about 30 percent since coy-otes arrived. Coincidence? I think not. A southwestern Georgia study showed the per-centage of deer hair in coyote scat almost dou-bled during the fawning season, resulting in fallfawn-to-doe ratios of about 0.5. And AuburnUniversity researchers found coyote predationto be the leading cause of fawn mortality in sub-urban areas of Alabama.

SOLUTIONS

Fortunately, solutions exist. In fact, if you look


Ensure the success of your food plots.The Whitetail Institute line of herbicides protect your investment by making sure that the plants you have socarefully planted can compete with grasses and weeds for nutrients and water. Arrest kills most grasses, but

won’t harm clover, alfalfa, chicory or Extreme. Slay eliminates broadleaf plantsand weeds, and is designed for clover and alfalfa. Both herbicides areextensively field-tested and can be easily applied by 4-wheeler or tractorsprayer. Easy and effective protection for your crop.

TREATED UN-TREATED

The Whitetail Institute — 239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043

Research = Results™®

800-688-3030whitetailinstitute.com

Coyote hunting offers a great way toextend your hunting season.

Just like the protein found in Whitetail Institute food plot products, minerals and vitamins are an essential part of the growth matrix of any deer, especially a buck. Hardened antlers are comprised largely of mineral, approximately 55 percent, and most soils in North America lack one or more of the minerals vital toantler development. When you consider that a buckre-grows antlers each year, you can understand why they require such high level of minerals in their diet. If you want your deer to thrive and help them reach more of their genetic potential, then mineral and vitamins supplementation is vital. Whitetail Institute mineral and vitamin supplements are extremely attractive to deer. They are also developed bynutrition experts and are professionally formulatedto provide the best nutrition possible for your deer.to provide the best nutrition possible for your deer.

239 Whitetail TrailPintlala, AL 36043

(800) 688-3030 whitetailinstitute.com

Scan this with yoursmart phone for evenmore information

in the mirror you’ll find the biggest one staring you right in the face.

HUNTING

The status of coyotes and hogs varies from state to state, ranging fromgame animals to nuisance species. In any case, they’re fair game at somepoint and good sport when they are. And at least in the case of hogs, theycan be decent table fare. I know a fellow from Maine who makes a decentcoyote jerky.

Seasons in most states are long, often year-round, with liberal or unre-stricted bag limits on bag, tactics and equipment.

Predator and hog hunting is far more than a way to extend your huntingseason, though that’s certainly a positive consideration. Both often requiremany of the same tools and techniques as deer hunting — like stealth,marksmanship and scent control — providing a means to hone your hunt-ing skills between deer seasons. In addition to the thrill of the hunt andmore time spent outdoors, you can take some satisfaction in knowingyou’re helping to alleviate a significant environmental problem.

Hog hunting can take several forms. Where baiting is legal, they’re justas likely to show up at a corn feeder as deer are, making them fine targetsof opportunity during and outside the deer season. Spot-and-stalk huntingis another tactic that is especially popular with bowhunters. Hunting withdogs makes for great sport in concert with man’s best friend.

Coyote hunting similarly takes several forms. Some hunters sit over baitstations, often at night, where legal. Calling is another popular and effec-tive method, and often a chance to practice some long-range shooting.And running dogs can also be a productive and exhilarating method.

TRAPPING

Trapping represents a viable and in many cases more effective way ofcontrolling coyotes and hogs.

Several methods are used for hogs, the most common typically involv-ing some type of baited live trap. And they range from rudimentary toelaborate. I’m aware of one trapper in Illinois who has a live camera feedand remote control trigger capability on his cell phone. He can view thetrap, and when he thinks there are enough hogs in it, close the gateremotely with the push of a button. Trapped hogs are then dispatched ortransported to high-fence hunting enclosures.

Coyote trapping takes a bit more in the way of woodsmanship. Coyotesare savvy, quick learners and can be a challenge even to experienced trap-pers. Sadly, anti-hunting and anti-trapping sentiments have driven downdemand for and price of furs, and as a result, trapping is becoming some-thing of a lost art. Populations of coyotes and other furbearers (particularlyraccoons) are ever increasing and having an increasing impact on deer,turkeys and countless other game and non-game species. Fortunately,there are still dedicated individuals who ply the trade and continue the tra-dition. If you’re not experienced, you’re far better off leaving the job tosomeone who is.

At the least, allow trappers on your properties. It’s a win-win situation.They are often more than willing to help out a landowner in need. They getan opportunity to ply their trade, and you get the benefit or reduced pred-ator-nuisance populations.

If you’re not already a trapper, consider giving it a try. It’s an opportunityto enhance your woodsmanship skills while spending time outdoors. It’salso a great way to learn, and teach your children about the outdoors,wildlife and predator-prey relationships.

CONCLUSION

In the final analysis, feral hogs and coyotes are far more than a nuisance.They represent a significant impediment to deer and wildlife habitat man-agement. Fortunately, solutions exist if we take a page from the school ofbusiness and view it as an opportunity rather than a problem. W


Welcoming trappers on your land is oneway to alleviate nuisance issues withminimal cost and effort on your part.

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Call Toll Free To Order: 1-800-688-3030 or Mail Your Order With Payment To:Whitetail Institute of North America, 239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043, Fax Orders To: (334) 286-9723

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239 Whitetail Trail | Pintlala, AL 36043(800) 688-3030 | whitetailinstitute.com



Send Us Your Photos!Do you have a photo and/or story of a big buck, a smallbuck or a doe that you took with the help of Imperialproducts? Send it to us and you might find it in the FieldTester section of the next issue of Whitetail News. Sendyour photo and a 3 to 4 paragraph story telling how youharvested the deer and the role our products played to:

Whitetail News, Attn: Field Tester Response239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043

My wife took her first buck with her Hoyt thispast season from a blind overlooking a ChicoryPlus plot. The mineral sites are a great locationfor summertime photos. Everyone using WhitetailInstitute products says the same thing: Moreand better deer are seen after using their products.I whole-heartedly agree. We will be using themfor a very long time. Keep up the awesome workand research Whitetail Institute.

Kurt Sanders — IndianaMy cousin and I started using Whitetail Institute

products two years ago after hunting many yearsand seeing just a few deer on our property. Wehunt a 100 acre plot of land that has 40 acres ofagriculture and 60 acres of thick woods. We de-cided to put two small patches of Imperial White-tail Clover in different areas of our woods. Theresult the first year was we saw more deer. Lots

of younger bucks. We were both able to harvesta couple of 130-class bucks that were our biggestto date. The following spring, we enlarged ourpatches and planted Imperial Whitetail Clover inthe spring and Winter-Greens in the fall. We hadmany trail-camera pics of lots of does and threegood shooter bucks. One in particular I was ableto harvest was this huge 8-point the last weekendof our archery season coming off the food plot.I would like to thank God and I also thankWhitetail Institute for the many great products.

Rich Baugh — IowaI’ve owned my farm in southeast Iowa for four

years and have been strictly managing it to growand hold big whitetails. Last year was my bestyear ever for big bucks. I was able to harvesttwo 5-1/2 year old bucks that ended up grossing168 inches and 191 inches. One of the key factorsin killing these bucks was holding them on myfarm with a variety of food sources.

I always have grain, brassica, and clover foodplots and they have all played a key role in the

development of this property. I’ve come to realizethat if I don’t have everything a deer needs toeat on my farm, they will go elsewhere to find it.Winter-Greens and Imperial Whitetail Clover havebeen an integral part of my food plot programand I want to thank Whitetail Institute for pro-viding outstanding products that I can alwaysrely on.

Enclosed are pictures of both bucks. The trailcam picture shows the 191-inch buck before hebroke off all or part of seven points. About 20inches were broken off. W

(Continued from page 39)

The Benefits of Blends

Why LimitPLots to asingLe PLant?

By David HartPhotos by the Author

There’s no doubt a single-plant food plot can give you a great placeto hang a tree stand. A stand of alfalfa or clover can also be a reli-able source of high-quality forage that can help bucks grow better

antlers. Imperial Clover is one of the best, if not the best, all-purpose foodplot product available. It’s not only good for deer, it’s great for deer hunt-ing, especially during early fall. But in some regions, clover goes dormantin late winter and offers less benefit to deer or hunter. When the clover dis-appears, so do the deer. You could plant brassicas if you want a late-sea-son hunting plot. Deer hammer it after the plant has been hit by a frost,and they stay on it until the plant has been reduced to roots. But thatmeans you’ll have to wait until cold weather sets in before you can expectto see any deer.

BLENDS ARE BETTER

So what should you do? The obvious solu-tion is to plant both in the same field. Insteadof guessing the best seeding rate for eachplant, however, grab a pre-mixed blend likeWhitetail Institute’s Double Cross, a mix ofclover and brassicas. Blends offer a variety offoods in one plot, giving deer a solid reason tostay on your property not just part of thehunting season, but all of it. Just as we can’tget all our nutritional needs from a salad or asteak, deer need a variety of foods to survive.Blends give them what they need when theyneed it.

“We design our blends to give hunters anddeer the maximum benefit from a food plot,"Whitetail Institute Vice-President Steve Scottsaid. "A blend not only gives the deer a choice,it gives hunters more opportunity to see deerthroughout the hunting season because oneplant might be prime in October while anotheris most attractive in November or December."

That’s because the plants in a typical blenddon’t always grow at the same rate. WhitetailInstitute’s Pure Attraction, for example,includes oats and winter peas, which germi-nate quickly and grow fast, providing analmost-immediate food source for your deer.The third ingredient in Pure Attraction is brassicas. Deer often won’t touchthat plant until a frost has changed the palatability of the plant. In fact,brassicas have become one of the hottest late-season food plot choices forthat reason. Unfortunately, hunters who only plant brassicas are missing


Blends can excel when single-species plotswon’t. Some plants may go dormant during

extreme heat or cold while others remain, givingthe deer a variety of choices throughout the

season.

By offering your deer avariety of foods in a

single plot, you stand abetter chance of seeingand harvesting moredeer throughout the

entire season.


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out on an extended opportunity to hunt one food plot.

WHICH ONE?

Choosing the best blend isn’t as easy as grabbing the first bag you see.Whitetail Institute offers more than a dozen different seed blends. All attractdeer, but each one includes different seed blends for different situations anddifferent purposes. Thankfully, choosing the right one isn’t really difficult.

By their nature, blends offer a variety of plants that draw whitetailsthroughout the life of the food plot. Some are designed to attract deer duringfall and winter, but others provide high-quality, nutritious forage throughoutthe summer when bucks are growing antlers and does are nursing.

“Attraction plots are usually cool-season plots that include clover, brassi-cas, peas or oats — things that provide a food source throughout the fall andwinter. Those are the plots you are going to hunt over,” Scott said. “In somecases, you will have hunting opportunities over warm-season plots, butthose tend to diminish as the season progresses, particularly in the North.”

Annual warm season forage blends are usually planted in spring and aredesigned to provide high protein and other vital nutrients. Hunters allacross the U.S. report their warm season food plots have resulted in health-ier bucks with better antlers. Whitetails that have access to high-qualityforage in summer go into winter in better health, giving them better oddsof surviving harsh conditions.

Some warm season forage blends include annuals like sunflowers, peas,beans and sorghum, but others have perennials like chicory and alfalfa.Attraction blends can also include perennials like clover.

What you choose also depends on your plots themselves. Although allfood plot plants need at least three to four hours of sunlight, some havedifferent moisture requirements. Scott said alfalfa, for example, does wellin drier soils because it has a deep tap root. So does chicory. Clover doesbest in ground that holds more moisture. Sometimes combining those

three in one plot can give you enough variety to cover all the bases. “Alfa-Rack Plus, which has clover, chicory and alfalfa, can be ideal for

that situation,” Scott said. “A perfect example might be if you are in hillycountry and plan to plant on a plot that is sloped on one end and flat onthe other. Alfalfa might do better on the higher ground that doesn’t holdmoisture, but clover will excel in the lower, wetter part of the plot. A lot oftimes, you might have just enough moisture over the entire plot that all theplants will thrive. A blend covers all the bases.”

Some, like Whitetail Institute’s new Edge, includes perennial plants likealfalfa, chicory, sanfoin and a fast-growing annual clover. Edge makes agreat summer nutrition plot, but also a super place to hang a tree stand,particularly for early-season bow-hunters.

The obvious advantage of a perennial blend is the reduced effort andcost. Plant them once, and you’re set for several years. Annuals offer theirown advantages: They can be somewhat easier to establish and weed con-trol can be a little easier, too.

STILL NOT SURE?

“The best advice I can give is to split up your plots and plant a couple ofdifferent blends. That way, you can see what works best for you and yourdeer,” advises Scott. “The more choices you have — and the deer have —the better off you’ll be, no matter what you choose. For example, plant halfyour plot in a perennial like Imperial Whitetail Clover and the other half inPure Attraction.” Even better, by choosing a blend you won’t have toanswer the age-old food plot question: Which one? Instead, you can sim-ply say “all of the above.”

If you have more questions, call the Whitetail Institute at (800) 688-3030. Scott said he and fellow staff members not only are willing to offersound advice, but they enjoy talking food plots and deer hunting. “It’s whatwe love to do,” he said. W

Sitting beneath a stately oak — at least Ibelieve it was an oak tree, with branchesextended like the arms of a coddling mother

not quite ready to release her grip on a boy deter-mined to enter manhood — is where I was posi-tioned next to Dad on my first deer hunt. Excited,exuberant and with a good bit of youthful rest-lessness I watched the day dawn on the whitetailforest. Each noise, every interruption was metwith a renewed curiosity and the constantinquiry to my father, “When are the deercoming?” My boyhood imagination hadconjured up the notion that deer wouldarrive upon a scheduled time, at thisprecise location and that is why wewere indeed located where we werein order to intercept them. If it wereonly that simple … .

As I was to find out later, deer haveno schedules. They come and go as

they please andwaiting pa-tiently forthe un-k n o w nwas truly ablessing rather

than the curse I thought it to be as animpetuous lad of ten. Until that initial hunt, allI had to go on were stories, tales of spell-binding intrigue betwixt hunter and this ghostlycreature that so aptly lives in wooded solitude

mysteriously appearing from out of nowherewhen least expected.

Leaves trapped in crusted snow rustledin the distance, heralding the approach ofa forest occupant. However, the noise waslost on me as I fumbled with a candywrapper. Looking up I found my dadintently staring in the direction where


The Wonderment of Not Knowing By R.G. Bernier

Photos by the Author

“If life is to preserve its glamour and the heart its freshness,we must not lose our capacity to wonder.

—Archibald Rutledge


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he told me the deer would most likely appear. His body language suddenlychanged, the whole mood now became intense; something has his atten-tion, something that I could not see, not yet anyway. “Get your gun ready,the buck is standing head on to your left,” dad whispered. Searching withall my might I still could not see him. “He’s right there,” dad exclaimed. Ina voice much louder than a whisper I asked, “Where?”

This buck was surely destined to be mine as despite my commotion, heremained standing statuesquely still intently and perhaps, curiously look-ing. “Do you see the big spruce tree?” “Yes,” I replied. “Look to the right ofit,” my dad exasperatedly said. And then, there he was, as plain as the noseon my face, the apparition had finally taken form. My little heart began torace. It beat like a drum which was reverberating first in my throat and thenrelentlessly in my ears. My breath came in gasps as my limbs involuntarilyquivered and shook. What a rush to think that one of nature’s childrencould reduce me to such a trembling mess. Somehow the shot rang trueand I had the first of many bucks, but none more special. It was a spikebuck with stickers, one whose antlers hang as proudly in my home as anybuck I’ve taken since.

Much has changed in the whitetail world since that bygone day when Iwas a boy of ten, but thankfully, at least for me the same exhilarating heartpounding in my ears, sweat trickling a path down my neck still returns rou-tinely when a buck suddenly appears. However, I fear that this may nolonger be the case for a large sector of the deer hunting public. In our thirstfor knowledge and our bent on technology, have we now reduced deerhunting to a mere formula?

Bill Heavey writes, “Today’s whitetail nut knows how to pinpoint a corearea, unravel a rub line, make a mock scrape, set up a decoy, rattle a buckclose, age the animal on the hoof, and score him to within 10 inches. Heknows how to raise the pH of soil from 5.8 to 7.0. Thanks to the whitetailboom — which has focused our obsession and created an enormous mar-ket to fund research and development — our knowledge of deer behavioris unprecedented, our gear is unsurpassed, and exciting new tactics arespawned almost daily, making the game more nuanced and fun.”

But, in the process have we indeed lost something of intrinsic value?Have we lost the primitive within us? Have we lost the wonderment thatonly the land beyond the pavement can offer? Dave Hurteau chimes in,“Yes, we are by-and-large better deer hunters today. But does anyoneknow how to estimate yardage anymore? Why bother learning how to agea track when your trail-cam pics have the date and time stamped on them?Or even read sign when all you need to do is sit over your food plot? Doyou know how to walk over dry, brittle leaves without spooking deer? Howto slip up on a bedded buck?”

Deer hunting is not a game that can be won, it’s a game that must beplayed, and how you play the game will determine your ultimate satisfac-tion. If we shot a deer each time out, without fail much of the romance andmystery of the hunt would be erased and the activity would be reduced tomerely another mundane job. How septic and tasteless that would be. Westill need the mystery of the unknown in order to capture our hearts.

“Indeed,” according to the late George Mattis, “there have been manychanges from the days when deer hunting meant packing off to the woodsfor a full season’s stay in the old hunter’s shack. The call of the NorthWoods was once answered only by the hardy souls to whom the rugged-ness of camping in the rough was accepted as a necessary part of the hunt.Though the chase of the whitetail continues, many of the sturdy qualitiesof the erstwhile Nimrod are no longer with us. The practical deer hunters,and especially the newcomers, emerge to hunt the game animal where itis most plentiful, and many a bag is filled without the hunter straying aquarter of a mile from his parked car. The task of dragging in a deer killedeven a mile back in from the road is becoming the exception today.”

The value of not knowing comes in ways not readily seen, only felt, andmake the entire experience worth recounting each time we take up thechase. Anticipation awakens me like the touch of an icy hand. Excitementovertakes me when seeing the sign that has eluded me thus far.

Attentiveness to each subtle detail along the trail provides clues that bringme closer to realizing my goal. Strategic planning of the day’s event allowsme to be proactive in my quest. Being nature’s invited guest renews anappreciation for all that is most wild, and when you put it all together itbecomes an adventure of the finest kind.

In his book, Hunting Big Whitetails, Bruce Nelson sums it up so wellwhen he writes, “He wonders if this is the day. Will the trophy buck he hasdreamed about suddenly appear out of the underbrush? And if it shouldhappen, will he remember with dismay the last glimpse of that awesome

rack and mighty body, or will he relive on countless occasions, the feelingof staring down in disbelief at that magnificent trophy, and the feel of themassive antlers in his hands? Every deer season, each coming day andhour, is full of unknowns. In the unknown is anticipation, and the hope thatsoon the scouting and hard hunting will pay off. The prize is the monsterbuck, and the quest goes on for as long as we hunt whitetails.” Unlike muchof our daily life that is scripted, predictable and routine, hunting whitetaildeer is and should continue to be anything but. We don’t need the formula,we need the inexplicable. We shouldn’t want a guarantee, only a chance. Apile of dead deer flesh doesn’t represent a hunt; it’s merely the result of thehunt itself. We must have disappointment in order to fully enjoy success;otherwise arrogance would overtake humility. Whitetails certainly have away of humbling even the most haughty and self-confident.

Without uncertainty there would be no hope, nothing to captivate ourimagination or fuel our desire. Where would be the magic, mystique andcharm? The value of the unknown unleashes our fascination, curiosity andrespect for the deer we pursue.

Wildlife photographer, Mike Biggs captures this concept brilliantlyexpressing the following, “Who knows what the future will bring? … Willtechnology eventually create such an artificiality that it could destroy themystique which brought us here in the first place? In extreme cases thatmight be possible. Certainly we don’t want to see whitetails come to sharethe same status as livestock. Nobody wants to hunt a Hereford.

For most of us, the real frontier of whitetail enlightenment lies in theaccurate perception of their lives and times—the true understanding ofhow whitetails live, develop, behave and age under natural circumstances.We want the knowledge. We need the mystery.”

Like the childhood fantasies of a ten-year-old boy, may we never loseour capacity to wonder and continue to embrace the unknown in all ourfuture deer hunts. W


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Price with coupon: $69.95Please send _____ 52 lb. quantities of Imperial Pure Attraction™.


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DISCOUNT COUPONS - Order Today!

Savings Code: WN221

* Important: Shipping & Payment Information* Please Include Daytime Phone Number For UPS Shipments

and Any Questions We May Have About Your Order.

Mail To: Whitetail Institute of North America239 Whitetail Trail • Pintlala, AL 36043

Or Call Toll Free: 1-800-688-3030 • Fax Orders To: (334) 286-9723

Name: ___________________________________________________

Shipping Address: (No P.O. Box) ________________________________

________________________________________________________

City: _______________________________State:_______Zip:_______

Daytime Phone: ______________________Email: ________________

Payment Method:

n Check or Money Order Enclosed

Charge to my: n Mastercard n Visa n Discover

Credit Card#: _______________________________Exp. Date:_______

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IMPERIAL CUTTING EDGE™ Nutritional SupplementsYOU SAVE $26.00

Suggested Retail: $120.95 (68 lbs.)

Price with coupon: $94.95Please send _____ 68 lb. quantities of Cutting Edge™ n Initiate n Optimize n Sustain.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_______

Savings Code: WN221


“KRAZE” Flavored Deer Attractant YOU SAVE $40-$65

Suggested Retail: $119.95 — 6-Pak, $69.95 — 3-Pak

Coupon Price: $54.95 or $29.95Please send _____ n 6-Pak KRAZE @ $54.95Please send _____ n 3-Pak KRAZE @ $29.95

TOTAL $_______

Savings Code: WN221

No charge for shipping and handling. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

ARREST™ HERBICIDE YOU SAVE $5.00 to $25.00Suggested Retail: $27.95 (1 Pint - .5 Acres); $159.95 (1 Gal. -3.5 Acres)

Price with coupon: 1 Pint - $22.95; 1 Gal.- $134.95Please send _____ pint(s) of ARREST™ Herbicide. Please send _____ gallon(s) of ARREST™ Herbicide.Call for larger quantities. TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_______

Savings Code: WN221

Please add $7.00 for shipping and handling for each pint or gallon ordered. (Canadian residents call for ship-ping charges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

IMPERIAL 4-PLAY BLOCK™ YOU SAVE Up To $24.00

Suggested Retail: $59.95 and $29.95

Coupon Price: $34.95 or $19.95Please send _____ n 2-Pak Blocks @ $34.95Please send _____ n 1 Block @ $19.95


Savings Code: WN221

Please add $5.00 for shipping and handling for EACH Block or $10.00 for EACH Double Pack. (Canadian residentscall for shipping charges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

SLAY™ HERBICIDE YOU SAVE $15.00 to $25.00Suggested Retail: $59.95 (4 oz. - 1 Acre); $159.95 (1 Pint - 4 Acres)

Price with coupon: 4 oz. - $44.95; 1 Pint - $134.95Please send _____ 4 oz. Package(s) of SLAY™ Herbicide.Please send _____ Pint(s) of SLAY™ Herbicide. Call for larger quantities. TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_______

Savings Code: WN221

Please add $7.00 for shipping and handling for each 4 oz. package or pint ordered. (Canadian residents call forshipping charges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

Acorn OBSESSION “Super” Deer Attractant YOU SAVE $20.00 - $35.00


Coupon Price: $84.95 or $44.95Please send ___ Acorn OBSESSION 6-Paks @ $84.95Please send ___ Acorn OBSESSION 3-Paks @ $44.95

TOTAL $___ ______

Savings Code: WN221


IMPERIAL MAGNET MIX™ YOU SAVE $20 to $35


Coupon Price: $84.95 or $49.95Please send ___ Magnet Mix™ 6-Paks @ $84.95Please send ___ Magnet Mix™ 3-Paks @ $49.95

TOTAL $_______

Savings Code: WN221


IMPERIAL 30-06™Mineral/Vitamin Supplements YOU SAVE $25.00Suggested Retail: $89.95 and $99.95 (60 lbs.)

Coupon Price: $64.95 or $74.95Please send ____60 lb. quantities of 30-06™ n Original 30-06™ @ $64.95 n 30-06™ Plus Protein @ $74.95TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_______

Savings Code: WN221


FREE

FREIGH

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NEW!

FREE

FREIGH

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For Details


Mike McClellan — IndianaThe picture is of my son Justin McClellan. He was 7

years old when he killed a doe (his first deer) with a410 shotgun. Since I have been using WhitetailInstitute products, I see more deer including a lot ofdoes. When you have lots of does you have bucksalways close by. I haven’t reached the Boone &Crocket yet, but I keep trying. My 9-year-old son seesdeer every time he goes. He killed his first deer whenhe was 7 years old and has killed deer out there eversince.

Casey Allen Jr. — LouisianaIt was Sunday, Dec. 19, my Poppy (grandfather)

and I were doing an evening hunt before we went tothe Saints party at the clubhouse.

It was about 4:20 p.m. and from the four-wheelerroad out came the prettiest 8-point buck I ever saw. Itook aim and hit him with a spine shot. Boy did I get

a rush, I was shaking so much Poppy got out of thestand and went to check things out for me. I had him.An 8-point that weighed 134 pounds!

I had just turned 10 years old on Dec. 1 and it feltgreat to kill my first buck and receive my initiationfrom the guys in the club.

My Poppy is a member of the Mullins SwampHunting Camp, and I have tagged along since I wastwo. Of course I was too small to carry a gun then butmy Poppy was training me. I paid attention, listenedclosely, and watched everything everyone did to learnhow to kill a deer. I was rewarded with my first deerbeing an 8-point.

My parents, Casey, Sr. and Holly Allen, had my deermounted and placed over my bed where when I entermy room I get the thrill of reliving that buck moment.

Chris and Benjamin Consler — New York

Enclosed please find a picture of my son’s firstdeer, taken over food plots using Whitetail Instituteproducts. We were sitting in a stand overlooking twoplots of Winter-Greens and a plot of ImperialWhitetail Clover. The field had numerous scrapesaround it and deer were using the plots on a regularbasis. This buck showed up and checked severalscrapes along the field and then came out into theplots to check a button buck that was feeding in frontof us. My son made a perfect broadside 24-yard shot

on the buck! He was so excited he asked me to holdhis bow so he could sit down! I have used WhitetailInstitute products for some time now at several hunt-ing properties and they work great! I am most fond ofthe Winter-Greens as it makes for some awesomelate season hunting. There is no doubt that theseproducts help increase hunting opportunities on aproperty. Thanks very much Whitetail Institute for thegreat products!

Chris Yaritz — Wisconsin

Enclosed is a picture of my 11 year old daughterEmily with her first deer, a 4 point. She took this buckwith a .243 at 70 yards during the WI youth hunt. Theconditions were far from ideal. We had 82 degreetemps and 30 mph winds, but the deer couldn’t resistour Winter-Greens field. We saw five does, a fawnand another 4 point pile into the field during some ofthe worst hunting conditions.

We have been using Whitetail Institute productsfor about eight years now with great success. So far,we have used Winter-Greens, Whitetail Forage OatsPlus, No-Plow, Chicory Plus, Extreme and WhitetailClover. The deer are growing bigger and healthier.Since we are in the snow belt of WI, it’s very impor-tant to get our deer in as good of shape as possiblebefore winter. We are drawing deer from miles away.I may need to expand another acre or two just tokeep up with the demand. I’ve tried other brands, butnothing compares to Whitetail Institute products.They are all I use now.

Also, notice the back tag in the front. Emily was alittle excited and got the shirt backwards. She alsocreated her own custom camo pattern you see on hershirt. I GUESS IT ALL WORKED OUT!!!!

Thanks Whitetail Institute for providing a greatproduct and unbelievable service. W

The Future Of Our Sport

Whitetail News Vol 22.1

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Transcript of Whitetail News Vol 22.1