Food Plots and strip planting can be perfect spots to ambush bucks.
We have progressed beyond the days of building a few food plots and hoping more deer and bigger bucks will come. Today’s hunter-managers are using targeted improvements to attract and hold mature bucks on their land, even if it’s only 80 to a few hundred acres.  Here are a few land designs to try. Get to work now and you’ll see more deer next fall. Stick to the plan and you’ll shoot more good-size 8- and 10-pointers in just a few years.


Designer Food Plots

Think back to last season. Where did you see the most does and bucks each day? Where did they feed and bed? Which ridges and creek crossings did they use most? Where did you find the most trails, rubs and scrapes? Where were the hot zones? Add up and analyze these observations and some deer patterns will pop out at you. Cross-reference those deer-traffic data on an aerial map. Then go out to those areas and look for new, easy-to-access food plot locations — clearings in the woods, log-road stretches, pasture edges, etc. Go in there with a chainsaw and a tractor or ATV this spring and clear and plant some strips and patches. They don’t have to be huge; a quarter- to a half-acre will do. Now you have taken the feed to the deer. You have made it easier and more convenient for bucks to veer 30 yards off a trail or pop out of a thicket and into one of the new plots you’re watching. 

Browse And Cover Cuts

New York land-management expert Neil Dougherty says an inexpensive way to create more food and cover for deer is with “living brush piles” you scatter along logging roads and on ridges. Saw 3- to 6-inch trees and shrubs, but don’t cut all way through and sever them from the stumps. “Just saw through them until the tops topple over,” he said. The trees will live one to two years or longer and provide abundant and reachable browse for deer. Alive and then dead, the felled trees will offer great cover for does and bucks. 

Roadside Eats


Strip Mowing

“Planting 1,000 yards of logging road is equal to putting in a one-acre food plot,” Dougherty said. Old tote roads are already open and easy to access, so sowing them in spring with high-quality clover or a clover/chicory blend is a great idea. Greens tend to grow best on north-south roads that receive three to four hours of sunlight each day, “but plant as many roads as you can for maximum food tonnage and edge for your deer,” Dougherty said.

Strip Mowing

Trebark camouflage creator and deer-land guru Jim Crumley taught me this trick. “If you have a pasture or weed field on your property, go in this summer with a tractor or ATV and mow five or six strips, maybe 100 yards long and 20 yards wide.” This creates diverse edge for deer, and they will walk the rows. When it rains, green forbs, blackberry plants, etc. that deer love will pop up. Fertilize the strips once or twice with 10-10-10 to grow the natural browse thicker and sweeter.

Strip Plant

Midwest hunter Mark Drury, a self-described mad scientist when it comes to land management, tries everything to attract and hold more mature bucks on his properties. One of his best techniques is to strip plant. “We might sow a strip of wheat 14 feet wide, butt it up against some corn and then plant another strip of oats nearby,” he said. “Deer are browsers, and they feed a lot like you and me. You go to a salad bar and try a lot of different things. We try to give deer the same type of smorgasbord.”

Here’s one of Drury’s strip designs: “I plant corn or beans 25 to 30 yards off a timber edge where I have a bow stand, or near a particular tree where I plan on hanging one. Then, in the 25 to 30 yards of open ground between the grain and the stand, I plant a thin strip of green (wheat or clover). Many times deer will come out and browse down the fringe of grain and into the low, green stuff. The edge of the grain, especially if it’s standing corn, and the timber can funnel deer right to your stand.”

Access Trails

During several weekends this offseason, hop on your ATV, strap on a chainsaw and ride your property lines. Fifty feet or so inside the line, saw small trees and deadfalls to establish a trail that encircles most if not all of your tract. Use these access trails year-round to get into spots you’ll plant or mow. Ride or walk the trails as you scout in late summer and early fall. The trails will provide quick, easy and quiet access to your tree stands or blinds as you hunt your new buck paradise this fall.


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