Growing Food Plots in the Ozarks

By Monte Burch 

My first attempts at food plots began in the early ’70s when my wife, Joan, and I purchased a run-down farm in the Ozark Mountains. The farm had been a dairy operation a long time ago, with overgrazed woods and overgrown fields. We thought it had potential.

We saw one deer our first year on the farm. I became acquainted with David Pitts, who was a field service agent with the Missouri Department of Conservation at the time, and Dave introduced me to food plots. Our first food plots were annuals – soybeans, milo and millet, along with winter-wheat plots. Each plot attracted game, including deer.

Then we began to plant ladino clover plots and saw more deer. Knowing the potential for ladino as a deer food plot, I offered to be a test planter for the Whitetail Institute of North America almost from their very start. Since that time, I’ve planted many food plots with Imperial Whitetail Clover along with other Whitetail Institute products.

We had a 3-acre plot that lasted more than 10 years. I still plant Whitetail Institute products, creating new food plots and reclaiming old ones. These days our farm has grown from the original 80 acres. We now have about 12 food plots scattered around that make up about 20 acres, and we’ve created a wildlife paradise. Joan took up deer hunting several years ago – partly to get even for the deer eating her flowers – and has taken numerous does and a nice 10-point buck since. As I write this, from my office window, I see a button buck grazing in the backyard. If it were a doe, Joan would already have its number.

Over the years, we have become increasingly successful in creating food plots. We made a lot of mistakes the first few years. Now, the first thing I do is take a soil sample of the plot area. Actually, I take several samples, mix them together, and then take a sampling of that to send off for analysis. If the land is to be cleared, however, that is done first. Some of our plots are in old fields that only needed removing small brush and grass, the latter primarily fescue – the bane of all wildlife.

We have also created totally new food plots in overgrown wooded clearings and one area that had totally grown up in cedars, scrub hedge and locust trees. We use two clearing methods, depending on the vegetation. The old clearings had grown up in saplings up to four inches in diameter and so thick you couldn’t walk through them. We spent one entire winter chain sawing down the bigger saplings. We then used brush saws to saw down the smaller (1 inch or so diameter) saplings. The saplings were sawed within an inch of the ground and all stumps treated with herbicide.

The area with the larger trees we had bulldozed. The latter did create a rougher food plot and was more expensive, but quicker. Any remaining vegetation, and this includes old fescue fields or overgrown fields, is then killed back with herbicides. The herbicide is applied with a boom sprayer on my ATV.

With the soil sample in hand, the proper amount of lime is applied. This is one of the most important steps. If possible, I like to apply the lime at least six months in advance of planting the food plot. Just before planting, the ground must be well worked. I’ve experimented with no-till products, and they do produce. I have also seeded directly over killed-back vegetation, as well as frost seeding clover seeds.

Frost seeding – done in late winter on the snow – is a standard practice in my area. Nothing, however, is as productive as properly tilling the soil. Naturally, the proper amount of fertilizer, as determined by the soil sample, must be applied just prior to ground breaking. I use a broadcast seeder on the back of my ATV for spreading the fertilizer. I’ve used any number of means of breaking the soil, including disking with an offset disk on my tractor and disking with ATV tillage tools. The tool chosen depends on the food plot site accessiblity. Some of my plots are deep in the woods and hard to get to with larger equipment. Regardless, the plot must be disked as smooth and fine as a garden. When using small seeds, such as clovers, I also like to roll the plot as smooth as possible with a field roller.

The next step is choosing the seed. I’ve planted just about everything on the market at one time or  another. My stand-by is the traditional Imperial Whitetail Clover. I do, however, prefer to provide a variety of foods. Another product I really like is the PowerPlant warm-season annual. It’s extremely easy to plant and care for and produces lots of forage.

I like to plant a double-disk-wide line of Imperial Whitetail Clover around the warm-season grass fields. This provides a green fire lane around the grass when I burn it each spring. I also keep a couple of highland, droughty wooded areas planted in Alfa-Rack.

I’ve experimented with Imperial Extreme in some droughty areas and had good luck with it as well. I haven’t, however, had a chance to see a long-term test on it as yet. These are the only perennial products I’ve found thus far that work well in those less-than-ideal spots. All of these seeds can be spring or fall planted. I actually prefer to make fall plantings, if I can get the seed in the ground with enough time before the first frost. Fall planting results in less weed and grass competition for the young seedlings.

Without moisture, none of the seeds will be very productive, and the single best time to plant is just before a rain, hopefully a light drizzle. It’s not always possible to do this, especially if you are a weekend “farmer.” Something always seems to come up when the seed really needs to be planted.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen most food-plot farmers make is planting the seed too deep, especially the clover and alfalfa seeds. I actually prefer to broadcast these tiny seeds on top of the tilled, flattened and rolled soil, using the broadcast seeder on my ATV. I then roll the soil again to press the seeds into the surface of the soil.

You can also broadcast the seeds, then drag the field with a field drag. A good field drag for an ATV can be made from a piece of cattle panel cut in half. But be very careful not to get the seed more than a 1/4 inch deep. Then sit back and pray for rain.

Eventually grasses and weeds will enter the plot, and it should then be rejuvenated. I prefer to bush hog the weeds, as well as the top tips of the clover or alfalfa early each fall. This cuts back on weed competition and allows the clover and alfalfa to create new green growth, which is more of an attractant for deer during the fall hunting season. Grass, especially fescue, which comes back quite readily, can be controlled with Arrest herbicide. I like to make a light application of fertilizer (without nitrogen) beginning in the second fall season.

It’s also important to place a test cage in the plot so you can determine how much of the plot is being consumed. I place trail cameras on new plots to determine usage as well as to assist in determining stand locations. Each food plot also gets its own mineral lick, placed in one corner. I’ve found the Cutting Edge products to be extremely productive in conjunction with the food plots. 

Then it’s just a matter of picking a stand site, setting up a stand and enjoying the fruits of your labor. We planted one Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot three years ago in the spring, and the following fall, Joan took her first buck, a nice 10-pointer from a house stand overlooking the plot.