Working on a New Food Plot.  The most important part for me to set up a new food plot at our place was to ensure I had access to the location with my tractor.  I do a lot of the work on my plots alone and I need the machinery to do so.  This plot is on top of a finger or spur with a somewhat flattened top.  This spur points to a creek valley with a gradual slop into a draw on the east side of it and a steeper draw to the west.  To the south is a hill the connects to the creek valley that has two deer trails running up from both the southeast and southwest sides of the spur.  I have a few trails running through out our place and had to cut a new trail to this outskirt of this location.  This new access trail comes in from the north of the proposed plot.  From trail head on the north side of the plot I determine the angle of the trail from the trail into this food plot.  I am actually having the trail come in from an angle into a corner of the plot.  This will prevent deer from sitting back in a thick area and looking straight down the length of the plot.  I am hoping to also provide some security for the deer as they approach the plot and allow them access to move into cover if they feel threatened while approaching the plot.  I feel this will help to allow them to move toward the plot with a sense of security prior to stepping into the plot itself.  I also plan to keep the plot somewhat narrow.  This again allows the deer a sense of comfort in the event they need to move into the brush if they feel threatened.

After submitting my soil samples to the University of Tennessee I went out and identified the boundary for the food plot with orange tape.  This gives me a visual of what the plot is going to look like and to see if I need to do any adjusting to the edges.  I can also see if I am going to have any decent trees to use later on if I choose to set up a tree stand near the plot for hunting.

Once my boundary tape in place I used my iPad to walk the perimeter.  I used an app called iMapIt Pro (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imapit-pro/id484710716?mt=8) to walk the boundary and plot my survey flags.  In the app I have the option to have my device figure up my squared area.  As I walk by each survey flag I plot the location.  The app then connects the line and at the end of the walk where I click to stop the survey.  The app then figures my area and saves it in the device.  I also have the option to email this information to myself as a KML file to load onto Google Earth for later review and record keeping.  This is so when my soil samples come back from the University I know what my numbers are going to be to apply lime, fertilizer, seed, etc.  When the samples come back I get the recommended amounts of lime and fertilizer sent to me per acre.  For example.  The first food plot soil sample survey I made last year for another food plot told me I needed 3.5 tons of lime per acre to get the neutral pH required to plant the desired plants I was planning on growing.  I only had .29 acres in that plot so I added only a fraction of the 3.5 tons of lime to the ground.  I'll be doing the same with this new plot since it isn't even a half acre.  Click the photo on teh right to see the iMapit results of the survey.

 

iMapIt Pro survey results.