I've tried to create a "bowhunter friendly" food plot on my family farm in S.E. Kansas.
The terraserver image shows a wooded waterway flowing south through the middle of our section. Native grass fields border the east and west, w/ ag. fields discernable by terraces. The waterway represents a major travel corridor between bedding areas in the overgrown northern cattle pasture and the corn and bean fields located on the next section south............



Last summer, i built a 10' tall stand with a 6' by 4' platform deck to provide years of safe and comfortable hunting. (BTW- it sticks out like a sore thumb, I know, but surprisingly it does not spook deer- 3 does and a nice 8-pointer were shot in '03, all within 20 yards) ................pic is facing east while standing 20 yds west of stand



Here's what is left of last years clover. Without a soil analysis (summer '03), I blindly spread 800lbs of lime to try to compensate for the slightly acidic soil in this 1/2 acre plot. Clover started out strong with good fall growth (deer wouldn't leave it alone), but without periodic summer mowing to control grass and weeds it didn't have a chance.... pic of northern portion of food plot taken while in the stand



I had initially planned to replant the entire plot, but I've decided to keep a small patch of clover going and "practice" my weed and grass control methods to see how effective I can be at maintaining my plots once properly established.........



I spread another 800 lbs of lime (per soil sample analysis) on the clover plot the first week of August to compensate for my inability to work it deep into the soil the previous year (roto-tiller only turns the top 6" or so of soil). I sprayed round-up the last weekend of August. Labor Day weekend I roto-tilled.pic was taken from stand facing north



A beautiful Sunday evening tractor ride -- white bag on ground is 0-15-15 that was broadcast after I made one complete pass w/ the roto-tiller. It rained 3/4 of an inch later that night.



Labor Day was hot and windy, and I was surprised the ground was dry enough by late afternoon to be able to make my second and final pass through the "old" clover plot.



If you've never seen a locust tree, this is what your missing.
THORNS EVERYWHERE!!! I could only think of one good use for locust, a perimeter barrier that "channels" the deer by my stand. Leather gloves are a must, even though we tried to avoid handling the thorny boogers as much as possible. We developed a pretty efficient system of dropping trees, cutting 6'-8' sections of brush, and then pushed the mess into rows. By trimming the brush into manageable lengths, the f.e.l. actually "rolls" the brush into a tight ball that is darn near impenetrable.



The timber consists of approx. 75% hedge (osage orange) and locust w/ the remaining trees either walnut, hackberry, or ash. All the hedge was cut for posts and the remaining brush was cut down to 8 foot sections and "rolled" into brush piles with the front-end loader. The locust also were removed either mechanically or ringed and left standing for future use as brushpiles. pic taken from stand while facing east (direction of barrier)



This pic was taken while standing 40 yards south, southeast of the stand Any deer travel through this area is forced to walk within 25 yards of the stand.



Pics don't do the barrier justice. If (and when) I discover the deer have found a way to slip through I'll just "stuff" the hole w/ brush from a standing locust that has been "treated".



We concentrated our efforts on expanding the plot south this summer. One lone pecan tree is directly south of the stand. A few elms were dead and we cut them down and removed all limbs, brush, etc. for fear that they were casualities of Dutch Elm disease. Also there was quite a bit of wood on the ground already, compiments of a bad ice storm two winters ago. The big pecan tree had two large limbs that had split from the weight of the ice. We removed them to prevent future problems w/ the overall health of desirable trees.



Everybody wanted to come out and play! I had Skye (my pretty "spotter" girl) pull a "customized" drag over the ground to spread out the lumps of lime before roto-tilling w/ the tractor. FYI, I'm going to leave the brushpile for the wabbits, and also it provides another obstacle to push deer closer to the stand.



We worked hard, but it's the weekend, so we never worked too hard!



We located and marked w/orange tape any tree that we wanted to protect before we fired up the chainsaws as we pushed further south. Wild plums were all along the dry creekbed. Whenever possible we tried to promote their growth by eliminating competing trees that block light from the south. Planning to make twice as much jam next summer!!!



Fortunately, we were also able to open up an area that had 8-10 persimmon trees growing in a grove. Can anyone explain why persimmons have a tendency to grove? We did have to cut bagworms out of a few of the larger persimmon trees.



Draggin' hedge posts. If you've never had the opportunity to cut hedge, consider yourself lucky. I never really got the hang of it! My buddy driving the Honda has been a tree trimmer for 5 years, and that dude can flat cut. He makes it look real easy.



Time for a potty break. My chocolate lab's name is Bush, but in this case I guess he couldn't find one!