TRANSFORMATION! Virginia Hunters Credit Hard Work, Self-Education and Institute Products for Wildlife Paradise

By David Wachter

Family obligations during weekends and work during the week prevented me from driving the 185 miles to hunt my family’s property in October 2006. Muzzleloader season opened in November, and despite having no time on stand in October, I felt relaxed and confident about my chances. For the first time in 35 years of hunting, I was hunting one deer: a 10-pointer in a specific area of our property. I would not have been so confident about my stand location if it were not for the variety of high-quality products from Whitetail Institute and good trail-camera photos taken during several years.

As I sat in my stand during the pre-dawn Nov. 6, I thought about how it had taken me and my brother, Don, several years to finally have a chance to hunt mature deer. For the first time, we were knowingly hunting significantly larger deer on our property. To help you understand how we arrived at this point, let me share how we began, why I was so optimistic and where we’re heading in further developing our wildlife paradise with the help of Whitetail Institute products and services.

Some of you know what I’m talking about when I say prayers are sometimes granted, and dreams sometimes come true. I believe it was not coincidence that while visiting our family farm during Thanksgiving 2000, I saw a neighbor who had spoken to a non-resident who inherited land adjoining our family farm and was planning to sell. Upon hearing that, I called him. Six long months later, my brother and I held the deed to 243 acres of cutover hardwoods — not the prettiest property but all ours. Our life has not been the same since, and we couldn’t be happier. There’s something special about owning your own land. The new acquisition, combined with the old family farm, gives us 358 acres.

Our family farm, as well as other small farms in the county, raise cattle and grow loblolly pine trees for additional income. Land belonging to Mead Westvaco, a global packaging company, borders the longest side of our property. The corporation owns and grows thousands of acres of straight-rowed loblolly pines. If you are not familiar with the piedmont area of Virginia, try to visualize small ridges and plateaus 500 feet above sea level that slowly regress in elevation until reaching creek and river bottoms 300 feet below — sometimes referred to as “hollers” in our part of Virginia. From the ridges and plateaus, you can see rolling foothills many miles away, often veiled in a light-colored blue hue. The fall colors on hillsides are simply spectacular. Three of our country’s founding fathers said this area was pleasing to the eyes with a climate agreeable to the body. It’s my intention to follow in their footsteps and retire there.

Before purchasing the additional acreage, my brother and I had never heard of the Whitetail Institute of North America. To us, food plots were corn and soybean fields. Lime, minerals, herbicides, deer nutrition, soil testing, high-protein food and numbers on fertilizer bags were subjects about which we knew little. We were ill-equipped, uninformed rookie landowners with no experience in food plotting or land stewardship. We could barely tell the difference between an oak and a hickory tree, much less the difference between a white pine and a Virginia pine. Living near Annapolis, Md., on a quarter-acre lot with sidewalks, curbs and streetlights, and working next to the White House in Washington, D.C., for the federal government has not prepared me for transforming a mono-habitat into a diverse wildlife paradise. I suspect the same could be said for my brother, who lives near me and works for a trenching company. You might classify us as two city people who drive to the foothills of the Blue Ridge once a month and act like we are locals. An article written by Charles Alsheimer in Deer and Deer Hunting eventually led me to the Whitetail Institute of North America. A review of its web site and a phone call to the late Wiley Johnson changed my natural doubting-Thomas instincts about claims of seed performance and attractiveness to deer and turkeys enough to try Whitetail Institute products. But first, I needed to create roads and fields and, according to Johnson, take a soil test.

Anyone who has seen a large tract of land void of most trees taller than 20 feet knows what an ugly and unnatural sight it is. The thought of a biological chemical like Agent Orange or some natural disaster always comes to mind when I see clear-cut areas. If you have ever walked through a five-year-old cutover or clear-cut, you know a little something about briars. Our new acquisition had a bumper crop of briars. To build access roads to reach new fields, we had to lay out a trail of survey tape for the bulldozer operator to follow. In the beginning, I was so full of adrenaline and lacking in country smarts that I tried to plow my body through these patches of briars as if I were made of something other than flesh and blood. In the process, I had my flannel shirt ripped and stripped off my body — literally. When I left the first big, thick patch of briars, blood was dripping from my fingers, earlobe, arms and back so bad you could have blood-trailed me with no problem. I was so wrapped up in the briars that I just gave out a yell and bull-rushed my body out. The briars refused to release my flannel shirt, and I gladly relinquished it. I wish I had a picture of the flannel shirt dangling off the briars, but I suspect some of you might have witnessed a buddy doing something just as stupid. I have now found a better way to lay out access roads: standing atop a bulldozer, pointing to a tree and telling the operator where I want the road to go. To this day I have a love-hate relationship with briars. I passionately hate them, and they purposely and relentlessly seek me out and lovingly prick me every chance they get. Before I leave this prickly subject, I confess that every time I snip a briar whip, some strange euphoric feeling comes over me.

A heavy equipment operator lives only two miles from the farm. Checking with the neighbors, who know everything about everybody two generations back, I couldn’t find a negative word about the man. We met, and I presented him our vision of what we wanted to create from our mess of briars and immature trees. It would require thousands of hours of work and years to complete. According to my field diary, we began building access roads Jan. 26, 2002, and by Aug. 25, 2003, had made a full circle around the entire 243 acres. Four fields and two cul-de-sacs were added along the way. Names were given to each field, such as Beaver Field, Spring Field, Hilltop, Frankie Field, and First and Second Cul-De-Sac. Some people thought this naming of fields was bizarre, but when I shared the logic of being able to keep working notes by field name and give verbal directions to the bulldozer operator about additional work at a field, they usually nodded in understanding.

The only equipment we owned at the time was my brother’s all-terrain vehicle. As the access roads and fields were under construction, I was on the phone with Whitetail Institute, ordering 50 pounds of Imperial Whitetail Clover and three soil-test kits. This was our first of many phone calls. A visit to the local Southern States to purchase a ton of pelletized lime was also done in advance. When I received the 50 pounds of Imperial Whitetail Clover, I also received a video, Producing Trophy Whitetails. I watched the video several times but then undervalued some of the advice offered. Who knew that when they warned you not to plant clover too deep, they weren’t kidding.

To someone who knew nothing about planting clover and the importance of having the proper soil pH, the tape was invaluable. Four years later, I still watch the video. Seeing how Johnson prepared his food plots, I purchased a small pull-behind spreader that held 200 pounds of lime, a 500-pound water-filled roller and a chain-link fence to scrape the ground and loosen the soil. By Spring 2002, about one mile of access roads, a one-fifth-acre field and a one-quarter-acre field had been cleared of stumps, briars and large rocks. Soil samples were taken the day I dispersed all 40 bags of lime. The analysis indicated a soil pH of 4.3 to 4.6. I dragged the chain-link fence over the soil and dispersed all 50 pounds of Imperial Clover seed, ignoring the proper recommended rate of dispersal. I managed to follow the instructions on rolling the seed into the soil for good seed-to-soil contact.

 I wish I could report that every Whitetail clover seed germinated and grew lush and thick, but that wasn’t the case. Although the partly shaded roads turned out beautifully, one field had only patches of Whitetail clover, and the other field was choked out with weeds. Where the weeds came from was a mystery to me. Little did I realize there was a free seed bank of weed seed dormant just under the surface soil. When the soil was disturbed by the bulldozer and the seeds exposed to sunlight, they couldn’t wait to germinate and choke out everything.

Again, I was back on the phone with Johnson, asking for an explanation and advice. I was clueless as to what had happened to one of our fields. Johnson suggested spraying the field with a glyphosate herbicide, and I said, “What’s that?” To Johnson’s credit, I never detected a hint of frustration with my lack of knowledge about things he had probably learned 50 years earlier. He suggested that I spray the field several times until all plant life was dead and limit my disturbance of soil when reseeding in fall. With additional time to add more lime to neutralize the acidity of the soil, the second seeding of Whitetail Clover in fall turned out nicely. From my initial mistakes, and by taking advantage of the wealth of staff knowledge at Whitetail Institute, I was slowly transforming into a budding food-plot farmer.

By Spring 2003, the Imperial Clover was looking even better where planted the previous year. Timely spreading of phosphate and potassium, with a light spraying of herbicides, surely helped. I wasted little time in setting out trail cameras to see what might be attracted to the plots. That was more out of curiosity than anything else. To my delight, I was not only attracting deer but bears, turkeys, rabbits, bobcats and ground hogs. Several of the photos showed I had a few 2 1/2-year-old bucks feeding in the clover, which encouraged me. Though I was initially surprised at the variety of wildlife feeding on the Imperial Whitetail Clover, the more I realized those critters had never seen, smelled or tasted anything like Imperial Clover, and they were loving it. Aerial photos of the surrounding farms and MeadWestvaco property revealed that there weren’t any food plots within the normal home range of deer feeding on our property. Without fully knowing what we had initially accomplished, I realized we had created a situation where the critters were coming and staying near our food plots. Some were staying 24/7 and becoming camera hogs.

In 2004, my brother and I continued to clear land for food plots. We built interior access roads and reopened old skidding roads with the help of a talented bulldozer operator. To that point, cutting our Imperial Whitetail Clover was a chore we never undertook because deer and other critters were devouring the tender clover as fast as it could grow. For the second consecutive year, all the clover was consumed down to the dirt by November.

That was obviously an indication we did not have enough groceries to adequately feed the local deer herd and the new visitors flowing onto the property from surrounding hunting pressure.

As each food plot was created, we called the staff at Whitetail Institute and ordered additional soil-testing kits. Just about every field we tested came back with a 4.3 to 4.6 pH reading. And with each ton of pelletized lime, the soil pH usually bumped up about a full point or more. Normally, two good treatments of pelletized lime neutralized the soil enough to make it habitable for Imperial Clover. With three food plots in Imperial Whitetail Clover, another field in Extreme and large sections of access roads in clover and looking good, I began to earnestly set out trail cameras to help me determine age structure, antler size, doe and fawn populations and anything else I could learn. I had five film and three digital cameras out almost year-round.

Developing the film and replenishing batteries was become a line-item expense on my ledger.

The information I gleaned from these photos was invaluable to my effort to create a wildlife paradise and killing mature bucks. During this year, I really started to take notice of a 9-pointer I estimated to be 3-1/2 years old. It was the second year I had him on film, and a pattern was beginning to emerge. Several other bucks were showing great promise in antler development — something my brother and I weren’t accustomed to seeing on the family farm.

It had been three years since we began building access roads and planting Imperial Whitetail Clover. Two years earlier, we began providing 30-06 Plus Protein Mineral Supplement. About that time, I read an article about plugging the holes in a leaking bucket. [The article is available at www.whitetailinstitute.com]  As each hole was plugged from the bottom up, the water level rose. It was an overly simplistic analogy, but I saw how it could be carried to antler development in whitetail bucks.

There was no doubt our improvements in nutrition were paying off in antler growth, body weight and the number of twin fawns that were born and surviving. Based upon the deep holes in the ground, minerals and vitamins were getting into the diet of deer, and our “bottom holes” were beginning to be plugged.

By Spring 2005, I decided to give Imperial PowerPlant a try on a small field. PowerPlant is a warm-season annual capable of producing tons of groceries per acre — something we sorely needed. Moreover, PowerPlant is more tolerant to grazing than some other soybean and pea products. Based on the way our Imperial Clover fields looked in late October, I knew I would need to try and help the graze-tolerant Imperial PowerPlant as best I could.

I decided to install a white ribbon sprayed with deer repellent 30 inches off the ground around the field. I kept the ribbon up and activated as best I could for 10 weeks. The PowerPlant field was about four to five feet tall and looked thick and green when I finally removed the white ribbon from the field. When I revisited the PowerPlant field the next month to bowhunt, I was frustrated to see the entire field eaten to the ground. Trying to find something positive to dwell on, I reminded myself that the deer had received a good dose of protein while their antlers were still developing.

In addition to trying PowerPlant for Spring 2005 planting, I began adding Chicory Plus to all our new fields and lightly seeding the older Whitetail Clover fields. By Spring 2005, the local deer and other critters had Whitetail Clover, Chicory Plus, Extreme, PowerPlant, 30-06 Mineral and 30-06 Plus Protein. Compared to the groceries available to other deer down the road, the deer we were hunting were well fed and didn’t have to work hard to fill their stomachs with high-protein groceries. By Fall 2005, my brother and I had identified three bucks that we would shoot if we had an opportunity. Although we saw numerous deer, none of the big bucks showed themselves during hunting hours. We knew they were there, but they were only moving after dark. These bucks had turned nocturnal without any pressure. When hunting season ended, I left my cameras out to determine which bucks were still on the property and which had been killed or left the property. To my delight, the big 9-pointer was still alive, and again I was only picking him up on two or three cameras to the left of the property. As more photos of this buck were captured, the pattern was becoming more obvious.

When Spring 2006 arrived, I had already e-mailed and called Jon Cooner, who stepped in to answer questions normally handled by Johnson. Jon encouraged me to try three additional products: Secret Spot, Imperial No-Plow and Imperial Winter-Greens. Imperial No-Plow provides deer with high-protein forage during late summer and early fall. Secret Spot consists of a blend of small grains; legumes, such as clover; canolas, of the brassica family; and chicory during fall and early winter — something that we were sorely lacking. Winter-Greens is a late-winter forage consisting of a variety of brassicas that become sweeter to deer with each new frost. The addition of No-Plow, Secret Spot and Winter-Greens helped plug another hole in the bucket by feeding deer later in the year.

We planted Imperial No-Plow in Spring 2006. After the deer had done their best to eat this field clean, I tilled the field, fertilized it accordingly, and replanted half the large field in Winter-Greens and the other half in Secret Spot. By November 2006, I had several tons of the most beautiful groceries you have ever seen. Showing off the large field of Winter-Greens and Secret Spot made me feel like maybe I had arrived as a food-plot farmer.

When August 2006 arrived, I was getting some beautiful trail photos of several large bucks I’d love to shoot because they had reached 5-1/2 years. Of all the bucks photographed, one 10-pointer — formerly the 9-pointer of the previous two years — continued to favor one part of the property more than any other. He seemed to have a favorite bedding spot atop the ridge that faced southwest and was just off one of my main access roads. From his bedding area, he could smell anything coming from his backside and see everything in front of him while taking advantage of the warm sun. I knew if I could slip into a treestand I had placed in a nearby oak, I might have a good chance at seeing him very early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Little did I realize I would only need to sit in the tree stand for about 75 minutes.

As I was sitting in the tree, thinking about how far my brother and I had come with the development of our property, I was distracted by movement 50 yards to my left in the large 10-acre food plot. How that 10-pointer made it halfway across the open field before I noticed him is a head-scratcher. As always, because I’m a left-handed shooter, the buck came to my left side. As slowly as possible, I swung my muzzleloader across my body and sighted through the scope, and I finally positioned myself to take the shot. As if on cue, the 10-pointer stopped to nibble on the newly planted Chicory Plus. I used the railing on the stand to steady my aim and fired. A cloud of smoke blinded my view through the scope. I lowered the gun from my shoulder and saw the buck running across the field like I had hit him well. I waited in the tree stand for an hour before leaving and then picked up the blood trail at the woods edge. It led me to my biggest buck ever.

The neat thing was that I had followed the deer for the past four years — mostly from home, 185 miles away. There’s no doubt the Whitetail Institute products my brother and I planted help grow that buck and kept him living within 358 acres where he had food, water and cover. With no other food plots around, it wouldn’t make sense for the buck or a few others I’m watching to wander off the property to eat. Barring the rut, I wouldn’t be surprised if this buck never left the wildlife paradise Don and I continue to enhance.

Five years after purchasing the 243 acres, we have 13 food plots ranging from 1/6 acre to a whopping 10-acre destination food plot. We have more than seven miles of access roads reaching every part of the property. We are planning the construction of a 5-acre pond in 2007. More food plots are on the design table as soon as money become available. We have bought tractors, tillers, rakes, rear blades, a spreader, a brush hog, a culti-packer and a finishing mower. This equipment lets us keep up with road maintenance and field preparations each spring and fall. We could not do the work we accomplish in a weekend without this high-quality equipment. We are weekend warriors, often rushing to the farm late Friday and heading home late Sunday afternoon, tired, hungry and always with a satisfied smile on our faces.

We continue to improve in our ability to produce high-quality food plots and diversify our property for wildlife. Through continuous reading, we try to learn from others. My brother and I have made so many mistakes along the way. Hopefully, we are getting better at what we do and reducing errors, thereby becoming more efficient in time and performance. You cannot be a good food-plot farmer without educating yourself about every facet of food plotting.

Herbicides are an important tool to a food plotter, and I encourage you to familiarize yourself with products such as Slay, a broadleaf weed killer, and Arrest, a grass-killer. Although there are other products available, Slay and Arrest work well for me and come in smaller-volume packaging.

Most people who own land or have access to land can begin to create food plots for better hunting and wildlife. With resources available to novices and the experts at Whitetail Institute of North America, everyone can grow and share information to become better food-plot farmers. Food-plot farming is addictive, and I hope you catch the fever.