Wildlife food plots can improve your chances of shooting a quality buck
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Agronomist Adam Korman checks growth at a food plot planted to enhance deer hunting.
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In a 2 1/2-acre corner of a Westmoreland County farm last week, signs of deer were everywhere. Trails led from the surrounding woods into a long plot of turnips, winter wheat and oats, planted for the deer. Prints were scattered among the clover and alfalfa, and 6-foot sorghum stalks were brushed aside where the whitetails had passed.
As we walked the field, agronomist Adam Korman's cell phone beeped. A motion-detector field camera emailed a photo showing real-time evidence of activity on the property -- it was us.
Counter-intuitively, perhaps, Korman's hunting group uses food plots to nourish and attract deer so they can shoot them, reducing the farm's deer density.
With at least one neighbor keeping hunters out, the deer population on the 118-acre farm had soared and the owner suffered years of substantial crop damage. Korman, 34, of Westview and a private group of hunters were given an exclusive lease to manage the deer herd. They post the perimeter, chase out poachers, plant and maintain wildlife food plots, cull excess does and scrub bucks, and hunt for mature males with the best racks.
Korman said his group spends $500 a year on lime, fertilizer, soil test, seed and fuel for motor vehicles, and each member's chance of harvesting a quality deer has increased by 60 percent.
Saturday, Korman dished out the dirt on food plots during a workshop at the Pymatuning Waterfowl and Outdoor Expo in Linesville, Crawford County. His company, Eden Habitat Development (www.edenhd.com), works with landowners, municipalities, hunters and wildlife management groups to nourish wildlife including white-tailed deer, grouse, quail and pheasants.
"We work as consultants and do the dirt work, but we found there is a demand for food plot consultants among people who basically want to do the work themselves," said Korman. "Maybe they have no idea what to do, or what they're doing isn't working. We get them to the next step."
Whether the food plots are planted as long-term habitat improvements, nourishment outposts or wildlife attractants, the ultimate goal is a better hunt. In most cases in Pennsylvania, luring game animals to baiting stations is illegal. But in the regulatory parlance of the Game Commission, attracting animals to food plots is not considered baiting.
First Published September 18, 2011 12:00 am
