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This past weekend we embarked on a project that we've had in the works since late last fall. We try to make at least one major improvement to our property up north every year and decided a new food plot was the next big thing

Like many projects of this nature, it started out after hunting hours one night while enjoying a few beers and grousing about how tough the shooting was "up the back hill" behind the house.


here's what its looked like for a very long time - and of course the spruces have grown up to make hunting very very difficult with all the cover for the deer to sneak through


the clearing you can see at 2 0'clock there used to be a small food plot, but time has taken its toll there as well.

the plan was to remove about 60-80 of the scrub trees and open the plot up a bit.


what ended up being cleared was a bit more significant than that - everything inside all the yellow dotted area is now offically open food plot except one big white pine we left

125 yds long, about 50 yds wide for most of it, with an additional 25 yds back on the left there. Total space cleared (according to google) just about 1 ¼ acres.



with the help of a Case TV 380 skidsteer and dad's Workmaster 37 w/ a set of forks on the front arm instead of the bucket.

there were a LOT of stunted trees up there, but we also took out some LARGE spruces. that Case was pushing down trees well over 30' tall like a cat swatting a beer glass off a table!


some before photos









and some after photos








the landing area where all the trees were drug to



a little break area in the shade - temps were in the 80's all weekend




this is the tree pile, i parked our honda rancher in front of it for some reference. we paced it out well over 100' long, and as you can see the front is about 40-50' wide and rougly 12' high.




really groomed the trail up nice with all the trees being dragged over





dad picking up the drag from the field down the road so he can smooth things down after he tills the ground to read it for planting next weekend







here's a video of the clearing with everything done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bKEkEn_q-Q



we intentionally left the big monster for last so that i could record it getting toppled!

just for reference the top of cab height on this machine is 7'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg4W9U8vsiQ





not too shabby of a weekend for 13 hours of run time on the equipment and 5 warm bodies

god i miss photobucket. this should be so much easier - a bunch of the pics got cropped on the right side :/

A lot of sweat and hard work but I am sure it will pay off this fall. Keep us posted on how the food plot progresses and also post pictures of the first big buck that is harvested out of it. Great Job. Any idea what you are going to seed it with?

the initial planting will be a mix of the following

alfalfa
clover blend
rapeseed mix
turnips
some kind of grain (i forget which)

long term we're probably giong to attempt to plant a few apple trees up there and may discuss transplanting a few oaks too. the gravel area is mostly in the center of the clearing, so the north and south ends have much better soil makeup to accommodate a few producing trees on the edges

Nice food plot! I just finished planting two food plots this weekend at my hunting property. Looking forward to deer season this year; new food plots and my new 450BM.

so the seed is in the ground as of yesterday afternoon.

dad spent the week prepping the ground and had it broadcast ready when we got there yesterday morning. was really dusty but we're supposed to get rain a couple days this coming week, starting overnight tonight, so it should be ideal for timing.

i also took a side on pic of the tree pile back in the woods just to show really how big it was. that pic with the quad in front just didnt really do it justice - thank god for panoramic shots ;D








got a full list of what went into the food plot mix we put down.

the base was 25 lbs of Sweeny Seed co "SS-Wildlife lure mix" which contains the following

vernal alfalfa (31.55%)
medium red clover (23.66%)
crimson clover (7.89%)
viking birdsfoot trefoil (7.55%)
berseem clover (6.31%)
ladino clover (6.31%)
annual ryegrass (4.65%)
chicory (3.31%)
purple top turnip (2.68%)
dwarf essex rape (2.68%)
dailson Radish (2.68%)



to that we added

5 lbs of ladino clover seed
3 gallon bucket of soybeans that we hand broadcast (just to give the deer munchies this fall - it was old stock on hand)
75 lbs of oats (cover crop to protect the tender stuff this winter)
~15 lbs of winter wheat planted to the side of the main plot - just burning old seedstock dad had around.


the plot itself ended up being just shy of 3/4 acre - we intentionally left a 15-20' border around the entire plot to make sure the deer come well out of the trees to graze.



to give this ground some unf - we broadcast 800 lbs of granulated limestone down (24% cal, 20% mag i think it was) and 150 lbs of 6-24-24 per recommendation of the folks at the grain elevator suggested for beefing up the formerly fallow ground .

My food plot really needs the rain. They keep predicting it for our area but it has went around us for most of the summer. Hopefully, the rain they have predicated for tonight through Tuesday comes our way this time. Yours too! That would really give your seed a boost. Keep us updated on the progress.

finally got up to inspect the food plot over the weekend - albeit briefly. 1 month later things are looking amazing and there are deer tracks EVERYWHERE!







not bad for hitting a dry spell and only getting rained on a couple times (less than 2" total rain in the last month). however we're sure the nearly daily heavy dew is helping quite a bit too!

Nice looking food plot. Makes all that hard work worthwhile. Keep us updated on how productive it is through the hunting seasons.
Do you or anyone in your group bow hunt? If so, good luck this weekend.

nah, we're all boomstick hunters. that property hasnt been archery hunted in years. none of us have the time these days - we're all out busting our humps at work - and the >2hr drive each way makes it tough. we all manage to take first week of firearm off, and some of us usually get one more weekend in and thats about it.