# 499 Rackology Food Plot Part 2

https://www.rackology.org/ Bruce: …Rackology, Eric Fitzgerald and Jason Obermiller, and your host Bruce Hutcheon with Whitetail Rendezvous. We joined up and we’re sharing some ideas about, you know, land management and food plots. And why are we doing this? Because there’s a lot of misinformation out there, there’s a lot of advertising out there, there’s a lot of promotion out there, there’s a lot of sponsors out there, people who are being sponsored by XYZ, you know, company. And we go, “Wow, I’m going to buy some of that.” Well, you have no earthly idea why you’re buying it except that there’s a green field behind the person, you know, shooting this wonderful [Inaudible 00:00:40] saying, “I use X.” That’s marketing, I get it. But when you start drilling down into it, you know, what are food plots, what aren’t they, you know, food plots start with, you know, with seed. Some sort of seed has to come out of the ground so the deer are going to eat it, and there’s a lot of prep work that goes into that. So, guys, let’s jump into it. We get about a half an hour to share with our listeners what food plots are and what they’re not. Eric: All right. Well, I guess, looking at food plots, they are, as the name implies, they’re either…they’re a plot that you plant that bring wildlife there for mainly two reasons, food and cover. And some animals will use the same food plot for food that others use for cover. And what you’re trying to do is centralize the wildlife on your property and also provide something that maybe not…wasn’t there to either increase your odds at, you know, harvesting a buck or a doe, or it might be a turkey or pheasants, you know, hunting pheasants. So, and it’s also there if you’re just enjoying wildlife and want to give back a little bit. Because, as we all know, habitat in the United States has shrunk immensely for wildlife, whether it be urban development or what might be happening. But, so any time…a little goes a long way when it comes to wildlife, habitat, and food plots. And so that’s, I guess in my opinion, what they are in a nutshell. They’re nutrition, they’re cover, and they’re sanctuary for wildlife. Jason: Well, you can look at food plots also from a standpoint of, you know, if you go out into nature, into the trees, you know, wherever you’re hunting at, it may be grassland area, you know, like out in Western Nebraska, and you look at the quality of forage that’s available. You know, I’m not knocking Mother Nature, you know, nature, per se. But the forage quality out there, the amount of nutrients that’s naturally available in nature just doesn’t compare to what you can bring to them in a food plot. You know, if a person can only afford to do just a little for your deer and you had to decide whether, “Do I put out some feed or do I put out a food plot?,” and the answer there is the food plot is where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck, no pun intended. Because you’ve got a growing time from spring that they can start eating through the fall months and into the winter months even on some of the…you know, the perennials, like we have. Now, you know, is feeding, you know, mineral and feeds like that, is that beneficial? Of course. I mean, you know, as I stated, you know, a few months ago in a podcast we did with you, I mean February, March, and April, a lot of people don’t realize this, but February, March, and April are, like, huge months for fawn and antler growth. The bucks are storing the minerals on their skeleton that they’re going to use to grow the antlers in the summer months. And those months are when there’s hardly any food available over the winter months. And when you’ve got…you know, let’s say you can put out a sizable food plot, even if you can’t afford to, you know,