During the Planning Phase of building your food plot there are several things you need to consider. For instance what are your objectives for creating this food plot? What type of food plot will you be creating? Where will the food plot be located? What type of equipment will you need? Let’s look at each of these topics individually.

It may sound trivial but the questions you should be asking yourself during the Planning Phase begin with what do you want to attract and what is the purpose of this food plot? Are you planting to attract turkeys and deer during the spring and summer months to provide food for the young of the year? Do you plan to hunt over this plot? Are you trying to attract non-game species to your property? What about non-target species that may be attracted to your food plot? How often do I want to replant this food plot?

Before you put the first shovel in the ground you need to consider some of these questions and dozens more. If you want to attract deer and turkeys in the fall hunting seasons then your site selection as well as seed choice may be different than if you want to attract these same species in the summer. If this plot is difficult to access then you probably don’t want to plant something that will only last one year, otherwise know as an annual plant.

Have you thought about the non-target species that may be attracted to this food plot? If you plant corn in an area where there are black bears you probably will attract them to your food plot. Is this going to meet your objectives or is there a possibility attracting bears could cause other problems that will have to be dealt with later?

If you plan to archery hunt over this plot maybe you don’t want to make it several acres in size. Regardless of hunting methods the size of the plot can still be a factor. Deer will often enter a small secluded food plot before entering large open plots. What about stand location for hunting plots? Which way does the wind usually blow? How are you going to access that stand without spooking deer? Is there a suitable tree for placing a stand or will you need to hunt from a ground blind?

Spending some time now during the planning phase to answer these questions will prevent you from making fundamental mistakes that often be more difficult and expensive to correct. Early on when I first purchased property to hunt I planted some fruit trees in existing openings. Now years later I wish I had spent more time thinking about the location for those trees. Now I would rather use those openings for some other type of food. But to remove the trees would mean I wasted time and money. If I had created a plan and thought about my objectives as step one I wouldn’t have this problem today.

While you are setting your objectives you need to be realistic and honest with yourself. How much time do you have to devote to this project? How much money can you spend? Will you be doing the work yourself? Is there a local farmer that you might be able to pay to help with the project? What equipment is available to you? Would hiring a habitat management company make sense? Is the property wooded or mostly open fields? What other types of agriculture are nearby?

I have found that time and money are my most limiting factors to creating food plots on my property. That may seem obvious but to this day I still think I can get more done in a weekend than I could probably get done in a week. If you only have weekends to work on your property and you don’t have the money or the equipment to handle large food plots you should consider smaller hunting plots or hiring a habitat management company or local farmer to plant for you.

Breaking projects down into phases can also be an effective way to manage your time and money you have available. Well thought out projects that are planned in advance are likely to be more successful than the projects that are developed on the fly. Experience can be a good measuring stick for how long certain steps to the project will take, but by being realistic and starting conservatively, more projects will be successful than not.

Part of being realistic and setting objectives is the budgeting process. The cost of seed, fertilizer, equipment and fuel are high and constantly are increasing. If you ignore these costs you may run out of money before the project is completed or worse yet try to take short cuts that will lead to poor quality food plots, poor germination and food plot failures. You’ll be frustrated and convinced that food plots are nothing but hype from the seed companies to make money. But if you give some thought to how much you have to spend before you start you won’t have to cut corners at some of the most critical steps.

If you are not familiar with the cost of fertilizer and lime start with a smaller project before tackling a multi-acre project, especially if you are on a limited budget. Seed is also expensive but is often sold by how much acreage the seed will cover. Another option is to get bids from habitat management companies or a local farmer before you begin.

During the planning phase as you set your objectives and decide on a budget it will be easier to think of your food plots in two types; hunting plots and feed plots. Each offers some unique considerations and differences. Often the difference is simply size.

• Hunting Plots:

  Typically hunting plots are smaller in size and cheaper to create and maintain. I consider hunting plots anything under an acre in size. Certainly larger plots can be hunted over especially during firearm seasons but smaller, isolated plots can be very effective for both archery and firearm hunting.
  
  Certain things like stand location, wind direction and access methods to the stand need to be taken into consideration when planning for a hunting plot. What type of tree stand will you be using and are there suitable trees in the area of the food plot? What is the predominate wind direction and how will that affect stand placement? Is the plot going to be hunted in the morning or in the evening? How will you access the stand in the morning and the evening as not to leave scent or alarm deer in the area? What about leaving the stand at the end of the day? Will you spook deer when leaving the area?
  
  Once all the aspects of how the plot will be hunted are worked out there is still more things to consider. Hunting plots can be very effective but other things to consider include how much sunlight will be available to the plot and how to get equipment into the hunting plot. Often an effective hunting plot can be located near a bedding area making plot location more critical.
  
  
  Example of a Hunting Plot

• Feed Plots:

  Usually larger in size feed plots are primarily for providing large quantities of quality food for the target species. Sometimes these plots are referred to as “green fields”. Factors to consider when planning for feed plots include availability of equipment, access for that equipment, time of year when the food is to be provided, and the size of your budget. Since these plots are usually bigger than one acre they are also more expensive to create and maintain. Wind direction and stand location may not be a factor since typically deer will utilize these feed plots after dark.

  
  
  
  
  

  Example of a Feed Plot

Although we have discussed location of the food plot there are still other location factors to consider during the planning phase. Food plots close to property boundaries should be avoided if possible. Even if your neighbors have similar harvest objectives to yours, land ownership is always changing and the good neighbors you had last year could easily become the problem neighbors of tomorrow. Since you are in the planning phase this is something to consider before you put the first shovel in the ground.

Another factor to location is proximity to roads. The last thing you want to have happen to the big buck you’ve been nourishing all year is to be hit by a car as he’s moving to and from your food plot. Worse yet is to have that buck poached at night by an unscrupulous hunter. Placing food plots close to roads just encourages these illegal activities.

As you have been planning for your food plots hopefully you’ve also been considering the equipment you’ll need. Once you have determined whether you’re planting a hunting plot or a feed plot you can think about the equipment required. My advice here is to plan for the largest tools you have available to you. Obviously you won’t be planting a 5 acre feed plot with a garden roto-tiller unless you have a LOT of time and patience.

This is where a local farmer or habitat management company may be the most effective way to get your food plot created. The cost of equipment is high and buying used equipment can be frustrating too. If time is your most limiting factor then consideration should be made for paying a professional to get you started. Nothing is more frustrating than having good weather on a critical weekend to get your project started and having equipment failures slow you down.

Some types of equipment you may consider include sprayers, roto-tillers, plows, disks, rakes, chain saws, tractors, ATVs, spreaders, brush hogs or mowers, and many more. Smaller hunting plots can be created with smaller equipment and even hand tools. But once you start thinking about creating feed plots the size and cost of the equipment required increases rapidly.

Like any large project creating a food plot requires lots of planning up front. But the more time you spend in the planning phase the fewer problems you will encounter down the road. If you have thought about the topics mentioned above and answered the questions while making some notes along the way, you will be ahead of the game and you will be positioned for a successful food plot. Let’s face it, this project is going to take lots of time and money, so you might as well plan for success from the beginning!