Agreed. Have a great day and thanks for the comment.

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate the comment and the support.

That was a great idea. Ben does a nice job with all his efforts. He is a diligent hard worker who knows what he is doing. He will go far - in the food plot bag spreader industry. Just kidding Ben - in whatever he chooses.

Great idea. Just too bad that earthway doesn’t last but one season maybe. I spread 6-700 lbs of fertilizer for my plot and that kills the plastic gears 1 year warranty. Save your receipt

​@@craigkowalczyk3516 It might pay for you to get a spreader for your ATV (if you have an ATV). They handle high volumes much better than the Earthway.

It is definitely a great idea and works perfectly. Good luck.

Yes, the southern side of all these small plots could benefit from that. I will drop the trees back into the timber to keep the plot as big as possible.

Good input Mark. I appreciate it and I also appreciate the support. Have a great day.

Sounds good Nick. I have about 12 stumps though, unfortunately. I am trying to get my hands on a stump grinder I can put on my tractor. Have a great day.

Yes, Ben's bag hack is the best simple solution to come along. I am a little embarrassed that I went for 20 years without thinking of that.

What style have you used? I will take a look.

Ideally, you can come in from the opposite direction of their primary feeding area. If you can't do that you can't hunt it in the mornings or you have to hunt in the evenings using a blind and then just stay overnight in the blind to be ready in the morning. Good luck.

Agreed. We will do that for sure. I have an idea they head from that bedding area out toward the big ag field, but exactly how they do that is still TBD.

Good idea. I will do a "Setup" video about those drills. That is kind of what that series is for - the topics that don't quite fit into the hunting series or the land management series. Have a great day.

Agree. Thanks for the comment. Have a great day.

Thanks. It is a great idea. Ben is the man. I am keeping all my rain. In fact, I want some of yours (if you get any). It has been really dry again. We may have gotten some yesterday. Haven't been to the farm in a couple of days. Good luck.

I know. I have used one of these for more than 20 years and never thought of that.

That's what I hate about leasing. I had an awesome lease before buying this farm - better hunting than my farm for sure. The landowner would have gladly let me create all the food plots and interior plots I wanted to. He might have even helped pay for them. But in the end I never improved the hunting because I knew I would just make the place more valuable and then would lose out in the end. I ended up buying so it all kind of evaporated. I would have loved to buy that farm. Good input.

I have done most of mine that way too. Called them "Poor Man's Plots". It sure is rewarding. Good work.

Thanks George. It will be fun to start looking for bucks with the trail cameras starting pretty soon. Have a great day.

Thanks but there is still a lot of work for the next few years. It will be at least two more years before I have the biggest projects done. Have a great day.

Yes, I did put down about three acres of it yesterday. I just broadcast it into a soybean plot that wasn't doing well. I did some of that last year too, with good success.

@bill-winke I find that to be a huge draw as well when bucks are starting to drop their antlers and into spring. We had 12 acres of it planted for a cover crop and found 13 sheds and of those, four matched sets. Nothing huge, but they were in it often.

Thanks for the comment ...Melman. I appreciate it and hope have great success with your property.

Agreed. We will get into that when we start to hunt these spots. I will show the routes on maps so everyone can see it clearly - and judge whether it worked. Thanks for the input.

I believe it is a game changer. I don't think I would ever get off it if I had one. Yes, the tiller did a really nice job finishing off that plot. I think if you had some kind of root ripper, that would be good too - for two reasons. 1. to rip up roots in the middle of the plot and 2. to cut through the roots of any trees on the fringe of the plot to keep them from stealing water from the plot. I think a single shank deep ripper would work for second application. Not sure on the best way to clean the roots out of the plot from the trees you cut down. Good luck.

Yes, I tried my contact at Hooyman regarding the bag spreader and electric pole saw. He seemed interested at first, but then I heard nothing. They have a pretty nice one too. It is much harder getting sponsors than most people would think. Have a great day.

Agreed. I think it is the single best thing you can do to make your hunting area more productive. It is even something you can do on a permission farm if you can keep others away from it.

Agree. That vision can be both a blessing a curse. You see projects everywhere you look! Have a great day.

Good tip on the shoulder strap pad. Building an interior plot by planting trees requires a lot more patience than building one by removing trees! Good job and good luck hunting that spot. I am sure it is really productive.

Yes, I will never use that cheap Earthway spreader again without the insert. Have a great day.

I have a feeling this may make deer feel trapped. Even if it's a small portion of the plot I could see it backfiring.

That does make sense. I just don't like to look at those brush and log piles when I am hunting. If you notice all my interior plots look like they have been there since God created the earth. I just like that appearance. In the end, we are going to be sitting there for a lot of hours so we have to like what we are looking at. The key on these small plots is to figure out where they want to leave and hunt those trails. Most people make the mistake of trying to figure out where they enter and hunt those trails. In my experience, there is one main trail out and three or four trails in. In the evening they are heading to the nearest big ag field. You can more or less count on that. Good luck.

Thanks for the support Darin. We will soon switch over to where we start thinking about hunting (some of the time over those same plots). Have a great day.

I know, I would never shut mine off. My entire farm would be one big food plot - just because building them is so much fun.

You are living right. That is perfect timing. Hopefully you get at least one more good rain to keep them going. Good luck.

I don't think that far ahead when I am making them. I just try to find good flat spots without too many big trees and then adjust to the deer movement after I figure out what it is. The smaller plot will be pretty straight forward as the deer will likely be bedding farther out on the point. I will sneak in via the lane we made when we created the plot and out the opposite direction (toward the bedding area and down over the side of the bluff. Will require two modes of transportation. Or, I could put a blind there and sleep in the blind and come in and out the same way at midday. The bigger one is straight forward too. The deer may enter from any direction, but most will leave toward the big cornfield to the west - there is an open gate there they can go through further making that a good option. I will do a video about how we are going to hunt these spots once we figure that out for sure.

Perfect Trevor. Nice setup. Good luck this fall.

Ben works fast. It was six hours total time. We did spent about two hours on that first plot (location # 1) back in May, but he can get a lot of work done fast with that machine. Have a great day.

But if you already have the bag seeder, a couple bucks or free is a lot better than $80-100.

Agreed, but like George says, I already have the bag spreader. Thanks for the input.

Not sure that clover is pH tolerant. I think it really likes 6.5 to 7.0 pH. But you are right, that cereal grain and clover this late summer would be a good starting point. Next spring that would be a good clover plot. I will have to soil sample in the spring to get it right, but if I had to guess I would think it will need lime as these timber plots tend to be acidic from rotting leaves. Good luck.

We've successfully grown clover with 6.0-6.5 ph, but I've also had great results simply using pellet lime on small plots like these.

That is awesome Alex. The difference something like that makes to your property and your hunting is hard to appreciate until you build one (or more). Good luck.

@@bill-winke I'm excited to see how it impacts the area this fall. Your skid steer videos with Ben and hours of KZfaq research on how to run them paid off! Definitely a wishlist item, so useful!

Garrett, we will definitely produce a few of those as we get closer to the time we hunt these spots. Have a great day.

Agree. I did it the hard way for more than 20 years. No more. Thanks for the input. Have a great day.

David, agree. I hope we do have too many prime spots, then over time maybe we can get enough bucks here all spread out to make it a lot of fun. In the meantime, I expect that we won't hunt some of these spots (maybe Jordan will) because there are so few shooters that you end up going to them rather than having them come to you. Iowa has fairly restrictive laws on hunting near mineral licks so I am going to have to pass on your stump solution. Thanks for the support. Have a great day.

You are right Adam. Decaying leaves tend to make those spots acidic. The other thing that hurts them is roots of the nearby trees. If it is dry, they suck up all the available moisture from the subsoil and the plants you want to grow in the plot shrivel up. On a good year, these spots are awesome, but they are much more sensitive to drought than plots in the open. Good luck.

I should just make my own seeders and sell them. That is a pretty low-tech piece of gear. Right up my alley. Have a great day.

MDS Tree Gator: mdsmfg.com/tree-gator/

I was going to but it got to be all I could do to keep up with the projects on the farm. With so little rain, I had to plant twice and spray twice and that takes a lot of time. When it is dry, it seems that the only thing that grows is weeds. We will still hunt here, but there won't be a specific food plot. I could still plant a Poor Man's brassica (or cereal grain) plot along the edge. I may still do that. Have a great day.

Thanks Lonnie. Much appreciated.

Craig, I think you are helping yourself. I don't want to encourage people to send me aerial photos or I will spend all my time looking at those. So, I will give you a few times on how to find the best spots yourself. For sure, you want relatively flat spots, at least 1/2 acre in size. I would make sure there is a decent access route near them that allows you to sneak in from two different directions (one plot for each wind direction). Being able to sneak in is a big deal. I would stay away from known bedding areas (or at least on the downwind fringe). My point there is don't give up bedding areas to create food on a 30 acre property. Put the food somewhere else. I would not be less than 40 yards from the property line so neighbors can't see into them very well. If it seems that they will be able to se into them, then plant some kind of screen cover (like hybrid willow trees, for one). I hope that helps. Good luck.

@@bill-winke ok thanks

I am sure they appreciate that. In many areas, they can definitely use it. Good work.

The smaller one is probably about 1/3 acre and the bigger one is probably about 1/2 acre.

It is the DJI Mini 3 Pro. For the price, it is pretty hard to beat and being very small and light in weight, you don't need the FAA certification.

yeah nice drone, i have Dji mini 2 @@bill-winke

If we saved a soul with our work we feel very good about things! That is a good tip.

Yes that is always a concern on these. We did cut back some of the bigger trees on the first plot to allow more sunlight, but I may have to do even more of that. The one we just made from scratch is never going to be super productive because it is so small, but I have had decent success on these 1/4 acre plots in the past but usually only on wetter years when the trees don't get all the moisture. It will likely be Whitetail Clover long-term. Good luck.

I have not limed or fertilized yet. I will throw down some urea once I see something growing on the bigger one and then will get soil samples and do them right next year. I always figure it takes at least two years to get a new food plot worked out and into good production. Have a great day.

The answer depends to some degree on where you are, but even in the northern states, I think you are still OK for a couple weeks planting brassicas like the Wintergreens. You will need to get lucky and catch a rain sooner rather than later, to get them up and growing quickly, but it can still work. Otherwise, the blends with cereal grains like the Pure Attraction I planted (or straight grain like fall rye) will still do well if planted in the next few weeks. Good luck.

@@bill-winke I live in MN. For the rest of the month temps are in the 80’s upper 70s and rain shower here and there. Thank you replying.

I agree 100%. If I am going to catch one of those bucks that isn't very daylight active in a spot where he is killable, it will likely be as close to his bedding area as possible, and those interior plots fit the bill perfectly. Have a great day.

Thanks for the support Jim.

Agreed. I would love to own one of those. I have rented them and they are a blast. Even had CAT as a sponsor back in the early Midwest Whitetail days and they sent me one to use for a month. Best month of my life! Just kidding. Have a great day.