Moving 'Fort Buck'

This isn't the way most of us would be required to handle a hunting stand. However this isn't your average hunting stand. On Arington Tree Farm we refer to this monster as Fort Buck.

"Growing Deer": Planting a Food Plot

The hard work of prepping the site is only now a memory. All the sore muscles from bouncing around on the tractor have returned to normal.

The photo shows a piece of equipment called a Seed-N-Pack. It is a drop seeder that works on disked seedbeds. The hopper on the top, with the logo, can be filled with seed. As you drive along seed would drop out from the hopper and be spread.

However, I don't plan on filling the hopper with seed. I want to use it for the bottom part, the cultipacker. In the picture you might be able to notice circular rollers with grooves. That's the cultipacker and it works great to even out seedbeds. Notice the differences of the soil surface from using the cultipacker in the photo.

"Growing Deer": Before you plant, think about this!

As mentioned in Arik’s post last week, we recently started a food plot here on the farm. Our goal in this project is to attract deer and provide an early, middle and hopefully late season food source for them. This food plot will also become a central hunting location, as recently we moved Fort Buck to this area (more on that in the future!).

Arik covered the basics of preparing the soil for planting, but he didn’t get into the why’s and how’s this particular site was chosen.

No, it wasn’t chosen just because it’s one of the few places where trees (or some other type of crop) aren’t growing! Many things were considered before choosing that particular place, and if you are thinking about putting in your own food plot, you’ll want to consider these things too:

"Growing Deer": Starting a Food Plot

(We're starting a food plot on the farm! This post is the first of a series that will appear about the progress of this project. Stay tuned...) 

A food plot is an area set aside that is planted solely to act as a food source for wildlife. Food plots often consist of legumes, like clover, alfalfa and beans, and/or grasses.

In an earlier post I made reference to lazy hunters. It might be suggested by some that only a lazy hunter would hunt over a food plot. I would argue that installing a food plot properly is not an act any "lazy" hunter would dare undertake. And to find my self hunting over that same food plot seems like a just reward for a whole bunch of hard work.