Whitetail News Vol 18.1

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Introducing

DOUBLE-CROSSPage 4

Bewareof the UGLYBULLIESPage 18


±

NIKON AD

Features5 New Imperial D

ouble-Cross

PerennialBlend By Institu

te Staff

It’s like Imperial Wh

itetail Clover on ste

roids!

6 Twenty Years of Re

search

By Matt Harper, Ins

titute Deer Nutritio

n

Specialist

Researchstarted th

e Whitetail Institute

, and

after 20 years, it re

mains thetop prior

ity

10 Deer Desserts… The Soft

Mast

EquationBy Jim Casada

One aspect of a de

er’s diet hunters of

ten

overlookis soft ma

st

14 Imperial Whitetail E

xtreme:

Going Where No Perennial

Has GoneBefore

By Jon Cooner

Imperial Extreme is

used forthe most

extreme soil and ra

infall conditions

18 Invasion of the Ugly

Bullies

By Bill Winke

Growingolder buc

ks doesn’t necessa

rily

mean larger-antlere

d bucks

22 The Whitetail Institute Do

es it

Again… And Again By Bill Kn

ight

WhitetailInstitute p

roducts help hunte

r

harvest huge buck

s in Iowaand Misso

uri

24 Steps YouCannot S

kip

By Tom Fegely

Skippingsteps wh

en planting food pl

ots is a

mistake

26 The Storyof Imperi

al Products

By Brad Herndon

Wantinghealthier

and bigger whitet

ails led

to the food plot ind

ustry

36 Region by Region

By ScottBestul

Successful wildlife

management varies

region byregion

46 Winter-Greens: The

Best of

the Brassicas By Jon C

ooner

Imperial Winter-Gre

ens is a must to

completeyour food

plot program

50 New York Hunter Share

s

Successful QDM Practices

By Russell Nitchm

an

58 Every Acre Counts

By Bill Winke

Getting the most o

ut of limited acreag

e

65 Seek Edges for Be

tter

HuntingBy Scott

Bestul

Becomebetter at

spottingsubtle ed

ges

for whitetails

69 A Recipe for Success

ful

Food Plots in Mich

igan

By Michael Veine

72 Family Operation

Cashes in

with Imperial Clove

r

By Michael Manley

74 Despair to Euphor

ia

By Master Sergean

t StephenRutland

76 Do I HaveWhat it Tak

es?

By Richard Bernier

Departments4 A Message

from Ray Scott

30 Field Testers Repo

rt

32 The Weed Doctor

By W. Carroll John

son, III

Weed orSeed —Which Ca

me First?

34 Deer Nutrition Not

es

By Matt Harper, Ins

titute Deer

NutritionSpecialist

Beware of the pitfa

lls of summer nutri

tion

48 Record-Book Buck

s

64 Ask Big Jon By Jon C

ooner

Real questions from

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80 First Deer — The Futu

re

of Our Sport

www.whitetailinstitute.com Vol. 18, No. 1 / WHITETAIL NEWS 3

In This Issue…

Page 18

Page 24

Page 58

A MESSAGE FROM RAY SCOTTFounder and President Whitetail Institute of North America

Desserts for Deer

Jim Casada’s article on soft mast (pg. 10 ) made mymouth water with all his comparisons of deep-dishberry cobblers, cakes and other goodies to the glo-

ries of lush ripe persimmons, pears, apples, muscadinegrapes and other soft mast deer enjoy in the wild.A confirmed sugar addict myself, it’s not hard to

understand why deer love such treats.It reminds me of one of the first lessons we learned

at the Institute many years ago. You can have a great,well-researched, nutritious product, but if the deerwon’t eat it, it’s essentially worthless. So along withtop-quality nutrition, we make sure all our products arepalatable (that’s scientific talk for good to eat) so thatthey can draw the deer as well as hold and grow them.Jim’s article about deer’s weakness for sweets really

got me to thinking about human diets as well as deerdiets. It seems we share some things in common, andserious deer managers realized long ago that theInstitute was well ahead of the curve. Today’s headlinesscream about the effects of salt, sugar and empty calo-ries and what they’re doing to the health of our socie-ty. We’ve been concerned about the same thing for the

past 20 years, referring to the empty-calorie, low qual-ity supplements and products available for deer for somany years. Junk food for deer.The end result of junk food and empty calories is

tragic. As a nation we deal with obesity and chronic ill-ness such as diabetes and heart disease. We see theeffects even more quickly in the deer population withscrawny bodies, pathetic, misshapen antlers and weak,undernourished fawns. In other words, a sub-optimaldeer herd with virtually no chance of producing trophy-class bucks.We are indeed fortunate as hunters and managers to

be able to influence deer diet and environment throughmanagement and good nutrition. And, we can appreci-ate even more the role theWhitetail Institute has playedover the last 20 years to improve the quality of white-tail across the country.Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Whitetail Institute

for humans? W

Ray Scott

Whitetail InstituteOFFICERS AND STAFF

FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT:RAY SCOTT

Vice President of Operations.........................Wilson ScottVice President...........................................................Steve ScottOperations Manager: ...................................William CousinsAgronomist & Director of

Forage Research...........................Wayne Hanna, Ph.D.Nutrition Director...................................................Brent CampDeer Nutrition Specialist....................................Matt HarperNational Sales Manager ..................................Mark TrudeauWildlife Biologist...................................................Justin MooreDirector of Special Projects ..............................Jon CoonerWhitetail News Senior Editor ...................Bart LandsverkContributing Writers...Charles Alsheimer, Tom Fegely,Jim Casada, Brad Herndon, John Ozoga, Bill Winke,

Monte Burch, R.G. Bernier, Bill Marchel, Judd Cooney,Michael Veine, Steve Bartylla , Dr. Carroll Johnson, III

Product Consultants.............Jon Cooner, Brandon Self,John White, Frank Dees

Dealer/Distributor Sales.....................................John Buhay,Greg Aston, Jon Cooner

Accounting & Logistics ...................................Steffani HoodOffice Manager...............................................Dawn McGoughInternet Customer Service Manager.............Mary JonesShipping Manager ................................................Marlin SwainCopy Editor ...............................................................Susan ScottArt Director .........................................................George PudzisAdvertising Director........Wade Atchley, Atchley Media

Imperial WhitetailDOUBLE-CROSSImperial WhitetailDOUBLE-CROSS…Exclusive Blend of Imperial Whitetail CloverAND – Whitetail Institute BrassicasIf you are looking for a perennial product that features the proven ben-efits of the number one food plot planting in the world, ImperialWhitetail Clover, establishes quickly, produces massive tonnage inboth the early and late seasons, and that can carry farther intothe coldest months of the year, Imperial DOUBLE-CROSSis the answer you’ve been waiting for.

“Deer Nutrition Is All We Do!’“Deer Nutrition Is All We Do!’®

NEW

4 WHITETAIL NEWS / Vol. 18, No. 1 www.whitetailinstitute.com


The Whitetail Institute’snew Double-Crossforage blend combines

the number one food-plotplanting in the world,Imperial Whitetail Clover,with the proven superiorityof Whitetail Institute foragebrassicas, increasing earlyplot production and provid-ing even more tonnage in thelate season.

Any introduction of Double-Cross must start withthe recognition of its basis, Imperial Whitetail Clover,the number-one food-plot planting in the world.Imperial Whitetail Clover is truly the gold standard bywhich all other deer-forage products are measured.Imperial Whitetail Clover contains Advantage and

Insight clovers, which are the only clovers ever specifi-cally bred for use in whitetail food plots. Because theywere to be bred for deer, our research and develop-ment staff set very specific goals. These included earlyseedling establishment, heat and drought tolerance,palatability and, of course, high nutritional content andunsurpassed attractiveness to deer. Advantage andInsight clovers are available only in Whitetail Instituteproducts.The other major component of Double-Cross is

Whitetail Institute brassicas. Brassicas tend to fill a spe-cific niche in that they grow quickly and becomesweeter with the first frosts of fall. Once they are sub-jected to a hard frost, an enzyme in the plants convertsstarches in the plants to sugars, which makes themeven more attractive.The Whitetail Institute has utilized brassicas since

1992 as a timing element in some of its blends, includ-ing its second longest-running product, Imperial NoPlow. In that role, the brassicas serve as a timing ele-ment to complement the annual clovers and other for-age varieties in the blend.Later, the Institute introduced its first all-brassica

blend, Imperial Winter-Greens. Winter-Greens containstruly revolutionary brassica varieties. The brassicas inWinter-Greens are lettuce-types —brassicas with a vegetable geneticbase. Tests of Winter-Greenshave repeatedly confirmed thatdeer prefer them at least 4 to1 over other brassica prod-ucts.Like other Whitetail

Institute products, newDouble-Cross is speciallyformulated for deer.Double-Cross combinesthe proven perennial per-formance of ImperialWhitetail Clover with brassi-cas from No Plow and Winter-Greens. The new blend establishes andgrows even more quickly, produces more earlytonnage and provides more late-season foragethan either Imperial Clover or brassica alone.Early Season — First Fall: Double-Cross is

designed to produce a variety of forage-plantoptions for your deer, and do it in a hurry. Likeother Imperial perennial blends, Double-Crosscontains Golden Jumpstart to help get yourplot up and going quickly. By adding theWhitetail Institute’s proven brassicas, which arelarger forage plants that also establish and growquickly, your plot can have even more early for-age available to your deer,Later-Season — First Fall and Winter: Later in

the fall, the perennial clovers in Double-Cross pro-vide a highly nutritious forage source. The peren-nial clovers in DOUBLE CROSS are designed to becold-tolerant and can stay green and palatableeven under the snow. The brassicas in DOUBLE-CROSS become even sweeter after the first frosts offall, providing additional, highly nutritious food fordeer with the onset of late fall and winter. Later, when

the weather turns cold, these brassicas become sweet-er and can stand tall above the snow to provide anextremely attractive late-season food source.Like Imperial Whitetail Clover, Double Cross is highly

nutritious. It provides high levels of protein, and withthe addition of brassicas, Double-Cross also providessubstantial levels of carbohydrates, which are critical todeer survival and health during the coldest months ofwinter.Perennial Performance: Once the brassicas do their

job during the cold months of winter, the perennial partof the blend, Imperial Whitetail Clover, is ready beforespring green up to provide deer with critical protein.The months just before spring green up are among themost nutritionally importantl, as deer recover fromwin-ter stress, bucks prepare to re-grow antlers, and doesenter the later stages of pregnancy.If you have been looking for a perennial blend with

the proven performance of Imperial Whitetail Clover,plus the increased early- and late-season tonnage ofbrassicas, Double-Cross is your answer. Double-Crosswill draw and hold deer on your property, provide thenutrition needed to grow bigger bucks and improvethe quality of your deer!Double-Cross should be planted in soils that are

loam, light clay or heavier. One 4-pound bag ofDouble-Cross will plant up to 1/2 acre. One 25-poundbag of Double-Cross will plant up to 3 acres. Additionalinformation is available at www.whitetailinstitute.com,or by calling the Institute’s consultants at(800) 688-3030. W

NewImperialDOUBLE-

CROSSPerennialBlend

It’s Like ImperialWhitetail Clover

on Steroids!By Institute Staff


When I was much younger, I looked forward tomy birthday. In fact, it was a neck-and-neckrace between my birthday and Christmas

morning. Now that I have aged, the excitement aboutturning a year older seems to have lost some of its lus-ter. On my past couple of birthdays, I actually had tobe reminded it was my birthday, and when I wasreminded, I wished that I had been left in oblivion. Onthe other hand, I've found that anniversaries tend tofollow a different emotional curve with the passing of

time. With each new year comes an increasing appre-ciation for the accomplishment of reaching anothermilestone. This year, 2008, marks the 20th year theWhitetail Institute has been in the business of provid-ing deer hunters with products they need to improvetheir deer herds and hunting experience. As we lookback at those 20 years, one glaring consistency is theInstitute's unwavering focus on research. Research isthe backbone of the Whitetail Institute and one of themain reasons why a 20-year anniversary is possible.

From the beginning, research was the foundation ofthe philosophy behind the Whitetail Institute. RayScott, founder and president, was not only an avidfisherman but also an avid hunter. For as long as hecould remember, Ray planted greenfields on his hunt-ing property. This was a common practice used to sup-ply a food source that would attract deer out ofSouthern pine plantations into an area where thecross-hairs or the broadhead could find its mark.Through the years, Ray noticed that deer seemed to

WHITETAIL INSTITUTE SUCCESSfounded on

20 YEARS OF RESEARCHBy Matt Harper, Whitetail Institute Deer Nutritionist


prefer certaintypes of foodsources. With that inmind, he went to thelocal feed-and-seed store and boughtseveral types of forages and planted themon his property. During hunting season, hestudied which fields consistently attracted themost deer. Though Ray didn’t realize it at the time, hewas conducting a type of research that would later beused by the Institute to perform revolutionary researchtrials called “cafeteria testing.”What Ray discovered was that deer on his hunting

property consistently preferred clover fields to othertypes of forage. With this newfound knowledge, Raytheorized that if clover was preferred over other for-ages, deer might prefer a certain species of clover over

other clovers.Realizing thatalmost all clovervarieties on themarket weredesigned for domes-tic livestock, itbecame apparent toRay that he would need

to develop a new clovervariety designed specifically

for deer. Ray had never been onefor doing things halfway, and hisclover research method was no dif-ferent. He sought the professionalhelp of world-renowned plant geneti-

cist Dr. Wiley Johnson, a plant geneticsprofessor at Auburn University, who was

recognized for developing many clover varieties stillused in the agricultural market. His research was in thearea was second to none. Ray approached Johnsonwith one simple goal: “Develop a clover variety tomeet the specific needs of a whitetail deer.” Ray pro-posed to Johnson that the clover type should be notonly the most attractive to deer but also contain anutritional profile that would supply important nutri-ents needed for improved antler growth, increasedbody weights and overall deer-herd improvement. Theidea that a forage should not only be attractive to deerbut also of specific nutritional benefit to them was anew twist that had never been considered before. Untilthat time, forages had only been planted to attractdeer. Now, Ray and Johnson were working on a prod-uct to both attract deer and provide them valuable,

specific nutrition. The idea of the food plot was born.To begin his research, Johnson started with over 100clover varieties from all over the world, each containingcharacteristics and traits that applied to specific nutri-tional needs and browsing preferences of deer.Although each variety had favorable attributes, nonecombined all the deer-specific characteristics. Testingwas conducted on each variety to identify characteris-tics such as nutrient content, hardiness, ease of estab-lishment, cold and heat tolerance, disease and droughtresistance, longevity and, of course, attractiveness todeer. Varieties that exhibited the best characteristicswere crossbred to produce new strains. Those newclover types were then tested and evaluated based onthe same criteria. The new clover types with the besttraits were again crossbred. That procedure wasrepeated over seven years until a clover strain waseventually developed that contained all the traits idealfor deer food plots.The resulting clover type was easy to establish,

drought and disease resistant, had an unsurpassedprotein level year-round (up to 35%), and providedunequaled attractiveness to deer. It was calledAdvantage clover, and it became the first clover typegenetically selected for deer.Johnson continued working on clover crossbreeding,

and a few years after the introduction of Advantage, anew and even more drought-resistant clover typecalled Insight was developed. Advantage and Insightremain the main components in Imperial WhitetailClover. To this day, no other food plot company hasconducted such in-depth and innovative forageresearch, and Imperial Whitetail Clover remains theonly clover food plot product specifically and geneti-


cally developed for whitetail deer. Research at theWhitetail Institute is not limited to clover genetics.During the past 20 years, researchers at the WhitetailInstitute have developed other revolutionary products,including Imperial Extreme, Imperial Alfa-Rack Plusand Cutting Edge Nutritional Products just to name afew. The basic philosophy of Whitetail Instituteresearchers is to identify a need in a deer nutritionalprogram and then develop a product to fulfill thatneed, even if it seems impossible at the beginning. Forexample, researchers determined a need to develop aperennial product that would tolerate with as little as 15inches of annual rain. The result was Imperial Extreme.Through the years, the Whitetail Institute has fol-

lowed a research methodology that is unequaled in thedeer-nutrition industry. The first step in this methodol-ogy is a meeting of the minds. Whitetail Institute man-agement and staff get together with Instituteresearchers for a round-table discussion about food-plot forages, nutritional supplements and other needsof the deer-nutrition industry. There is probably noother group that has as vast an understanding of deernutritional-management needs. The Whitetail Institutestaff talks to tens of thousands of deer hunters eachmonth, which puts their collective finger on the pulseof deer hunters and managers more than any othercompany. From that round-table meeting, a researchplan is devised for the upcoming years.Research begins in small enclosure pens at the

Institute. First, test products are tested in five 1- to 3-acre pens with captive deer. This pen system letsresearchers obtain data on deer and products beingtested that would otherwise be impossible to obtain,for example intake amounts, detailed preference data

and many other important research specifics.Greenhouse and nursery fields are also utilized byresearchers to determine test-forage characteristicssuch as drought and disease resistance, hardiness andnutritive value. These findings are then evaluated alongwith data collected from other sources such as thepens. Test products that pass the small-pen stage thengo to semi-wild facilities for further trials. These semi-wild enclosures of 80 acres or larger contain captivedeer, but the enclosed habitat is more like wild deerhabitat. Test products are again subjected to varioustesting methodologies, and additional data are collect-ed.After the semi-wild enclosures, test products move

on for testing on 100% wild deer. This stage letsresearchers collect product test data under real-worldconditions. I mentioned cafeteria testing, a procedurein which several forage varieties are planted in a spe-cific and duplicated pattern to determine characteris-tics such as attractiveness, regrowth and total forageproduction. The wild deer areas allow for very largecafeteria-style testing, such as 40 or more varietiesreplicated four or more times in a field.After the wild deer test comes the final phase, which

is conducted by field testers. Duplicated test samplesare sent out across North America so that the testproducts can be evaluated in a broad range of real-lifeconditions. Up to 100 or more testers can be used inthis phase, with all regions of whitetail country repre-sented. These field testers are sent “blind” test prod-ucts; specific content information is not disclosed sothat the tests remain unbiased. The testers also receivedetailed instructions and report forms for recordingtheir findings and observations concerning the test

products.Once the Institute receives the report forms back

from the testers, all data concerning each phase oftesting is evaluated in detail. If a product does not getat least a 95 percent approval rating, it is put back onthe proverbial drawing board. Although this process isintricate and time consuming, it also ensures that prod-ucts released by the Whitetail Institute have been test-ed beyond reasonable expectations, giving consumerspeace of mind that the product is the best that theWhitetail Institute can make it.

Research started theWhitetail Institute, and itremains the Institute’s toppriority. When the bows andguns are put away foranother year, researchers atthe Whitetail Institute arestill hard at work developingthe best deer-nutritionproducts in the world. W

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DEER DESSERTS…

The Soft Mast Equation

With the noteworthyexception of therut, deer are large-

ly what they eat. That is,there’s no better means tocome to grips with whitetails— from a fat, old long-noseddoe to the buck of yourdreams — than throughunderstanding their foodpreferences and using themin your hunting strategies.

Generally, hunters understand that. Visit any localsporting goods store or crossroads hangout before theseason, and you will hear talk about what the mastcrop looks like. Similarly, dedicated whitetail enthusi-

asts wisely spend considerable time, effort and oftenmoney in preparing food plots and plantings to attractand nurture deer.Yet for reasons I have never quite understood, one

aspect of deer diet and the way hunters can use it isconsistently overlooked. That's the food commonlycalled soft mast, although terms such as deer candyand whitetail sweets are also used. Just as mosthumans have a hankering for a scrumptious piece ofhomemade cake or a deep-dish berry cobbler, deeralso like sweets in their diet. That food preferencemight be described as the soft-mast equation, andhunters who determine the solution to the equationthrough knowledge of nature and whereabouts of crit-ical soft mast gain a meaningful edge.Here's a closer look at major soft-mast items, where

to find them and how to use them to your advantage.

MUSCADINES, SCUPPERNONGSAND OTHER WILD GRAPES

Through much of the whitetail’s range — fromVirginia and the Carolinas to Texas and the Midwest —wild grapes grow in abundance. Regionally, they go byvarious names, but the most widespread variety isprobably the muscadine. It has been domesticated andis prized for use in jams, jellies and wine, as well as eat-ing enjoyment straight from the vines. Scuppernongsare one type of muscadine, but there are also fox

grapes, possum grapes and more. Without exception,deer love them. Whether the grapes are in hedgerows,along ditch banks, in arbors near old homesteads or onmassive vines climbing high into mature hardwoods,deer will dine on them when grapes ripen in early fall.The approach for savvy hunters is obvious. Find

grapes, make mental notes on their location, do somepre-season scouting to see if they are bearing fruit, andplan to be on a stand in the area when grapes ripen.Most often, this occurs during archery season, althoughsome grapes cling to vines until frost and do not beginto build the sugar content deer love until the weatherturns chilly.

PERSIMMONS

If you have enjoyed persimmon pudding, nothingmore needs to be said about the fruit’s appeal to deer.A properly made persimmon pudding is nectar of thegods, or as my grandfather used to say, “good enoughto bring tears of pure joy to the eyes of a country boy.”Conversely, the taste of an unripe persimmon immedi-ately redefines pucker power, as many city boys havelearned the hard way from country cousins. Whenripened to the utmost of sticky sweetness, though,these orange globes of goodness attract deer like amagnet. Of course, persimmons also attract foxes, rac-coons, possums and bears, but rest assured, whitetailsnear persimmon trees know all about them.

By Jim CasadaPhotos by the Author

Persimmons bear fruit when quite young, and unlikeoaks, for example, they seldom fail to set a cropbecause of a late-spring freeze. However, you need toknow persimmon trees come in male and female vari-eties, and a male persimmon will never bear fruit.Fortunately, the fruits, which sometimes get almost aslarge as a ping-pong ball, are easily spotted in latesummer and early fall. It's a myth to suggest persim-mons do not ripen until after the first hard frost.Ripening time usually coincides closely with the arrivalof cold weather.After persimmons begin to drop from the trees,

whitetails will visit them regularly to check out thedessert buffet. I’ve even seen deer bump and brushagainst trees to knock fruit to the ground. Incidentally,you might want to try something similar: giving a tree— provided it isn’t too big — a good shake beforeclimbing into a nearby stand. Another aspect of per-simmons worth remembering is that their fruit doesn'tfall at once. In fact, wrinkled persimmons — so sweetthat sugar seems bland by comparison — will some-times cling to trees long after the last leaf has fallenand deer season is advanced.Persimmons are widespread trees that do well in

overgrown fields, along pasture edges and fence rows,or anywhere other than mature woods, where a seedfrom deer or other animal droppings lands and takesroot. You should factor them into your hunting equa-tion. To me, persimmons rank No. 1 in the world of softmast.

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paws must be the most overlooked. I remember thecatchy lines of an old folk song: “Picking up pawpawsputting 'em in the basket, way down yonder in thepawpaw patch.” American history buffs might alsoknow that pawpaw custard was George Washington’sfavorite dessert. It ranks high among desserts forwhitetails, too.Widespread but probably overlooked by 90 percent

of deer hunters, pawpaws bloom early with a distinc-tive purple flower. Perhaps every other spring, they fallvictim to frosts. When pawpaws “make,” though, theoblong fruits — faintly reminiscent of bananas — are agreat delicacy for deer. On a small property I own, Ihave a permanent stand overlooking a patch of paw-paws that covers perhaps two acres. During yearswhen they bear fruit, it's a great place to be in lateSeptember and early October.

CRABAPPLES

Because they stand out as a visual delight when inbloom, crabapples are easy to locate for deer hunterswho also chase turkeys in spring. The crabapple’s small,acidic fruit doesn’t particularly appeal to humans,although with some sugar, it makes a marvelous jelly.That's not the case with deer, and they will dine oncrabapples with delight. In fact, I've noticed that whenhunting commercial apple orchards where occasionalcrabapples are planted as pollinators, deer like them aswell as domestic fruits.

DOMESTIC FRUITS

These enter into the soft-mast equation in severalways. That's particularly true with pears and apples.Large orchards in whitetail country are an obviousfocus, but that's not the only place you will find domes-tic fruits. It's common to find pear or apple trees in themiddle of pastures, and even more commonly nearlong-abandoned farms and old homesteads. Also, inparts of the country, you can find apples growing wildin wide areas.No matter the origin of apple and pear trees, deer

love them. I have both in my back yard, and one of thejoys of eating my breakfast in early fall is watchingwhitetails do the same — enjoying fruit for breakfast. (Ihave enough cooking pears and apples that I can sparesome). Beyond that, a stand near fruit trees or on trav-el routes leading to them offers promise as fruits ripenin autumn.

Sticky sweet persimmons appeal to a deer’s sweet-tooth.

OTHER TYPES OF SOFT MAST

Several other types of soft mast deserve at leastpassing mention.The long, sickle-shaped pods of a honey locust con-

tain a sweet meat — hence the word honey — alongwith seeds deer eat. The honey locust holds its podswell into cold weather, offering a source of soft mastlong after other treats have passed. It’s difficult to misshoney locust trees, thanks to their thorns and the waythey stand out after leaf fall. You will frequently findthem along fencerows or field edges.Another soft mast source is the fruit of the giant

quince. Shaped somewhat like a pear and very toughskinned (meaning it lasts longer after falling), the giantquince flourishes in wet soil where apples, pears andpersimmons won’t grow. Hardy in growth zones 4through 8, it could be an ideal choice for low spots witha high water table.Early in the year, deer browse on the seeds or fruit of

sumac berries. It's easy to find sumacs because theirfoliage is among the earliest to show color in fall, andtheir seed clusters stand out. This isn’t a major foodsource, however, deer use sumac where available. Thesame holds true for the French mulberry, also known asthe American beautyberry.The odds are pretty good you won’t have all those

soft-mast sources where you live and hunt, butchances are excellent some of them are present. Bybeing observant, studying natural history as it relatesto deer hunting and incorporating soft mast into yourstrategies, you can expand your whitetail horizons. Andany serious deer hunter is constantly seeking ways toincrease their odds of success. W

� Soft Mast Agriculture >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Most deer hunters — even those interested in management— sometimes tend to think short-term. There’s

nothing wrong with that; but food plots, seasonal plantings, fertilization, liming and the lot should be accom-

panied by an eye on the future. Just as Imperial perennials are designed to last for several years, it seems log-

ical to include plantings of soft mast sources in your plan.

There are many ways to do this: a few pear or apple trees in the middle of food plots, some persimmons

along a main road or field edges, or maybe some fruit trees around a hunt camp or clubhouse. After all, plant-

ings of sawtooth oaks and similar mast bearers are common. Likewise, planting soft mast trees and

grapevines should follow. When it comes to the latter, you can cover long runners with a layer of soil, give

them a year to root, and have a do-it-yourself source of grapevines with minimal effort and no cost.

Here are some additional tips:• Plant at least five persimmons so you’ll be sure to get male and female plants. Likewise, just because a

tree is male (blooming repeatedly through two or three years but bearing no fruit), don’t cut it down. It’s a

pollinator, and you need that.

• Apple trees vary appreciably in fruit and the manner in which they drop it. The ideal types of trees for

whitetails are those that drop fruit during an extended period. Similarly, by planting several varieties (some-

times called early-drop, mid-drop and late-drop), you can extend the length of apple availability from a week

or two to a much longer period.

• Pear trees are generally hardier than apples and deserve a role in any plan for plantings.

• Root stocks make a difference, and folks interested in wildlife management can get seedlings that require

little or no soil amendment. That means getting root stocks that are tolerant or viable in a wide range of soils.

Perhaps the most fertilesource of the WhitetailInstitute’s new product

ideas is its system of fieldtesters. When our fieldtesters asked for a perennialfood plot blend that wouldthrive in harsh conditions,the Institute, as always, waslistening. The result wasImperial Whitetail Extreme.It truly goes where no otherhigh-quality food plotperennial has gone before.

If we all had our way, we would all have rich, fer-tile soil in which to plant our food plots. We’d alsoreceive at least thirty inches of rainfall per year —every year. Many field testers east of theMississippi River do have the luxury of planting insuch ideal conditions.But what if you’re in the mountainous West, for

example, and receive only 15 inches of rainfall peryear? Or, what if you’re in Texas and, in addition tolow rainfall, your region suffers from sustainedsummer temperatures over 100 degrees? What ifyou are in an area of Canada or the Great Plainswhere the climate can be exceptionally cold andwhere soils are sometimes too fluffy to hold limeor soil pH well? And, what if you only have oldstrip-mine ground? If you’re in such a situation andhave thought it impossible to grow a high-qualityperennial forage for deer, Extreme is the answer.Extreme Tolerance of Low Rainfall: Extreme is

exceptionally tolerant of low rainfall. Most perenni-al food plot blends require at least thirty inches of


Imperial WhitetailExtreme…

Going Where No PerennialHas Gone Before

By Jon Cooner


rainfall every year to survive. Extreme will tolerate rainfall levels as little as half that —only 15 inches per year. And it can stay green longer than other perennials, even dur-ing severe droughts.The past two summers here in Central Alabama have been the worst anyone at the

Institute can remember. In fact, I remember having left the office one afternoon in latesummer last year and noticing an unusual, but somehow familiar, smell in the air as Iwalked through the parking lot. It took me a few moments to realize that what Ismelled was the scent of wet asphalt. I had not realized that it had showered while Iwas in the office, and the surface moisture had evaporated from the surface of theparking lot by the time I left work. It had been so long since I’d experienced the scentof wet asphalt that it took a few seconds for it to register. That’s how long it had beensince it had rained.Amazingly, our Extreme plots here in Alabama made it through the extraordinari-

ly hot, dry conditions of the last two summers. And they didn’t just survive — theyactually stayed above ground and green, even though many of our test-forage plotsdid not.The primary component of Extreme is the Institute’s Persist™ forb, a very durable,

evergreen forage plant whose tap root can reach down as far as two to three feet formoisture. Extreme also includes hardy clover varieties and the Institute’s WINA-100perennial forage chicory, a highly drought-resistant chicory variety specifically cho-sen for its attractiveness to deer.Extreme Tolerance of Low Soil pH: Another feature that contributes to Extreme’s

success is its ability to grow in lighter soils that may be too fluffy or sandy to holdlime and soil pH well. Extreme, will tolerate soil pH as low as 5.4, a level unheard-ofbefore Extreme was introduced.Aside from sunlight and water, soil pH is the single most important factor you can

control to assure success from any forage planting. Most forages traditionally plant-ed for deer require a soil pH of 6.5 or higher for optimum growth. Unfortunately forsome planters, soil type can be a limiting factor to pH adjustment. Some soils can betoo fluffy, sandy or otherwise light to hold lime well enough to allow it to raise soil pHto 6.5 or higher. In such cases, forages that require higher pH can suffer. Extreme willalso perform well in soils that hold pH well, but its most valuable feature for areaswith lighter soils is its ability to tolerate soil pH as low as 5.4, a level that simply willnot sustain many other types of perennial forage plants.

Extreme conditions call for extreme measures. And Imperial Whitetail Extreme is powerful enough to overcome the worst your property has to offer.Thanks to Extreme, dry, hot locations and soil with low pH no longer prohibit growing a successful perennial crop. Extreme requires only 15 inches ofrainfall a year, is both heat and cold tolerant, and will grow well in pH levels as low as 5.4. Extreme is ideal for challenging growing conditions, but will also do great when conditions are kinder. An extreme response to extreme conditions.

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Extreme Nutrition: Extreme is a high-quality, pro-tein-rich food source that provides necessary nutritionto deer on a year-round basis. With protein levels up to30 percent, Extreme provides deer with the proteinthey need for rack production, doe lactation, fawngrowth and overall herd health.

Extreme Attraction: Let’s face it, though — in thefinal analysis, even a highly nutritious forage that willwithstand harsh growing conditions is worthless unlessit is highly attractive to deer. Extreme passes this testtoo — with flying colors. And like other Imperial blends,turkeys and other wildlife also find Extreme irresistible.During testing, even we were surprised at how

incredibly attractive Extreme is to deer. In fact, ourresearch showed that Extreme’s attractiveness evenrivals that of the number-one food plot product in theworld, Imperial Whitetail Clover.The biggest obstacle the Whitetail Institute has had

to overcome with Extreme is in educating field testerson Extreme’s fertilizer requirements, which differ fromthe fertilizer requirements for Imperial Whitetail Clover,Chicory Plus and Alfa-Rack Plus. The biggest differ-ence is in the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that shouldbe used at planting, and also later when the forage isbeing maintained.Blended fertilizers have three numbers separated by

dashes on the front of the bags. The first number rep-resents the percentage of nitrogen in the fertilizerblend. Nitrogen is directly related to forage growth.Imperial Whitetail Clover, Chicory Plus, Alfa Rack Plusand Double-Cross are “nitrogen-fixing” blends, whichmeans that once they are growing, they make enoughnitrogen for their own needs. That’s why, absent a soiltest, we recommend that these blends be fertilized

with a comparatively low-nitrogen fertilizer such as 6-24-24 at planting, and the lowest nitrogen fertilizerblend available, preferably a zero-nitrogen blend suchas 0-20-20, later when the forage is being maintained.Extreme, however, is not a nitrogen-fixing blend.

That means that higher nitrogen fertilizers should beused, both at planting and later when the forage isbeing maintained. That’s why, absent a soil test, we rec-ommend that Extreme be fertilized at planting, and inlater years when the forage is being maintained, with400 pounds per acre of a higher nitrogen blended fer-tilizer such as 13-13-13 or 17-17-17. Also, unlike phospho-rous and potassium, which are represented by the sec-ond and third numbers on blended fertilizer bags,nitrogen doesn’t last long once it is exposed to theenvironment, which is why you should fertilize Extremeagain with 100 pounds per acre of a high-nitrogen fer-tilizer such as 33-0-0 a month or so after planting tofurther boost forage growth.The foregoing are general recommendations for

folks who cannot obtain a soil test before preparingtheir seedbeds. When possible, the best course isalways to obtain a proper soil analysis before planting

any crop, and then follow the recommendations on thesoil test report. A proper soil test will tell you whetheror not you really do need to add lime and nutrients tothe soil before planting, and if so, exactly how much ofeach you need to add to get the best production fromyour forage crop. Be sure to use a proper soil test kit —one that actually sends soil off to a lab. High qualitysoil-test kits are available from the Whitetail Institute,County Agents, agricultural universities and most farm-supply stores. And be sure to note on the sample bagwhat crop you will be planting so that the lab can pre-cisely tailor its recommendations for that crop.Whitetail Institute soil-test kits come with an instruc-tion sheet that allows you to just check a block besidethe Imperial blend you will be planting.Extreme is a proven winner. Just ask our Field Testers

planting in the lower-rainfall areas of Texas or Idaho,the sandier soils of Central Florida, the lighter soils ofMichigan’s Upper Peninsula, or in strip-mine ground inPennsylvania. But these aren’t the only Institute cus-tomers who are enjoying the spectacular benefitsExtreme offers. Although Extreme is designed to toler-ate poor conditions, it will also thrive in good growingconditions, even with rainfall levels up to sixty inchesper year, as long as it’s planted in soils that drain well.In fact, many of our customers do plant Extreme eventhough they are not facing rough growing conditions.Because the perennials in Extreme are different fromthose in our other perennial blends, Extreme can addvariety to other Imperial perennials in an overall food-plot system. And like Imperial Clover, Chicory Plus, ChicMagnet, Alfa-Rack Plus and Double-Cross, Extreme canlast up to five years without replanting, providing vitalprotein to whitetails year after year. W

Because the perennials in Extreme aredifferent from those in our other

perennial blends, Extreme can addvariety to other Imperial perennials in

an overall food-plot system.

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Over the past several years, I have been watch-ing the quality of the bucks on my farm deteri-orate. When I bought it in 2002 and 2003, the

farm held many whoppers. I felt like I had snuck into mymother's kitchen and stolen the cookie jar. I thought, "Itcouldn’t possibly be this good without anyone elsenoticing, could it?" And I had huge visions of how muchbetter it would be in subsequent years when I startedto manage the land.

Several things can cause a downturn in antler size, soit's difficult to pinpoint the true reason for a decline.However, the second trend I have watched — a herdwith more old bucks — seems to shed a bit more lighton the situation. The poor quality is not because I don’thave mature bucks and not because I don’t feed them(they have plenty of year-round nutrition). I have old bucks with scrubby antlers and few with

good racks, despite a good age structure and lots of

year-round nutrition. That is an interesting puzzle. During much of this past season, I averaged seeing

roughly one mature buck — those 4.5 years or older —per day. I saw 19 different bucks. That would normallybe reason for celebration, but unfortunately, nearly allof them had small antlers, and some were disgustinglysmall — scoring less than 100 inches. I wasn’t huntingFlorida. I was hunting Iowa. They were definitely notthe kind of bucks I would hope to see at 4, 5 and 6years old.

DEFINING THE NO-CULL FACTOR

During the past two years, I have run my problempast several hardcore deer hunters, outfitters and man-agers. We laugh about how the best bucks seem toshow up in unmanaged settings and how we have suc-ceeded in managing our way down to 140-inch deer. Itseems the more we do to improve our farms, the small-er the mature bucks get. I’m sure that is not exactly thecase, but it certainly feels that way. It's what Al Collins, owner of lots of land and suc-

cessful deer manager from northern Indiana, calls the“no-cull factor.” Collins sees it on his farms all the time.Because hunters are not culling out mature bucks thathave small antlers — there are some in every herd,regardless of where they are — such deer are takingover our farms. We have made these properties soattractive to deer that we have created havens. Thesenasty old bucks have all the food, cover and securitythey could want. Why would they leave? Additionally, I have read in several places and seen

firsthand that when a buck gets older, his range shrinks.


INVASION OF THE

UGLY BULLIES…and the deterioration

of the buck herdBy Bill WinkePhotos by the Author

This buck is a classic ugly bully the author shot last sea-son. It lived on a certain ridge for the past three years andnever got an inch bigger. He often intimidated better-

antlered bucks. Removing this buck will make a hole thatone of those bucks can occupy in the future.

Now we have bucks we really don’t want, and theyhave no intention of leaving. We also have a limitednumber of precious either-sex tags with which to con-trol them, and we don’t want to waste those tags onugly bucks. The ugly ones live forever. They have noreason to leave. We have given them everything theywant. They have all the does, and they dominate thelocal action. And we are stuck with their ugly butts.

SCHOOL-YARD BULLIES

When I was a child, my friends and I had to deal withseveral school-yard bullies when we went out forrecess. For my part, I simply stayed away from them atall costs. My head was on a swivel; I was always tryingto stay one step ahead of those thugs. We all avoidedthe part of the playground where the bullies held court.Granted, they were little bitty third-graders, but to aneven smaller third-grader, they were thugs. Theyowned the schoolyard because they were aggressiveand mean, and most of us were timid by comparison. I had no interest in confronting them to find out

where that conflict might end. I was already pretty sureit would end with me in the nurse’s office with a bloodynose. Here is the question of the day: what do you think

would have happened if there had been five or six bul-lies on the playground leaving very little room for therest of us to play? Undoubtedly, I would have pressedthe teacher daily to let me help her clean the chalk-board erasers rather than take a chance in the meanworld outside. Hmm, could that equate to the whitetailwoods? Now, back to this matter of ugly mature bucks. These

old bucks have become dominant partly because oftheir age and attitude. When the rut occurs, they holdsway over a piece of real estate and keep all otherbreeding-age bucks away. They come swaggering outinto a food plot each evening, ears pinned back, daringall the other bucks to put up or shut up. They make waylike the parting of the Red Sea. Even nice young bucks with much better antlers get

out of Dodge when the sheriff shows up. No other buckwants to mess with these bullies because they aremean and ornery — like that crusty old man behind thecounter at the coffee shop who always growls at youwhen you walk in. Other bucks seem afraid to evenmove in their presence lest they attract too muchattention. Younger 3- and 4-year-old bucks with better antlers

move away from these areas during the rut becausethey are tired of being bullied and pushed around. Ifthey weren’t leaving, I would see them. They are mov-ing off the farm to places where I can’t protect them. The most likely result of this cycle of not culling

bucks is an obvious shift toward a herd dominated byugly bullies, which is what I am seeing. As mentioned, Isaw 19 bucks I figured were 4.5 years or older this pastseason. Only two of them would have come close to150 inches. I saw some bigger young bucks, but nolarge old bucks.

THE PROBLEM WITH HIGH-GRADING

My neighbor calls it “high-grading” — removinggenetically superior deer before they reach maturity,leaving only the ugly to survive, thrive and live a longlife. High-grading is at the heart of this ugly-bully prob-lem for a couple of reasons. In managed settings, mosthunters are actually trophy hunters. They give lip serv-

ice to all the things they are supposed to say, but whenit comes down to it, they do not intend to finish theseason with their buck tag still in their pocket. Theywant a trophy for the wall. In most cases, they don’t consider how old the buck

is when they shoot it — just how much bone he has onhis head. As a result, they shoot the very best easybucks in the herd. The easiest trophy is a geneticallysuperior buck when he is still young. I have seen 135- to 150-inch 2-year olds on our farm,

and 165- to 185-inch 3-year olds. These are geneticfreaks — the Michael Jordans and Shaquille O’Neals ofthe deer woods. These are the deer we should protectso they can reach full maturity and express their poten-tial, yet they are actually the bucks most “deer man-agers” devote their energy toward trying to kill. Andcompared to 4-year-old and older bucks, they are easyto kill. During the rut, these 2- and 3-year-old bucks cover a

lot of ground during daylight, making them extremelyvulnerable. To someone looking only for a good trophyrack, they are easy marks. In areas with intense trophyhunting pressure, where even normally casual huntersare trying to shoot good bucks, it's possible to almostexterminate the best young bucks each year. If you aren’t guilty of this, it's likely your neighbors

are, so if these great young bucks are leaving yourfarm, they are likely getting whacked. Obviously, keep-ing them on your farm is the answer. It comes back tothose ugly bullies again, but I'm getting ahead ofmyself.In unmanaged settings, hunters are often satisfied

with shooting anything, and they don’t make a point ofcherry-picking genetically superior bucks. If the overallpressure is modest, several bucks from all age classes(with various levels of genetic potential) will live anoth-er year. Hunters in these settings make no effort to dis-tinguish between which buck lives based on antler size— only opportunity. They shoot what steps out. This iswhy a lot of great bucks seem to come from unman-aged areas in our part of the state. In most managed areas, genetically superior bucks

are shot when they are 2 or 3, leaving the ugly bucks tolive another year. It is not surprising the mature herd inthese areas then favors poor antlers. It's one thing to understand what is happening but

another to unravel and solve it. I remember one timelistening to Harry Jacobson say that managing deer iseasy, but managing people is the real challenge. Notruer words have been spoken.

GENETIC RAMIFICATIONS

I’ve studied genetics in free-ranging deer. Every biol-ogist I talked to said it is impossible for someone toaffect the genetics of deer they hunt simply by killing afew cull bucks each year. Yet it is not unthinkable thaton a wider scale, removing all — or nearly all — geneti-cally superior bucks from the herd before they canpass on those genes to more than a handful of doescould have long-term effects on the future quality ofbucks. That is just a guess on my part, but it seems logical.

Genetics can change mysteriously as they skip genera-tions. An ugly buck can produce good-looking off-spring. Jacobson had such a buck in his breeding pro-gram at Mississippi State when he taught there as aprofessor. That buck didn’t score more than 135 inches,yet he produced many exceptional offspring with muchbetter antlers. So it's not so simple to say that by high-



grading we are causing a deterioration of our buckherd. However, there's no doubt it can’t be helpingmatters, either.

THE HUNTER'S VIEWPOINT

Maybe the continued presence of these ugly bulliesisn’t directly causing a downward spiral in herd genet-ics, and maybe it is. However, there's no disputing thatthey are space eaters. They are taking up space on myfarm that another buck would occupy, and it's likelythat other buck would have better antlers. So the obvi-ous conclusion as a serious deer manager is to makethe appropriate change to my management plan. Ineed to remove as many of these bucks as I can asquickly as I can. Hopefully, I'll see them replaced bybucks with better genetics. As difficult as that might sound, it's actually the easy

part of the equation. The second step is to talk myneighbors and their neighbors into passing up greatyoung bucks. I would love to see more of them decid-ing to shoot or pass based on age rather than antlersize. However, that would mean that some huntersaccustomed to shooting a buck every year would haveto occasionally end the season without filling a tag.Though I am friends with all of my neighbors, I suspecthalfway through that mission I will feel like a salmontrying to run up Niagara Falls.

HOW TO REMOVE THE BULLIES

You can wait for them to die of old age, I guess, oryou can tackle the problem head on. Ideally, you areearly into your management experiment and can head

GAMESPY I - 4 0

By improving habitat and increasing food supplies, deer managers turn properties into havens for whitetails. A mature,dominant buck is not likely to leave this ideal world on his own. If you want him out, you will have to remove him.

the problem off before your property looks like mine. The answer is both simple and hard. You have to

remove ugly bullies. Unfortunately, most deer huntersare not yet good enough at aging deer on the hoof thatyou can trust them to decide this for themselves. Thatis, you can’t turn a group of your buddies loose on yourproperty and expect them to shoot your cull buckswhile you save your tags for mature trophy deer. I tried it, letting a friend hunt my farm for manage-

ment deer a few years ago, and he shot a 170-inch 9-pointer. When I asked him about the hunt, before I sawthe deer, he said he was sure the buck was at least 3.5years old. That was not the right answer. He was sup-posed to shoot only old bucks (4.5 or older) that werenever going to get bigger. I don’t need 170-inch deerkilled. I can do that myself. I need 130-inch deer killed. It is really difficult for someone to pass up a great

buck in the hopes of shooting something smaller butolder if you're not there to keep him honest. The mindplays funny tricks when the eyes are fixed on a greatbuck. Buck fever can justify almost anything. You have two solutions. You shoot the cull bucks

instead of the mature trophies, or you sit with yourmanagement-buck hunters to make sure they shootthe right deer.

CONCLUSION

You need to remove ugly bullies. In fact, I took myown advice this past season and shot two of them.They were mature— 5 or 6 years old. Neither was a truemonster by Iowa standards, but I was more than happyto shoot them and more than satisfied with the seasonwhen it ended. However, there are still several more Ididn’t shoot. Some of them were much smaller, andnext season, I'm going to have to figure out what to dowith them. The only answer I've come up with is to invite my

friends to get gun tags and sit with me in the tree.When a buck comes along that I don’t want to shootbut needs to be removed, I will cut my friends loose.They will know it's a management hunt, and every-thing should work smoothly. I’ll let you know how itturns out. W


The author’s friend Mike Sawyer took this mature buck from the author’s property this past season. Though it's a goodbuck, deer like this need to be removed to make room for younger deer — hopefully with large antlers — to take up resi-dence.

The 2007 bow season was very good to me. I cangive the Whitetail Institute of North Americamuch of the credit for this. I have planted

Whitetail Institute products for at least the last 12 yearsand owe the Institute many thanks for helping meman-age my father’s properties for quality bucks. The prod-ucts and customer service the Whitetail Institute offersare second to none. Well, anyway, let me tell you aboutmy 2007 bow season in Iowa and Missouri.On October 25, after an afternoon parent/teacher

conference, I decided to hunt even though I’d only haveabout an hour on stand. I broke a few minor traffic lawson my way to my father’s property, and I chose a standset about 75 yards off an Imperial Whitetail Clover field.As I entered the timber, I quickly realized I was too

late. Several deer were already on their way to the fieldand, of course, I spooked them. I kicked myself in thebutt every step of the last 50 yards until I arrived at thetree stand. I settled into the stand and thought tomyself, “At least it’s a nice evening, and I get to watchthe sunset.” I was not expecting much activity afteralerting all those deer. About 10 minutes before the end

of shooting light, I watched a young doe headed myway. The doe continued on her route and walkeddirectly beneath my tree stand. When she was about20 yards past me, I watched her come to an abrupthalt. I could tell she had spotted something.I hoped it was a big buck and immediately caught

sight of a recently familiar deer. It was a 10-pointer Ihad pictures of on a trail camera, and I thought he’dscore about 160 inches. The big 10 lowered his headand came after the young doe, who quickly retreatedback towards me. This put the big boy within bowrange. I had to twist behind me to grab my bow, and Ibelieve this mature buck spotted the movement eventhough I moved as stealthily as I could. The buckstopped in his tracks on high alert. I thought to myself,“It’s now or never.” I assumed the buck would bolt if Iattempted to draw my bow but knew I might never geta better shot at this him. The buck took a split-secondto glance at the young doe, and that gave me theopportunity I needed to draw my bow. I settled the pinand released. I lost sight of my arrow in the dwindlingdaylight but heard a solid hit. The buck ran about 15yards and, to my amazement, just stood there. Hewalked a few more yards and, again, just stood there. Iknew I had not made the perfect shot and quietly leftthe stand after dark.The next morning at daybreak, a good friend, Mike

Seay, and I took up the trail. We were soon joined bymy parents. My mother found the beautiful buck not farfrom where we began. My mother is not a hunter, but Itold her she would have to accompany me on anyfuture deer-tracking jobs.Well, it was October 26, (my oldest son’s birthday),

and I had one of the largest bucks I have ever taken withmy bow (167-6/8) and a birthday party to prepare for.On November 21 I headed for another piece of prop-


THEWHITETAIL INSTITUTEDOES IT AGAIN…AND AGAIN

Bill Knight, holding the deer’s rack, says the WhitetailInstitute’s products are a big reason for his success. Heshot a buck with his bow that scored 167-6/8-inches andone that scored 150-inches (pictured above) using a vari-ety of the Institute’s products.

By Bill KnightPhotos by the Author


erty that my father and uncle own in Missouri. I helpedmy father and uncle put in some Imperial Clover foodplots on this property about five years ago, and I shota great buck that year with my muzzleloader as hestood in the middle of one of these fields. The buckscored in the 140s. I had not been to the property sincethen. However, my uncle had continued to groom hisImperial Clover plots and had enlisted my help in get-ting some Pure Attraction planted this year.That evening it began to snow heavily. I love hunting

on a fresh layer of snow and was really looking forwardto getting out there in the morning. I had to leave thenext afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner in Iowa, but Iplanned to return that night and spend the rest of theweek there.I awoke Thanksgiving morning to almost three inch-

es of fresh snow. I chose a stand close to the PureAttraction field. I was very excited to hunt this standwith a fresh layer of snow on the ground onThanksgiving morning. How could it get any better?The stand is set on a ridgetop above the PureAttraction plot. Between this stand and the food plot isthe side hill of the ridge, which is so thick you cannotwalk through it—a deer bedding paradise and sanctu-ary that my uncle has made off limits to hunting. Not abad idea if you ask me, since you could not shoot anarrow two yards through that kind of brush anyway.At about 8:30 a.m. I glanced to my left and saw an

incredible buck. He had long G2s and G3s with goodwidth and average mass. He was about 100 yards frommy stand. Then I noticed why he was there; along sidehim were two does that he was harassing. I did notwaste any time and reached for my rattle call just as hefollowed the two does into the thick stuff.I gave my best buck-fight imitation for about 10 sec-

onds. The big boy immediately emerged from thebrush and stared in my direction intently; he was tryingto find the fight. He was a gorgeous buck—the biggestI had seen on this farm since I don’t know when. Itseemed like he stood there forever until he gave a sin-gle tail wag and committed. The big buck started trot-ting in my direction, and when he was about sixty yardsfrom me, he cut back into the thick stuff, attempting toget down-wind. I started to panic. If he continued on

that heading he would get downwind of me before Icould get a shot.Thank goodness he was as excited to find the fight

as I was to get a shot. At about the 50-yard line he re-emerged from the brush, cut back straight toward meand started angling to cut the wind again. I had a clearshot at 45 yards. I dialed my sight-pin to the 45-yardmark, drew my bow and made a horribly poor gruntwith my mouth to stop the buck. He stopped, and Ireleased the arrow. I watched the arrow strike the bigbuck dead zero behind the front shoulder. The big boywheeled around and disappeared into the heavy brush.Even though no one else was around I had to givemyself a very cheerful but quiet “YEAH!!!” I knew I hadjust made a perfect shot on the biggest buck I ever hadthe opportunity to harvest in Missouri. And believe it ornot, even though I grew up on this farm, this was myfirst buck by bow in Missouri.To top it all off, my father and my oldest son had

arrived at the old homestead, and I was able to sharethis excitement with them. After about one hour, myfather, my uncle and a friend of mine, Loren, gatheredto recover my buck. After a hard walk (and sometimescrawl) through the thick brush we found him. He was abig 9-point typical with a sticker point coming off theright G2. I could not have been more pleased. This buckjust hit the 150-inch mark, but I would not have beenany happier if he had been a world record.After the high-fives, handshakes, field dressing and

pictures, I was still able to make Thanksgiving dinner inIowa.I cannot stress enough how helpful and important

Whitetail Institute products have been to my familyand me in the harvesting and management of trophybucks in Iowa and Missouri. With a little effort to planta few food plots, the rewards are enormous. I will con-tinue to be a loyal customer and will be passing thisknowledge and loyalty on to my children.We also saw two other bucks as big or bigger than

the one I killed hanging out near the Pure Attractionfield. Having so many healthy big bucks on this farmwas previously unheard of. I now believe it will be the“norm.” Thanks again Whitetail Institute for makingquality products. W

Knight says that a little effort to plant a few plots can reap big-antlered rewards like this 167-6/8-inch Pope & Young.

More than one “food plot farmer” has stood onthe edge of his sparse, green-tinted patch ofdeer forage and scratched his head, wonder-

ing what happened.Or what failed to happen.Why didn’t the rich, green food plot shown on the

bag and in magazine or TV advertisements look like hismeager, struggling handiwork? What went wrong? Ordid he forget or misunderstand the role of some mag-ical ingredient that was necessary for healthy growth?Take solace in the fact that all of us encounter food

plot failures now and then. Learning from them is thekey to turning things around.Whitetail Institute vice president Steve Scott is fre-

quently faced with answering food plot and related for-age questions at seminars and outdoor shows. I askedhim for his thoughts on what might be the most fre-quently asked questions on getting your “deer garden”to grow. Call them steps you cannot skip.

CAN THE SOIL BE TILLED?

“Some forages are designed to grow well and attractdeer with minimal ground preparation,” Scott said. “If

you can’t till the soil for some reason, the Institute’sImperial No Plow and Secret Spot are great options.”These products are excellent choices for sites with lim-ited access on foot or by ATV. These high-protein annu-al blends respond to simply scattering the seed one-quarter inch deep or less, or even spreading it on topof the ground. Both blends germinate quickly, evenwithout tilling before planting. Secret Spot was creat-ed for those small clearings within the woods or tinyopenings near a tree stand that deer will discover andvisit regularly.

DO YOU HAVE THE TIME?

How much maintenance a plot will get may just be amatter of how much time you can afford. Your huntinglease might be a long drive from your food plot, whichmakes regular visits for spring-through-fall care diffi-cult while juggling a work schedule.Even if you can’t perform spring forage maintenance,

though, you still have excellent forage options. “If youwant to just plant for fall and not have to do any springmaintenance, again, stick with an annual such as No-Plow or Secret Spot or go with Winter-Greens or Pure

Attraction," Scott said.

MUST I HAVE A SOIL TEST?

I posed this question to Matt Harper, WINA’s deernutritionist.“Too often, people don’t take a good representative

sample of the field to be planted," he said. "They mighttake enough soil, but it’s usually only from one spot. Iadvise taking small samples from different spots.”After mixing the samples, send a composite sample

in for testing. Be sure to use a soil-testing service thatactually sends the soil to a lab. And remember to noteon the package what forage you intended to plant sothat the lab can give you the precise recommenda-tions. On the Whitetail Institute soil-test form, you canjust check the block beside the Imperial forage youintend to plant. High quality soil tests usually costabout $10 and are also available from County Agents,agricultural centers and universities, and most farm-supply stores.If you want to purchase a high quality soil-test kit

from the Whitetail Institute, just call them at (800)688-3030. Their consultants can also help you under-stand your soil test report, whether you purchased thekit from the Institute or not.

HOW IMPORTANT IS LIME?

“Other than sunlight and water, proper soil pH is themost important thing you can control to assure suc-cess,” Scott said. “It is the most important aspect thatyou can control.” The soil test report lists your plot’spH level. The closer it is to 7.0 (neutral) the better. Ifyou need to add lime, disk it into the top few inches ofsoil if possible, and try to do it well in advance of plant-ing if you can.It must be noted that lime treatment takes time and

money. Several applications during a year or so may beneeded to complete the job. Soil pH, and adjusting it


STEPSYOUCAN’TSKIPBy Tom Fegely

Folks in the North can plant theirperennials in spring or fall, andfolks in the South generally plant

them in fall.

BettyLouFegely

TomFegely

One of the initial steps in establishing a new food plot istaking a soil sample.


when necessary, are extremely important with any for-age planting. Alfalfas are especially dependent on soilpH, and you should not plant alfalfas or alfalfa-basedforage products in soils with a pH lower than 6.5.

WHEN AND WHERE SHOULD I PLANT?

Imperial perennials can be planted in the spring or inthe fall in most areas. However, folks in the North usu-ally plant their perennials in spring, and most folks inthe South plant them in the fall.“Each perennial forage blend from the Whitetail

Institute of North America is designed to work in a spe-cific soil type and drainage,” Scott said.Imperial Whitetail Clover, Chicory PLUS and Double-

Cross are the best choices for good soils that holdmoisture—for example, bottom land, creek bottoms,river bottoms and flat spots with good soils. Alfa-RackPlus is designed for good soils that drain well. Thegrazing alfalfas, chicory and clover in the blend havesuper drought tolerance. Extreme is the perennial tochoose for plots with sandier or lighter soils that drainwell.Planting dates vary depending on region. The plant-

ing dates and instructions for Imperial blends are onthe back of the product bags, and they are also avail-able on-line at www.whitetailinstitute.com.

PLANTING AT THE CORRECT DEPTH

Generally, small seeds, such as clovers for example,should be left on top of the seedbed and not covered.That means that you should get the seedbed assmooth as you can before you plant. If you use a culti-packer to smooth the seedbed before you plant smallseeds, then roll the plot again with the cultipacker afteryou put the seed out. However, if you use a drag tosmooth the seedbed, then put our your seed and donothing further – do not cover small seeds.Large seeds such as oats or beans should be covered

by an inch or less of loose soil when planted. Since the

soil covering large seeds should be loose, do not culti-pack the plot after planting large seeds.

DON’T TAKE PLANTING SHORTCUTS

Another step you can absolutely not skip is carefullyfollowing the planting instructions on the product bag.“If you think about it,” Steve Scott said, “the last thinga seed seller wants to do is to make planting instruc-tions so detailed that it makes customers think it’s toomuch trouble to plant the products.“Even though there might be relatively few steps in

the planting process, some people become intimidatedand take shortcuts. That could be costly — each step isimportant.”

MISCELLANEOUS MAINTENANCE

As noted, properly maintaining your perennial foragewill go a long way toward maximizing a food plot’soverall value and quality. “Once again, it is importantto study in detail the maintenance instructions for theforage product being used,” Scott said.Such attention includes:• Controlling competitive grass in early spring when

it has started to grow once again.• Mowing the top few inches off the plot a few times

in spring and summer and maybe again in fall to stim-ulate new growth and help control weeds that rely onreseeding.• Fertilizing at least once a year according to the

directions on the seed bag.• It may also be a good idea to top-dress your plots

with 600 to 800 pounds of pelleted lime per acre everyyear or two. This may not raise soil pH as quickly, but itcan help keep it from dropping as quickly over time.• In the North, consider over-seeding your plots with

additional seed in spring, when the ground is thawingduring the day and refreezing at night. This is referredto as “frost seeding.” W

BettyLouFegely

No-Plow and Secret Spot are ideal products for establishing food plots in tough places.

The Storyof ImperialProducts –Tried & TrueManagementTools forQualityWhitetailsBy Brad HerndonPhotos by the Author

Some people are thinkers. Ray Scott is one suchperson. In the beginning, his mind revolvedaround big bass and how to catch them, so he

formed the now-famous Bass Anglers Sportsman’sSociety (B.A.S.S.). Awhile later, his creative thoughtsturned toward whitetail deer in addition to big bass.He wanted his Alabama whitetails to be healthier andproduce bigger racks. He made an obvious connectionto nutrition and thus began his quest for the best for-age product. A product specifically for deer.In 1986, Scott planted a food plot of wheat, rye and

clover. Surprisingly, he discovered his whitetails lovedthe clover far better than wheat and rye. By doingsome investigating, Scott discovered that Dr. WileyJohnson, an agronomist and plant geneticist at nearbyAuburn University, had developed the clover variety.Scott immediately hired Johnson as a consultant andassigned him a project: create a superior deer forage.In 1988, The Whitetail Institute of North America

introduced Imperial Whitetail Clover. As the sayinggoes, the rest is history.

A BREAKTHROUGH

Although quality deer management was in its infan-cy in 1988, savvy deer hunters started latching ontothe concept that the more quality forage deer con-sumed, the healthier they would be. Also, if buckswere allowed to reach 3.5 years or older, that addednutrition would result in more massive and higher-scoring antlers. During the 1990s, more and moreImperial Whitetail Clover was planted, and eventuallyit became the norm among whitetail enthusiasts.Meanwhile, deer hunters started leasing or buying

land — a trend that continues. Those hunters alsostarted learning about strange terms such as pH, soiltests and more. Scott, by the way, was still observ-ing, thinking and learning. There was always room forimprovement. Soon, No-Plow was introduced for log-ging roads and other hard-to-access areas, and Alfa-Rack, a seed blend designed for good, well-drainedsoils, and nutritional supplements such as 30-06 andCutting Edge hit the market. As I have documented,food plots using these nutritious products resulted ina significantly higher number of entries into the Pope& Young and Boone and Crocket record books. Evenas that was occurring, though, other events troubledmany food plot managers. For example, just becausea quality-deer manager limed to get the best pH, usedthe proper type and amount of fertilizer, killedunwanted grass and weeds, and mowed his plots in atimely manner, it didn’t mean he would kill the deer hegrew all summer. In fact, big roaming bucks weresometimes picked off by neighbors who had notinvested any time or money.

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

At this time, as QDM managers were studyingoptions regarding protecting trophy bucks, they alsofaced another problem — an explosion of deer num-bers during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Hunterswho used to enjoy the sight of does and fawns — andnever shot one — were faced with making an about-face and shooting lots of them.Some hunters recognized the importance of keep-

ing deer numbers in check, but sadly, many others didnot. As a result, over-browsing of native habitat


Pure Attraction is a great food source andattractant during fall and winter hunting

seasons. Note the T planting design implementedin this plot by the author.


occurred in many regions.That, of course, put more pressure on food plots and

added to the problem of bucks roaming more duringthe rut, post-rut and late seasons.About that time, many hunters recognized the

importance of having a quality forage product thatwould serve as both a food source and attractant dur-ing the colder months of the year. This was doublyimportant because farming methods had changed,leaving little food in the fields after harvest. With fine-tuned modern farm machinery, shelling a corn fieldleaves almost no corn on the cob. Actually, there arefew kernels even left in the field. Soybean fields areequally devoid of food.One alternative was to pay a farmer to leave an acre

or so of corn or soybeans to hold deer on a lease orhunting area. I did that with success a few years ago,but with corn at $4/bushel and soybeans at $12/busheltoday, that's no longer a consideration for most of us.

RAY’S STILL THINKING

Maybe you have encountered those problems. I have.Without question, as most of us have traveled the qual-ity-deer-management road, we've found it to be acomplex endeavor — one on which we must continueto change course, learning and experimenting. Well,the good news is that Scott is still thinking, and whathe's added to the product line at Whitetail Institute canhelp solve several of those problems. Two recent prod-ucts have helped reduce our roaming buck problem,and they also provide quality food sources for deerherds. I’m talking about Imperial Winter-Greens andPure Attraction.Winter-Greens is a late-season brassica blend

designed to hold and attract deer, especially during thelate season. Deer will sometimes eat Winter-Greensbefore the first hard frost, but a hard frost triggersplant maturity, which results in even sweeter taste. Asthe late season progresses, a plot of Winter-Greensmight look like a mine field. Deer love them.

Pure Attraction, with its blend of oats, winter peasand brassicas, provides whitetails with a wide variety offood they can use from early fall until deer seasons end.Before frost hits, deer love to eat the winter peas andoats. When that first hard freeze occurs, they will alsotear up the brassicas in the blend. Obviously, this foodsource serves as a holding location for whitetails, andyou can pull in neighboring deer when the weathergets brutal and good food sources are scarce. It’s nowonder many deer managers have planted these prod-ucts with such great success.

THE VERSATILITY OF ANNUALS

On our lease, we have used Winter-Greens and PureAttraction a lot and with great success. Many otherhunters in my area, and throughout the country, havedone likewise with these and other Imperial annualblends. One reason is that they’re so versatile.Many managers who already have perennial plots in

place also plant annuals to target the unique needs ofspecific times of the year. Imperial perennials aredesigned to last up to 5 years. Pure Attraction andWinter-Greens are annuals that can provide deer witheven more new growth in the early fall and abundant,high-carbohydrate food during the colder months ofwinter.Others elect to plant only annual blends. This can

also be a good solution, for example, if you know youwon’t have time to perform perennial maintenancenext spring. Fall annuals such as Winter-Greens andPure Attraction can provide deer with the forage theyneed for fall and winter. Annuals such as No Plow andSecret Spot can also be a great option if you can’taccess your plot sites with equipment, or if you have ayear-to-year lease and don’t want to plant a perennialon property that you may not have to hunt next year.If you rely solely on annuals for the fall and winter, be

sure you also plant a high-protein annual for spring.Otherwise, the deer you hunt in the fall may not be ashealthy, large or have antlers as big as they might have.

Be sure to take plenty of time to determine the bestlocations in which to plant your food plots. If possi-ble, always set them up to take advantage of the

prevailing wind directions.


Protein is critical during the spring and summer forantler growth, doe pregnancy, fawn growth and herdhealth.Some hunters figure that whitetails can find enough

native food and waste grain throughout spring and

summer to keep them fat and sassy. That reasoning isa big mistake, especially when you consider habitatdestruction in many regions and clean farming meth-ods. My in-depth studies reveal that you can’t beat hav-ing food plots that provide nutrition for deer most of

the year. That keeps stress to a minimum, and can, attimes, mean the difference between life and death. Thispast year in Indiana and several other states, epizootichemorrhagic disease killed many deer. In southernIndiana, where I live, 75 percent to 80 percent of deerin some areas were killed by EHD. It is, incidentally, adisease some deer will survive, and I think a healthywhitetail has a greater chance of surviving than a nutri-tionally stressed deer. Likewise, Indiana hunters arefinding that many of the older bucks they kill are crawl-ing with ticks. Ten years ago in Indiana, that wasunheard of. Again, when the deer herd explodes, andthe quantity and quality of the food diminishes, white-tails are nutritionally weakened, resulting in an infesta-tion of ticks. This has been fairly well documented butlittle understood by many hunters. So bite the bullet,and plant food plot products that will feed deerthroughout the year.

ONE PLAN THAT WORKS

On one of our leases, my wife, Carol, and I have threefood plots planted for wildlife. These plots are aboutone-half mile apart, and each plot is located to let usenter and exit our stands without danger of detection.These plots are on the eastern side of our lease, andthey can be hunted with most westerly winds. Somecan he hunted with a south wind.Each plot is located in a Conservation Reserve

Program field, and we can park on a road to the eastand enter our stands by going through the CRP field —an area our deer rarely use. Usually, deer never knowwe have been there. We carefully planned these plotlocations to give us every hunting advantage, and none

� Tips for GoodManagement >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Forage Selection: Your first step is to choose the correct forage for your specific intended application.

Factors include whether or not you can perform ground tillage and spring maintenance, and the soil typeand drainage of the plot site.Planting: Planting Imperial forages is easy. Each step in the instructions is important. Don’t cut corners.Soil test to determine soil pH and nutrient levels. Add lime to raise the pH of soils with a pH lower than 6.5.

Fertilize immediately before planting. If no soil test is available, follow the published instructions. Note thatfertilizer requirements are not the same for all forages.Plant the forage seeds at the correct depth. Pure Attraction and Power Plant are “large-seed” blends,

which should be covered under an inch or less of loose soil. All other Imperial forages are “small-seed,” blendswhich should never be covered when planted.Brassicas and Alfalfas: Brassica has a tendency to become diseased with fungus or insect larvae if plant-

ed repeatedly in the same plot without a break. Disease is usually apparent through a general stand decline.To diagnose such problems, pull up some of the plants and look at the roots. They should appear firm andfleshy. Roots appearing spindly, soft or mushy may indicate disease.A new alfalfa planting should never be made into or immediately following a prior alfalfa crop due to alfal-

fa’s “autotoxicity” characteristic. Mature alfalfa plants drop a toxin from their leaves and crown to inhibit thegrowth of new alfalfa seedlings, a trait alfalfa developed as a low-moisture plant to prevent competition forwater.If a new brassica or alfalfa planting is planned for a site already planted in the same forage, the soil should

be cleaned out first. Remove the existing forage plants in spring. Then, the site can be tilled a few times dur-ing the spring and summer but left fallow until fall. Another option is to plant entirely different plant speciesin the site during the spring and summer. Imperial PowerPlant is an excellent rotation choice for both bras-sica and alfalfa.


of the plots can be seen by people driving down thenearby road. You might find it interesting that we huntthe plots exclusively out of ground blinds. These areleft up year-around and are in the open CRP fields.Deer and turkeys pay no attention to them. Each blindis placed at the edge of each food plot so no deerentering the plots come into the CRP field behind us,where they could wind us. It’s a perfect setup forarchers and gun-hunters. It’s especially ideal for chil-dren and our grandchildren. We keep about half of theplots planted in Imperial Whitetail Clover and ImperialExtreme. Extreme has worked extremely well in ourregion because the land is hilly, rocky and well-drained.This past year was one of the worst droughts in Indianahistory, and Extreme lasted all summer and fall, yet youcan see by some of the pictures with this article thatthe Imperial Whitetail Clover and Pure Attraction per-formed amazingly well too. We are limited in the num-ber of deer we can kill out of these plots only by theprecarious condition of my back.

PLOT DESIGN

We are very careful about how we design our plots.Explaining the various plot designs would take anotherarticle, but one design we tried for the first time wasthe “T” design. We used the T-design for bow-hunting,and it worked perfectly. Here is how it's laid out:Our Rocky Top food plot is at the southern edge of

the top of a gully that runs east and west. Our blind ison the eastern side of the plot, and most deer usuallycome out of the gully at the northern edge of the plot

to feed. On the southern end of this plot, I plantedPure Attraction. On the northern end, we have Extremeplanted. That gives whitetails food for a long period. Tomake sure we got excellent bow shots as deer seasonprogressed into fall and winter, we planted a strip ofPure Attraction about 10 feet wide that runs from theedge of the woods southward to the large PureAttraction plot. I figured deer would come out of thewoods to our north and feed south down the thin stripof Pure Attraction, which we located at 20 yards fromthe blind. The plan worked perfectly. Hourglass shapesalso work well for food plots as do many other designs.Again, I must caution that plot location will, to a large

extent, determine your success while hunting foodplots, especially if you’re a bow-bender. If you have aplot in the middle of a tract of timber and deer comeinto it from every direction, it’s a pretty good bet you’llget busted sometimes when you hunt it. Conversely, anarrow tract of timber that leads from a large woods toone of your food plots would be a high-odds standlocation during any hunting season. Each year, weshould re-evaluate our food plot strategies. If we plantonly products that provide deer nutrition during latespring, summer and early fall, we'll likely lose some ofthe bucks we grow to neighboring hunters. Plantingadditional plots in Winter-Greens or Pure Attractionwill quickly solve most of that problem. To grow thehealthiest deer with the largest possible racks, keepdeer numbers in check, and provide them with foodthroughout the year. I can assure you that your hardwork will pay off in the late hunting seasons, just as ithas for countless other quality-deer managers. W

If you want to make your wife happy,plant some Pure Attraction next fall. The

happy hunter here is Kelly.

Lewis Hall Jr. — ArkansasWe’ve been using Imperial Whitetail Clover and Alfa-

Rack since September 2003. We’re killing more bucksin the 140-150 inch range and even 160+ class bucks!Body weights are way up too. Overall herd health hasimproved, and we’re seeing more does with triplets. Ikilled this buck this past November. He scored 158 afterdeductions and weighed 310 lbs.

Stacy Chester — GeorgiaHere is a picture of a deer that I killed in the Imperial

Whitetail Clover. I recently went on a hunt to NorthwestOklahoma. I have been telling my friend about your

product. So he gave it a try. He was drawing deer infrom all around. I went down and hunted with him andhere are the results. I killed this 10 point buck. Itgrossed 155 7/8. I have recently purchased a farm inKentucky and have planted 9 acres of Imperial Cloverand 3 acres of the Chicory PLUS. Thanks WhitetailInstitute for the great products.

Chris Dean — IllinoisI started out with one Imperial Whitetail Clover field.

And now I have 6. I have more deer (very healthy deer)and I love the way the does devour the clover. We allknow what happens in November when there are a lotof does in your food plots. Thank you very much for anhonest product that any outdoorsman can appreciate.Here is a picture of a very healthy newborn fawn that is

lying in some Imperial Whitetail Clover. Thank youagain.

Wade Jandreau — MaineWell first off, I want to thank Whitetail Institute for

their product. I got this buck on a No-Plow field, wheredoes were feeding on November 7th. He is the biggestbuck I ever shot in my life. He weighed 275 poundsdressed. One more thing I would like to add is to thanka real close friend of mine, Dale for letting me get thismemorable buck on his property. Thank you.

Stephen Ehret — MississippiThis is my second year of hunting. I have moved in

the past 3 years from Louisiana to Mississippi. This yearI planted food plots with the help of what the localsthought would be the deer's favorite. I planted 4 foodplots — 3 in competitors (mistake) and one in SecretSpot by Whitetail Institute. The one planted in the

Secret Spot wasthe smallest of the4 - at the end of anold logging road.You know what Ishot out of thecompetitive foodplots??? You got it.A great big noth-ing. I live in southMississippi and Ican say I will neverever plant anythingagain except forWhitetail Instituteproducts. This deeris an 11 point with

an 18 inch spread. It tells me something that when hecame to a food plot to refuel himself he came to thesmallest of the four which was planted with SecretSpot and passed up the larger competitive food plots.I want to thank the biologists and everyone at TheWhitetail Institute for making this possible for me thisyear and I am definitely sold on Whitetail Instituteproducts and will never buy anything but WhitetailInstitute products again. Thanks again for making thismy best year yet. There are many more good years tocome.

Michael Oswald — Missouri

I planted 4 plots of Imperial Whitetail Clover and Isee lots of turkeys and deer in them. Beautiful plotsthat stay green year round. Also PowerPlant growsthick and I see lots of deer and turkey on these plotstoo. I’ve enclosed a picture of Jeff Schanke with a 235pound buck. Thanks Whitetail Institute and God Bless.

Matt Wastler — MissouriI would like to thank Whitetail Institute for their con-

tribution in allowing me to harvest my largest buckthus far. In January 2006 my brother Mark, my goodfriend Chad Prater and I purchased this land in northcentral Missouri and immediately started a programwhich included 30-06 Mineral, Alfa Rack Plus, ImperialWhitetail Clover and the Cutting Edge Products. Weimmediately saw great things begin to happen on ourland. It was very rewarding to know that we were con-tributing to improving the health of many species of


animals on our property, including turkey and deer. Asyou can see from the pictures that I sent you yourproduct help transform these deer into some real“bruisers”. Thanks again for your help.

Michael Marotta — New YorkOur 6 acre food plot of Imperial Whitetail Clover has

become the main food source on our property. Theantler growth on our deer has been great. I know for afact that Whitetail Institute products work. I used themin New York andPennsylvania. I’msending a picture ofone of the bucksthat I’ve taken offof our property.He’s an 11 point andscored approxi-mately 150 inches.I’m sure you heardthis a thousandtimes, but I’m goingto say it againWhitetail Instituteproducts work.Thanks.

Dennis Gilbert — OhioHi again, I sent you pictures of my daughter, Alexis,’

first deer, a big 8 point that was in Whitetail NewsVolume 16 #3. This is my monster shot out of the samestand on its way to our Alfa-Rack plot. It was awesome.I had a lot of fun shooting this baby. It scored 173 4/8”14 points forked brow tines.

Donnie Oates — MarylandThe property I own is a 50 acre piece in Preston

County, West Virginia. Alfa-Rack does great on my thinsoiled mountaintop property. I have seen and videoedmany nice bucks in late summer. Enclosed is a pictureof the 150 2/8 11-point I harvested October 14th lastyear. He has a 19 1/2” inside spread and 22” outsidespread. He came to the edge of my Alfa-Rack plot ona very windy afternoon. I had videotaped him 2 weeksprior. The deer and turkey cannot resist the Alfa-Rack.Thanks Whitetail Institute for a great product.

William Croner Jr. — Pennsylvania

Two years into the Imperial Whitetail Clover plotthings were looking good. Daytime activity slowedbecause of major human activity very close by. Stillsigns and sightings were impressive. The eve beforethe first day of rifle season there were several bucksand some does in the plot. The eve of the first day ofrifle season this buck (see photo) was heading in thegeneral direction of the plot, probably to look for hotdoes. A mistake for him. The brutes will be bigger next

year because of the plot and maybe someone will con-nect again. The buck was shot by Greg R.

Russ Bigus — PennsylvaniaMy name is Russ Bigus and I live in Northeastern PA.

My family owns 50 acres in Sullivan County. I have beenusing your products since 2002 and have had a greatcrop each year. This year, I decided to try Winter-Greens too. While I still use and maintain ImperialWhitetail Clover in other locations with great success,this story is about the attracting power of Winter-Greens. In July, I consulted with a Whitetail Instituteconsultant and a plan was formulated. As is usually thecase, frost hit early in September and the deer beganto use the plot very frequently. My 7 year old daughterAlexis has been very involved in every aspect ofWhitetail Management since she was born. She actual-ly helped fertilize, lime, and seed the Winter-Greensplot with me. Alexis and I hung a double ladder standnear the plot and on many occasions we used thatstand in the pre-season to watch many deer feed in theWintergreens and witnessed a few nice bucks.The first day of Archery season was September 30th.

I don’t know who was more excited, Alexis or me.Unfortunately, the weather was very cold and rainy.Against my better judgment I gave into Alexis’s beg-ging and took her hunting in the rain. We arrived onstand with about 3 hours to hunt before nightfall. Atabout an hour before dark, we saw a nice 7 pointer anda 10 pointer. I immediately realized I should be takingthings more seriously on this hunt. My guard was downin thinking Alexis would not be able to remain quietand still, not to mention be able to sit tight for 3 hours!The 2 bucks fed in the Winter-Greens as we watchedwith our binoculars. At 1/2 hour before dark, Alexissaid, “Daddy, here comes a shooter!” I watched a 9pointer step out of the pine thicket about 30 yardsaway. Alexis said, “Dad, I think you should whack him.”I thought so too. However he began to feed further intothe field and a shot opportunity was not available.Alexis asked if she could use her doe bleat and then thegrunt tube. Normally this early in the season this is notsomething I would be doing. She insisted and I told herto give it a try. She bleated twice and got the bucks’attention. She then made a series of grunts. The buckfolded his ears back and began to paw the ground.After another series of grunts, the buck turned andwalked 75 yards right into to bow range. An importantnote: Alexis was attempting to capture everything onvideo, however she mentioned it was more importantto shoot the buck and needed her hands free to use her


(Continued on page 56


THE WEED DOCTORBy W. Carroll Johnson, III, Ph.D., Agronomist and Weed Scientist

Weed or Seed—Which Came First?

This title brings back memories of my days asa graduate student and the answerless ques-tions posed to me by my instructors and

graduate committee. Questions of this type werenot to see if a student could talk his way into a knotof contradictions, although I can personally attestto that happening. Rather, the question (in this case— the title) was intended to pique the reader’s inter-est in this fascinating aspect of weed ecology sothat the lessons can be applied to managing weeds.Weeds are propagated by seed (annuals and

perennials) or vegetative structures (perennials).For our purposes, I will limit the discussion to seeds,although much of the information is generally appli-cable to perennial weeds as well. Annual weedsflower and produce seed — lots of seed. A singlepigweed can produce approximately 200,000seeds. A large number of weeds in a food plot willproduce astronomical numbers of seed. Someweeds produce large numbers of tiny seed (pig-weeds, annual ragweed, lambsquarters, and crab-grass), while other species produce fewer seed thatare bigger in size (morning glories, cocklebur, andsicklepod/coffeeweed). Some of the weed seedbecome diseased or fall victim to predation byinsects or animals, while others leave the area trans-ported by animals, wind, rainfall, or human activi-ties. Of course, weed seed enter the area the sameway — a constant flow in and out. Seed entering thesoil profile may remain dormant for an extendedperiod of time, until specific environmental condi-tions unlock the code for germination. The dorman-cy code is unique to the genetics of the weedspecies. Add agricultural practices and environmen-tal conditions to the effects of the genetic code andit is easy to see why weed seed dormancy is a com-plicated topic.

WEEDS SHOWING UP IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

To begin this discussion, consider land use pat-terns. It is safe to say that most of the hunting siteswhere food plots are apt to be located have beenplowed and planted to crops at some point in thelast 300 years (during which the North Americancontinent was being settled). While a potential foodplot site may be nestled in the middle of a matureforest, the site probably was not always a matureforest. During the process of old field successionfrom a cultivated field to a forest, the types andnumbers of plants changed with each species pro-ducing seed and contributing to the seedbank. Ofthe weed seed produced, most are lost during thefirst four years. The surviving seed can move down-ward into the soil profile through naturally occur-ring cracks or fissures in the soil, animal burrows, orearthworm tunnels. Buried seed, in the absence of

oxygen and light, can remain dormant for years. Anextreme example is the discovery of viable lupineseed buried for 10,000 years in the permafrost ofYukon Territory in Canada. Of relevance to our inter-est, refer to Table 1 that lists viability of many com-mon weed seeds in controlled burial experiments. It

is easy to see why weeds appear out of nowherethe minute a harrow slices into the soil.

DEPLETING WEED SEED

The dormant weed seed are there in the soil —waiting for the correct temperature, oxygen level,and exposure to light. You can count on it. Based onwhat I previously outlined, it would be prudent tocount on a weed explosion as soon as the site iscleared and tilled. An important strategy used topartially deplete numbers of viable weed seed is theuse of stale seedbed tillage before planting. This isa proactive approach, initiated several weeks ormonths before seeding the forage. Shallow andthorough tillage with a disk harrow or power tillersimultaneously kills weed seedlings and stimulates

TABLE 1. WEED SEED VIABILITY AFTER BURIAL IN NEBRASKA1

Years of burial when seed were exhumed

0 2 6 12 17

Germination (%)

Barnyardgrass 17 58 9 2 0

Large crabgrass 12 45 1 0 0

Yellow foxtail 94 85 56 9 0

Cocklebur 10 59 37 0 1

Lambsquarters 28 35 14 16 7

Jimsonweed 93 93 88 95 90

Redroot pigweed 66 38 9 7 1

Tall waterhemp 40 39 0 14 1

Velvetleaf 15 27 60 29 35

Common mullein 98 88 90 90 95

Musk thistle 44 36 23 0 0

Canada thistle 60 29 25 17 7

Curly dock 76 93 94 73 61

Hemp dogbane 74 13 1 0 0

Horsenettle 0 7 6 4 5

Ivyleaf morning glory 69 10 6 6 3

1Burnside, O. C., R. G. Wilson, S. Weisberg, and K. G. Hubbard. 1996. Seed longevity of 41 weed species buried 17 years in eastern and western Nebraska. Weed Sci. 44:74-86.

Use whatever means are available todeplete the seedbank and prevent weeds

from producing seed. This strategy pays infood plots by giving us a chance to controltroublesome weeds, some of which have

few control options.


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another flush of weeds. Repeating the process again in two weeks controls theemerged weeds and stimulates another batch to germinate. An aggressiveprogram of this type repeated several times at two-week intervals greatlyreduces the weed seedbank in the plow layer. The keys are aggressive tillagethat pulverizes the soil and fastidiously adhering to the two-week intervals ofrepetition. Other production practices, such as incorporating lime and fertiliz-er, can be combined with the stale seedbed tillage to increase efficiency.The stale seedbed tillage approach is generally more effective in weed seed

depletion than using fallow applications of glyphosate (Roundup and gener-ics). Both fallow tillage and glyphosate kill weeds, but tillage stimulates anoth-er flush of weed emergence and glyphosate does not. After all, the intent ofthis broad strategy is to deplete weed seed in the plow layer by using exhaus-tive germination. This does not mean that fallow applications of glyphosateshould be shelved. Fallow applications of glyphosate are a key component inthe management of perennial weeds such as briars, bramble, poison ivy, com-mon bermudagrass, and quackgrass. A reasonable approach is to integrate afallow glyphosate application with the fallow tillage regime. Neither approachto managing stale seedbeds is mutually exclusive.There are advocates of no-till food plots that use specialized grain drills to

plant forages with minimal soil disturbance. In fact, farmers routinely over-seeddormant perennial forage grasses with cool-season grasses or clover to pro-vide winter grazing for livestock. Advocates of no-till question the wisdom ofusing stale seedbed tillage to deplete the weed seedbank since tillage mightstimulate even more weed seed than if left non-disturbed (non-tilled). I cannotargue their logic. However, research has shown that tillage is capable of bury-ing 80 percent of the weed seed located near the soil surface, but returns only38 percent back to the soil surface when tilled again. The point here is thatmore weed seed are buried than retrieved — a net reduction in weed seedswhen tilled. In contrast, sustained no-till crop production causes a rapid build-up of viable weed seeds in the shallow layers of the soil, all primed for rapidgermination and emergence. No-till food plots have a role where weed popu-lations have been previously reduced by intensive weed management, but notin cases where food plots are located on “new ground.”

PREVENTING WEED SEED PRODUCTION

In order to make significant progress in depleting the weed seedbank, pre-venting weed seed production needs to be a high priority. Nebraska studiesshowed that intensive weed control for six seasons in corn, which included noweed seed production, reduced the number of weed seed in the soil by 98 per-cent. Weeds are not very forgiving because in the same study, it took onlythree years of poor weed control before weed seed numbers rebounded towithin half of the original density.Many years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a very successful ‘old school’

farmer in southeastern Georgia who understood the value of not allowingweeds to produce seed. For several decades, entire fields were scoured forweeds that escaped earlier control efforts before they went to seed. Fallowland was routinely tilled to prevent weeds from producing seed. The end resulton his family farm was excellent weed control with few herbicide inputs. Theseprinciples have direct application in food plots. Use whatever means are avail-able to deplete the seedbank and prevent weeds from producing seed. Thisstrategy pays in food plots by giving us a chance to control troublesomeweeds, some of which have few control options.If you are ever asked: Which came first the weed or the seed? Now you

might know the answer—along with more information than you probably caredto know.

ARE THERE WEED SEEDS IN POULTRY MANURE?

With recent surges in the price of synthetic fertilizers, poultry litter is beingtouted as an alternative fertilizer source for food plots. Poultry litter, whetherraw or composted, is indeed an excellent fertilizer. A recurring question is whyweed problems are worse when poultry litter is used as a fertilizer. Casual com-ments suggest that weed seed are present in poultry litter. Research has shownthat poultry litter is basically free of weed seed contaminants. However, poul-try litter stimulates germination and emergence of weeds already present inthe soil. The relationship between weeds and poultry litter will be discussed indetail in the next issue of The Whitetail News. W


DEER NUTRIT ION NOTESBy Matt Harper, Whitetail Institute Deer Nutritionist

Beware of the Pitfalls of SummerNutrition

Summer is a magical time filled with baseball,picnics, and weekends at the lake and fire-works on the 4th of July. It's a time for water-

melon, corn on the cob and the great Americanpastimes of barbecue grilling and sprinkler dancing.Most folks are eager to see summer come andunhappy to see it go. If it weren't for the huntingseason after summer, I would also dread the end ofwarm, sunny months.For the whitetail deer, summer is also a time of

plenty. Fawns have been born and are busy keepingup with their mothers. Bucks are hanging out inbachelor groups, displaying the ever-growing struc-ture of their velvet antlers. Food is normally ample,and the woods and forests have grown thick andgreen, providing large amounts of cover.There is another side of summer, however, that is

often overlooked. Late summer can often be asstressful as late winter if rainfall is deficient, espe-cially if it's coupled with deer overpopulation.Ticks, worms and other parasites are plentiful, sap-ping valuable nutrients and energy from deer. Inthis article, I will examine the intricacies of summerdeer nutrition and provide valuable managementtips for providing your deer the best summer nutri-tion.

SUMMER

Much like spring, summer must be divided intotwo distinct times: early and late. The early summermonths are a time of plenty. The combination oftemperature and moisture (in a typical year) pro-vides a bounty of food options. Browse is at itspeak, with tons of new leafy growth. Further, soft-mast-producing species, such as raspberry and wildcherry, give deer consumptive opportunities every-where. Food plots are in full production, with highlevels of nutrients and the fastest growth rates ofthe year. The second phase of summer is not quiteas abundant. Mid- to late summer is often drier andwith higher temperatures, slowing much of the veg-etation growth. As temperatures increase and mois-ture decreases, vegetation goes into a protectivemode, slowing growth and, in worst-case scenarios,going semi-dormant. Most of the readily availablebrowse is gone, and deer begin to focus on themost heat- and drought-resistant forage they canfind. Summer is also a time for parasites. Hundredsof ticks invade the coat of deer and insert them-selves into the skin, sucking blood and robbing thedeer of much-needed nutrients. Blood transporta-tion is vital for antler growth and lactation, as bloodis the vehicle that transports nutrients to velvetantlers and mammary glands. Internal parasites alsotake their toll on deer health. Worms that haveentered the system during spring are maturing andeating the nutrients intended for deer. Further,

many diseases become apparent during summers,such as bluetongue and epizootic hemorrhagic dis-ease.

NUTRITIONAL NEEDS

Doe nutrition in summer revolves around lacta-tion. In many cases, does are nursing twins or possi-bly triplets, which causes a tremendous nutritionalstrain on the doe. In June and July, does are supply-ing nearly all the food for fawns, as a fawn's rumi-nant stomach structure does not develop until atleast three months after birth. Until then, theesophageal groove bypasses milk and other foodconsumed past the undeveloped rumen and to theabomasum. During that time, does require high lev-els of energy, protein and minerals. Doe milk is verynutrient-dense, demanding a nutrient-dense diet.Protein requirements are as high as 18 percent dur-ing this time. Bucks are also at the peak of produc-tion, as their antlers are putting on as much as ahalf-inch or more per day. This antler growthrequires extremely high levels of minerals, vitamins,energy and digestible protein. The protein require-ment for bucks during this time is a minimum of 16percent. Bucks are not only growing antlers but alsobuilding their body condition in preparation for therigors of rut. To build body condition, bucks needhigh levels of energy, which is supplied by produc-tion of volatile fatty acids, such as propionic andbutyric acid. VFA production comes mostly from

microbial fermentation in the rumen, meaningbucks need access to high-quality forages.

NUTRITIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUMMER

Because of the variances of early and late sum-mer, your food plot program must take into accountthe aspects of both periods of summer. First, high-protein, highly digestible perennials such as ImperialWhitetail Clover, Chicory PLUS, Alfa-Rack Plus,Double-Cross or Extreme are needed to supply aconsistent nutrient source throughout summer. Inpreparation for hotter and drier times, you caninclude a drought-resistant high-producing annualto your food plot program. Imperial PowerPlant is ablend of specifically selected lab-lab, forage peas,soybeans and structural plants, including sunflowersand sorghum. PowerPlant is incredibly droughtresistant and produces enormous amounts of for-age — even during later summer months. Mineraland vitamin supplementation is vital during summerbecause does and bucks require the highest level ofthose nutrients during this period. Imperial 30-06,30-06 Plus Protein and Cutting Edge Optimize areexcellent products, each containing vital mineraland vitamins, formulated in precise amounts fromthe highest-quality ingredients. Which you usedepends on the preference of your deer. Each areattractive to deer but use different types of attrac-tants. Try a sample of each, and let the deer tell youwhich is best in your situation. W

In June and July, does are supplying nearly all thefood for fawns, as a fawn's ruminant stomach structureis not developed until at least three months after birth.

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Biologic’s Wildlife Obsessionand PSE’s Bow Madness!

If all hunting land were createdequal, growing food plots, creat-ing habitat and managing deer

would be as simple as reading arecipe. What worked perfectly inAlabama would shine in Minnesota,and a man in New York could tell hisfriend in Arkansas exactly what to doand not look the fool. Whitetails arewhitetails, dirt is dirt, and trees andbrush look pretty much the same nomatter where you hang your stand.

None of that is true, of course, and that’s one reasonthe process is challenging and fun. Whitetail manage-ment is science and art, with a healthy dose of by-gosh-and-by-golly gumption thrown in for goodmeasure. With that in mind, I talked to four men — allloyal Whitetail Institute customers — from widely dif-ferent regions and asked them to share their stories.Though the men are hardcore hunters and time-testeddeer managers, their situations are unique. Perhapstheir successes and mistakes will help you as you man-age your property.

Lyle Stine:Heartland HavenCentral Illinois is also Whitetail Central — a place

known for monster bucks and some of the richestfarmland on Earth. But Lyle Stine, who co-owns andmanages a 320-acre tract there, knows that managingdeer property is a challenge — even in a region somehunters consider paradise.“It took us a few years to realize that one of the

most important things to do is keep the deer in goodshape through the winter,” he said. “There is foodeverywhere when the crops are up, but after the har-vest it can get tough for deer. A while back, the alfal-fa fields on an adjoining tract were idled when a newowner took over. The deer on that property justflocked to our food plots.”Stine’s property includes woods, tillable acres,

Conservation Reserve Program land and a brushy 10-acre tract that he cleared so that he could plantWhitetail Institute products.“I’ve been a field tester since 1989 and have planted


Successful Whitetail Management Varies

Region By RegionBy Scott Bestul

Photos by the Author

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just about everything,” he said. “It takes a lot of exper-imenting to find out what grows best and what thedeer like. You can read all you want to about this stuff,but the only way to know what works and how togrow it is to get out there and do it yourself. I helpWhitetail Institute with research by testing productsfor them before they are made available to the public.I’ve tried several [Whitetail Institute] products thatfailed, and I told them. Those products never saw astore shelf.”Late spring finds Stine and his family getting seed in

the ground.“We’ve found that if it’s not planted by June 1 here,

it’s very tough to get good germination, unless I’mplanting a specific fall mixture,” he said. “And it’s impor-tant to match the type of seed you plant to the kind ofsoil you have. On our 10-acre plot, the western half isgood, flat bottom soil. I plant Imperial Whitetail Cloverthere, along with strips of other things I’m experiment-ing with. The eastern half is sloped and drains well;there I put out Alfa-Rack Plus.”In addition to his wooded ground, Stine finds that

CRP fields provide excellent bedding cover and animportant food source.“We’re able to mow our CRP after August 1,” he said.

“So I mow a strip around the edge, right up against thewoods. There must be enough alfalfa or clover growingin there because that small strip really attracts deer inthe first weeks of archery season. That’s an excellenttime for us to shoot does, and we try to take 25 to 30of them each year.”Stine emphasizes antlerless harvest for two principal

reasons.“I’ve gotten to the point where I’m more concerned

with the health of the herd than I am with shooting abig buck,” he said. “I want the deer to be healthy andthe herd to be in tune with the habitat. But shootingdoes means better buck hunting, too. The hardermature bucks have to work to breed, the more visibleand active they’ll be. When you see a 180-inch bucktrotting through a food plot in the middle of the dayduring the peak of the rut — which happened to us justlast fall — it’s pretty exciting stuff.”

Dave McGlone:North Woods MagicNorthern Michigan can be a harsh, unforgiving place

for a whitetail. But that hasn’t stopped Dave McGlonefrom doing all he can to help his deer herd live up to itspotential.“There are a lot of challenges up here,” he said.

“Weather is one; we’ve had years when the winter wasso tough it nearly wiped out our herd. And local hunt-ing pressure is intense. There’s still a strong shoot-any-buck mentality that has been hard to change, andit is made tougher by the fact that there are a lot ofsmall parcels of land. People are reluctant to pass ona buck, knowing that it could get shot on the nextproperty.”McGlone said hunting attitudes are changing. In the

meantime, his management practices have alreadyimproved hunting for him and his son, Nathan.“One of the first things I did that showed immediate

results was using 30-06 Plus Protein mineral,” he said.“I start putting it down early, as soon as the snow goes

away. I want it down there as soon as the deer need it.If I can’t find a natural lick, I’ll create one in an areawithout any vegetation and sprinkle two-thirds of abag on the ground. Then I really rake it in, so that youcan’t see the mineral anymore. To finish, I pour the restof the bag out on the ground. One thing I’ve learned isthat the deer dictate where the lick is. If they don’t hitone I make, I just move over 50 feet and start again. Ithink something in the soil sometimes just doesn’ttaste right to them because moving slightly can makea big difference.”Food plots also perform an important function in

attracting deer to and holding them on the propertiesMcGlone manages.“Basically, Imperial Clover and No-Plow are what

grows best here, and I time my plantings according tothe recommendations,” he said. “But after that, I go alittle crazy. We also have some very poor, sandy, acidicsoil here; you can lime the heck out of it and be back tolow pH in two years. So I lime it as well as I can — it’stough to get in my spots because they’re so remote —and disc it all in. A lot of locals, some of them farmers,see what I’m doing and laugh. But when they comeback and see a beautiful, ankle-deep clover field full ofdeer, they ask me for advice.”Because of the heavily-wooded terrain, most of

McGlone’s food plots are small.“I have 20 plots to work each year, and my biggest is

just under four acres,” he said. “Most are in that 1/2- toone- acre range. We hire a dozer guy to just carve themout of the woods. It would be nice to have a nice, flat,straight field where you could bring in a big tractor, butI have a New Holland 30-horsepower and a heavy disc.You could do some of the work with an ATV, but you’d

The powerful appeal of Magnet Mix is now available in a handy, 4-part block. Just break apart the block and place the sections wherever you want the deer to gather. In addition to being enormously attractive to deer, the formula in the 4-Play block contains a combination of essential vitamins and minerals. Four times the attraction in the block; four times the deer activity on your property.

The Whitetail Institute239 Whitetail Trail Pintlala, AL 36043

Because of the Magnet Mix line’s incredible attractiveness, some states may consider it bait. Remember to check your local game laws before hunting over Magnet Mix products.

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5 yards 50 yards 100 yards


have to make a million passes. And some of this groundis just wet and nasty. You need heavier gear to get thejob done.”

Gary Chamlee:Southern StyleNorthern Alabama is textbook, Deep South whitetail

country full of timbered ridges, gnarly sidehills andbottom fields that can grow a bumper crop ... or gobust as fast as you can break a sweat in August. That'swhere Gary Chamlee manages a deer herd on 700acres containing 50 food plots.“I’m like most hunters; I’ll try any gimmick at least

once,” Chamlee said with a laugh. “I’ve tried all theother food plot brands, but Whitetail Institute is whatworks here. It’s the buck-drawingest stuff I’ve everseen. But like everything else, you have to do the rightthings to be successful.”And it should be noted Chamlee knows how to make

seeds grow. Raised on a farm, he’s intimately familiarwith the challenges of soil types and weather.“We can go four to six weeks in late summer with-

out a drop of rain,” he said. “That’s why they recom-mend you not plant Imperial Whitetail Clover here inAlabama until early fall. But I can’t wait that long; Iwant those bachelor groups to find my place in earlysummer and stay there. I plant in late spring, so whenthose bucks find me, that clover is 10 to 12 inches tall.I’ve watched 22 bucks on one field during summer, soI guess it's working.”Like most successful food plotters, Chamlee is

Getting big bucks with big racks takes an exceptionallynutritious forage, and that can be hard to grow in hilly areaswith lighter soils. Alfa-Rack Plus solves this problem. Theextensive root structure of Alfa-Rack Plus allows you togrow this high-protein forage in areas that might other-wise be inhospitable to the foods deer like best. Alfa-RackPlus includes our special blend of alfalfas, chicory, andImperial Whitetail Clover. When the buck you are after isKing of the Hill, make sure the hill is planted in Alfa-Rack Plus.

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Research = Results.

Food plots perform an importantfunction in attracting deer, likethis fine buck, and holding them

on properties.

Imperial Whitetail Clover changed deer nutrition forever. Now after years of painstaking research, the Whitetail Institute has addednewly developed Insight clover to our super-nutritious blend of clovers. Insight is genetically formulated specifically for whitetail deer.With the highest level of protein available, up to 35%, Imperial Whitetail Clover provides optimal nutrition throughout the year for the entire herd. Whether your deer are producing and feeding their young or building antlers, Imperial Whitetail Clover provides them with the nutrients they need to do it well.

And when the deer get what they need to maintain healthy herds and grow big healthy bucks with impressive racks, you increase your odds of bagging record-setting deer. For decades now, deer hunters all over North America have enjoyed the results of our innovative and aggressive approach to deer nutrition, and have planted over a million acres of Imperial Whitetail products. All those years of research continues to produce results – in the fields and in the record books.We do the research. You see the results.

Since it’s introduction in 1988, Imperial Whitetail Clover has become the standard by which other food plot products are judged.

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meticulous about soil testing and preparation.“Growing up on a farm taught me the importance of

lime,” he said. “It just makes plants sweeter. Right afterthat, I fertilize, then use a disc harrow to work that intothe soil, and then level the field. I do have to mowweeds to keep them down. But I’ve learned to be care-ful and wait until right after a rain. I ruined a beautifulclover field once because I mowed it when it was hotand dry. Now I don’t care if the weeds get knee-high onme. I just wait for the rain, then go right out and mow,and that clover is just beautiful.”Hunting over greenfields is a popular tactic in

Chamlee’s area, but he takes a different tack on thetechnique.“As soon as the guns go off, my neighbors complain

that they don’t see deer on their food plots,” he said. “Idon’t have that problem. I set up my greenfields next todense cover and keep them skinny and 300 yards orlonger. I set up my shooting houses so I can sneak inand out of them undetected, and I always hunt with thewind. Also, when my friends hunt here, they hunt withme; there’s no one just wandering around. That’s madea huge difference.”Chamlee’s results have been impressive. He’s placed

at least six bucks in the state record books, andAlabama’s liberal limits have let him shoot manymature bucks. But the amiable deer manager is just asproud of the health of his deer herd.“I’ll shoot 10 deer a year that weigh more than 200

pounds, and that’s saying something around here,” hesaid. “It’s been a lot of fun for me, and I look forward tosharing it with my grandchildren. One of them killed hisfirst deer with me last year, and that was special.”

30-06 mineral/vitaminsupplements arethe best products

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Mark Rutledge:Keystone CapersMost hunters create food plots to feed deer or shoot

them. Mark Rutledge had a much simpler goal when hestarted the practice on 320 acres in southwesternPennsylvania.“I just wanted to see deer,” he said. “Our timber was

so thick that I couldn’t assess our deer population. Wecut an eight-acre field in the middle of the woods, morefor observation than hunting purposes.”The food plot helped Rutledge realize that things

needed to change.“We figured out our doe-to-buck ratio was about 20-

to-1,” he said. “It was just out of control. We got into theDMAP (Deer Management Assistance Program) so wecould get more antlerless tags, and then we hammeredthe does. We try to harvest every mature doe we see,and the meat we can’t eat goes straight to a donationprogram. It’s made a world of difference. The ratio isdown to close to 2-to-1 now, and we’ve been able toget a lot of bucks into the 3-1/2-year-old age class.Some of those bucks are pretty impressive.”Aggressive food plotting and timber management

have improved nutrition and natural habitat, as well.“We do regular TSI (timber stand improvement)

cuts, and that’s a huge benefit, both to the deer coverand as an income-generator,” Rutledge said. “The cor-nerstone of our food plot program is Imperial WhitetailClover. It took a while to get the soil right, though.When we cleared the timber, the pH was in the low 5s,and it took a lot of lime to get it up to the mid 6s. I plant

it in April or August. We’ve tried frost-seeding, but thetiming here has to be perfect. I used to mow to controlweeds, but it could only do so much. Now we useArrest or Slay, and it’s been perfect. I wait until thegrasses and weeds get about four to six inches tall andthen hit them. It just knocks them out and there’s noaffect on the clover at all.”In addition to clover, Rutledge plants strips of other

forages to supplement the whitetail diet.“I’ve had good success with Chicory Plus, which is

really drought-tolerant, as well as PowerPlant,” he said.“And last year, I put in Winter-Greens, which also didwell. A lot of people say you need long, skinny foodplots in order to see deer during the day on them, butI think location is much more important. If the fieldcan’t be observed from a road and is near thick cover,bucks will continue to feed during daylight hours.Human disturbance is responsible for bucks gettingshy around food plots.”Despite the tremendous success his family has

enjoyed, Rutledge has learned that deer managementrequires realistic expectations.“We’ve been able to produce really good 3-1/2-year-

old bucks, but getting them beyond that level is verydifficult,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount ofpressure on neighboring properties, and trespassing isan ongoing and frustrating problem. We had a reallynice bunch of those bucks running around last fall, andthey just got hammered. I’ve learned that it’s importantto have realistic expectations in line with your proper-ty, not only where it exists but the size of it. That’s theonly way to make sure you’re having fun.” WScott Bestul, the author, smiles as he looks at this

great bow-kill buck.


The Whitetail Institute’sWinter-Greensbrassica blend has

been on the market for twoyears. Has it been a success?Without question, the answeris a resounding, “Yes!” In fact,Winter-Greens is well on theway to dominating thebrassica food-plot market.Let’s look at why.

Actually, the reason is very simple. It’s becauseWinter-Greens is an incredibly superior forage productfor deer. The brassicas in Winter-Greens are not stan-dard brassica varieties. Instead, they are lettuce-typebrassicas, which have a vegetable genetic base. Theselettuce brassicas are vastly more tender, palatable andattractive to deer. In fact, tests of Winter-Greens along-side other brassica blends continue to show that deerprefer Winter-Greens 4 to 1.

You may ask yourself, “How can that be? How canone all-brassica blend outperform other all-brassicaproducts by 400%? Since they’re all brassicas, how canthat be possible?“ If you’ve asked that question, youare assuming that all brassicas are the same. Let meassure you — they aren’t!Remember the old commercial on TV where the old

guy says, “Motor oil is motor oil” just before his car’sengine blows up? I may be showing my age here, but I

remember it. The point of the commercial was that allmotor oils are not the same — that some outperformothers. The very same thing is true of brassicas — allbrassicas are not the same, and the lettuce-types bras-sicas in Winter-Greens are truly preferred by deer.Anyone familiar with the history of the Whitetail

Institute knows that the Institute is the leader of thefood-plot industry. The thing that got it there, and thatkeeps it there, is the fundamental principle that gov-

Once again Research=Results at theWhitetail Institute.We areproud to introduce, Imperial Whitetail Winter-Greens, our newannual brassica blend designed specifically for late season foodplot sources and hunting opportunities. Winter-Greens blendof brassica is extremely attractive, and during tests waspreferred 4 to 1 over other brassica products. Winter-Greensstands tall and stays green, even in the coldest winter weather.The colder it gets the more sweet and attractive it becomeswhich creates perfect food plots for late season hunting. So thisyear plant our highly drought resistant Winter-Greens andgiveyourdeeravaluablesourceofnutrients for thewinter season.

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Winter-Greens:The best of the brassicas

By Jon Cooner


erns all the Institute’s research, development and test-ing of potential new products: the Whitetail Institutewill never release a new product until it is absolutelycertain that is the very best that they can make it.And be sure you understand this critical point: the

Whitetail Institute doesn’t stop development and test-ing of a new product once it will outperform the com-petition. New products have to go farther — much far-ther. Every new product has to satisfy the WhitetailInstitute that it is the best that the Institute can make,and that is a much higher standard! In fact, their com-mitment to testing new products against their ownabilities rather than just against the competition is thesingle biggest reason for Winter-Greens’ superiorityover competing products. Let’s look at why.The Whitetail Institute has been testing and market-

ing brassicas since the early 1990s. In fact, theInstitute’s Imperial No-Plow blend was the first nation-ally branded product to include brassicas.When the Whitetail Institute started testing brassica

varieties during the initial research-and-developmentstages of Winter-Greens, it started with a goal. Thatgoal was to produce a forage blend that would behighly attractive to deer and provide forage even in thecold winter months.Protein is a critical nutrient for deer, but it is at its

most important during spring and summer when bucksare re-growing antlers, does are in the later stages ofpregnancy and, even later, producing milk for theirfawns. In the fall and winter, though, protein is not near-ly as important a nutritional element as it is during thespring and summer. That’s not to say Winter-Greens isnot highly nutritious — it certainly is! In fact, the proteincontent of Winter-Greens is as high as 30% or higher.However, because Winter-Greens is designed for falland winter when natural food sources are scarce andmost food-plot plantings may be exhausted, theInstitute’s main goals when developing Winter-Greenswas to create a blend that would provide abundant,highly attractive forage for deer during the coldestwinter months and be the most attractive brassicaproduct available.Once the Institute identified its main goals for the

new product, the research and development teammoved on to the next stage of product development:

selecting candidate brassica varieties to test all acrossNorth America. These candidates included brassicavarieties that were already well know and others thatwere not. This is the same approach the Institute hasfollowed all the way back to the very first clover vari-eties its first Director of Forage Research, Dr. WileyJohnson, selected for breeding Imperial WhitetailClover. for breeding stock Dr. Johnson selected candi-date clovers from the U.S. commodities market,Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.This is the same approach the Institute took when

selecting potential candidates for a new, all-brassicablend that would carry the Imperial name. They didn’tjust start with well-known varieties for breeding-stockcandidates. They looked at everything — varieties thatwere well-known, and others that weren’t.Choosing candidate brassica varieties that were

well-known in the U.S. was pretty easy. Standard bras-sicas had been included in food-plot blends for years.In fact, the Institute tested these brassica varietiesbefore they were even introduced to the food-plotmarket in North America, but it elected not to releasean all-brassica blend at that time because theInstitute’s early focus on research and developmentwas to create a food-plot planting that would providedeer with year-round forage that was highly attractiveand nutritious. The Institute’s early tests of standardbrassicas quickly showed that they were not the bestcandidates to meet those goals because they werehighly attractive to whitetails for only a brief period ofthe year, following the first hard frost of fall.Although standard brassicas did not meet the

Whitetail Institute’s early research and developmentgoals, the Institute did find a great use for them.Because they do become sweeter after the first frost offall, standard brassicas have been used as a componentin some of the Institute’s forage products ever since1993, specifically those blends the Institute intentional-ly designed to provide deer with multiple plant vari-eties, each of which performs best at a different timeduring the life of the plot.The key to the overwhelming superiority of Winter-

Greens, though, lies in the other brassica varieties theWhitetail Institute gathered as test candidates — thosethat were not already well-known in North America.These included unique brassica types that, unlike stan-dard brassicas, have a vegetable genetic base. These“lettuce-type” brassicas are so attractive to whitetailsthat it’s almost unfair to compare them to standard-brassica blends on the market today.

Like all brassica varieties, the lettuce brassicas inWinter-Greens are also at their sweetest after the firsthard frost of fall. However, the Whitetail Institute real-ized early on in the development and testing of thenew Winter-Greens blend that deer often utilizedWinter-Greens even earlier, and Field Testers all acrossNorth America continue to confirm that. Even here inAlabama, where temperatures often don’t dip belowthe freezing mark until November or even December, ithas been found in many cases that deer heavily utilizeWinter-Greens plots as early as September.That’s why in all honesty, the overwhelming success

of Winter-Greens is not surprising. Like all forageblends that bear the name “Imperial Whitetail,” you canbe assured that it contains the very best product theWhitetail Institute could make. That’s why the WhitetailInstitute remains the industry leader.More information on Winter-Greens is available on-

line at http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/products/win-tergreens/. W

Features

Dennis Shimp — IllinoisI’m writing to add to your numerous accounts of the

benefits of using the Imperial Whitetail Clover and 30-06 Mineral supplements. I’m enclosing “proof” thatreveals why I’m a “believer”. This deer will probably bemy largest archery harvest of my life having scored 1724/8 gross and just shy of 160 net (B&C). You will haveto forgive the blood stains as in my excitement to takepictures I didn’t take time to “clean-up” for photos!

Ken Southworth — IowaPrior to using Imperial Whitetail Clover we sawmost-

ly does on this farm until the rut. The big boys seemedto live elsewhere and only showed up for the rut. Nowwe are seeing big racks year-round, and many morethan before! This season I’ve actually seen more bucksthan does for the first time. And I’m passing up bucksthat most people would love to shoot because thereare other real “monsters” running around! I’ve encloseda photo of a 141 inch bow kill.

Mike Maine — KansasI use Imperial Whitetail Clover, Alfa-Rack Plus,

Chicory PLUS and 30-06 Minerals and since the intro-duction of these products and incorporating “basic”whitetail management practices I continue to enjoyincreased numbers of deer with much higher quality

deer and much higher levels of deer activity. I took this167 inch bruiser at 28 yards on my 82 acre farm.

Phillip Bennett — MichiganJust wanted to send you a picture of some of the

success I had this season with 30-06 Mineral and a fieldI planted of Imperial No-Plow. I believe the productshave helped us have a lot of success in getting trophydeer to come close enough for bow shots. I shot thisone with a bow at 30 yards on November 13th last yearin Washtenaw County, MI. He was chasing does thatwere at my 30-06 lick. He is a twelve point with a 18.5

inch spread. He had a live weight of 205 pounds. Thisone will make the record book. Unofficial green score is144 2/3. I also bow shot an 8 point on October 15thfrom the same tree stand, but it does not compare tothis one. This has been my best year of hunting since Istarted hunting about 35 years ago. Many thanks forthe proven products that the Whitetail Institute hasperfected over the years.

Bob Smola — MichiganAlfa-Rack Plus is the best product to date that I’ve

tried. Increased deer numbers.They just hammered thestuff. Neighbors got jealous real quick. They just were

not seeing the deer. I’m seeing bigger bodied bucks,does and fawns. In 1998 I finally got smart and startedmanaging the property for bigger bucks. My buck-doeratio was out of whack, so we started harvesting moredoes and letting the bucks mature. Enclosed is a pic-ture of the deer we have harvested in the last eightyears. Not too bad from only 86 acres. I’m anxious totry the Chic Magnet. In the picture, that’s me in themiddle. My brother (Ed Smola) is on the left and Ed’sson (Travis Smola) is on the right. The bucks from leftto right, Ed’s shotgun buck, and my 3 bow kills andTravis with his two shotgun bucks. All deer taken in oraround Imperial plots.

Larry Woodward — MissouriWe planted Chicory PLUS and Winter-Greens this

past fall on our Missouri and Illinois farms and althoughit was dry they both came up great and grew like crazy.The last week of October on my Missouri ground I wasable to kill a 156 inch 10 point on Chicory PLUS. (Photo1).Also my friend and business partner Bob Richardson

killed a 185 inch 10 point (Photo 2) on the same field


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about the last week of November. When Bob killed hisdeer there was a foot of snow and ice on the field. Thebuck came in amazingly enough at 2:30 in the after-noon. It shows what having the right food planted cando.Photo 3 shows two bucks Scott Schultz and I took

the opening morning of the Illinois shotgun season.Scott’s deer scored 155 inches and mine scored 174 4/8inches. We had deer piling into the Winter-Greens andChicory PLUS all fall and winter.We followed theWhitetail Institute’s advice on plant-

ing. We did soil tests and added the right amount oflime, and our results have exceeded our expectations.We will be planting even more next year. Thanks for thehelp and the products.

Craig Dougherty — New YorkThis buck is one of the finest bucks ever taken at our

hunting ground, Kindred Spirits. He and a two and ahalf year old 8pt. were hot on the trail of a very tiredand harassed doe. She led them past my stand over-looking an out-of-the-way plot of Extreme, and the restis history.He is one of three or four “shooters” my son, Neil had

photographed on food plot cameras he set up in earlySeptember. We photographed him on a Chicory PLUSplot in mid-September and again on a Winter-Greensplot in mid-October. He was “living large” on food plotforages.“Shooters” for us are mature bucks generally aged 3

1/2 or older. We believe this buck is 4 1/2 years old. Hescored 140 with terrific mass, but the real excitementcame when we hoisted him on the scale. His live weight

was 250 pounds — fully fifty pounds heavier than anybuck taken on our property to date. With our empha-sis on habitat management, weight is really importantto us.The key to hunting mature bucks on small properties

is “keeping bucks close to home”. This big guy andthree or four of his buddies had been enjoying our foodplots all spring and summer. With plenty of food andcover, there was no reason for them to ever leave our500 acre property.2006 was our first year we planted Whitetail

Institute products on our property. Our weights are up,our racks are bigger and our mature deer are stayinghome. Our deer aren’t the only ones “living large” atKindred Spirits.

Chad Daniels — North Carolina

I am sending this to let you know how impressed Iam with the Extreme Product. I planted a two acre plotin Central NC and am pleased to send you this storyand picture of my first P&Y deer. I was hunting over thefood plot Monday, September 10th 2007. The temper-ature was 101 degrees but the bucks started pouringinto the plot about an hour before dark. I had passedon four other bucks before this one came in on thesame trail as the others. I noticed when I first saw himcoming through the brush that he was a mature deerso I prepared myself for a shot. I drew as he got within30 yards and made a good shot right behind the deer’sleft shoulder. It was when he spun to exit the plot thatI realized how big he really was. He ran across the fieldand piled up within 20 yards of the field. ThanksWhitetail Institute for a great product that works evenin extreme conditions.

Mike Connett — OhioI have been using Whitetail Institute products for

years and have been inspired by their positive effectson the herd. These products attract more deer than anyother product I have used. Not to mention the nourish-ment they provide to the herd. This area has greatgenetics. But as you all know deer can only reach theirfull potential eating the “Right Stuff.” And it’s been

proven to me that the Whitetail Institute has a line offood plot products that are the “Right Stuff’ for theherd. Last spring I also planted Chicory PLUS for thefirst time. We had a very dry summer and I was afraiddue to the drought and the heavy grazing from thedeer that this newly established plot was going to fail.Was I surprised when the rains finally came. Take a lookat the 136 inch P & Y gross eight point in the pictureand you will see just how good this plot looked when Iharvested this buck in late October. And it looks asgood right now. As a matter of fact there are nineteenturkeys feeding in it as I write this note. My favoriteWhitetail Institute product is still Imperial WhitetailClover. Please pass on my appreciation to all theWhitetail Institute Team. I’m proud to tell others that Iam a Whitetail Institute Field Tester. And I will continueto use and promote these products as the “Right Stuff”for bigger and healthier deer.

Mike Richardson —WisconsinWe have attracted more deer with Imperial Whitetail

Clover — many more — we’ve seen them walk acrossother products to get to the Imperial. They love it. Wesee more bucks. This buck was taken by Ralph Kilbywho has hunted with us for 20 years. Ralph arrowedthis guy last November near a food plot with ImperialNo-Plow. 23” outside spread. W


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Send Us Your Photos!Do you have a photo of a buck that qualifies for the Pope & Young,Boone and Crockett or your state record books that you grew ortook with the help of Imperial products? Send it to us and youmightfind it in the Record Book Bucks section of the next issue of White-tail News. Send your photo and a 3 to 4 paragraph story telling howyou harvested the deer and the role our products played to:

Whitetail News, Attn: Record Book Bucks239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043

New YorkHunterShares

SuccessfulQDM

PracticesBy Russell Nitchman

Photos by the Author

In August 2000, my wife and I purchased a 104-acre parcel in upstate New York. At that point, Iwas an average hunter who had read about quali-

ty deer management in magazines. I had bought intomany of the ideas, mostly because of the larger bucksthat QDM can produce.Since I was a teenager, I had dreamed of killing a

trophy buck. But after buying my land, my reasons forpracticing QDM have expanded beyond tagging a tro-phy to include improving habitat for whitetails,turkeys and other animals. Before owning my land, Ididn't have a place to practice QDM and knew no onewho did. I had no idea where this would lead me. ButI have no regrets, and it has been an exciting adven-ture.When I bought my property, it consisted of a

swampy area, an uncut hay field, a small piece ofwooded mountainside and two smaller fields under-going succession by shrubs. There were already somenice bucks in the area. A neighbor had killed arespectable 10-pointer and a smaller 10-pointer thefirst year. Still, most of the bucks were yearlings, car-rying their first set of antlers.

GETTING TO WORK

I began my QDM program by planting two fieldswith two and three acres of Imperial Whitetail Clover.I had taken the soil samples, and with my experienceof working on a farm as a youth and teachingAgricultural Science in high school, I had a good

understanding of basic agricultural practices. My soilswere quite acidic, with pH ranging from 4.6 to 5.2. Theprevious owner had not limed or taken proper care ofthe soil. I put out two to three tons of lime per acre onmy fields, hiring a local Ag business that sold andapplied lime.That first application brought the pH to about 6.0.

The Imperial Clover germinated and thrived, thoughthe improvement was far from ideal. The next year, Iagain called in the lime truck and added another twotons per acre. Meanwhile, I began work to reclaim asecluded five-acre field, which also had low pH. I limedit heavily. By the third year, I put down my final limeapplication on all the fields. Six months later, my soiltests revealed improved pH — about 6.5 to 7 — on allthe fields.Even at first, the Imperial Whitetail Clover I planted

had done very well, even in the lower-pH soils. Theimproved pH level was ideal. At spring green-up andlate August, I applied 300 pounds per acre of 0-40-10fertilizer to my fields.When I bought the farm, I also bought an old 68-

horsepower diesel tractor. I began to add equipmentas fast as I could afford it. First was the medium-dutybrush hog. By the way, one of my biggest mistakeswas cutting too much brush. Deer love brush and needit for bedding areas. In one field, I cut all the brush andcreated a great food plot that left deer with no near-by thick bedding areas. That was a big mistake. Now,the edges of that field are uncut, and I have plantedtrees and encourage thick growth.


Here is a 120-inch 10-pointer taken inDecember 2007 by the author on the

southern 5 acre food plot.

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The past three years, I added a york rake, three-pointspreader, three-bottom plow, 12-foot cultipacker and14-foot boom sprayer. My local farmer lets me borrowhis 12-foot disk when I need it. Other than that and adrill to put large seeds directly into the ground, I thinkI've finally obtained all the equipment I need.I use a commercial walk-behind broadcast spreader

that I push to sow small seeds, such as Imperial Clover,Alfa-Rack and Winter-Greens. I believe I have a lotmore control over the thickness of the applicationwhen I walk behind the spreader and watch the seedshit the soil. It’s more work than using a tractor spread-er, but a tractor spreader is not nearly as controllable. Iuse the tractor spreader for larger seeds, such asPowerPlant. I get great results sowing my seeds thatway.I planted half the Imperial Clover seed with winter

wheat and rye in the fall. In early spring, when groundwas still thawing and re-freezing, I went back over itwith the rest of the clover seed. That frost seeding dida great job of putting seed into good contact with thesoil. Then, in late May or early June, I cut the wheat andrye down, leaving lush, dense clover.Before I plant, I disk the seedbed, smooth it with the

cultipacker, spread the seed, and run over it again withthe cultipacker.I also learned to plant my fields in strips. Rather than

one large five-acre field with one great crop in it, Imixed it into strips 30-feet wide. I plant corn, thenImperial Clover, then Winter-Greens and then PowerPlant. While on stand, I contemplate how to plant thefield next season. “How can I improve it?” I ask. Thatmight be the best part of managing fields for deer.I planted apple trees my first year, and they are final-

ly beginning to produce a few apples. This past winter,I released six mature apple trees along field edges byheavily pruning and fertilizing them. I planted 27 appletrees and seven pear trees the past two years. I havetried to enhance my woodlands by planting oaks withprotective cages around them. In addition, I planted100 Northern cedars, better known as arborvitae. Igrow them in five-foot-tall concrete-wire cages.Whatever plant parts grow through the six-inchsquares of the wire is for deer to eat in winter. Theinside portions remain alive and let the plant regrow inspring.

THE FUN STUFF

My Whitetail Institute food plots became an instantmagnet to deer. A neighbor has a bow stand on theedge of a field planted in Alfa-Rack, and he said, “I canget a doe any evening just by going over to that bowstand!”He’s pretty much correct. On four of the past six

opening evenings of bow season, he has taggedmature does. My most productive stand is on the two-acre field where I had mistakenly brush hogged thedense cover.The food plots have involved work and definitely

cost money. And it’s worth every penny. It’s awesometo look out in the fields during summer and watch deerpour into them. To see three mature bucks come to thesame field, as I did one early August morning this pastyear, is even better.Because my property is only 104 acres, I cannot

expect to hold deer exclusively, though I still try to. Ihave worked to educate my neighbors on QDM, and to

Nitchman sometimes uses a commercial walk-behindbroadcast spreader he pushes.


shoot does and let small bucks walk. One has boughtinto it, but another rejects it. A neighbor across theroad enthusiastically practices QDM. In 2002, just twoyears into the QDM program, my friend Josh shot anice 2-1/2-year-old buck. My neighbor who embracesQDM killed a large buck with a 19-inch spread in 2004.In 2005, good friend and fellow teacher FrankGrunseich shot the largest buck on my property at thattime. He rattled the deer out of a swamp just before 4p.m. during the opening day of gun season. The nice,heavy 8-pointer had a rack just to the ends of his ears.it was perfectly symmetrical — a beautiful specimen ofwhat a well-fed buck should look like after 2-1/2 years.Also in 2005, fellow QDMer Jerry Moore convinced

me to purchase two digital cameras. Even though Istarted late in summer, I took hundreds of pictures. Wesawmany good bucks that year, but none were mature.This past season was different. I had learned where andhow to film deer on my property. The cameras wentout in mid-July, and we identified four mature buckswith antlers outside their ears. Three frequented myproperty regularly. I attribute this to the food plots andhabitat improvements I've made.The secluded five-acre field has become my honey-

hole. A friend tagged an antlerless deer there on theevening of opening day two seasons ago. The field hasa smorgasbord of forges, including Power Plant,Imperial Clover and Winter-Greens. My friend said thefield was full of deer.

FATEFUL EVENING

After that hunt, we avoided the field until the lategun season. With little pressure, a great food source,

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Research = Results.

During the past couple of years, Nitchman’s management plan has finally come together to create a property of which he’salways dreamed. Winter-Greens (pictured above) has become a big part of the plan.


great bedding areas and the second rut, thingslooked promising.The evening of Dec. 9, I planned to slip out into

a stand along the edge at the midpoint of thefood plot. From there, I could reach almost theentire field with my 12-gauge. The field is sur-rounded on three sides by thick bedding areasand the mountain on the fourth.I quietly slipped into the stand at about 2:30

p.m., well before sunset. The wind was out of thewest. Just as the sun went over the horizon, thesteady winds decreased and then came out of thesouth, which is ideal for hunting that setup.It seemed like forever until the first doe entered

the field about 4:30 p.m. She was in a group ofthree: twomature does and a fawn. Five or 10 min-utes later, another mature doe entered. Five min-utes later, another mature doe came, and later asixth joined them. From behind me, I heard thedistinctive crunching of leaves as deerapproached. Remaining motionless, I caughtmovement as five deer passed beneath my standand moved toward the field. I watched the groupease across the field and split up to consume theirfavorite food.I’m not sure whether it was the sound of

crunching leaves or simply movement in myperipheral vision, but I looked to my left and sawa mature buck headed right at me. Moving quick-ly and with purpose, he turned 90 degrees to hisleft and walked into the field. He did not hesitateat the field’s edge to stop and check it out. The 11antlerless deer eating seemed to be all he needed.My hands were already on the gun, ready for a

Abi Nitchman shows off her beautiful 6-pointer taken in the southern 5-acre food plot. “This was exciting...I’m glad that Icame,” she said.

shot. I slowly moved the gun to my shoulder and found the buck in the scope. He waswalking through a small shooting lane. Not feeling comfortable about taking a walk-ing shot and not being in a rush, I picked the next opening. When he entered the sec-ond shooting lane, one of the does bleated. He took two more quick steps, stoppedand snapped his head back around toward me. I could tell that the 50-yard shot wasgood as he took off across the field with difficulty. He tore for the far corner of thefield but disappeared in the PowerPlant about 30 yards from the edge of the field.Does ran past him and left the field. There was no sign of the buck. He was down.Later, my hunting buddies drove the truck across the large field to my area. Two

remaining deer cleared the field, and I climbed down. We found the buck with noproblem. The 3-1/2-year-old 10-pointer was the largest deer killed from the property.Checking my digital cameras, I found eight pictures of that deer.The cameras told me there were two larger bucks on the property. The largest, a

split G-2 10-pointer, was captured on pictures opening morning and a week into theseason. My cameras are positioned to capture his movements after the season. I thinkboth deer are still alive.

MY DAUGHTER’S BUCK KILL

What an evening! With high hopes my daughter and I returned to our farm. (I livein NY City, 230 miles away from my farm). My goal was to harvest some deer, butmore importantly, get my daughter Abigail her first gun deer. In the back of my mindI thought there might be an outside chance of harvesting a trophy buck as well.That Saturday evening was the best time for hunting that I have ever experienced.

The rut was over, there were 8 inches of snow on the ground, and a large cold frontwas heading in. The wind was out of the southeast, which made hunting the south-ern 5-acre food plot the place to be. Abigail and I climbed together into a woodenbox with our muzzleloaders in hand for the evening hunt. At 3:45 p.m. the first deer,two smaller 1-1/2year old bucks and a doe, showed up. Moments later I shot the doe.We remained in the stand as I figured more deer would be coming. By 4:20 p.m.

more deer began to appear. Within minutes we had deer coming from the north toour left and a larger group from the south to our right. This time I would wait until asuitable deer got closer to Abigail for a better shot. What amazed me the most wasthat 1/3 to 1/2 of the more than 30 deer that entered the food plot in the next 30 min-utes were antlered bucks. My neighbor had killed seven bucks already. I figured mostbucks were gone by now, with only a few remaining. These deer must have beenattracted from miles around. I had the best groceries in town and the deer knew it.We picked out a larger bodied buck from the group and when Abigail was sure

that she could make the shot, she let me know. I continued to scan the field as moredeer piled into it.When Abigail shot, she was certain she had hit her buck. We climbed down with

10 minutes of light left. I followed a blood trail in the snow to her beautiful 6-pointeron the edge of the field. My 100-pound doe lay dead another 20 yards beyond. Herbuck was a muscular 2-1/2 year old that dressed out at 120 pounds.That evening Abi said about our 30 hour whirlwind trip, “This was exciting...I’m glad

that I came.”I will never forget the old timer who helped me get my first buck 27 years ago. I

doubt Abigail will ever forget this evening either.

CONCLUSION

The newest weapon in my management plan is a secluded boomerang-style foodplot in the woods next to thick bedding areas and in the midst of heavy travel corri-dors. This past summer, I cleared a 100-by-25-yard area into a boomerang shape.Remaining trees were downed in late December. That was a lot of work, and it pro-duced more than 18 cords of firewood. Next spring, I hope to lime it and then plantImperial Clover and Winter-Greens. It is so much fun to manage property and see itget better every year. I also hope to build another food plot 150 yards away in thewoods, in the shape of an S.During the past couple of years, my management plan has finally come together

to create a property of which I’ve always dreamed. I believe things will continue toimprove as I grow quality food, learn more about my property, determine new waysto hunt it and hopefully convince more neighbors to practice QDM by example andthe regular harvest of large bucks.I look forward to continuing to use Whitetail Institute products on my property.

They helped me grow these quality deer. The research and development put intotheir products are what make their products superior to others. Being a high-schoolscience teacher, I place great value on that kind of research. W


Tink’s® Power Scrape™ Mock Scrape Starter™ capitalizes on abuck’s curiosity and drive for territorial dominance. Apply Power Scrape to natural or mock scrapes one to two weeks prior to the season opening. This will peak the buck’s curiosity and is also a powerful scouting tool. Applying Power Scrape regularly conditions bucks to visit the location throughout the season. Try Power Scrape this season and be prepared for enhanced performance.

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calls. I made the shot and she was ecstatic! She said,“Daddy, I think it was a double-lung shot!” She followedthe trail and the recovery was quick. The photo isenclosed. I have hunted for 30 years and have been for-tunate to harvest many nice deer that are larger thanthis buck. However, this was the highlight of my hunt-ing career and I have a child hooked for life. She isalready talking about our food plot for next spring.Without Whitetail Institute products, I truly believe thistype of deer activity is not possible. Sullivan County, PAis mostly “big woods,” and the deer are true browsers.Their only food source is beech and cherry mast, alongwith browse. I will continue to use Winter-Greens andam in the process of developing an additional food plotlocation this spring.Thanks Whitetail Institute for a great product!

Don Arbaugh — South CarolinaI tried many other products, with little success. Then

I began planting Whitetail Institute forages about 4years ago, on our farm in Aiken, SC. After getting thesoil right, lime, fertilizer, etc. I was able to produce 2good 1 acre fields. Now I have 7 good fields of 1/4 to 2acres planted with No-Plow, Extreme and now ChicoryPlus. The picture is of me and my grandson Dillon

Arbaugh and 2 four year old bucks. The one I'm hold-ing was before I used Whitetail Institute products andthe one Dillon has I killed last December. The differencethe Whitetail Institute products made is remarkableand even the neighbors around me have been gettingmuch larger bucks. I'm hoping this opening season willbe the year Dillon gets his first buck.Thanks Whitetail Institute and keep up the good

work.

John Schiavone — New YorkI began using

Imperial Alfa-Rackseveral years ago onour land in WesternNew York. Upon plant-ing 1-1/2 acres, wenoticed an increase inresident does andsmaller bucks utilizingthe area. I have beenimpressed with theplot’s ability to drawthe deer. Since thatseason we have added

Extreme and Imperial Whitetail Clover in locationsclose to cover and natural travel corridors. We haveenjoyed many sightings of bucks in the years that fol-lowed, especially around the rut and during the lateseason when they dig down through the heavy snow toget to clover. The plots do indeed work very well andwere worth the time we put into planting them.Enclosed are some bucks my wife and I were luckyenough to harvest thanks to Whitetail Institute prod-ucts!P.S. The turkeys love them too!

Chris Beaty — TennesseeWhitetail Institute products are great. I plan to keep

using them for along time. You can probably see why.Thanks.

Randy Valentine — VirginiaYes whitetail deer hunters you can make it happen.

The dream of harvesting a true trophy buck canbecome a reality, a dream come true on small acreagehunting land. I have 25 acres and lease another 45acres next to the 25 acres. In my local area of CentralVirginia the primary agriculture is raising beef cattleand timber. No crop production such as corn, soybeans and wheat. My Imperial Whitetail Clover andAlfa-Rack Plus draw deer like a magnet. Since 1999when I planted my first food plot of Imperial WhitetailClover I have had a big increase in sightings of mature

eight and ten point bucks. A well maintained food plotis the key. Arrest and Slay herbicides have helped pro-tect my investment. In the enclosed picture the foodplot is three years old. This past summer weeds andgrasses had almost taken over the food plot. By usingArrest and Slay I have almost eliminated the weeds andgrasses. In turn the clover and Alfa-Rack plus havemore nutrients and water and I have a beautiful foodplot as shown in the picture. I have also noticed thatthe bucks’ racks have greater mass since I have beenusing Whitetail Institute food plot products. Yes deerhunters your dream can come true. Mine did. ThanksWhitetail Institute. You have made this past deer sea-son unforgettable.

Clay Williams — VirginiaFour years ago my father David Williams purchased

40 acres in Nottoway County, VA. It had everything awhitetail loves — thick pines, hardwoods and swampland. The only problem was we really didn’t have a spotthat could be cleared out for a nice food plot. Ten acresbecame available the next year that adjoined our landand we bought it. In no time dad had a bulldozer inthere and cleared two acres for a food plot. Boy, wasthat the right move! We planted Imperial Clover. Thereis no clover planted anywhere near our property, andwhen the deer found it, oh my gosh, it was unbeliev-able. Now all my dad and I wanted to hunt was the foodplot! This hunting season coming up will be three yearsof having the clover and it still looks great! We alsoplanted a small patch of Winter-Greens last year, and


(Continued from page 31)

when the weathergot cold the deertore this stuff up!We have startedseeing more deernow and biggerbucks. I let a trophyget away from meduring muzzle load-ing season, but thatsame week I wasable to harvest anice 9 pointer! Dadalso took a nice 8point in the food

plot during late season at 4:15 pm eating our clover.Thanks for all your help anytime we have called askingquestions about our food plot! And to everyone elsewho has a small tract of land like we do, plant yourselfa food plot. It works! Here is a picture of the food plotin its early stages and the 9 point buck!

Mark Moldenhauer — WisconsinSeveral deer were shot over our Imperial Whitetail

Clover food plot, including one buck that scored 147.See photo.

Ron Schaalma —WisconsinSince I’ve been using Alfa-Rack I have seen 50%

more deer, and the best part is they are heavier andhave larger racks. They are also easier to hunt becausethe product lures the deer directly to it, thus cutting

down the area I used to hunt. There are nights I see asmany as 11 different bucks heading to the 1.5 acre plot.Enclosed is a photo showing the results of a gun hunttwo seasons ago.

Curt Krajniak — MichiganMy son Cooper

and I were on standwhen this 10 point,165-pound dressedbruiser camethrough. The deerwill score in the low130’s. My nicestMichigan buck todate. But mostimportantly my 5year old loved it. Wehave been usingWinter-Greens for acouple of yearsnow. Deer really likethis product.

Rodney Pettit — IndianaI have been using Whitetail Institute products since

the spring of 2005. I started out with just 2 acres of“Whitetail Clover” and now have 6 acres planted, and Ihave no intentions of stopping. I have harvested two ofmy biggest bucks ever in the last two seasons. You cansee deer every evening grazing our clover fields. Thedoes and bucks are much healthier, larger bodied deer.I have also been using “30-06 Plus Protein.” Thank youWhitetail Institute for helping me harvest these bucksand making all my fellow hunters salivate when I showthem my mounts.I have included pictures of the 13 point buck I har-

vested during fire-arm season twoseasons ago, and a10-point I harvest-ed during lastarchery season.The 13-pointerweighed over 200lbs field-dressed,and scored 181 2/8”gross and 166” net.While the 10-pointwon’t net well hegrossed 154” andhad a nice spread.

Thanks again Whitetail Institute for helping me harvestthese great shooter bucks.

Nathan Zeroth — MinnesotaFour years ago I planted Alfa-Rack. I took a 125 class

10 point and a 125 class 8 point over that food plot.Then we planted Alfa-Rack Plus last spring and eventhough it was very dry this past summer the food plotcame up nice. Then during muzzle loader season mydad shot a real nice 10 point 153 inch. See photo. I real-ly enjoy watching deer come into the food plots. Weplanted four more plots last year. I’m looking very for-ward to next hunting season. Thanks WhitetailInstitute. W


Send Us Your Photos!Do you have a photo and/or story of a big buck, a small buck ora doe that you took with the help of Imperial products? Send it tous and youmight find it in the Field Tester section of the next issueof Whitetail News. Send your photo and a 3 to 4 paragraph storytelling how you harvested the deer and the role our productsplayed to:

Whitetail News, Attn: Field Tester Response239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043

EVERYACRE

COUNTSBy Bill WinkePhotos by the Author

When managing yourdeer hunting property,you have a limited

number of acres with which towork. It makes no sense to wasteeven one of them. Do your bestto make every square foot pro-duce something that benefitsyour long-range goals.

If you find an acre that doesn't produce optimal foodor cover, you should do something about it.

SETTING THE STAGE

Regardless of how much land you have, there is nosuch thing as too much. You can’t afford to waste anyof it. You paid for it all, so you might as well use it all.That means that every acre should produce maximumbenefit. To a deer hunter, that means that every acre ofthe property should do one of two things well: It shouldproduce as much food as possible for deer or producethe best possible cover. In some cases, it will do both.I have gone through my farm and looked at every

acre with an eye toward maximizing each. These arethe things I have learned and the steps I have taken toset things right. In no way should this be the final wordon land management. Everything takes time, and welearn as we go forward. However, I hope this will atleast get you thinking critically about your property.

IN THE TIMBER

When I bought this property, I noticed the open tim-ber. I even had people tell me how “pretty” it looked. Ofcourse, I didn’t really want “pretty,” and what I did tothe place after buying it was anything but pretty —except to deer.

Planning how you can best use every acre onyour hunting property is not only fun but alsogood resource stewardship. It will pay off in

better hunting and healthier animals.



Most deer managers understand that by opening upthe timber canopy, they permit more light to reach theforest floor, encouraging plant growth. The result isbetter browse and cover for deer. Sunlight can make adramatic difference, as I learned.My first step in dealing with the open timber was to

engage in a timber-stand improvement project thatspanned five years and encompassed every timberedacre on the farm. I hired the work done, because cut-ting thousands of trees over the course of several yearsdidn’t fit into my work schedule.I made a few mistakes. The first step should have

been a commercial harvest of mature timber. Thatmakes the most sense: get the valuable stuff out beforeyou turn the rest of the timber into matchsticks.A few species are still in reasonably high demand

(and there are always some good local markets), but ingeneral, today’s timber markets are depressed becauseof the lull in new home building. However, like every-thing, they will eventually cycle back. When that hap-pens, if you have mature timber, it would be wise to hirea consulting forester and work out a timber harvestplan.I started my timber-stand work two years before I

sold any commercial timber, so it was a bit more diffi-cult for the cutters to get through all the downed junkin a few areas. They complained a little, but in the end,I still got fair market price for the logs, so it worked out.The forester can help you fine-tune a plan to meet

your goals. I wanted the thickest possible cover with-out cutting any of the young medium-sized oak treeson the farm. I was green and didn’t understand the log-ging process. As a result, I let the timber buyer (I didn’thire a forester) talk me into taking just the best mature

oak and walnut. There was nothing wrong with thatpart, but I should have pressed to have him take themarketable pallet trees, too.There were plenty of remaining oak trees, so remov-

ing the larger junk trees — ash, elm, cottonwood, hick-ory and hackberry in my area — would have increasedmy income while reducing my timber-stand improve-ment time.When full sunlight reaches the forest floor, it causes

a flush of new growth. In just two years, the forest lookscompletely different. Some benefits occur as a result.One is improved security cover and a dramatic increasein browse. The second benefit is also important — thickcover makes it easier to sneak around in your huntingarea without blowing deer out of there. If they can seeyou coming and going from 300 yards away, yourproperty is going to burn out quickly.A friend who specializes in creating thickets on oth-

erwise open pasture farms claims that he can hold amature buck per 40 acres of thicket cover. That seemsincredible to me, but I have not done the experiment,so I have no basis to doubt him. However, I havenoticed that I am holding more mature bucks on myfarm now, presumably because of the thicker cover.The final benefit is less obvious and relates more to

your grandchildren than to you. If you are serious aboutregenerating oaks on your property, there is only oneway you can do it — through an aggressive timber-stand improvement program. Oak will not regeneratewell in the shade because seedlings need maximumsunlight to grow and flourish.I now have five years worth of timber-stand improve-

ment on the farm, some of it very aggressive. We didsome areas five years ago, during January 2003. We

did more each winter thereafter through January 2007.I can now see what a timber-stand improvement proj-ect looks like after one, two, three and four growingseasons. It is interesting to see how things havechanged in just five years. Three things jump out at me.First, I learned that I was not aggressive enough

when I started in 2003. I didn’t trust the outcome wellenough to go for broke, so I cut fewer trees than Ishould have. I will have to go back and hit those areasagain soon. During each successive year, I becamemore aggressive as I gained confidence from watchingthe regrowth spring up in prior project areas. Again, itis best to hire a forester to help you make these deci-sions. I would hate to have you hammer the timber inan area of your property based solely on my experi-ences, because growing conditions and soil types maybe different where you are managing.The second thing I learned is the importance of

studying the forest before cutting to determine whatwill take over after you start removing the canopy. Thisis as simple as looking at the young growth in theaffected area and directly nearby. What are you goingto release? I was generally releasing desirable brushand crop trees. However, I had a few areas where Ireleased honeysuckle bushes. A little bit of honeysuck-le is fine, but I don’t want my timber taken over by thisvery aggressive invader. I will watch it carefully and if itstarts to spread, I will have to take measures to beat itback.In some areas, there was very little young vegetation,

so it was difficult to predict what would respond to thesunlight when the junk trees came down. In theseareas, I often ended up with grass. Believe it or not, Ihave some small, dispersed grassy openings now

Proper soil pH is the key to successful food plots.You can save time and money on all your liming needs by using the GroundBuster® Pulverized Lime Spreader. It pulls easily behind your ATV, tractor or vehicle and dispenses lime evenly, whether it’s damp or dry.

The GroundBuster® Soil Preparation Implement is the only piece of equipment that you will need for successful ground preparation and planting. The GroundBuster® has two sets (front and rear) of heavy duty 18" disc blades which are easily adjustable for very aggressive cutting. It also comes with a grading mat and heavy duty compact roller.

Making it greener on your side of the fence!

D&D Food Plot Enterprises, LLCformerly B-I-H Enterprises

PO Box 485, Leola, PA 17540

(717) 314-9909Fax (717) 556-0967

Email: [email protected]

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growing in the middle of my timber in areas that had abare forest floor at the time of the timber-standimprovement cut.When dealing with such areas, where you can’t pre-

dict what will grow, you have two choices. You can skipthose areas and live with the open timber (not a solu-tion I am willing to tolerate; remember the title of thisarticle), or you can open it up knowing you might haveto come back later with a back-pack sprayer filled withRoundup and seedlings or nuts to plant or you can-plant asmall food plot with Secret Spot. Fortunately,most of my property produced desirable regrowth, butI have some planting work ahead of me the next fewyears.

OPEN GROUND

When deciding what to do with open ground, foodtakes a priority over cover. Determine how many foodplot acres you need before deciding what to do withthe rest of your open ground. As a general rule, try tohave roughly one acre of well-maintained food plotsfor every five deer you expect to be on your propertyduring fall and winter. You might end up feeding someof your neighbor’s deer, so factor those numbers in too.If the number of food plot acres you come up with isunreasonably high, maybe it is time to start shootingmore does.Even if you have to plant some of your plots in mar-

ginal soils to meet your food plot goals, the productionyou get from these acres is better than nothing. Propersoil treatment (affecting fertility and Ph) will help to revup poor soil when planted to certain crops, such asclover and chicory. It is difficult to make poor soils pro-

FA L L P L A N T I N G D AT E S

for Imperial Whitetail® Winter-Greens™

� Call for planting dates


� July1 - August 1*

� Coastal: Sept 1 - Oct 15Southern Piedmont:Aug 15 - Oct 1Mountain Valleys:Aug 1 - Sept 15

� July 15 - Sept 15

� Aug 1 - Oct 1

� North: July 15 - Sept 15South: Aug1 - Oct 1

North: July 20 - Aug 1*South: July 15 - Aug 15*

July 1 - Sept 15

� July 15 - Sept 15*

� Sept 15 - Nov 15

North: Sept 5 - Nov 1Central: Sept 15 - Nov 15South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� North: Aug 15 - Oct 1South: Sept 5 - Oct 20

� North: Sept 5 - Oct 30Central: Sept 15 - Nov 15South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� Coastal: Sept 1 - Oct 1Piedmont:Aug 15 - Sept 20Mountain Valleys:Aug 5 - Sept 15

� North: Sept 15 - Nov 15Central: Sept 25 - Nov 15South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� July 15 - Sept 1

� Aug1 - Sept 30

Removing junk trees for the purposes of releasing higherquality trees and undergrowth is called timber-stand

improvement.


duce corn and beans, however. Assuming you still have some marginal open groundleft after meeting your food plot goals, you must decide what to do with them.Obviously, these acres aren’t needed for food, so they might as well be cover. Don’t

wait for nature to convert old pastureland into timber cover. That might take 40years. Instead, help the process. Finding something to plant that produces the bestpossible cover in the least possible time is the goal. There are three options.First, you can plant switchgrass or a mix of native warm-season grasses to produce

bedding cover. I have planted switchgrass and found that it can be fickle to establish.In the best conditions, it will take at least two years to establish a stand. Some of mystands never came in and had to be replanted several years later.There are many thoughts on how to establish switchgrass. Seed depth is critical. It

is best to consult with your county's soil conservation officer or contact a local agron-omist to learn the methods that have worked best there. Follow all guidelines to theletter, including the application of lime and fertilizer. Switchgrass is a crop like anyother, and you need to manage it as such.The second option for marginal acres is to plant seedling trees. You can often buy

these in bulk from the state nursery operated by your state's game and fish depart-ment. After planting many thousands of trees, I have been generally disappointedwith the result. The true survival rate after all that work is less than 25 percent. Someyears, not one tree survived from that year’s planting. Seedlings are especially vul-nerable to drought and mishandling. If their roots dry out, or they are exposed to airpockets in the soil when planted, they will quickly die.If you are serious about planting seedlings, it is a very labor-intensive job. You have

to handle the seedling very carefully, keeping the roots wet until planted. Make surethey have complete root-to-soil contact (no air pockets) and that the root is pointeddownward and not forming a J shape. Then you must water the seedlings regularlyfor the first three months.Watering several thousand seedlings is far too much work for me. Again, there

might be better ways, such as dormant fall plantings, but I have all but given up onseedlings. If you want to try them, contact the local state forester for advice on sup-ply and the best methods to assure maximum survival, or plant them on a limitedbasis. For example, I planted 40 apple trees last year, and that proved to be muchmore successful because I was able to give each tree the care it required. There is abig difference between hand-planting 40 trees vs. 4,000, however.

When trying to reforest marginal openground, consider planting acorns

instead of seedlings. This practice isknown as direct nut seeding. It takestime, but promises to produce a full

stand of trees.


This past fall, I took a different approach to produc-ing tree cover on my marginal ground. I engaged in adirect nut-seeding project on 22 acres. It is still tooearly to know how well that will turn out (I am writingthis in January), but I can at least offer a few sugges-tions about methodology and then report back afterthe spring growing season reveals the results.Instead of planting young trees, I planted seeds —

five bushels of acorns (red and white oak) and onebushel of walnuts per acre. That amounts to roughly20,000-plus seeds per acre. If even 25 percent of themgerminate and grow, I will be more than satisfied.First, we prepared the soil by spraying the grass with

Roundup and then waited three weeks before tilling itto create a fine, mellow seedbed. We broadcast theseeds and immediately disked them in to a depth ofroughly two to three inches. I was lucky that it rainedthe day after I finished and didn’t stop for more than aweek, so I had the best possible conditions for keepingthose white-oak acorns alive. They germinate in the falland had already partially germinated when I plantedthem.For the first two years, I need to spray the planting

area with a weed killer, such as Oust, to reduce compe-tition. By the third year, I can just let the planting areago, and the trees will compete well enough with theweeds to hold their own.We planted in mid-October, and by May 2008, the

trees are supposed to be six inches to a foot tall. Theyare supposed to then add about 10 to 12 inches eachyear thereafter. By all accounts, this is a better methodof establishing a tree planting. I look forward to report-ing on the results later in the year. By the way, I got alist of consulting foresters from a sawmill and called

FA L L P L A N T I N G D AT E Sfor Imperial Whitetail® Clover, Chicory Plus™,Alfa-Rack™,Alfa-Rack PLUS™, Extreme™,Secret Spot™, No-Plow™,“Chic”Magnet™and Pure Attraction™


� Do not plant in fall

� Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Coastal: Sept 1 - Oct 15Piedmont: Aug 15 - Oct 1Mountain Valleys: Aug 1 -Sept 15

� Aug 10 - Sept 30

� Sept 1 - Nov 1

� North: Aug 1 - Sept 15South: Aug 15 - Oct 15

North: July 15 - Aug 20South: July 20 - Aug 25

Aug 1 - Aug 31

� Aug 1 - Sept 15

� Sept 15 - Nov 15

North: Sept 5 - Nov 15Central: Sept 15 - Nov 15South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� North: Aug 25 - Oct 15South: Sept 5 - Oct 30

� North: Sept 5 - Oct 15Coastal: Sept 15 - Nov 15South: Sept 25 - Nov 15

� Coastal: Sept 25 - Oct 15Piedmont: Sept 1 - Oct 5Mountain: Aug 25 - Oct 15

� North: Sept 15 - Nov 15Central: Sept 15 - Nov 25South: Oct 5 - Nov 30

� Aug 1 - Sept 1

� Aug 20 - Sept 30

Fruit trees, such as these apple trees, are a great way to improve some of your marginal open acres. Before engaging in anapple planting, make sure the area you have selected is conducive to fruit production.


several of them to find one who would collect theacorns and store them in a cold place until I neededthem.Acorns are expensive, so if you can collect your own

with a simple acorn-collection basket (a roller that youcan buy online), you will save a lot of money and willlikely get the freshest possible seed. It is not as criticalwith acorns from the red-oak family because they ger-minate in spring, but you need to get white oaks in theground as soon after collecting them as possible.

FOOD PLOT ACRES

Regular Whitetail News authors pepper this maga-zine with all kinds of great advice about how to makethe most of your food plot acres. I won’t rehash thathere, but I encourage you to take their advice serious-ly. You can produce a lot of forage on a limited numberof acres if you do it right. Buy good seed, test the soil,prepare it properly and then maintain the plot as rec-ommended. This simple blueprint will help you makeevery precious food plot acre count.

CONCLUSION

Grab an aerial photo of your property, and walk theground from end to end. Note any areas that are pro-ducing less then optimal food or cover. Coming up witha plan to address those areas is the fun part. You likelybought the property for deer hunting, and you have alot invested in time and money.Good stewardship requires that you take all the steps

needed to bring the land to its maximum potential as adeer factory. W

It takes good soils to grow row crops such as corn and soybeans effectively. If you have marginal soil in your open areas,consider your alternatives. Also, only a percentage of your food plots should be devoted to winter food sources.

Ensure the success of your food plots.Our line of herbicides protect your investment by making sure that the plants you have so carefully planted can compete with grasses and weedsfor nutrients and water. Arrest kills most grasses, but won’t harm clover, alfalfa, chicory or Extreme. Slay eliminates broadleaf plants and weeds,and is safe for clover and alfalfa. Both herbicides are extensively field-tested and can be easily applied by 4-wheeler or tractor sprayer.Easy and effective protection for your crop.

Research = Results.

Treated Un-Treated

The Whitetail Institute / 239 Whitetail Trail/ Pintlala, AL 36043 / 800-688-3030 / www.whitetailinstitute.com


A SK BIG JONBy Jon Cooner, Institute Director of Special Projects

Common Questions — Straightforward AnswersQ: I am just learning about food plots, and I have

a question. It seems to me that the more seed I putout on my plot, the more plants I’ll have growingthere, and so the more forage the deer will have.That would be a good thing, correct?

A: Great question! It’s one I hear a lot, and theanswer is, “probably not — it might even REDUCE theperformance of your planting!”Think about it — let’s consider just one square yard

of plot. Within that area, you only have one squareyard of seedbed to sustain forage plants. That’s all theroom the plants you’ll be growing there will have inwhich to sprout, grow, and become as healthy, vigor-ous, and as drought, heat and cold-tolerant as theywere designed to be.If you try to grow too many plants within that one

square yard of seedbed, the plant roots won’t haveenough room to grow as big as they otherwise mighthave. Smaller roots can result in LESS heat anddrought tolerance, and because smaller roots caninhibit the growth of the forage plants, perhaps even

LESS available forage.For optimum results, stick to the recommended

seeding rates as closely as you can. Our forage blendsare so efficient that with many of them it takes a verysmall amount of seed to plant a plot. Imperial WhitetailClover, for example, should be planted at a rate of onlyeight pounds per acre, and “Chic” Magnet at as little asthree pounds per acre. Obviously, these forage blendsare extremely efficient, but that can make it hard tostick to the correct seeding rates and not run out ofseed for the plot too quickly. Here’s a tip to help yoube efficient in seeding these blends.Start by determining the size of the food plot you

will be planting (e.g.: 1/10th acre, 1/2 acre, 3 acres, etc.).Next, choose the correct Imperial forage for you appli-cation based on anticipated rainfall levels, intendedplanting method (with our without ground tillageequipment), how heavy the soil is and the plot’sdrainage characteristics. Once you decide on what for-age you’ll be planting, you can look right on our web-site, on the front of our forage bags, or call our con-sultants to determine how much seed you’ll need forthat plot.

Once your seedbed has been prepared accordingto our recommendations for planting the product youhave chosen, plan on planting the seed with a shoul-der-type broadcast spreader if possible. Unlike otherspreader types, a shoulder-carried broadcast spread-er will allow you to keep your hand on the spreaderbag as a constant gauge of how much seed thespreader is putting out, and how much you have leftin the bag at any given time.Also, consider only putting 1/2 the amount of seed

required for the plot into the spreader and trying tocover the whole plot with it. Then, put the other 1/2 ofthe seed in and cover the whole plot with it again, butfrom a different direction on the second pass. Thatmay be the best way to ensure that you get broad,even coverage without overloading the plot with seed.Again, seeding rates for Imperial forage blends are

shown right on the front of the forage bags and arealso listed on our website, www.whitetailinstitute.com.Our highly trained, in-house consultants are alsostanding by to answer your calls at (800) 688-3030,ext 2, any time between 8 a.m. — 5 p.m. Central Time,Monday through Friday. W

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Ifaced the whitetailhunter’s version of thebottom of the 9th inning.

There was one day left of theearly archery season. I washunting a farm I barely knew,in a state where I didn’t live.And I knew if I didn’t fill mytag on this trip, a return visitto the state was probably notin the cards.

Fortunately, I had walked just enough of this farm —which had just been purchased by a buddy that spring— to know the basic layout and property lines. Actually,this was also a good thing. With one day left, I didn’thave time to agonize about a dozen setups where amonster buck might run into me. I needed one or twobasic ambush sites that would funnel as much deermovement as possible. From there, I’d just pray that agood deer would happen to be in the neighborhood.Happily, the wind direction narrowed my choices totwo spots, and the reason I chose the spot I did waspretty simple: it contained the most edge cover of anyplace on the farm.Of course, whitetail hunters know all about edges.

I’ve been hearing that deer are creatures of the edgesince my gun was longer than I was tall. And naturally,when I thought of edges, the most obvious came tomind: the break formed where a woodlot gives way toa field, a lakeshore or creek bank — any hard line thatmarked an obvious transition. But the longer I spent in

the deer woods, the better I became at spotting moresubtle edges. Indeed, when I analyze habitat on anyproperty these days, I find my eyes taking inventory ofall the edges on the place — and where I can createmore.With that in mind, here are some tips for identifying

or creating edges — from the obvious to the subtle —on your property and how to use them to improve yourhunting.

FOOD SOURCE EDGES

Perhaps the most obvious edge is one you createwhen you construct a food plot or cultivate a field.Obviously, anyone who’s hunted a green field or hailsfrom farm country recognizes the attraction theseareas hold for whitetails. From a sprawling Alfa-RackPlus, corn or soybean field to a small Imperial WhitetailClover plot, field edges are sure to be full of feedingsign and breeding spoor such as rubs and scrapes.


SEEK THE EDGES FORBETTER HUNTING

By Scott BestulPhotos by the Author

The trouble with field edges is that they can be frus-trating spots to hunt. Because whitetails are reluctantto expose themselves in open areas during daylight,the chances for killing a mature buck that’s receivedany hunting pressure in such spots is often remote. Theonly exception to this rule is when extreme or extenu-ating circumstances (peak rut or intense cold and deepsnow) force bucks to visit these areas.There are, fortunately, ways to make such potential-

ly frustrating sites produce. One is to create a smallerstaging-type food plot just off of a main field edge. Itried this last summer with excellent results. I had afriend bush-hog a small semi-circular space from a sec-tion of my woods this past spring. I tilled and sprayedthis quarter-acre clearing, and then planted it withImperial Clover. The L-shaped plot lay less than 100yards from the destination food source, but that dis-tance made all the difference. I enjoyed several hunts ina stand hung on the edge of my tiny food plot, and Irarely got skunked. Deer felt completely comfortablefeeding in this small and secluded field. I’d created ahuntable edge.

SECURITY COVER EDGES

It’s common for hunters to associate edges withwhitetail food sources, but they’re also an importantsource of security for deer. Anytime I need a reminderof this, I think back to hunting my family’s property incentral Wisconsin. The Bestul homestead is home toseveral stands of aspen (we call them popple) trees,and the standard method for harvesting mature aspenis a clearcut.Though any clearcut looks pretty pathetic immedi-

ately after the saws are done, any deer hunter can spotthe positive results within months. The sterile, tracklessmonoculture of large-trunked trees is soon replacedwith hundreds of slim “suckers.” This dense newgrowth provides deer with not only the security coverthey crave, but also a source of browse for severalyears. Scouting the edges of popple clearcuts is one ofmy favorite activities, as I know I’ll discover an explo-sion of sign in the form of rubs, scrapes, trails and feed-ing sign.So a logging operation is one way to create the edge

habitat whitetails love so much. But don’t think youneed to have a forester arrange a pulp or hardwoodlumber cut to create/improve deer habitat. Some ofthe best deer managers I know create their own secu-rity cover by taking a chainsaw to low-value stands oftrees and creating their own mini clearcut. In theMidwest, species like aspen, box elder, ash and somespecies of elm are perfect candidates for this type ofcut.Most guys I know who practice this technique select

an area that is already difficult to hunt (a hollow orravine notorious for fickle wind direction, for example).

Then they fell or hinge-cut every tree in the prescribedarea. Hinge-cutting is a technique where the tree trunkis cut deep enough to topple the tree but not com-pletely through. This allows nutrients to continue toflow from the roots to the tree top, thus allowing leafgrowth for a while. But since the tree has beenremoved from the canopy, sunlight is allowed on theground, which encourages new plant growth.The key to these mini-clearcuts is to treat them as

sanctuaries. My friend Tim Walmsley, an Illinois bow-hunter who manages his own farm, never enters thesesmall cutovers unless he has to trail a deer. His successon big bucks proves he has this technique nailed downwell.

TRAVEL ROUTE EDGES

Hunt whitetails long enough, and you’ll recognizetwo things about how they travel. First, given thechoice, deer will select travel routes with some sort ofsecurity cover nearby. Second, whitetails prefer to takethe path of least resistance. If you can create an edgethat offers deer both of these traits, you’ll have made asignificant improvement in deer habitat — as well asopened up some hunting opportunities.One of the simplest ways to create an edge travel

route is to clear a path or lane through extremely densecover. We’ve used this technique on our Minnesotahunting lease with great success, and we discovered itby accident. One section of the property features anextremely dense apple orchard. Because it’s so thick,the orchard is very difficult to hunt, so out of frustra-tion, we took a skid loader and simply pushed a patharound the outside edge of the apple trees. The path

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Some hunters plantstrips of switchgrass,

corn or other tall-grow-ing plants for screeningcover as they access

stand sites.

connected several good stand sites and would alsoserve as our exit/entry route. Well, surprise — the deerliked our path even better than we did. They cruise theorchard easily and silently, and they were never morethan one hop away from security cover. In the yearssince, we’ve used this technique to improve habitat inseveral areas of the property.As this example illustrates, creating edge cover not

only enhances whitetail travel, it can help you. One ofthe greatest challenges of hunting destination foodplots such as Imperial Clover or other short-growingplants is that deer often spot hunters as they enter andexit stands near these plots. Several of my friends haveexperimented with planting strips of switchgrass, cornor other tall-growing plants for screening cover as theyaccess stand sites. Planting trees or shrubs is anothermethod for accomplishing this goal. Though it willobviously take a while for tree seedlings to reach aheight suitable for hiding your comings and goings,planting a line of quick-growing shrubs will keep youcovered until the trees catch up. Plantings like these areextremely effective in areas with Conservation ReserveProgram grasses, and old farm fields and pastures.

CONCLUSION

Back to my last-day whitetail deer hunt on myfriend’s farm. As noted earlier, I’d decided to hunt a cor-ner of the farm where the wind direction was in myfavor and there was the greatest amount of edge coverpossible. So I hung my stand in a big walnut tree andsettled in. In front of me was a tangled creek bottomthat bisected a standing cornfield. To one side was anovergrown pasture full of hedge trees and multiflora


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rose. And at my back was a huge CRP planting pock-marked with small patches oftimber and brush. I was so surrounded by edge I honestly had no idea where deerwould come from.The old pasture ground produced. I had just checked my watch to see how much

legal shooting time I had (40 minutes) when I looked up to see a doe running, tail-up, across the creek. Behind her was an adult 8-point buck I’d have been proud to tagon the season’s first day, not to mention the last. He was headed away from me witha determined stride when I cracked my rattling antlers together. His response wasswift and certain; never have I seen a buck so ready to tangle. He crossed the creekand three fence lines before I had time to get nervous, and I’d barely grabbedmy bowand clipped my release to the string before I was grunting him to a stop.I found the buck barely 100 yards from my walnut stand tree. It took about all I had

to get him loaded in my truck, which I’d parked on a scenic knob in the CRP. When Iwas done, I sat on the tailgate, resting and taking in the scenery. I wouldn’t be hunt-ing this place for a while, but my buddy certainly would, and he’d be looking for somegood spots to hang stands. I knew at least one place where he’d have an edge. W

� HabitatWork onUncle Sam’s DollarWant to give a skeptic some ammunition? Announce, “I’m from the govern-

ment, and I’m here to help.”But if you’re a conservation-minded landowner, Uncle Sam might be one of

your greatest allies. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division ofthe U.S. Department of Agriculture, is an agency charged with “providing tech-nical and financial assistance for the establishment of fish and wildlife habitatdevelopment.” Armed with money from the 2002 Farm Bill, the NRCS is ableto assist private landowners with habitat work. (A new Farm Bill is currentlybeing debated by Congress, but is expected to offer similarly funded pro-grams).It works like this: A technician from the NRCS office in your county (there is

one office/county across the country) visits your property after you contacthim. This is critical, as participation is voluntary. You walk your land with yourtechnician and discuss some of your goals for improving the land. Then hemakes recommendations about specific programs that might meet your needs.Nothing is forced upon you, and it is up to you to apply for the various pro-grams recommended.Among the programs the NRCS oversees is the Conservation Reserve

Program, which pays farmers to retire highly erodible soil from crop produc-tion or pasturing. Less well know is the Wetlands Reserve Program, which paysup to 100 percent for the restoration and maintenance of a former wetland; theWildlife Habitat Incentives Program, which pays up to 75 percent of the costsfor creating or restoring wildlife habitat; and the Environmental QualityIncentives Program, which pays up to 75 percent of the costs for constructing,restoring conservation or environmental-quality practices on crop land, grassland, pasture land or non-industrial forest land.My friend Roger Deets, who purchased a 250-acre Minnesota property a

few years ago, has worked extensively with the NRCS to turn a degradedfarm into a wildlife haven. EQIP and WHIP dollars were used to construct alarge, erosion-controlling pond, plant trees and plant food plots nearby.Once-tilled — and highly abused — soil was retired into native grasses, shrubsand food plots using CRP money. Finally, WHIP money was used to create avariety of wildlife openings (planted to annual and perennial food plot mixes)and also selectively harvest mature trees as part of a timber-stand improve-ment cut that will improve habitat for deer and turkeys and put money intoDeets’ pocket.What’s the catch? There are two, actually. The money allocated to various

regions for each program can vary according to year, and — predictably — insome cases you might have to wait to accomplish projects. But if you’re alandowner with big plans that you can’t afford, or you’re looking for technicaland financial assistance, the NRCS might be there to help.“My impression has been that if a project makes sense for the environment

and wildlife, they’ve been able to help me,” Deets said. “The thing that excitesme the most is that, although I’ve seen immediate results, the most importantones are down the road. My greatest pleasure will come when I walk this placein 20 or 30 years and be able to say, ‘Wow, we really did something specialhere.’” For information, contact the NRCS office in your area by looking in the“Government” section of your phone book or by visiting www.nrcs.usda.gov.


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A Recipefor

SuccessfulFoodPlots inMichigan

By Michael Veine

I’ve been tinkering withfood plots for more thana decade and have

learned what works and whatdoesn’t in “my neck of thewoods.” I own hunting landcontaining food plots in twodistinctly different areas. Onelocation is in southernMichigan’s farm country, andthe other parcel is in the BigWoods country of Michigan’sUpper Peninsula (U.P.). In thepast five years alone, I’vemanaged to take my legallimit of 10 adult bucks hunt-ing the food plots on myproperties. Here’s my recipefor successful food plots.

SOUTHERN MICHIGAN (MIXED FARMLAND ANDDEVELOPED AREAS)

I live on 38 acres in southern Michigan. The propertywas once used for agriculture, but not for the last 30years. The high ground was farmed intensively and thewetlands were even used for cattle pastures. Over thepast few decades, the land has grown back with lots ofbrush along with cattails, flooded and upland hard-woods (maple, oak and cherry) and softwoods (pines,cedar and tamarack). My property is currently bor-dered by active farmlands on one side, a large swampon the back, and lots of small parcels along the remain-der. In fact, I have more than a dozen neighbors thatborder me, and that number seems to be growingevery year as properties are split and developed. Deerhunting pressure is extremely intense. In fact, deerhunters outnumber the deer during modern gun sea-son.My food plots, stands and access routes are all laid

out so that my property serves primarily as a sanctuaryto attract deer from the highly pressured surroundingarea. Since the land is mostly wetlands with thick,heavy cover, it works out great. My food plots wereinstalled on high spots where access will not likelybump deer from the sanctuary areas. Because theneighboring agricultural crops are rotated betweencorn, winter wheat and alfalfa, my food plots had tohave an edge to up my odds for success. Also, I did not

have much tillable land to work with, so I had to maxi-mize my food plot strategy as well. Because my prop-erty dries up every year during the summer and earlyfall, I rented a mini-excavator and dug several water-holes along the edge of thick cover near bedding areas.I then installed my food plots near the water holes. Bygiving deer a bedding sanctuary, steady water suppliesand food sources all located within protective cover,the deer typically stay on my land during daylighthours and then venture onto the neighboring fieldsunder the cover of darkness.Due to a seasonal stream that runs through the front

of my property, the plots are very hard to access withlarge equipment; so all the work was done with hand-held equipment. I put in my food plots by cutting smallopenings about 1/4 acre in size using a chain saw andbrush cutter. I chose brushy areas consisting mainly ofvarious hardwood saplings. I cut the brush off as closeto the ground as possible and just mowed regularly fortwo years to allow the small stumps to rot down andbuild up the sandy soil with humus. At the end of thesecond year, I sprayed the plots with a non-selectiveherbicide and obtained a few soil samples. The pH wasslightly acidic, so I limed the plots by shaking bags oflime across the ground by hand. The next spring Isprayed the plots again with a herbicide using a back-pack sprayer. After a couple weeks, I fertilized the“browned down” plots with low nitrogen fertilizer andthen tilled using a garden tiller.I’ve experimented with all kinds of different seeds on

Due to a seasonal stream that runs through the front of my property, the plots are very hard to access with large equip-ment; so all the work was done with hand-held equipment.


WhitetailInstitute


those plots and now only use Imperial Whitetail Cloverfor all my food plot needs.Because I don’t have much room to work with, all of

my southern Michigan food plots are of the small “killplot” variety. I have stands hung right over them anddoctor them up to attract bucks by installing rubbingtrees and licking branches at strategic spots. I also

funnel deer to and from the plots by manipulating thehabitat. I maintain my plots with two or three mow-ings per year along with spring and late summerapplications of fertilizer. I also use selective herbicidesevery other year to halt weed and grass invasion.Because the plots are small, I even weed them byhand at times.

UPPER PENINSULA PROPERTY (BIG WOODS)

My U.P. property consists of 160 acres of mixed hard-woods (maple and aspen) and softwoods (cedar, bal-sam and pine). A stream runs the length of the proper-ty. The entire watercourse is laced with beaver pondsand is quite marshy and brush-filled. The rest of theproperty is a 50/50 mix of cedar swamp and lowridges. Hunting pressure is relatively low in the area,which is composed entirely of large private parcelsmanaged mostly for deer hunting and timber produc-tion. There isn’t any agriculture in the area so it is pure“big woods” deer hunting, which I truly love.Half of my property received aggressive timber

treatments in 1996 and 1997, with a 40-acre clear-cutbeing the most noticeable result. Another 40 wasselective-cut, and most of the back 80, which is com-prised of a big cedar swamp, has not been timberedmuch in more than 100 years. I plan to leave it mostlyalone as winter cover. When we bought it, access onthe property was restricted to foot travel only. As aresult of the logging and road and food plot projects,we now have roads and trails throughout the parcel.In 1998, we broke ground with our first food plots. I

hired an excavator to doze out two decent-size plotsand also carve out some roads, trails and small open-ings. One plot is about three acres and was created ona stump-filled maple ridge in the center of an aspenclear-cut. Another plot was carved out of an old burnand is surrounded by thick balsam, maple and cedarcover. When the excavator originally cleared the plots,he did a good job of plowing up the soil. I did not applyany herbicides to those plots before the original plant-

The author uses selective herbicides every other year to halt weed and grass invasion.

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ing. The pH was very acidic everywhere on the property, so we had to add tons oflime. By hand, we cleared away most of the rocks, sticks and other debris and thenpulled a drag behind a big lawn tractor to level the fields and to help mix the lime andfertilizer into the soil.I’ve planted a variety of seed brands into the plots as a test to see what would work

the best. My results were very mixed, but the Imperial Whitetail Clover I tested per-formed the best with the highest germination rate of any seeds that I tested. TheImperial Clover also stood up to the heavy grazing better than anything else. I soonreplanted every bit of ground available with Imperial Whitetail Clover, includingstrategic stretches of roadways and more food plots that I added later.I eventually bought an ATV along with a heavy-duty disk, a boom sprayer and a

large-capacity, pull-behind spreader. That equipment investment has paid big divi-dends in the quality of my food plots. I am convinced that spraying selective herbi-cides like Slay and Arrest is the key to keeping Imperial Clover thick and lush withminimal effort over the long haul. Now, I simply spray my food plots with selectiveherbicides when needed, and the longevity of my food plots has more than doubled.The ATV and equipment makes maintaining the plots a snap. I still do my mowingwith an old lawn tractor. Used lawn tractors can be found cheap and they work greatfor mowing plots, roads and trails.In the spring of 2005, I limed and replanted a plot with Imperial Whitetail Clover,

and it germinated well, but we had one of the worst droughts I can remember. WhenI checked things out in late summer, the clover was brown and dried-up. I thought itwas dead and I’d lost my entire planting. However, in September, the rains finally came,and that clover surprised me by greening up like magic. In just a couple of weeks, itsprouted up thick and lush. During the October bow season, my plots were hammeredas dozens of whitetails were drawn to the succulent food source. I nailed two nicebucks near that plot. Never give up on Imperial Whitetail Clover.My hunting strategy on my U.P. property does not involve hunting directly over the

food plots. I treat them like part of a sanctuary by hunting no closer than 100 yards.I’ve created funnels between the bedding areas and the food sources, and that’swhere I set up my ambushes.The deer on my land hit my food plots hard, and I plan to expand two of the food

plots, adding another eight acres of high-quality forage with Imperial WhitetailClover. I’ll take it one step at a time. W

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Michael Manley and his family own a 1,900-plus-acrechunk of land and lease another 200-plus-acre parcelfrom a neighbor in the upper Northeast. The land con-sists of many fields and all types of cover that rangesfrom hardwoods, pines, sections filled with apple trees,blueberry patches, and any other possible scenario youcan come up with.The following is his story about the great success

that he, his family and his friends have enjoyed withImperial Whitetail Clover.

We started using Imperial Whitetail productsaround nine or ten years ago. Our familystarted using Imperial products because of

the overwhelming results people we knew were get-ting. We run a private hunting camp that during a busyyear can become 20 family and friends all hunting fora big buck. This camp takes no strangers, and requiresthe trust and fellowship that friends have earned overthe past several years.The terrain has rolling hills, and some of it stays fair-

ly damp year round. There is a small stream that runsthrough the property, which is fed by a large pond thathas great fishing (big northern pike and some nicelargemouth). Other structures include 14 other ponds,which are all stocked and mostly all spring-fed. Thefields that aren’t Imperial Clover, are mostly hay fields,and some are year-round brush (switchgrass). The soilmight not be best for growing Imperial Clover but itisn’t that bad. The size of the deer did increase. We hadthought over the years that the average deer size wasdecreasing in New York state, but with a quality foodsource we have a found a median which in some caseswhen deer (male) hits its peak growing size can reachup to 185 to 200 pounds.We have also noticed with good buck management

and a good food source that antler size of our deer hasgreatly increased. About six years ago my father imple-mented a 6-point rule, which has been followed fairlywell besides an occasional “mistake.” Since we havegone to that rule we feel that we have tagged moremature bucks on average per year. For instance, threeyears ago we tagged 22 bucks, which means every sin-

� TomasManley FarmProvides Great Deer Hunt >>>>>By Styles Bridges

I had been in the area for almost a week bow hunting with a few friends passing the time before gun sea-son opened up. I spent the last two days before opening day putting up some portables and helping my son,Styles, find a spot. I took care of the small stuff so I could concentrate on the big one. I was going to hunt inmy honey hole which was located in the hardwoods on top of large hill. The area was open and a haven forbig bucks in the past. I have taken plenty of 120- and even a few 130-class bucks out of this spot.

I awoke two hours before daylight and went to my tree stand. The 2005 deer season brought somechanges. It was the first ever Saturday opener in the Southern zone. I also was carrying my rifle, which feltout of place since I had always had a shotgun in my hand opening day. The laws changed for the county andopened up for rifle hunting this year.The weather was ideal for deer hunting. The temperatures hovered around 30 degrees; the wind was still,

and the leaves crisp on the floor of the woods. I can remember years when I’ve sat through winds that wouldmake my tree stand rival a carnival fair roller coaster ride. In other years, snow and freezing rain have pre-vailed.As the sun brightened the Eastern sky, I could hear movement coming my way. A doe quickly came into

view, stopping frequently and looking back. I immediately lost composure as I knew a buck had to follow. Thesecond deer had horns extending well above and beyond his ears. Both deer quickly marched by my standsensing something was not right. I steadied my gun and whistled in attempt to stop the buck. Instead of stop-ping the buck turned directly toward me and was mostly hidden by a large maple tree. I thought for sure Ihad lost my chance for an easy shot.He started marching like a German soldier tentatively toward me. I shot as he presented his shoulder from

behind the tree. At the ring of the shot, both deer spun and ran directly away from me. Because so much ofthe buck was covered by the maple tree, I did not get to appreciate his body language at the time of theshot. Within milliseconds I thought I had missed.Both deer disappeared into the distance. I sat in my stand for what seemed like hours but probably only

moments wondering whether I had blown a great opportunity for an easy shot on a good buck. After whatI had thought had been 20 minutes, I decided to get down out of my stand and look for blood. As Iapproached the maple tree, the only evidence was torn up maple leaves with nothing but mud on top. I fol-lowed the disturbed leaves for about 70 to 100 yards and decided I had better start moving in stealth mode.As I covered approximately another 100 yards I saw no evidence of any kind of a wounded deer.Disappointment began to overcome me. As I turned to go back toward the maple tree and start again, I sawa patch of white 100 yards to my left. My disappointment turned to elation. It had to be the buck. He had runall that distance without ever showing any evidence of being hit by a high caliber rifle bullet.The Thomas Manley Farm has been a haven for big bucks in the last 15 years. Our group of hunters has

always endeavored to let the first year bucks go unharmed. In more recent years we have aspired only toshoot bucks that have three points on one side. This combined with Mother Nature’s diminishing the popu-lation has left a crop of deer that are bigger and of more trophy class. I am already looking forward to nextyear heading out to my opening day perch.

FAMILYOPERATIONCASHES INWITH

IMPERIALCLOVER

Joe Siemetowski displays afine 10-pointer taken on the

Manley farm.



gle hunter filled a tag with a deer 6 points or better. Amajority of the bucks were 8 pointers and four were 10-point bucks. Last year we tagged only eight bucks, allof which were 7 points or better. In 2005 we tagged 13bucks and only three of these bucks were less than 7points. In all we bagged three 10-pointers, two of whichwere trophies in any state, one big 9-point bruiser, a big

8-point buck and many other re-spectable deer thatany hunter in the area would pull the trigger on.In fact, as I write this story one of our neighbors has

just killed an 8-pointer with a 20” spread… nice deer.Three years back the third biggest buck in the statewas taken by a neighbor. it scored an impressive 168inches of antler. My father is good friends with the

gentlemen, and he has also implemented the 6-pointrule.As for the Imperial Whitetail Clover, it has attracted

a ton of deer. It is a great attractant. I personally haveseen some amazing deer just off the food plots. Forinstance, the year we took 22 deer, my youngestbrother and I made frequent trips to a certain rectan-gular food plot in the early fall-late summer time peri-od. We would park our bike several hundred yardsaway and stalk our way to the field. With the windperfect most every time we would go undetected infull camouflage to the edge of the field, binoculars inhand. It never failed; a buck was there almost everynight. A trophy 10-point buck and a mountable 8-pointer were frequently spotted. We studied the 10-point buck distinctively, and got to know it fairly well.My brother noticed one of the dog horns were shov-eled, or had a flatness to it that was noticeable.We told the guys, and everyone was excited. My

uncle hunted the plot hard. He harvested a nice 8pointer. The third day of the season the 10 pointer washarvested and it was the same deer we had studiedearlier that year.Behind our house we have three or four food plots

that are anywhere from 1-3 acres. They are all inImperial Clover. Most of them are in the open and arerarely hunted. The one that is hunted has producedthree 8-pointers in the last five years. There are fourclover fields across the road that are a little bit smaller.Two of them have a stand or a blind nearby. Otherwiseall of the hunting takes place off of the plots on trails inthe woods. Most of the larger bucks this year werenever seen during the preseason. All of the bucks killedthis year were chasing does. W

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The Whitetail Institute

239 Whitetail Trail / Pintlala, AL 36043

800-688-3030www.whitetailinstitute.com

Because of Magnet Mix’s incredible attractiveness, some states may consider it bait.Remember to check your local game laws before hunting over Magnet Mix.

Research = Results.

Left to right: Styles Bridges IV, Styles Bridges Sr., and Joe Siemetowski show off the results of a successful hunt.

By Stephen Rutland

On this Novemberday, I traveled thefull spectrum of

the mental highs and lowsof hunting. At 1:18 p.m. Ihad walked out to thesmall wooded island in thefield that sat 300 yards infront of my stand. I hadbeen watching deer travelto the island day in andday out like clockwork.The Imperial Clover fieldwas doing it’s thing.It had rained that morning, was nearing 70 degrees

and there was just no interest to get out of bed at 4a.m. to get wet and hunt. Around midday we decidedthe front was moving out and that the deer wouldprobably start to move a little more. In the 30-minutedrive to the hunting area the temperature fell at least 15degrees. I decided that I would venture out to theisland and take a look. This would work out well sincewind was blowing from the southeast from my stand.

As I entered the island I was able to move very qui-etly due to the morning rain showers. The left side wasthick with vines and briars. The middle and right sideswere fairly open. As I approached the middle I heardthis thundering crash to my left not 20 feet from me. Abuck and doe had jumped and headed toward the nextzip code. All I saw was a huge rack and white tails flee-ing. His rack had hit a limb and it sounded like aLouisville Slugger smacking a telephone pole. I ran asfast as I could to the edge of the island and managedto get a three second glance at the buck 300 yardsaway slowly walking into the woods. I could hardlybelieve the body size of this animal.I have never felt such despair in my 30 years of hunt-

ing. I was almost physically sickened because of themissed opportunity. I played it over and over in mymind. What could I have done differently? Could I havemoved slower or waited longer between short move-ments? No, I don’t think any of that would have mat-tered. He didn’t get that big because he was dumb orslow.As I sat there on the Imperial Clover field the rest of

the afternoon in a depressed mood I was trying to pepmyself up for just having the opportunity of seeing adeer like that. I watched the far wood line as the youngbucks chased does around and sparred back and forthover them. Just before dark all of the bucks in the fieldscattered. I knew this would happen for one of two rea-sons. A predator (human or animal) will make the deerscatter, but the does didn’t leave. The second was alarge or dominant buck. This convinced me that the oldman of the woods was probably making his presencefelt.I peered back into the woods and noticed what I

thought was a deer looking out. For a few minutes Ikept talking myself out of believing that it could reallybe a deer that big. Then the deer leaned his head overand back up. I got to my feet as quickly as I could. I hadbeen sitting there for hours watching and ranging thedistance. I knew that it was 289 yards from my stand.


I'm a Master Sergeant and have been in for 20years now. I'm currently deployed to Baghdad,Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I'mon a 15-month deployment that will end inOctober of 2008. My current job title is MedicalRegulating Non-Commissioned Officer inCharge. What that means: I have a 10 man/woman crew who work 24 hours a day and coor-dinate moving all injured patients to the appro-priate level of care in Iraq. If and when need be,we also move them back to the U.S. for care. It isa very difficult but very rewarding job knowingthat we are helping save lives every single day.I will be retiring to Rocky Head, Ala. (just out-

side Ozark) when I return. My family is alreadythere waiting for me. I look forward to gettingback and climbing that tree to watch that won-derful world pass by that we call "HuntingSeason" with a little more appreciation afterbeing over here.MSG Steven RutlandBaghdad, Iraq

DespairtoEuphoria(What adifference3 hrs 40minutescan make)

Once I came back down to earth andrealized I had killed the biggest deer ofmy life the work began to get him out

and hang him in a tree.


The deer I had spooked had merely just wandered in the woods and laid down rightthere the entire time.The pucker factor was pushing 10-plus at that point. He got up and eased out into

the edge of field to rough up the scrape the young bucks had been working. He wasstanding broadside to me. I leaned against a tree and squeezed out a round from myrifle. The bullet hit under him and sprayed him with dirt. He immediately flung hisbody around looking at the ground. To my complete shock he did not run away. Heturned completely broadside once again and went back to working the scrape. Ichambered another round and took the time to properly count the lines on my scope.I then managed to pull the trigger with the right crosshairs on the animal and hedropped in is tracks. So did I.I had to sit there for a few minutes to let my brain and body adjust the chemical

imbalance created from the previous few minutes. After I was able to walk and thinkstraight I went back to the truck and got the 4-wheeler and a buddy to go with meto pick the animal up. As I approached the deer I just could not believe the body onthis animal. He was pushing 275 pounds. He was the largest deer I had ever seen inthe woods. I attribute this to genetics and the Imperial Whitetail Clover and theImperial No-Plow that I had planted.I planted Imperial Clover and Imperial No-Plow in several locations on my 16-acre

Kentucky farmland. My farmland is mostly rolling hills to flat terrain. The soil is a darkclay based soil, so both the No-Plow and Imperial Clover are great choices.Once I came back down to earth and realized I had killed the biggest deer of my

life the work began to get him out and hang him in a tree.

The best part of the whole experience was that I had my twobest hunting buddies, Mike and Tony Rubel of Florida, therewith me. My 12-year-old son was there the following weekendto kill his first deer ever, just 45 yards from where I droppedmy deer. My 5 year old daughter asks me everyday when shewill get to go hunting with me. I tell her this Christmas. I lookforward to her going out there with me and seeing the excite-ment in her eyes. W

Whitetail Instituteproducts areavailablein SMALLER BAGS.

Call and ask our consultantsabout these smaller packagesthat plant from 1/10- to 1/2-acre.

Call Toll Free:1-800-688-3030

SOIL TEST KITSWhitetail Institute

Soil testing is one of the most important things you can doto ensure the success of your plantings — of any kind.The Institute is pleased to now provide soil test kits and re-sults for all Imperial products or any other type seeds. (Completeinstructions and all related information will come with kits.) Test resultsinclude pH, phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Fertilizer and lime recom-mendations for maximum performance from your plantings will be provided. The aver-age turnaround time is 24-48 hours after our lab receives the sample.

The charge for the kit and results is $9.95. If ordered alone, add $2.00 shippingand handling for unlimited number of kits. If ordered with other Imperial productsthere is no shipping charge.

Please send ______ soil test kits at $9.95 each. Add $2.00 shipping and handlingfor each order regardless of number of kits desired. (There is NO shipping chargeif kit is ordered with other Imperial products.) Cost of kit includes test results.SHIP TO:Name ________________________________________________________________Address ______________________________________________________________City _______________________________________State ______Zip _____________Phone _______________________Email ___________________________________Payment: : �� Check or Money Order enclosedCharge to: � �� MasterCard � �� Visa � �� DiscoverCredit Card # _______________________________________ Exp. Date __________

Signature _____________________________________________________________Mail to: Whitetail Institute • 239 Whitetail Trail • Pintlala, AL 36043

or CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-688-3030

Now availablethrough the

Exclusive from the Whitetail Institute

Now you can try all our supplement productsfor one low price and get a FREE video

CALL TOLL-FREE1-800-688-3030

or writeWhitetail Institute

239 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043FAX 334-286-9723

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Although most full-grown men wouldnever verbalize such

an inquiry as, “Do I have whatit takes?”, the nagging ques-tion of self-doubt remains nev-ertheless whenever embarkingupon a trial that has yet to beexperienced. Sadly, doubt andfear of failure have preventedmany an otherwise willing soulfrom making an attempt at whatmay not be so easy to accomplish.Standing up to bat for the first

time and facing a pitcher 60 feetaway that is preparing to throw ahard round sphere at you is ratherintimidating. The stands are filledwith spectators including family andpeers, all of whom are expecting youto hit a round ball with a roundwooden bat. As you tentatively diginto the batter’s box, the fear of beinghit becomes as real as the dread ofstriking out, failing and embarrassingyourself. Every Major League baseballplayer has faced this very same situa-tion, as has every accomplished deerhunter. Once the ball is struck or thefirst kill is made, all misgivings quicklyfade. After all, success breeds confi-dence. Indeed, there was a time when the

hunter’s horn was trumpeted with the callbeing eagerly answered, not out of asense of obligation, but as a rite of pas-sage. The only question being, as RobertRuark, author of Horn of the Hunter, point-ed out, not if, but when that resonatingnoise is heard. “The hunter’s horn sounds early for some,

later for others. For some unfortunates, pris-oned by city sidewalks and sentenced to acement jungle more horrifying than anythingto be found in Tanganyika, the horn of thehunter never winds at all. But deep in the gutsof most men is buried the involuntaryresponse to the hunter’s horn, a prickle of thenape hairs, an acceleration of the pulse, anatavistic memory of his fathers, who killed firstwith stone, and then with club, and then withspear, and then with bow, and then with gun.How meek the man is with no importance;somewhere in the pigeon chest of the clerk is stillthe vestigial remnant of the hunter’s heart; some-where in his nostrils the half-forgotten smell ofblood.” Fortunately for me, I heard the horn early in life.

I was a deer hunter long before I became a man.But, as you are about to read, my initiation into thefraternity of deer hunters was not without its shareof doubts. The story begins with an untested fledg-ling, marching down a dimly lit forest pathway, intoa labyrinth of skeletal trees that would soon swallowhim up like a tempestuous, hungry ocean farremoved from the harbor’s familiar security.Embarking upon a pre-dawn wood is always a bitunnerving, what with the sounds and shadows ofnight, the inability to clearly identify what is aroundeach bend of the trail, and the mere act of navigating

in the dark is not comfortable. This is especially true fora young man who is about to be tested for the firsttime. This initiation into manhood, to be tested, to see if I

had what it took to become a full-fledged hunter cameabruptly and without warning. Following along behindthe footsteps of my father, much like the many othermornings since I began my hunting career, all seemedtypical. But today would be different. A day like noother, one that comes only once in a man’s life. Forsome, such as myself, it comes early. For others muchlater and perhaps with no father to follow, and sadly,there are those that never get to this place. It seemed odd that we were stopping so soon; there

was a good bit of ground left to cover in order for us totop the ridge and be in position before first light. Thatinterruption in our trek is when my world suddenlychanged completely. Without explanation, my fatherturned to me, pointed towards the trail and said,“That’s your hunting grounds today,” turned and con-tinued on his way leaving me speechless and alone. There I stood on the dirt roadway, gun in hand con-


Do I HaveWhat ItTakes?A Boy, ABuck and A StepTowardManhoodBy R.G. Bernier Photos by the Author

templating what I should do. Uncertainty clouded mymind. It would have been easy to hike back to the safe-ty of the car. After all, my lunch was there and no onewould be the wiser to this decision, no one except forme. In my youthfulness I could not comprehend why Iwas being abandoned, why I was suddenly beingforced to engage into something so terrifying. Mustering all of the intestinal fortitude that an

adventurous young lad possesses, I cautiously beganto tiptoe down that aforementioned, dimly lit pathway— gun at port ready should any lions, tigers or bearsmake an attempt to ambush me. Such are the thoughtsof boyhood fantasy. With each step I penetrated deep-er into this cloaked abyss. The forest had swallowed meup and I had now reached a point of no return. Thefamiliar had disappeared and I was clearly in unchartedwaters. The morning star rose to the east, providing provi-

dential light to erase the darkness, and thankfully, someof my imagined fears. I pressed on with slightlyrenewed confidence. Believing that I had to havewalked several miles by now (in reality it was probablyno more than a few hundred yards), I found a goodstump on which to sit that offered me a good vantagepoint. Shortly into my vigil, the forest occupants came to

life, much like a city filled with bustling people headingoff to work for the day. Birds could be heard chirping,squirrels were rummaging through the leaf litterattempting to locate breakfast, and what I thought wassomeone’s feeble attempt to start their engine provedto be the drumming of a male partridge. Suddenly, above the ruckus I heard the distinct foot-

falls of a much heavier animal. Closer they came. My lit-

tle heart was pounding. I almost didn’t dare to breathe.I certainly didn’t move as that was a cardinal siningrained in me during my initial hunting forays.Searching desperately for what I hoped was a deer, myeyes could not pick out any movement from the direc-tion of the disturbance. The brush was just too thickfrom whence the noise came. And then everythingwent silent. For what seemed like hours to a pint-sizedlad, it was probably no more than a few short minutesthat had elapsed before the sound of movement in theleaf litter began again. Whatever it was, deer — bear,man, who could tell at this point — was definitely mov-ing from behind the screen of fir toward an opening tomy right. Sliding off the stump, I quickly got down onone knee, placed my rifle across my other knee andprepared for a possible shot. At this point, my heartwas pounding in my throat, reverberating in both earswith each breath coming in short gasps. Finally, thedeer stepped out — a fine, fat buck, which was quiteoblivious to my presence. He was no more than 50yards distance and offered a broadside shot. When thesmoke cleared from my shot, there laid my buck, itstongue out, his eyes dim. He was dead. As I stood straddling my buck, smiling from ear-to-

ear, I felt triumphant. I’d done it. Alone, or so it seemedin this vast terrain, I had single-handedly captured myprize with one well-placed shot. In the scope of lessthan two hours, a frightened, uncertain young manbecame transformed into a self-confident hero thathad made a huge leap into manhood. Much to myfather’s wisdom, this was no cruel joke or harsh treat-ment as I first thought, but rather the very thing thatwould serve to catapult his young son into an adven-turesome life of chasing whitetails with reckless aban-

don in some of the wildest places on the planet. Every boy, every man, everyone that calls him-

self a hunter must know that he has what ittakes. Our masculine soul needs the trials andadventure, the experiences that bring him to thissettled confidence. Failures will come; it’s part ofthe learning. Hunting is hard. But isn’t that theepic that we are all after? Teddy Roosevelt spokeof the thrill of the chase: “In hunting, the finding and killing of the game

is after all but a part of the whole. The free, self-reliant, adventurous life…the wild surroundings,the grand scenery… all these unite to give thecareer of the wilderness hunter its peculiar charm.The chase is among the best of all national pas-times; it cultivates that vigorous manliness for thelack of which in a nation, as in an individual, thepossession of no other qualities can possiblyatone.” Men and boys learn by doing; we learn to hunt

through experience. Although we may have fathersand mentors, we still need to discover for ourselvesthat we have what it takes through some trialbrought on in a hunting adventure. The experiencebecomes a revelation revealing to you that you havewhat it takes. This initiation, like hunting itself, is nota spectator sport. It is something that each of us mustenter into — face head-on — and conquer. W


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Please add $4.00 for shipping and handling. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

Suggested Retail:$19.95

Price with coupon:$12.95

(A) Durable, crushable camouflage cap fea-tures the triple brow-tine buck in theWhitetail Institute logo.

(B) Top quality hunter orange hat with darkbrown bill. This hat also features the full-color Whitetail logo.

(C) Handsome white cap in heavy twill thatfeatures a tan suede bill and the Whitetaillogo buck.

(D) Ladies’ pink cap in heavy twill trimmed inblack. Features the Whitetail logo buck.

Please send me____cap(s)

(A)____ (B)____ (C)____ (D)____

TOTAL Including shipping and handling $ ________________

IMPERIAL “CHIC” MAGNET™ YOU SAVE $50.00Suggested Retail: $139.95 (9 lbs. - 6 Acre Planting)

Price with coupon: $89.95Please send _____ 9 lb. quantities of Imperial“Chic” Magnet™.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_________

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IMPERIAL EXTREME™ YOU SAVE $80.00Sugg. Retail: $299.95 (56 lbs. - 2-1/2 Acre Planting)

Price with coupon: $219.95Please send _____ 56 lb. quantities of ImperialEXTREME™ Seed Blend.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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Limited-Edition Collector’s Knife YOU SAVE $30.00

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IMPERIAL CHICORY PLUS™ YOU SAVE $85.00Suggested Retail: $299.00 (40 lbs. - 6 Acre Planting)

Price with coupon: $219.95Please send _____ 40 lb. quantities of ImperialChicory PLUS™.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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NEW!

IMPERIAL 30-06™ Mineral/Vitamin Supplements YOU SAVE $30.00Suggested Retail: $89.95 and $99.95 (60 lbs.)

Coupon Price: $59.95 or $69.95Please send _____ 60 lb. quantities of 30-06™ �� Original 30-06™ @ $59.95 �� 30-06™ Plus Protein @ $69.95TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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IMPACT™ PLANT GROWTH STIMULANT YOU SAVE $15.00Suggested Retail: $64.95 (32 oz. Jug. - 4 Acres)

Price with coupon: $49.95Please send _____ jug(s) of ImperialIMPACT™ Plant Growth Stimulant.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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Please add $9.00 for shipping and handling for each jug ordered. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

SAVE BIGWith Whitetail News


Whitetail Institute of North AmericaLimited EditionCOLLECTOR’S SERIES Lockback KnifeFeatures:• Limited edition — only 175 serially numbered knives• Large lockback knife (8-5/8”) with natural wood handle• Beautiful walnut presentation/display box• Blade is constructed of 440 stainless steel• Bolsters are made of the highest grade nickel silver• Made in the USAPlease send me ______ Collector’s Knives.

TOTAL Including shipping and handling $__________

Retail:$79.95Price

with coupon:$49.95

“KRAZE” Flavored Deer Attractant YOU SAVE Up To $29.95Suggested Retail: $89.70 and $44.85

Coupon Price: $59.95 or $34.95Please send _____ �� 6-Pak KRAZE @ $59.95Please send _____ �� 3-Pak KRAZE @ $34.95

TOTAL $___ ______

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No charge for shipping and handling. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

IMPERIAL 4-PLAY BLOCK™ YOU SAVE Up To $23.95Suggested Retail: $59.90 and $29.95

Coupon Price: $35.95 or $19.95Please send _____ �� 2-Pak Blocks @ $35.95Please send _____ �� 1 Block @ $19.95TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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Please add $9.50 for shipping and handling for EACH block or $17.00 for EACH Double Pack. (Canadian residents call forshipping charges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

ARREST™ HERBICIDE YOU SAVE $5.00Suggested Retail: $27.95 (1 Pint - .5 Acres)

Price with coupon: $22.95Please send _____ pint(s) of ARREST™ Herbicide. Call for larger quantities.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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Please add $6.50 for shipping and handling for each pint ordered. (Canadian residents call for shippingcharges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

SLAY™ HERBICIDE YOU SAVE $15.00Suggested Retail: $59.95 (4 oz. - 1 Acre Treatment)

Price with coupon: $44.95Please send _____ 4 oz. Package(s) of SLAY™ Herbicide. Call for larger quantities.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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Please add $6.50 for shipping and handling for each 4 oz. package ordered. (Canadian residents call for ship-ping charges.) Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

Exclusive Limited-Edition Art Print YOU SAVE $129.05

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Please add $14.95 for shipping and handling for each print ordered. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

IMPERIAL MAGNET MIX™ YOU SAVE $20-$35Suggested Retail: $119.95 – 6-Pak, $69.95 – 3-Pak

Coupon Price: $59.95 or $34.95Please send ___ Magnet Mix™ 6-Paks @ $84.95Please send ___ Magnet Mix™ 3-Paks @ $49.95

TOTAL $___ ______

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No charge for shipping and handling. (Canadian residents call for shipping charges.)Please enclose with shipping and payment information or give code on phone orders.

IMPERIAL DOUBLE-CROSS™ YOU SAVE $80.00Suggested Retail: $299.95 (50 lbs. - 6 Acre Planting)

Price with coupon: $219.95Please send _____ 50 lb. quantities of ImperialDouble-Cross™.TOTAL Including shipping and handling $___ ______

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DISCOUNT COUPONS - Order Today!


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* Important: Shipping & Payment Information* Please Include Daytime Phone Number For UPS Shipments

and Any Questions We May Have About Your Order.

Mail To: Whitetail Institute of North America239 Whitetail Trail • Pintlala, AL 36043

Or Call Toll Free: 1-800-688-3030 • Fax Orders To: (334) 286-9723

Name: ____________________________________________________________

Mailing Address: ____________________________________________________

City: ________________________________State: _______Zip:_______________

Shipping Address: (No P.O. Box)

City: ________________________________State: _______Zip:_______________

Daytime Phone: ________________________Email: ________________________

Payment Method:

�� Check or Money Order Enclosed Charge to my: �� Mastercard �� Visa ��Discover

Credit Card#: _________________________________Exp. Date:_______________

Signature: _________________________________________________________

�

FREE

FREIGH

T! FREE

FREIGH

T!

PHOTO?

From Ray Scott’s Private Collection

MOST WANTED: The Imperial BuckBy Eddie Leroy

This unique portrait of the Intitute icon named “the Impe-rial Buck” was commissioned by Ray Scott for his personalcollection. As owner of the Imperial mount, he wanted thedistinctive buck mythically recreated and transported to thesouthern climes of the Whitetail Institute and set among agentle autumn and the Spanish moss of Pintlala, Alabama.

The original painting is recreated in the ultimate Gicléeprinting process which is able to reproduce the fullest spec-trum of colors, displaying an extraordinarily vibrant paletteand texture on the finest acid-free paper.

• Each print is numbered and signed by both the artist andRay Scott. (Dimensions: 26” x 31”)

Please send me ______ Art Prints.

TOTAL Including shipping and handling $_________

Retail: $199.00Price

with coupon:$69.95

WHITETAIL INSTITUTE® Field-Tester T-Shirts YOU SAVE $7.00

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100% Cotton Heavy-Weight T-ShirtsFeature Whitetail LogoPlease send me Whitetail Institute Logo T-Shirts in the quantity,sizes, colors and sleeve-length indicated:

L ______ (Qty.), Color ___, �� LS, �� SS ��

XL ______ (Qty.), Color ___, �� LS, �� SS

XXL ______ (Qty.), Color ___, �� LS, �� SS

XXXL ______ (Qty.),

Color ___, �� LS, �� SS

Suggested Retail:$19.95

Pricewith coupon:

$12.95

(P) PINK

(W) WHITE

(B) BLACK

(T) TAN

(O) OLIVE

TOTAL Including shipping and handling $ __________

TAN LONG-SLEEVES

(LS)

WHITE SHORT-SLEEVES

(SS)

REX LOVELADY — ARKANSASMy wife Stephanie decided to go hunting with me

when our 11 and 14 yr. old boys wanted to wait for theyouth gun season. The boys and I had been seeing a lotof does and a cou-ple of nice bucksin our 3 acreImperial Cloverfield but theycouldn’t get a shotbecause it was justtoo dark whenthey came out. Wehad cleared andplanted the field inthe middle of our40 acres of mostlypines and a few hardwoods. Oct 21 we got to our standat 4 pm and by 6 pm 18 does and fawns had been inthe clover but got spooked by a dog barking. Therewas probably about 20 minutes of shooting light leftwhen a small spike came to feed. As we were watchinghim this nice 200 lb 7 point with an 18 in wide spreadcame out feeding on the clover. We waited until he wasbroadside at 50 yards and she took the shot with ourmuzzleloader. When the smoked cleared he was layingright where he had been standing when she shot. Ifeveryone could have heard her scream as she lookedout and saw him laying there you would know howexcited she was. The boys wished after we got homethey would have gone with me. They may have to taketurns now. We have never seen so many deer. WhitetailInstitute products and information are great. Keepthem coming. We have 4 more larger bucks on camera.Hope me and boys get our chance. Thank You!

JOHN WALKER — DELAWAREThere is no doubt that Whitetail Institute products

have improved our property and our deer herd. Theyhave given us memories that will last a lifetime. Last

year was a greatyear! I had highhopes. My grandsonLuke Czapp wasgoing to shoot thisyear if the opportuni-ty arose. We passedon a small 6 pt. onthe first day, which toa youngster was dis-couraging. We dis-cussed the impor-tance of patienceand passing onsmaller bucks. Well,

patience and passing had surely paid off. He shot thisbuck on the last day of the season, one hour before itwas over. The only thing better was the shot he madeon it. He made an excellent shot at 85 yards.

TERRY GREENE — GEORGIAEnclosed is a picture of my son Mac Greene with his

first deer. Mac is 10 years old. We were hunting last sea-son on our property in Elbert County, Georgia in lateOctober. He and I were sitting together in a buddy

stand late one morn-ing after a rainy night.The big bodied 3pointer walked out ofthe pines into a foodplot we had plantedwith a mix of oats,chicory and Imperial

Whitetail Clover. Mac tookthe 75 yard shot with aRuger .243 and killed itwith one shot. I was soproud to be sitting withhim and seeing how excit-ed he was. I was alsoproud that he took thedeer on a food plot thatwe had created together and he and I could see theresults of our hard work. Two weeks later he and I weresitting together again in the same stand when a 9 pointcame out and Mac dropped it with one shot at 100yards. I’ve enclosed a picture of it as well. Thanks somuch Whitetail Institute for all you do.

TONY PIZZO — ILLINOISEnclosed are pictures

of my son, Angelo 13,and his first two deer

that he harvested. The expe-rience of being there at myson’s first harvest was over-whelming!

MICHAEL STRICKLAND — ALABAMAOne year and one day separate two of the most

exciting moments in my life. December 9, last year mythen 10 year old daughter, Anna, killed her first deer

which was a mountable 8point buck. December 10,this year my 9 year oldson, Will, killed his firstbuck. It was a main frame8 point with 4 additionalpoints that could bescored. I have been luckyenough to be the personwith both of them whenthey took their deer.Thanks to the WhitetailInstitute, Will was luckyenough to be able to

choose from 8 racked bucks on a food plot and Annachose from 4 racked bucks.We started using Whitetail Institute products in

2001. The number and quality of deer seen has steadi-ly been increasing from year to year. I have used theperennial products as well as the annual products ofwhich all bring in and hold deer. Not only have theracks increased but so has the body size and weight ofthe deer. It was an extremely warm Sunday afternoon when

we decided to go hunting. We arrived at the fieldaround 3:30 CST which gave us about 2 hours to hunt.The field was planted with Whitetail Institute No-Plow.Like any 9 year old, he was a little fidgety because ithad been 5 minutes with no deer. We did not have towait long before the first deer walked on the field at3:45, 150 yards away. One side of the deer’s rack hadbeen broken off just above the brow tine and the othercarried 4 long points. In the south, he is what we call a“moose” of a deer due to his body size. I estimated heweighed 220lbs to 230lbs because the deer ultimatelyshot by Will weighed 200lbs. The first deer far exceed-ed Will’s deer in body and antler size. The next 7 deerto walk into the field all had nice racks. Only one was a6 point and the rest were 8 points or better. To say theleast, we were both excited. After watching and judg-ing the deer for a few minutes, I finally figured outwhich one to shoot as he exceeded the other deer innoticeable body size and none of the deer challengedhim in the field. All of the deer except for the half rackand Will’s deer were involved in some type of fightingduring the 30 minutes that we watched. There were 8points with taller and wider racks but none had 4 addi-tional kicker points. I gave my son the choice of deerand he chose points and body size. He fired the 7mm-08 and the deer dropped in its tracks. I still have noidea how he shot the deer because if he was shakinghalf as much as I was looking through the binocularsthe deer should have looked like a rabbit hoppingthrough his scope. It took another 20 minutes for theremaining deer to leave the field before we could lookat the trophy. Whether it is a spike or a 12 point, being with both

my children on their first deer goes down as a trophytime. Thanks for the Whitetail Institute products. W


The Future Of Our Sport

The foundation of Pure Attraction’s early-season attraction and nu-trition are WINA-Brand oats which are winter-hardy and drought-re-sistant. Their high sugar content makes them exceptionallyattractive and palatable to deer. WINA-Brand Oats performance isunsurpassed by all other forage oats tested. WINA-Brand foragebrassicas are also included in Pure Attraction to provide abundantforage during the coldest months of the winter.

Read the early reviews from all over the country:

• From Virginia: “The Pure Attraction blend is extremely winter-hardy and lastedthrough the winter. It really grew well the whole time too. Even though it washeavily grazed, it continued to provide food for the deer during the coldweather.”

• From Michigan: “The deer ate the Pure Attraction like crazy. The WINA-Brandoats and winter peas came up first and then the brassica. The deer hit the WINA-Brand oats and winter peas first. As of Nov. 18, both plots had been grazed low,but the plants were still green.”

• From Maine:“Pure Attraction is awesome. The blend seemed to click with mysoil and the deer. Another great product.”

• From Missouri: The Pure Attraction blend was “among the most attractive Ihave ever planted.”

• From Alabama:“Deer completely mowed the Pure Attraction plot down. Evenso, it continued to provide forage and grew well all through the winter. Deerwere in the plot every night.”

• From Vermont: “In our experience in testing a broad range of oat products cur-rently available on the market, it is our belief that deer heavily prefer the oats inPure Attraction over all other oat products we have ever tested. ”

Plant Pure Attraction during the same dates as the fall-planting dates for Impe-rial perennials. Since Pure Attraction does not require the sort of deeperground tillage required for planting some perennial blends, it is even easier toplant. Looking for a product that will establish quickly and giveyour deer the one-two punch of both early- and late-season attraction…?

Give Pure Attraction a try!

The Whitetail Institute239 Whitetail Trail • Pintlala, AL 36043

1-800-688-3030 • www.whitetailinstitute.comResearch = Results ®

Documents

Whitetail News Vol 18.1