A food plot doesn't have to be "habitat improvement" - but it can be. Food plots can be for the benefit of wildlife only, or for human benefit, (and the deer benefit too) - like a hay field, or a farmer's corn field.

I look at our fields as a way to keep the land "in shape", and to maintain the fileds of the old farm, for the future - rather than to let them go to woods.

I've said for years, that if your going to brush-hog an old field to keep it open - you might as well plant it to something that benefits your wallet, and/or the wildlife on your property.

zak123 - as far as seeing deer, - if you are not seeing many, its not likely that baiting will draw them in in legal hunting hours. It could be your not looking in the right places, there aren't many, or that they are pressured and possibly nocturnal.

I just worry about the young hunters that have trouble matching up with a deer - and look to baiting as a "quick fix". It just is not. Baiting can be productive - if the area is not pressured - and food sources are low. If anything other than this - you are VERY unlikely to find a deer on an apple pile at 4:00pm. You'd be FAR better off, trying to locate which terrain feature tends to funnel deer toward a food source - whether its an oak grove, clover plot, cutover, apple orchard etc.