Hey bigtime, a lot depends on what size plots you are planning and the type of equipment you have available to prepare them.

In our 900 acre / 9 member club (leased pine tree plantation) each member has two or three personal food plots. You hunt your own plots only - unless invited by another member to hunt his plot. That way each member has a stake in how well they develop their plots. I have three plots that I've developed over the last ten years- two are 1/3 acre each and one is 1/2 acre. You should understand up front that a food plot can takequite a bit of work to get established and are not cheap to maintain.

If you're in a wooded area, generally speaking a square or oval plot works better because trees will reduce the light available to long narrow plots and the tree root systems have a detrimental effect on food plot growthalong the edge of the plot.

Here's the BIGGIE. Do you have access to a tractor? If not, you might be better off opening up a few areas by walking around with a chain saw,cutting everything in a 50-foot circle at knee height and hitting theregrowth/natural vegetation with pelletized lime (very important) and fertilizer. Then set up your stand twenty or thirty feet back in the woods and positioned so youcan see the clearing. This is pretty effective, especially if you can set up two or three clearingsfairly close together (like in a triangle formation) with your stand situated where you can see all of them.