Managing in the Heartland

By Bill Winke

There are many questions waiting to be answered about whitetails and why they do what they do, but one thing is certain: To grow the best bucks you need excellent food sources all year long. This is a well-documented fact. In a stress-free environment, deer farmers with captive herds have been able to grow bucks with antlers scoring more than 200 inches by age 2 1/2! One biologist told me of a buck he knew of that scored more than 230 gross inches at age 2 1/2. That’s right, age 2 1/2. 

In the wild, it is obviously much harder to eliminate all stress. Bucks are still going to rut, and that wears them down. Having a balanced sex ratio and a balanced age structure will definitely reduce rut-related stress, but you can’t eliminate it. Also, parasites and disease take their toll on herd health. But, overwhelmingly, the greatest stress on most herds is nutrition related. Bucks don’t get enough quality food to reach their genetic potential in regards to antler size. If you can provide quality nutrition, you will improve the overall health of the deer you hunt, and that will translate into bigger antlers.

We obviously know that quality nutrition is extremely important, but most deer managers do not provide the best possible nutrition program. That point was never made clearer for me than during this past season. I was a guest on an intensively managed property that lies between the levees in the Mississippi River bottomland between Mississippi and Louisiana. The place is not high fenced, but owner, Paul Meng, spares no expense in providing naturally growing (not supplemented) year-round nutrition. I saw, and nearly shot, a buck with a huge body and rack. The deer could have just as easily been walking in my home state of Iowa – 23-inch wide, massive 175-inch rack. Later in the morning I shot a beautiful 4 1/2-year-old 9-pointer that grossed 156 inches – outstanding anywhere, but especially in the South. 

If you can produce success stories like this in areas not typically known for monster bucks, think what you can do in the Midwest with optimal management.

Biologists have beaten this message into the heads of deer managers in the South for many years, but it seems to have been lost on many of those who manage deer in the nation’s crop-rich heartland. These hunters assume they have automatically covered these bases just because the dirt is black and the neighbors grow crops. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you put the final touches to the management plan in areas with such tremendous potential, you can produce true cover-photo monsters.

In fact, it is likely that some of the poorest deer management occurs in the Midwest. Many landowners tend to keep the herd numbers too high, and many don’t provide the needed food plots that are far superior to row crops. Granted, you can grow some nice bucks in agricultural areas without stressing out over deer nutrition, but you will not produce the best bucks your property can yield. If you are serious about growing big, healthy bucks with massive antlers in the heartland, you need to take your food plots just as seriously as deer hunters in other parts of the country. Why be satisfied growing good bucks if a modest change in management will produce great ones?

The Cropland Conundrum

Even where they are plentiful, agricultural crops may not address all of a deer’s nutritional needs. For example, assume you are managing a 250-acre farm in crop-rich Illinois. You plant 75 of those acres in corn every year, and your neighbors are also primarily corn farmers. Sounds good doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds like the recipe for undersized bucks, especially if the herd grows large enough to consume all the most desirable high-protein browse species. When the herd wipes out the best browse each year, these plants may fail to grow back and will simply disappear. 

Furthermore, corn is low in protein. In fact, it produces only 7 percent crude protein. Deer do best on a much higher level, more than 20 percent is ideal. Deer love corn even during the summer, but it is little more than the human equivalent of glazed donuts – certainly not body-builder food. In areas with a lot of corn, there is the risk of a protein implosion when browse plants give out. And during dry years, this is likely to occur even if you keep the herd in check. That might be a worst-case scenario in the Midwest, but even with diverse farming practices, nutrition is not always optimal. Most importantly, deer need high-protein forage in the spring and early summer, well before corn can be utilized.

Here’s another scenario. Assume you manage deer in an area with both soybeans and corn – a fairly common situation in the heartland. Your neighborhood has an abundance of both. During the summer, soybean leaves are much higher in crude protein than corn plants (roughly 16 percent protein in some cases). Now the deer have some variety. Once again, it sounds good doesn’t it? Well, though bean leaves are higher in protein than corn, they fall well short of other possible forage plants in the legume family, namely Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus, Chicory Plus and Extreme. At their peak, these food plot products provide crude protein levels of 30 percent or higher. And like corn, soybeans are not available during the spring and/or early summer and do not contribute to early antler development. 

So, obviously, if you are trying to produce a diet high in protein, simple row crops aren’t enough.

Then there is the problem that occurs after harvest. The existence of commercial agricultural crops doesn’t automatically guarantee a year-around food source. Modern combines are so efficient that they leave little waste in the field after they pass. Unless you have a low deer density, the deer will clean up all the waste grain long before spring green-up. A lack of excellent nutrition will eventually force the deer to feed heavily on less desirable woody browse and forage such as grass. Once again, this is not a disaster, but it is less than ideal.

Pastureland and CRP

Not all of the heartland is fence line to fence line in row crops. There are also large areas comprised of pastureland. While some grasses produce decent protein levels at certain stages of the growth cycle, these levels are far below that of legumes. You might assume that deer living in and around pastureland will travel to crop fields nearby to find better forage at night, but this may not be so. A classic example is the world-record, non-typical Lovstuen Buck that I have profiled in this magazine a number of times. One aspect of that buck’s development is worth repeating one more time. 

This buck had a very small home range – not uncommon for fully mature bucks. He lived most of his life in two small wooded draws in the middle of a CRP field bordered by more CRP and a cattle pasture. The nearest agricultural crop was an alfalfa field a half mile away. Trail camera photos documented that he rarely left his core area to travel to the alfalfa field. In 2002, the buck sustained an antler injury during the summer during the growth cycle that caused one side to fall off prematurely. However, even before that event, the Lovstuen Buck grew his smallest set of antlers in the four-year known history (documented by shed antlers) of the buck. Using a little guesswork, he probably would have gross scored about 250 to 260 inches in 2002 if he had not sustained the antler injury.

In the spring of 2003, Mark Murphy, one of the men hunting the buck, planted Imperial Clover in the middle of the buck’s small core area. It is more than a coincidence that in 2003 the buck grew his largest antlers by far, grossing more than 335 total inches!  That is an amazing 75-inch jump in antler size for a buck that was already fully mature.  Biologists I spoke with said it is not uncommon for a mature buck to add 30 percent in antler size with a significant improvement in the protein content of his diet. 

Now here’s the kicker. Tony Lovstuen shot that buck in late September of 2003 in Iowa, a state known for its tremendously productive croplands. Because the buck had a small home range, it is likely he wasn’t benefiting from any of the cropland in his area.  Certainly, this isn’t the only buck in the heartland that has a small home range falling smack in the middle of a crop deficient area.

Also, consider that many mature bucks don’t like to travel long distances across open ground to gather the very best groceries. They have learned that long life comes from avoiding open places and long commutes. Instead, they simply feed on the best food sources they can find within the safe portions of their home range. If that means they live only on browse on the occasional good acorn crop, so be it. They are less concerned with growing big antlers as they are with keeping the ones they have. 

A few carefully located food plots can make a world of difference to deer that fall into this category. Once again, what they need is a consistent protein source. In other words, a few acres of Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus, Chicory Plus or Extreme located in secluded areas deep in the middle of whitetail habitat will add many inches to the antler size of the bucks living there.

Mineral Supplements

Midwestern farmers don’t rely on the grass, hay and grain they feed their cattle to provide all the essential minerals for optimum health and weight gain. Cattle production is an old and evolved science. Farmers don’t just spend money on a hunch, so they wouldn’t be using mineral supplements if it didn’t help. Mineral supplements improve herd health for cattle even in the best agricultural areas. Why would you assume that your deer are getting all they need from the plants they eat?

I recently read the work of a well-known biologist who stated that no area in the country produces enough of the right minerals to supply all of a deer’s nutritional needs. He firmly stated that supplemental minerals optimized for deer are an important part of growing big antlers. In other parts of the country, deer managers do it without questioning it. They just assume that poor soil conditions necessitate mineral supplements. However, once again, Midwestern deer managers like to coast on this one too – hoping the black dirt will do the work for them. 

To maximize an already impressive potential for huge bucks, heartland deer managers should become just as diligent in the use of minerals and nutritional supplements (where legal), such as the Whitetail Institute’s 30-06 or Cutting Edge.

What to Plant in Heartland Food Plots

Obviously, farmers in the breadbasket know how to grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa. While such crops are great for the commercial acres of your farm, they may not be the best choice for the small plots tucked deep in the deer’s core areas. In small plots located near larger crop fields, the best choices are Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus, Chicory Plus and Extreme. Deer will use these high quality plots year round. You can also leave a few acres of the row crops standing in nearby fields to assist winter nutritional needs, along with planting annuals such as No-Plow.

A greater challenge occurs in areas where the nearest row crop fields are on someone else’s property or a long distance away – a distance that deer are not likely to travel on a daily basis. In this setting, it is essential to provide both the warm season and cool season food sources in close proximity. Here, you once again should plant Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus, Chicory Plus and Extreme in some of your plots to provide needed protein during the warm seasons, but another great product from the Whitetail Institute called PowerPlant comes into play for both summer and winter food. 

PowerPlant is a mixture of several legumes and grains that provide a nutritionally balanced diet that deer will use in the summer and the winter. Power Plant is resistant to grazing pressure and also provides secure cover. 

Where to Plant Your Food Plots?

It is common in the heartland to find deer herds that exceed the optimal carrying capacity of the habitat. This is because some deer managers falsely assume that as long as there are crops around the deer will do just fine. However, after they clean out the desirable browse species in the woodlands, it takes several years for these plants to grow back. At this point, the deer become completely dependent on agricultural crops. When that happens, they will wipe out all their winter food during the summer if it is placed near their core areas.

If this describes your situation, you need to start hammering the does, but in the meantime, you also need to manage the locations of your food plots wisely. First, place only grazing resistant plants such as Imperial Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus, Chicory Plus, Extreme and No-Plow in the small plots in the core of your hunting area. Plan on growing larger plots around core areas to provide more food and decrease the stress on smaller plots.

Soil Tests and Fertilizer

Never assume that just because you are managing deer in the best agricultural areas that you can ignore the need for lime and fertilizer. To maintain the most productive food plots, you still need to take great care of the soil. I manage land in the heartland and so do a number of my friends. We lime our clover and alfalfa plots based on soil tests, and we fertilize them every year.

Conclusion

If you manage deer in prime agricultural areas, you have a tremendous opportunity to produce the biggest bucks in the country. The subspecies of deer that exist in these areas are genetically inclined to produce big bodies and big antlers. All you have to do is help them out a little by providing the very best nutrition possible all year long. Don’t take this important step for granted. If they can grow 200-inch deer at age 2 1/2 in captivity, why not grow 150-inch deer at age 2 1/2 on your farm? The very thought of what such deer can become at full maturity is mind-boggling. The opportunities are great; don’t squander them by taking shortcuts.