Whitetail Rendezvous

Adam Keith: I think it’s one of those things to where let’s boil it down to the root of this of saying, “Okay, here’s my best pitch for you of why should you plant a food plot,” or you’re weighing that out in your head and you say, “Okay, how much money are you willing to spend? Because to actually have a successful food plot, one that’s beneficial and your work is actually rewarded, it’s going to take this amount of dollars.” And if they’re like, “I don’t know if I have that…if I’ve set aside that much,” well, then we can take what you do have set aside and do something probably just as beneficial. Bruce: And so that… You know, and we’ve been talking about the land management plan. And sometimes the native browse and forbs and everything you have on your property today, enhance it and that will be bettering the food plot. Now don’t yell at me, X, Y, Z seed companies, for saying that, but that’s the truth. Adam: Well, let’s look at it like this, Bruce. When did food plots originate? And maybe it was 30 years ago. Okay, 30 years ago, what were the deer surviving on before that? Well, then let’s go back before we introduced things like alfalfa and soybeans and say, okay, deer were doing just fine before we settled America. I mean they were here, it wasn’t like we introduced them, and then we had to provide food plots so they could survive. They were doing just fine without us. So how do we replicate what was going on during that time frame, and then use food plots to our advantage? So basically for us it’s, okay, if we replicate nature pre-settlement and what was going on before we moved in, if you will, a lot of the things that were there, you look at it, Great Plains comes to mind, there was diversity, it wasn’t just native grass, it was all kinds of wildflowers and forbs. So there was tons of food. We had approximately 75 million buffalo living here in North America, that’s a lot…I mean that’s a lot of forage to have to just feed the buffalo. And then there was an estimated about 15 million elk. And then there was all the whitetail deer. So there was plenty of food available without any food plots, but the problem is now we don’t have that same type of habitat. So replicating that habitat by a lot of prescribed fire, opening up the canopy and getting back to woodlands and savannas to where you have this undergrowth, managed with prescribed fire to where you have food available year-round, and then you can add the food plots on top of that. And for us food plots come in as a hunting destination or a way to pattern deer. So maybe you’re not hunting on the podcast, I think this was the first segment, maybe you’re hunting off of it, but you still have a more consistent pattern of deer going to and from, and a specific area. Bruce: And, you know, all through this whole series I’ve been talking about transition plots, I call them kill plots, because I just want that buck to stop, I want that doe to stop. Adam: That’s right. Bruce: And between bedding and where they’re going to feed I want them just to stop. And they do that anyway. If you… Here’s one thing I would challenge everybody to do this year. Go out to your favorite place, play the wind, just as if you’re going to hunt. Leave your bow at home, take your camera. And just watch how deer move through the woods. You’re not going to kill them, you’re just going to sit there and watch. And just watch how they move. Because, unless chased, you know, they don’t gallop or run through the woods, they just kind of mosey and they slip their toe underneath the leave and they do this and they much here and have a munch here. And that’s what they do. And so many times we don’t get that. And so 365, you know, food plots, my idea of small food plots is simply you’re going to get them to come along their trail in a …

Well, the marketing people. I was stumbling over my words, but, you know, it’s the greatest thing in the world and we all fall for marketing. You know, a huge buck, gorgeous green field, and you got too have X. If you have X in this bottle, if you put this on your thing, or you plant with Y, you’re going to have…you know, you’re going to have Booners, you know, out the network. I’ll guarantee you if there’s no sperm, there’s no studs in the forest that have 180-class genes, you ain’t going to have it. Adam: That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, I’ll add to that. You got to give them what they want, but you also got to give them what they need, and then you got to give them what you can provide them. I mean if they need carbs and you don’t have any open ground, as far as you can’t give them corn or you can’t give them soybean. So we’ll digest this, I guess, the best we can from you got to give them what they want and you got to give them what they need. And, as we talked pre-recording, I think one of the biggest things we see with our Land & Legacy consulting business is looking at something and going, “Okay”… When we look at food plots, 9 times out of 10 we’re planting food plots because we want to have more hunting success. We want to be able to at least attract more deer on the property. Maybe we’re not hunting over it, but we know that there’s more deer in the area because that food plot is there. 9 times out of 10 that’s why we’re planting food plots, is just so we can increase our hunting success. Now when it comes to “give them what they want,” let’s look at it and say, “Okay, what do they want? What do they need?” And when we look at what’s in the neighborhood, that’s one of the biggest things. I hunt…one of the properties I hunt is a working cattle farm and there is alfalfa fields, I don’t know how many acres. Lots and lots and lots and lots of acres devoted to alfalfa because the farmer bales it for hay. So it’s food for the cows, but it’s also a great lagoon so it’s great forage for the deer. But if I was to plant a clover food plant, which is right there providing the same thing, it’s providing protein, I’m not going to have very good success hunting that because they have 200-plus acres of alfalfa that they can go eat on. And so coming in that little clover patch isn’t doing them any good. So look at what’s lacking in the neighborhood as far as what the deer need, and then try to fill that void. Don’t look at it as, “Well, this is just what I’m going to plant and let’s hope that it’s fantastic,” and expect to see the same food plot that you see on the bag and the same buck standing in it that you see on the bag. Bruce: Because that just doesn’t work. And, as we said before… It might work, I better put a comment in there. Adam: It might work. Bruce: It might work, it might work. That was my disclaimer, it might work. But, you know, you think, about things and, you know, every…you know, July comes and everything has grown and Deer are out there, their coats are slick and they’re looking good, and the fawns are romping and stomping, and some bucks are starting to, you know, grow out. And you’re getting some, you know, what’s coming along and you start dreaming about your hit list and August comes, and then all of a sudden something changes. And in your opinion what changes? It’s at that magic time all of a sudden, “Where did all the deer go?,” sort of kind of. Adam: Well, I think I know where you’re going with this because we talked about it a little bit, but for me in the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri, notorious…I mean just as the sun comes up every morning, the same thing happens almost every single year. Every single year, I guess I should say and clarify that. But every single year, early fall

Bruce: You know, I think about that, and just take us back to when you first started hearing about food plots. I know you worked with, you know, a grant a long time, where you were an intern, and did lots of things from them. But, you know, let’s go down memory lane because, as far as I know, you know, we hunted Eddie’s corn, alfalfa, or beans. Adam: That’s right. I don’t know the food plot history. You know, we talked about that pre-recording, but I would suspect, from what I know about food plotting, is people, farmers were planting alfalfa, and wheat fields, and oats, and all these things, turnips, and they realize the deer were liking them, and realize, “You know, maybe I should devote a little area to the wildlife and have that to hunt over?” I would suspect that’s where food plotting originated. The first food plot that I planted, or my family planted…I was right around 10 years old, so, for me, I’ve been planting food plots for about 20 years, and I started with planting oats and wheat, and then turnips. And it was a learning experience for me to start planting the first food plots because we didn’t know what the heck we were doing. All we knew was it was replicating a garden for the wildlife. And so, you know, looking back, the amount of work we did, I can remember the first…one of the first food plots we planted, and actually it’s still on the family farm in this area, and we call it the “old food plot,” to where it was the original one, and we would go in with the two-bottom plow, turn the soil all the way over, and then we would come back in with the disc, and we’d have to disc it a couple of times just to kind of get it somewhat smoothed out. Sometimes we had to harrow it, and then we would broadcast the seed, and then we would try and drag it. There was a couple food plots where early on we didn’t have a drag, and we would cut down cedar trees, eastern redcedar trees, and then drag them by hand to try and cover up the seed. That’s how far back it goes for me on planting food plots. And I remember the first couple of times we did that, we would go in and spray…hand-spray Miracle-Gro on ’em, and we were having turnips just this big. Oh, my gosh, [inaudible 00:05:38] we’d die and gone to heaven. Unfortunately, at that time at the farm, there wasn’t many deer. So it would be a couple of doe groups and young bucks would come in, but we never saw any good bucks on those food plots. Looking back, it was because we were in there. Every time we went to the farm, which was almost every other day, we’d be in there poking around, looking to see how it’s growing. So, it’s definitely…it’s changed a lot for us. Bruce: Yeah. It sure has. And back when I was growing up…I was born in New England, actually, Rhode Island, and my neighbor used to take me trout fishing, and we went to his family farm. You know, wasn’t a big farm, 100 acres, 120 acres, but they had the old building…I mean, quintessential, you know, what you think of an old run-down farm, but it had that crabapple. It had that apple orchard, and that’s the first buck…that’s the first whitetail deer I ever saw. We’d go in there in the morning, slip in there, and they’d be, you know, munching, or we’d go in the evening, catch some trout, and there they’d be. They, you know, bounce away, and go, “What’s that?” And, I mean, this is back when there weren’t a…whole hell of a lot of deer in Rhode Island. But it was so…you know, it was perfect habitat. You think back and it’s just like…so that was a food plot. I mean, the apple trees were deadly, right time, right season. And we’re gonna talk about that in the second part. You know, you got to give them what they want when they want it. And I’d be interested, for people to write you, how would they get ahold of you if they want to make some comment about the historical aspects of fo

Hey, folks, this is the last segment of the “Whitetail Rendezvous” spring series on land management and food plots. And I crisscrossed the world, I’ve got some friends down in the south, Atlanta at Legacy. I’ve got friends out in Nebraska at Reck Agri. And I’ve got friends in Madison, Wisconsin with Grandpa Ray Outdoors and John O’Brion. And John’s gonna wrap up this whole series and, you know, it’s gonna be fun to see where the thing goes. But having said that, Grandpa Ray sets expectations for being a 365 food plotter. John, what the heck does that mean? John: Well, the last time I checked, deer eat every day and if your goal is to try to increase the deer numbers on your property, pull them throughout the whole year, there’s got to be food there. There’s got be bedding there. There’s got to be water. It seems pretty simple but yet the wildlife industry in the whole focuses on about, oh, maybe one or two seasons a year. Usually the focus is from when opening day of hunting season starts to when it closes and, again, that’s bad science. That is not where your brain should be wired and we would want to do our best, as a goal, to have something there every day. The short-term and long-term success. Bruce: So deer need, you know, well just January, February, March the bucks have been through the rut. Those are either bred or…not bred, so bucks are tired and does throw a lot of food to a growing, you know, fawn. So what do we need during those months to make sure bucks and doe are getting the right nutrition? John: Yeah, no matter if we’re in north of Madison, Wisconsin, Tallahassee, Florida, or Oak Way out in Colorado, you know, there’s Mother Nature that comes into play in the northern climates where you get cruel at times with the 2 feet of snow, 20 below zero. You know, you even have higher [inaudible 00:02:28] challenges there. So, you know, my focus is, you know, when hunting season is done do you have sources of supplemental stock piles to forage. Which in the industry, I mean, you know so many people are familiar with turnips but are they familiar with other species of forages like rutabaga, maybe sugar beets, fodder beets, weeds, things like that. Things like grain store gums. Thinks like millets can also, which aren’t as desirable during the fall season, all of a sudden, you know, when a deer is having a hard time walking through that deep snow and wants to eat whatever is the easiest at that point in time. You know, there’s certain things that we can focus on to give that energy that’s really needed in those really stressful conditions. And, again, so many people think, you know, if their goal is to grow healthy, big deer they focus on the fall. Well, when that buck has dropped its antlers and it could be January, February in many areas or even before then. Backing up, you mentioned, you know, when the ruts done. Guess what? That buck’s reserves are tapped out. You know, he’s drained and then the big thing is you want to keep it maintained or replenish it. The main goal I throw at people is we do not want a deer, no matter buck or doe or fawn from the previous fawn [inaudible 00:03:58] our goal should be to reduce the amount of weight they lose throughout the winter. Next to impossible no matter where you live to put on weight. If you don’t lose as much weight and body condition, guess what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna…the term’s called compensatory gain. So instead of having to replenish those bones, you know, with the calciums and the proteins and our nutrients, they’re able to…if you don’t have to worry about…if the deer doesn’t have to replenish itself, guess what’s gonna happen with those added nutrients that are out there? Whether it be from browse or supplemental sources, going towards antler development.

Planning for Food Plots with John O’Brion… Hi folks, it’s the second segment with John O’Brion of Grandpa Ray Outdoors, and John and I are talking about “do it right the first time”. And what happens to us all, and I’m guilty as anybody, I go…oh, I get all excited, and we get the plan in place, and then we go to work and we forget something, we forget one component. It could be any number of the components. The first thing that we never, never wanna forget is, of course, to do the soil test. But after that, it becomes a slippery slope sometimes. And others, you could go out there, I mean, you could build a food plot in downtown Manhattan without water and without dirt, and it would still grow. Well, there’s dirt in the street anyway, so it’s got that, so…you know what I mean. But most of it, you know, it’s a struggle. So why do we need to do it right the first time, John? John: Well, when I talk to people that either are brand new, or even for those that are very experienced, I ask a list of a lot of questions. The more questions I ask, the better I can give for a recommendation. The problem that we see so often is you get guys that are like, “Well, my buddy didn’t take a soil test and he had a great food plot this year.” He might have, he might have a great food plot next year, but if you don’t fertilize right, you don’t maintain your pH, eventually, it could be two years, could be five years, at some point in time, your soil will be mined, and then you’ll have a…you could have a total failure. You have a year with a total failure, you spent money on the rifle, the shells, all these inputs, and then all of a sudden there’s no deer on your property because you don’t have an effective, growing food plot. Best laid plans of mice and men. So we wanna plan not just short-term. So many people wanna just buy that mix that their buddy told you to buy, the celebrity, the hunting show, whatever reason, but… It might be a great mix on your buddy’s land, but it might be a terrible thing to plant on yours. So every situation’s different Whether you ask me, “Hey,” help you, and I ask you questions and you answer them, to give you some time to think and reflect, or even if, you know, you don’t get ahold of a guy like me, [inaudible 00:02:27]. Put on paper, what’s your goals? What are you trying to accomplish? How are you gonna get there? What’s your current strengths? What do you think your weakness is? Let’s improve our strengths and let’s do way better on these weaknesses. Formulate a plan before hard charging, and just get ground cover, get something to grow. Could be good this year, could be a total failure. And again, just like sighting in that rifle, do you wanna go hunting? Sure. Do you sight in your gun? You better. Same thing, we wanna sight in our food plots to not just have average, to reduce our risk, to be as effective as we can. That’s what I want people to think about. Bruce: So again, planning, planning, planning, planning, you’re gonna get sick and tired of hearing me say it. But by planning, okay, stage one, stage two, stage three in your land management plan, for your food plots, that’s the stages that, in my opinion and the opinion of a lot of people I’ve been talking about, you just plan it out and you plan a rotation in your crops, just like a farmer does. He doesn’t plant corn two years in a row unless he’s using a lot of supplemental fertilizers and stuff to replace the nutrients that are sucked out of the soil. So, you know, you have to do the same thing. Plus, your deer change. You gotta see what happens. If your neighbors change things up, you better know exactly what impact that is gonna have on your deer. You know, the more I get into this, people say, “Well, gee,

Well there’s a pro and a con with the industry. The pro is is you get more selection to choose from. There’s more species that are being introduced. The con is everybody and their brother sees a window of opportunity. I mean that’s the American way. It’s capitalism. You know, they see a quick buck. They’re like, “You know what? I could make a quick buck. I’ll put a fancy bag together, put a deer on it, maybe get a celebrity endorsement, and I’m gonna sell it and make some money.” Sounds great, right? And, again, my thing is is I see so many poorly formulated products. So many products on the market that are not nutritionally sound. They’re not actually balanced mixes. Some mixes contain a bunch of cheap seeds that deer do not prefer to eat. Big price point, big profit margin. So, again, what’s happened is the industry as a whole, so many people are confused. Some people don’t even know what to buy. Everybody’s got the best seed. Everybody’s got a great story but marketing 101, the guy that helped was involved with one of the most famous marketing campaigns in the United States for beer manufacture. [inaudible 00:04:58] You know, I’m like, “Well what do you appeal to the average consumer?” In the wildlife industry, you know, it’s get a celebrity endorsement. Right? But it’s because why? Why plant that mix? How does it work? And those are the things that people do not know because very few people in the industry are willing to educate and that’s why I came into the industry using my background to try to educate people. To have them make a sound long-term, not short-term, sound long-term investment with their wildlife management program. Bruce: Wildlife management, land management and we’ve got six, we’re going on nine hours of this discussion. Why? Because everybody thinks they know everything about it and, yeah, that’s tongue in cheek but sometimes we’re our own worst enemies because we’re sitting at the bar, we’re playing Euchre, darts, pool and somebody says, “Well I’ve got blah blah blah, and look at the dear I killed last year.” And neither of them know what the heck they’ve got. And so education, education, education as we go forward at “Whitetail Rendezvous.” You know, we’ve got to educate people and by educating people, then you get to say, “Hey, you know, you ought to listen to this series from ‘Whitetail Rendezvous’ and we’ll go from there.” You know and so the, you know, when you buy a bag of seeds, here’s what I understand from especially big box stores. On the tag it says inert matter and, you know, really 25 pounds of seed, living, breathing, germinating seed, you know, 90% seed, you really don’t know what you have because a lot of that, 25%, 30% of that weight of that bag is nothing but that inert matter. Could be coating. Could be, you know, weed seed. You just don’t know. So how’s a guy really know…guy or gal really know what the heck they’re buying? John: And that’s one of my little pet peeves, one of those little things that I try to educate by going on social media and various sites. That’s the pro and con of dealing with Facebook and other online hunting related forum areas. I can use my education and show pictures, observations, teaching tools on how to calculate pure live seed, things like that, but then the downside is you get people that just post the picture of a really nice deer, like you mentioned. “I used this seed mix. That’s all you’ve got to do in your property.” Not so simple. Every property is unique. Your properties that you’re on, Bruce, are unique. Bradbury’s Farm property is unique. We’ve got another…your piece of land that’s on the opposite side of…my piece of land on the opposite side of the road from my mom and dad’s house. Same farm, right? Unique. Look,

John: Yeah, and this has been something that I started doing at some seminars recently. Because the wildlife industry, we all hear about the great things. If you do this, this is what’s gonna happen. But nobody talks about, well, if you do this, this is the down side, this could be a negative. And again, in life, everything has a positive and has a negative. Any action, there’s a reaction. So that’s something we discuss with people, you know, and those are things that I think more people need to look at. You plant trees here, you plant apple trees, right, what might happen? You plant switch grass. Okay, that could help divert deer. But what’s the down side? There’s… Not everything has a con, but most species… You plant certain desirable species… What happens if you plant too much of a desirable specie in too big a area? Harder to hunt. So that’s one thing that, you know, I really wanna emphasize. We can talk about it a little bit here more about… And that’s where I like to look at a property, have a plan, dial it in, tell people why we’re doing certain things. But then I also will say to people, “Okay, we wanna do better, right? We wanna have better food plots. Well, you’re gonna have more growth, right? If we have more growth, that mines more nutrients from the soil. That’s a negative. We mine more nutrients from the soil, we gotta spend more money on fertilizer, right? But then again, if we do a better job at that acre of land, we maybe don’t need to plant that second acre of land. That could be a pro.” It can be a cycle. Bruce: So, you know, everybody, high schoolers, you know, every action, there’s a reaction, and so there’s response. Nature will respond to everything you do, just as a buck will, and a doe. So when you start thinking, and we said it in the last segment, kind of, ended up with this, you know, you gotta start thinking It’s not just, “We’ve done it this way, and the point stand’s been there for 15 years. We’ve taken 15 bucks. Why should we stop ever hunting them? And the only time we see bucks there is during the rifle season when they’re funneling down into this ravine, and it works. Why? Because they’re being pressured, it’s an escape route, it goes down into nasty stuff and nobody’s gonna go in there so the deer know they’re safe, all the deer do.” So you think about that, okay, so that stand probably isn’t gonna go anyplace. But there’s no food, it’s climax forest, you know, it’s just not gonna change. So that stand might be there for the reason…topographical reasons that I just talked about. But what about the other places that every once in a while you see the buck, every once in a while you shoot a doe? Why is that on again, off again, you know, stand site? And throw it all in together, and I can guarantee you, the on again, off again stand site is because something changed and you didn’t look at it. I’d almost, you know… I’m not gonna bet the farm, because I don’t own a farm, but you get what I mean. Your thoughts on that, John? John: Yeah. My background, and I’ve talked about this probably too much to people, my background is from managed intensive grazing. I talk about Mother Nature all the time. Okay, there’s guys that might love their certain types of forage beans. There’s certain people that just love oats. There’s certain people, for five years straight, they’ve loved their chicory and ladino plot, right? Maybe weather’s been perfect. Maybe your deer numbers are a little lower. There’s a lot of factors that come into play. What happens if we have a plot that’s basically, you know, a three-way clover plot, and all of a sudden we get a drought? And there’s stunted growth, or no growth, on your favorite plot that’s been very productive for a number of years. All of a sudden, it’s not productive.

John, welcome back to the show and let’s talk about the Land Management plan and how it affects deer hunting from Grandpa Ray Outdoors. John: Yeah. If I have somebody where I’m actually stepping on property, hopefully, they’ve had soil samples taken ahead of time. But if they haven’t, that’s one thing that we’ve done at times is I’ve helped people take soil samples as we’re walking around touring the property. Because without a soil sample, I’m just guessing, we’re rolling the dice. It’s hard to formulate a solid plan. So that’s essential. When I’m on a property, we’ll walk around, and if there’s existing plots, everybody has probably got a name for each plot. And if they don’t, we’ll help create a name. Or I guess in some cases people are like, “I don’t care. Let’s call it plot one, two, three, five, eight, whatever. So again, what we’ll do then is I’ll have a plan that we’ll put on hardcopy, and it’ll have the name of each plot, the acres of each plot. It’ll have what seed mix that we’re gonna recommend, when to plant that seed mix, how much of that seed mix to plant, what fertilizer to use for that seed mix, how much of that fertilizer to use and when. And then again we also have some other little notes on there saying, you know, if it’s a perennial mix, clip every 30 to 45 days. Maybe if a guy has got certain weed issues, I’ll give a recommendation saying, “Hey, you know, use in May 10 ounces of clethodim, mix with 9-4-9 plant foods. And again, when I do a plan, it’d be for the existing, the current year, but then we also, when we’re walking around on these properties, we’ll also bring up as part of the plan that, “Hey, the following year, we’ll have another plan. What we’re planning this year is setting ourselves up for us doing something the following year on that bit of land.” So, you know, that’s one thing that we do discuss. And with technology, whether using HuntStand or onXmaps, we have the ability to use the aerial, you know, imagery to create a measurement tool and a shading and a layout where people can look on an email a picture as like, “Okay, this is plot one. It’s 0.5 acres. Here’s how it’s laid out.” And, you know, so that also is beneficial, not just with me short-term, long-term, but also for, you know, the land manager. Because in some of these plots, we might have multiple mixes planted. Just with any plot, we’d probably wanna be considering a scrape line, maybe screening to help get you in your stand or to make these, you know, plots a little less able to be viewed from a distance by a block. You know, trying to also create little doorways, travel corridors, etc., etc. to make your property more of a highway. You know, so it’s part of the plan. That’s part of, you know, the thinking there. So depending on how many food plots, maybe it’s a page, maybe it’s two, three pages of Land Management hardcopy, where we have all that essential information. So if a guy, let’s just say we’re planting a clover mix, I’ll have a recommendation of what the fertilizer [inaudible 00:04:13]. And then it also might have, “Okay, we wanna winterize that plot. Well, again, in September, you’re gonna come back with 0-0-60 straight potassium add another 100 pounds. So we put a lot of information on the plan that’s easy but…yet easy enough to look at because we could make this rocket science. And to the average person, they just wanna look at it, be able to understand it easily and apply it. It doesn’t need to be a bible. It doesn’t need to be a book. We’re just creating a basic plan that everybody understands. a href=”http://www.whitetailrendezvous.com/476-landscaping-trophy-whitetails-kasey-thren/gohuntinsider-50gift-cardlogo-2/” rel=”attachment wp-a…

We’re gonna jump right in, John. And what the heck is land management? First, it was food plots, now everybody has got a sign out saying, “I’m a land manager.” Help me out here, buddy. John: Yeah. The industry, you’ve been seeing a little bit of shift. You’re gonna continue to see a shift towards people spending money on consultants, land managers trying to dial in. You hear in your own particular wildlife program a little better. What is land management? That’s a great question. Everybody would have a different interpretation. Everybody has a different expectation. Some people are also more focused on short-term. And my little words that I wanna throw at you and others out there is short-term planning is great, but long-term, having a vision and trying to create a sustainable property, a sustainable program is the way to start. Sacrifice sometimes in the short-term because I think all of us wanna have not just instant success, short-term success, I think we wanna enjoy the fruits of our labor for not just this year, but many years into the future. Bruce: So John, you see it, I see it all over social media, you know, land management. And I think you said it well. You know, do you have just a…”You know, I’m leasing a land for three years, what can I do real quick down and dirty?” And then, “I’ve got a five-year lease on this thing,” or, “Heck, the family owns this farm.” So what do we need to do? I know on our farm along the Baraboo River, we did some timber cutting up on a ridge that hadn’t been touched in you know how long, and it’s all climax forest and there was no undergrowth. And now we’re gonna have, you know, a jungle fest. But we’ll work on that. But having said that, a lot of people are thinking, “Okay, I’ve gotta do better for my land. I can’t just go sit in the concussion stand and hope a deer comes by and that stand was put up 10 years ago.” So how does all that relate, what I just said, to land management? when anybody comes to me or at shows and we get into this topic, there’s a series of questions that need to be asked to be able to give anybody a great answer versus just an answer John: Yeah, when anybody comes to me or at shows and we get into this topic, there’s a series of questions that need to be asked to be able to give anybody a great answer versus just an answer. And so, you know, whether you have a situation like yours or maybe you have a three-year, five-year lease, that’ll affect, you know, your plan if you don’t have a commitment where what you’re doing today could be, you know, utilized, you know, for five years down the line. It’s different if the guy owns the land and he’s planning on owning the land for a number of years, no matter what the situation is, no matter if you have a lease or an ownership, no matter if you have 15 acres or 500 acres, they’re still the same basic concepts. The first thing that I wanna throw at people, though, is, besides having a vision, besides having a plan, don’t rush to start hacking trees. Don’t rush to do too much too fast, because so many people will make mistakes. And it’s easy to make mistakes and it’s hard to make up for those. So again, I will recommend people surrounding yourself with a good team of land managers. So for example, my focus, you know, my specialty is soil, seed. There’s guys like Art Helin that I believe you’ve actually interviewed a number of times. His specialty is timber stand improvement. There’s other guys out there that specialize in water. So again, there’s no one expert in the industry that can be an expert at all phases of property and land management. Guys like myself work with guys like Zack Huser on the water and guys like Art Helin. So there might be three, four different sets of eyes looking at one property, working as a team, with a long-term goal in mind. And I believe that’s a sound approach and somet

Bruce: Hey, folks, welcome back to Whitetail Rendezvous, the special edition with Rackology. We’re heading up to Eric and Jason’s shop up there in Loup City, Nebraska and this is the final segment of food plots. And we’re going to talk about planting 365, and that kind of encompasses everything we talked about with these guys this week. And, you know, we started off with the land management and looking at the land, getting hard eyes on it, you know, fresh set of glasses, however you want to call it, and then figuring out where we’re going to do things. And then we talked about the food plots and seed, what they are, what they’re not, and what they can’t do now. You know, we’re going to wrap it all up into a 365-day planting and growing session, if you will. So, guys, let’s bring forth some knowledge and share. And in the break we just had we just talked about does are stressed. And I threw in my two cents. You know, the doe is bred in November, November 10th, she goes through December, January, February, March. Then she’s, you know, sometime in the springtime she’s going to, you know, have the fawn. And the better you can help them carry that fawn, the better deer herd you have. And that’s what this is all about, is helping deer become healthy deer, liking your place to live on, and living there 365. So, guys, take it away. Eric: Right. Well, you hit it right on the head. I mean the first key in planting a year-round program, whether it be feeding or food plots, when we talked about the land management, we kind of go year over year. We don’t just do this year and we’re done and we’ll see you next year and we’ll just start a new game plan. Knowing the life cycle of what you’re hunting or what you want out there is very important. I mean Jason has taught me so much being, I mean, with his knowledge of not only biology but and specific with deer herd development and deer herd health. I’ve learned, I mean, by just soaking in like a sponge next to him hearing him talk to people and just asking questions. And knowing…of anybody, knowing…and he knows really well that life cycle of a doe, the life cycle of a buck, and where you’re going to be able to take the stress off of those animals. And like we were talking before, if there’s more of a visual key to understand and see, you know, the stresses that these wild animals go through on a given year. Because every year is not the same, on a dry year versus a wet year versus a cold winter year where you’ve got 20 snowfalls and 40 inches of snow. Those deer are out there, they don’t get to go inside and relax and refresh and regroup for the next day like we do. But knowing that life cycle of the animal is huge when it comes to planting 365 year-round stuff. And, you know, a lot of people will see deer out there and not know how much stress that they’ve got on them and they might just say, “Oh, they’re eating out there, look at all of them out there. They’re just walking around and enjoying themselves and they’re fine. You know, I don’t need to do anything.” Well, looking at trail camera pictures from closer than 50 to 100 yards you’re going to start picking up, like Jason just showed me, some things to key in on on, “Okay, is that doe, you know, is she”… I mean she’s got… You know, what we don’t know about the deer, I mean there’s a lot of times they have twins and triplets and that’s a lot of stress and vitamin and mineral and protein that that doe has got to do to get to that fawn, whether it be a fawn that’s a doe or a fawn that’s a buck. And if you want them bucks to develop and to be their genetic potential, they need to hit the ground running and they need to be efficient. So a lot of times with food plots, the ones you have on your land and water,