GUIDE TO SUCCESS

A refresher course on how and why Whitetail Institute products work for you

            Perhaps hunters had thought it could not be done. Perhaps no one had ever really thought about it. On that day in the late 1970s, though, an idea was born in Ray Scott’s brain that would result in the birth of the entire food-plot and deer-nutrition industries -- Imperial Whitetail Clover.

            That thought ran through my mind when I arrived at the office early one morning and found the main gate still locked so I entered the property through a different entrance and my route took me by one of our oldest test-plot sites. Clearly, the soil had recently been prepped. Every few feet a small, white stake with numbers on it protruded from the ground, and the entire plot was now enclosed with strands of electric fencing. The sight reminded me of all the work Dr. Wiley Johnson had done over the decades in that very plot (and many others) until his passing last year. It also reminded me that the Institute’s new chief agronomist and plant geneticist, Dr. Wayne Hanna, has wasted no time in continuing Dr. Johnson’s work and building upon it with his own vast knowledge and professional expertise.

In that way, the plot symbolizes the very essence of the Whitetail Institute’s commitment to providing our Field Testers with the only forage products on the market that are truly genetically engineered for whitetail deer.  I have to say I felt a great sense of pride.

Imperial Whitetail Clover was the Institute’s first product. In fact, it was the first food plot product ever engineered specifically for deer. Through the turn of the century, the Institute’s proprietary Advantage clover has been the backbone of Imperial Whitetail Clover, and Advantage remains an important component. More recently, Dr. Johnson created Insight, a second, incredibly drought-resistant strain that is now part of the Imperial Clover blend. Because the Institute is so committed to keeping its existing products current, Imperial Whitetail Clover remains the benchmark by which all food plot products, including our other products, are measured.

Intended for soils with good moisture-holding capacity such as flat bottomland soils, Imperial Whitetail Clover is exceptionally high in protein, attractive, long-lived, drought  and heat resistant, cold tolerant, and can last three to five years or longer – in some cases much longer – if properly maintained. Imperial Whitetail Clover is also regionally blended to guarantee you the best results possible in your climate.   

Imperial Whitetail Clover is the only – again, the only – clover product specifically engineered for whitetail deer food plots.  It has always been the industry standard, and it remains so today. Even so, the Institute is not content to rest on its past and current successes. We will keep pushing the envelope to bring our Field Testers only the highest-quality deer-nutrition products in the industry.  Products to fit every possible planting situation.

Saying that, now is a good time to introduce our newest panting and to review the Whitetail Institute Products that have revolutionized the deer management industry.

New Imperial “Chic” Magnet . . . Perennial and Palatable

  Introduced to the market this year as Imperial Whitetail “Chic” Magnet, WINA-100 Brand perennial forage chicory has established itself as a premier forage perennial.  Less waxy and more palatable than other chicories planted for deer, “Chic” Magnet offers Field Testers all the heat and drought resistance of chicory with vastly improved attraction over traditional chicories.

Of all our products, perhaps “Chic” Magnet had the most unusual start. It is the only Whitetail Institute product that was already available in various blends from the Institute before it was offered as “Chic” Magnet. WINA-100 Brand perennial forage chicory has been a component of our Imperial Chicory Plus, Alfa-Rack Plus and Extreme perennial blends for several years. After receiving a steady stream of requests for requests for WINA-100 by itself, the Institute responded with “Chic” Magnet.

Unlike the WINA-100 Brand chicory featured in “Chic” Magnet, many chicory varieties are not highly palatable to deer.  Unlike those chicories, “Chic” Magnet’s leaves are not waxy and stemmy. As a result, it is vastly more attractive to deer. 

With the availability of “Chic” Magnet, Field Testers now have the option to plant WINA-100 chicory by itself, blend it with other seeds or overseed it into existing forages to add drought resistance and attractiveness.  “Chic” Magnet can be planted in a variety of soil types, from moist to moderately drained, and can last up to three years with normal maintenance.

If your plots have suffered from the unusually hot, droughty weather that has plagued areas of North America over the past few years, consider trying “Chic” Magnet.  You’ll find that it can survive tougher climates than many other forages and still attract and hold deer like … well … a Magnet! 

Imperial Chicory Plus . . .An Ally in the Drought Wars.

          Are you looking for a way to keep your Imperial Whitetail Clover going all year even through the hot, dry months of late summer and early fall?  If you are planting in a flat or slightly sloped area with heavier soils, you need look no further than Imperial Chicory Plus.

Field Testers in many areas of North America were very unhappy with Mother Nature last year, and that was certainly the case here in central Alabama. Last year, we received abundant rainfall through early spring. Thereafter, though, it just didn’t rain, and by August we were in a severe drought. 

Thankfully, Imperial Whitetail Clover is exceptionally drought  and heat resistant. And, it even has a built-in defense mechanism that can help it survive hot, dry weather that could kill other clovers outright.  In the hottest, dry conditions, Imperial Clover can slow forage production to protect itself. Usually, it returns to vigorous health as soon as cooler weather and rain return. 

Over the past few years, many Field Testers in different areas of North America have been hit with those same conditions. To make matters worse it happened in late summer and early fall, right when natural forage availability is at one of its lowest annual points, and the natural forages that are still available are usually stemmy and of little utility to deer. 

To help our Imperial Whitetail Clover customers keep their plots at high production even during times that approach drought conditions, the Institute developed Imperial Chicory Plus, a combination of Imperial Whitetail Clover and WINA-100 Brand perennial forage chicory. The main component of Chicory Plus is Imperial Whitetail Clover, featuring the proprietary Advantage and Insight clovers engineered by the Institute for deer. In addition, Chicory Plus contains WINA-100 Brand perennial forage chicory, which as we said earlier is  highly drought resistant and vastly more palatable and attractive to deer than chicories traditionally planted for deer. 

For many of our Field Testers, Chicory Plus has been the answer to Mother Nature’s tantrums of late summer and early fall. When Mother Nature is kind, the clovers and WINA-100 chicory in Chicory Plus offer exceptional palatability, nutrition, attraction and variety. And when she decides to turn up the oven and shut off the water in late summer and early fall, the chicory helps keep our Field Testers’ plots full of highly attractive and nutritious food during one of the critical periods when natural forages are scarce and of little utility to deer. 

So, if you have enjoyed Imperial Whitetail Clover and are looking to provide your deer with both variety and additional drought resistance, look no further than Imperial Chicory Plus. It has proved itself a worthy ally in the drought wars of recent years. 

Imperial Alfa-Rack PLUS . . . for the Ups and Downs of Food Plots

Is the soil in your plot good, but flat in some places and sloped in others?  Imperial Alfa-Rack PLUS can be the answer in such varying conditions.

Imperial Alfa-Rack PLUS is one of the Institute’s longest-running and most-successful products. Originally called Alfa-Rack, the blend contains the Institute’s first proprietary clover, Advantage, and the best grazing alfalfas available. As with all its products, though, the Institute was not content to rest on its existing successes, and several years ago, Alfa-Rack was improved with some impressive upgrades. 

First, Insight, the second proprietary clover engineered by the Institute specifically for deer, was added to the blend, adding even more versatility, attraction and drought resistance. We also added the same WINA-100 brand perennial forage chicory included in Chic Magnet, Chicory Plus and Extreme.

The final change is perhaps the most exciting. The alfalfas included in Alfa-Rack Plus are now the newest X-9 technology strains. These new alfalfas are especially cold tolerant, easier to establish, last longer, re-grow more quickly and provide more forage production for deer than other alfalfas, even other grazing varieties. 

In areas that receive at least 30 inches of rainfall a year, Alfa-Rack PLUS is a superb answer to plots that are flat in some areas and sloped in others. In plots that tend to undulate in that way, the perennial clovers tend to establish in the lower, flatter areas.  The higher spots are favored by the alfalfas and chicory, whose roots can go down as far as several feet to find water. The result is full coverage throughout the plot, even in transition areas between the lower and higher spots.

Alfa-Rack PLUS is heat  and disease resistant and cold tolerant, and like all Whitetail Institute products it comes ready to plant. It’s already pre-inoculated  and coated to minimize seedling exposure to false germination.  We also offer regional blends to ensure optimum performance, whether you are planting in Georgia or Canada. 

So, if you have been looking for a perennial blend for a plot with good soils that have both flat and sloped areas, look no further than Alfa-Rack PLUS. It has proved itself with Field Testers from the southern U.S. to Canada. And now, the Institute has raised the bar once again.

Imperial Whitetail Extreme . . . Try it, Partner!

If you’re a fan of old western movies, you’ll recognize this scene. It’s 1882. White dust covers the cowboy’s boots and jeans as he walks into a Texas town, saddle slung over his shoulder. His horse died of thirst 10 miles ago, and as he walks slowly toward a horse-watering trough in front of the saloon, he squints into the setting sun, his lips caked and dry. As he reaches the trough, he sets the saddle down atop a tumbleweed that has lodged itself against the trough and plunges his head into the fetid water. Once refreshed, he walks on to the edge of town where a mule awaits with head hung low. The cowboy reaches for the reins and urges the mule onward as it pulls a plow, preparing the soil for a fall planting of Imperial Whitetail Extreme.

Well, maybe the last act is not in any western movie I’ve ever seen. But these days, it could be. Imperial Whitetail Extreme is a truly revolutionary new perennial forage blend designed to grow in lower pH soils and tolerate annual rainfall levels half that required for other perennial deer forage blends.

But Extreme is not designed just for inhospitable conditions. Many Field Testers plant Extreme in well-drained soils in areas that receive abundant rainfall and report incredible results. For instance, lots of Field Testers in areas of higher rainfall, who already have Imperial Whitetail Clover or another Institute perennial food plot, plant Extreme to give their deer variety. This would not be the case unless they found Extreme as attractive to deer as other Imperial perennial blends.    

That’s truly amazing when you consider that in many cases, the more drought tolerant a plant is, the less palatable it is to deer. Extreme is a huge departure from that situation. The primary component of Extreme is Persist, an evergreen forb whose leaves mimic a clover shape, but with a serrated edge. If you have a plot of Extreme growing, here’s a test I urge you to take:  pull the top inch or so out of a Persist plant and taste it. You’ll find that it tastes very similar to cucumber or watermelon. Since most natural forages on which deer feed taste very bitter to humans, you can just imagine how attractive Persist is to deer. 

In addition to the Persist forb, Extreme contains WINA-100 Brand perennial forage chicory, another departure from traditional deer plantings.  Unlike other chicories, WINA-100 brand perennial forage chicory is less waxy and leathery than other chicories and so outperforms other chicories by a huge margin in side-by-side tests.

So, if you are in an area of North America that receives as little at 15 inches per year in annual rainfall, even on a seasonal basis, or if you are in a lighter, well-drained soil that won’t hold lime well enough to raise your soil pH to optimum levels (6.5-7.5), consider Imperial Whitetail Extreme. Lots of new Field Testers in Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho and other states west of the Mississippi River that receive lower rainfall have found Extreme a solid performer in conditions previously considered impossible to sustain perennial plots for deer. Field Testers from Pennsylvania, East Texas and everywhere in between continue to rave about its toughness and how much their deer love it.

Imperial No-Plow . . . the name says it all

In 1988, Ray Scott started the food plot and deer nutrition industries with the creation of the Whitetail Institute.  Immediately, the Institute’s first product, Imperial Whitetail Clover, took the hunting world by storm. Shortly thereafter, many Field Testers asked for a product that would provide abundant nutrition and highly attractive forage even without preparing a seedbed, as was required for Imperial Whitetail Clover. The Institute answered that need with Imperial No-Plow.

A staple of many Field Testers’ food plot efforts for years, Imperial No-Plow continues to be one the most popular annual food plot products available. A high-quality blend for use with or without ground tillage, No-Plow is perfect for areas such as logging roads, pond dams and clear-cuts. And at up to 36 percent protein, it provides a huge nutritional boost over natural food sources, most of which are very low in protein.

No-Plow is designed to provide deer with a vigorously growing, highly attractive food source whenever they need it. Cereal grains included in the blend establish and grow first, providing exceptional attraction.  Later in the season, when cold temperatures can leave other food sources lacking, No-Plow’s brassicas sweeten and provide a prolific late-season forage. But that’s not all – No-Plow also contains clovers, which provide a high-protein food source throughout the life of the plot. 

No-Plow can be planted in the spring in most areas, and in the fall throughout North America. It is also a great companion for PowerPlant customers many of whom mow strips through their PowerPlant in late summer and plant No-Plow in them, providing an excellent hunting setup for early season and extending the useful life of the plot past the first frosts of fall and on into the winter.

Since no tillage equipment is required, many Field Testers have reported excellent results using No-Plow to plant ATV roads in unstable soils. In the Deep South, for example, establishing roadbeds in grey-clay soils, which can become extremely unstable when wet, is often a difficult proposition. And once a roadbed is established in such areas, the last thing a landowner wants to do is loosen the soil by disking. For those customers, a great option is to travel the roads during planting seasons with three ATVs, one loaded with seed, another lime and the third fertilizer. Planting roads with No-Plow is an excellent way to make roadbeds work for you by providing a source of nutritious, attractive forage for deer. 

No-Plow establishes quickly, grows rapidly and like all Whitetail Institute products comes ready to plant. It’s coated and pre-inoculated to maximize seedling survivability.   Available in one-half-acre and larger quantities, No-Plow is the answer for larger areas, regardless of whether ground tillage is an option or not.  Either way, No-Plow will provide your deer with an attractive, nutritious food source.   

Imperial Secret Spot . . . Food plots only you and your deer know about.

 Do you have a smaller clearing or opening in the woods that you’d like to plant but can’t reach with equipment? Try Imperial Secret Spot – it’s specifically designed for those remote places known only to you and your deer.

Most of us have thick areas on the properties we hunt. Often, these areas are deep in the thick woods, on islands or otherwise inaccessible with equipment such as lime trucks and tractors. Also, they’re often surrounded by mature trees, so sunlight may be limited.  Secret Spot is designed with those areas in mind. It contains a pH booster so that you don’t have to worry about a lime truck. Also, it is designed to tolerate as little as three to four hours a day of broken or filtered sunlight.

Secret Spot also has more plant varieties in it than any other Imperial Blend. We did that for a reason. One aspect of Secret Spot consists of a base combination of plants that are intended to remain in the plot for all or most of the hunting season. Then other varieties are included to provide attractive, nutritious forage at different times of the season. 

If the fall planting season in your area is close to the start of deer season, Secret Spot is a great way to be sure you have your plot up and running quickly. Many Field Testers report seeing Secret Spot starting to come up as early as one week after planting. 

On my own lease, I have one plot that is exclusively devoted to Secret Spot. It lies just inside the corner of the property in a thick bottom. The parcels to the left and right are also thick woods, and the parcel directly above is an open pasture. Deer frequently cut the corner when traveling from the left parcel to the right. For years, Secret Spot has proved the ideal forage to bring the deer to my corner, and keep them there, even just long enough to stop and take a few bites before moving on.

Such areas are where big bucks like to hang out, and my Secret Spot plot has proved itself year after year. Each fall, my young son and I use a metal rake to remove leaves and other debris from the seedbed, and then he just broadcasts the seed and fertilizer with a shoulder spreader. It’s so simple that he is able to prepare and plant the plot without assistance, and that has given him a great sense of pride when we climb into our stand during hunting season.

So, if you’ve wanted to plant that special secret spot but were deterred because you couldn’t get equipment to it, try Imperial Secret Spot. If you have just a rake you can build a plot that will draw and hold deer for the duration of the hunting season.  Secret Spot is available in two sizes. Our 4-pound Secret Spot will cover 4,500 square feet, and our 10-pound Secret Spot XL will plant one-quarter acre.

Imperial Winter-Greens . . . Cornering the Brassica Market!

Winter-Greens has been out for less than a year, and already the results are in.  As we found during final product testing, Winter-Greens is by far the most attractive brassica blend available on the market today – bar none.

Brassicas aren’t new to the Whitetail Institute. We started testing available brassica varieties in the 1980s, before they were even introduced as a forage product in the U.S.  During our initial testing, we found what most hunters now know – that traditional brassicas offer a good food source for deer during the cold months of winter after the first hard frost of fall sweetens them. For that reason, we have used brassicas in a limited capacity, as a timing element in our second longest-running product, Imperial No-Plow. 

Since the backbone of the Whitetail Institute is research and development, this effort has combined superbly with our brassica testing. Because we are so focused on research, we are regularly able to identify and develop revolutionary blends. That’s especially true in the case of Imperial Winter-Greens.

In independent field-test studies, we found again and again that deer preferred Imperial Winter-Greens four-to-one over other brassica products. And, frankly, that ratio is conservative – often, deer exhibited a much higher preference.

Winter-Greens stands tall even during the snowy winter months in the North.  Although heaviest usage is after the first hard frost of fall, studies have also shown that deer feed heavily on Winter-Greens even earlier. In my own experience, I planted Winter-Greens on my lease here in Alabama and found that deer absolutely loved it. Inside my exclusion cages, the Winter-Greens was a foot tall, and outside the deer kept it mowed low – and this was in September, when temperatures in central Alabama are still 70 degrees or higher.

The reason for the huge success of Winter-Greens is in the nature of the brassicas it offers. These are exceptionally sweet hybrid brassicas with vegetable genetic bases. The result is a huge increase in palatability over existing brassica products.

Winter-Greens has only been available to the public since last summer. Even so, the results are overwhelming. Winter-Greens is simply the most attractive brassica blend ever to hit the market. I urge you to plant Winter-Greens beside any other brassica product, with the other product next to the woods and Winter-Greens out farther in the field.  Then, watch what your deer do, and let us know. I strongly believe that you will find what we have found in our testing, and what Field Testers have reported to us – that Winter-Greens is the most attractive brassica product on the market, and by a very wide margin.

Arrest and Slay – Don’t Delay!

You’ve made the effort to maximize the results of your planting efforts by working up a seedbed and planting an Imperial perennial. Now make sure that you protect your investment by controlling grass and weeds, beginning right after spring green-up.

Maintaining your perennials just makes sense. If you want it to last as long as it was designed to last, you’ll need to fertilize once a year, consider adding additional lime to the surface of the plot to maintain soil pH, and control grasses and weeds.

When it comes to controlling annual, upright weeds, mowing is a great option.  By preventing such weeds from having the opportunity to flower (create seeds), you can break the cycle on many weeds that rely on reseeding to maintain their presence in your plot. Plus, mowing will keep your Imperial perennial even more lush, attractive and nutritious.

Grasses, though, and other weeds that don’t reproduce by seeds, or that grow low where a mower can’t reach them, may need other control measures. In many such cases, you should consider including herbicides in your control efforts.

Arrest is a selective grass herbicide that controls many species of grass and can be sprayed on any Imperial perennial, and any other clover or alfalfa. For best results with Arrest, it should be sprayed in early spring, right when grasses are waking up from winter dormancy and beginning to grow again. That’s because Arrest is designed to work best on seedling grasses that have not matured (that have not reached more than 6-12 inches in height). 

If you have broadleaf weeds in your Imperial Whitetail Clover plot, Slay, when used in combination with Surefire surfactant, can offer you control you can’t get with any method other than hand pulling. Slay is appropriate for use on Imperial Whitetail Clover and any other clover or alfalfa. Slay even contains a residual that can help protect your plot from new weeds that are introduced later in the spring and summer. If you planted your Imperial Whitetail Clover this year, just be sure to wait until your clovers are three inches tall and have all their leaves unfolded before you spray.

If you are going to spray Arrest and Slay, be sure not to mix them in the same tank, since doing so will greatly reduce the effectiveness of Arrest. Instead, spray Arrest, and then wait at least three days before spraying Slay and Surefire. Also, do not mow within two weeks before or after spraying, and do not spray during excessively hot or droughty weather.

As with any herbicide, it is critical that you determine precisely what species of grass and weeds you are trying to control, and then check the herbicide label to make sure the herbicide is approved for use on your forage and will control the grass or weeds you are facing. The Arrest and Slay labels are available on line on our website, www.whitetailinstitute.com. If you have any questions after reading the label, be sure to call our consultants at (800) 688-3030, ext. 2, BEFORE you spray.

Nutritional Supplements ….maximizing genetic potential

When it comes to maximizing genetic potential, giving your deer the nutrition they need, and when they need it, will produce the greatest results of anything you can do. If you’ve developed a good food plot system and have planted the Institute’s high-protein forages, then you are well on your way. But don’t stop – you should consider mineral supplementation, at least if you really want your deer to be all they can be.

The 200 days of spring and summer are commonly referred to as the “antler-growing period.” That’s true, but don’t forget that other critical processes are happening at the same time—does are in their third trimester of pregnancy, when two-thirds of fetal growth occurs and, later, producing milk for their fawns. A doe’s milk is vastly more nutrient-rich than cow’s milk, and proper mineral supplementation can boost the amount of milk a doe produces. Likewise, minerals are vital to bone and muscle growth in fawns.

Since space is short, though, I’ll just use antler growth to hammer home how crucial mineral supplementation is.  Bucks have a finite period in which to grow antlers—it starts at a given time  and stops at a given time. Without proper nutrition, bucks spend more of the early days rebuilding their bodies from winter losses, which they must do before they turn in earnest to the business of building antlers. By providing proper nutrition, your bucks can get a jump on antler growth by devoting more resources to it earlier.

Consider also that deer antlers are the fastest-growing animal tissue there is. In just a few months, bucks have to grow an entire set of antlers and then harden them to final form. It just stands to reason then that they need a LOT of nutrients to do it.

Finally, consider what an antler is made of. The velvet antler is about 80 percent protein. Once the velvet antler is established, the buck begins a process called “mineralization” in which he deposits vast quantities of minerals onto the matrix until it becomes bone. The hardened antler is 45 percent protein and 55 percent minerals.

Since mineralization occurs during a few months toward the end of the antler-growing period, you can see how vital it is for deer to have an abundant source of minerals. Also, the minerals involved in this mineralization are very specific minerals in very specific ratios—not salt.  In fact, a hardened antler is only .03% salt!  

            The bottom line is that if you want to push racks to the top of genetic potential, you should provide your deer access to a properly formulated supplement. By law, deer supplements are required to have an accurate ingredient sticker on them, so you can check to be sure that the supplement you are buying is not primarily just salt or sodium.

No matter what your mineral needs, the Institute has you covered. If you are looking for a ground-based supplement (a “lick”), Imperial 30-06 and 30-06 Plus Protein contain all essential macro and trace minerals, and 30-06 Plus Protein even contains a 10 percent protein boost.

The Institute’s most advanced supplement, its Cutting Edge line, contains all vital macro and trace minerals, plus other nutrients that make it a full nutritional supplement.  Cutting Edge is designed in three stages, each of which addresses deer needs during a specific segment of a deer’s annual cycle. The stage designed for the antler-growing period of spring and summer is Cutting Edge Optimize, which has higher levels of minerals and vitamins. Cutting Edge Optimize can be delivered on the ground, and it can be mixed with soybeans and/or corn. It can also be delivered in a covered trough feeder by itself, or mixed. (If you are looking for an automated feeder to deliver Cutting Edge by itself or pre-blended with soybeans and/or corn, consider the Sweeney X-Feeder, a unique design described last year at page 34 of Whitetail News, Volume 16, No. 1,  which is available on-line at www.whitetailinstitute.com.)

This is just a brief re-cap of Whitetail Institute products that can help you be a better whitetail wildlife/land manager. If you have questions or want to learn more, remember the professional consultants at the Institute headquarters are always available to assist you. Just give us a toll-free call to 1-800-688-3030.