# 506 Grandpa Ray Food Plot Part 3

Hey, folks, this is the last segment of the “Whitetail Rendezvous” spring series on land management and food plots. And I crisscrossed the world, I’ve got some friends down in the south, Atlanta at Legacy. I’ve got friends out in Nebraska at Reck Agri. And I’ve got friends in Madison, Wisconsin with Grandpa Ray Outdoors and John O’Brion. And John’s gonna wrap up this whole series and, you know, it’s gonna be fun to see where the thing goes. But having said that, Grandpa Ray sets expectations for being a 365 food plotter. John, what the heck does that mean? John: Well, the last time I checked, deer eat every day and if your goal is to try to increase the deer numbers on your property, pull them throughout the whole year, there’s got to be food there. There’s got be bedding there. There’s got to be water. It seems pretty simple but yet the wildlife industry in the whole focuses on about, oh, maybe one or two seasons a year. Usually the focus is from when opening day of hunting season starts to when it closes and, again, that’s bad science. That is not where your brain should be wired and we would want to do our best, as a goal, to have something there every day. The short-term and long-term success. Bruce: So deer need, you know, well just January, February, March the bucks have been through the rut. Those are either bred or…not bred, so bucks are tired and does throw a lot of food to a growing, you know, fawn. So what do we need during those months to make sure bucks and doe are getting the right nutrition? John: Yeah, no matter if we’re in north of Madison, Wisconsin, Tallahassee, Florida, or Oak Way out in Colorado, you know, there’s Mother Nature that comes into play in the northern climates where you get cruel at times with the 2 feet of snow, 20 below zero. You know, you even have higher [inaudible 00:02:28] challenges there. So, you know, my focus is, you know, when hunting season is done do you have sources of supplemental stock piles to forage. Which in the industry, I mean, you know so many people are familiar with turnips but are they familiar with other species of forages like rutabaga, maybe sugar beets, fodder beets, weeds, things like that. Things like grain store gums. Thinks like millets can also, which aren’t as desirable during the fall season, all of a sudden, you know, when a deer is having a hard time walking through that deep snow and wants to eat whatever is the easiest at that point in time. You know, there’s certain things that we can focus on to give that energy that’s really needed in those really stressful conditions. And, again, so many people think, you know, if their goal is to grow healthy, big deer they focus on the fall. Well, when that buck has dropped its antlers and it could be January, February in many areas or even before then. Backing up, you mentioned, you know, when the ruts done. Guess what? That buck’s reserves are tapped out. You know, he’s drained and then the big thing is you want to keep it maintained or replenish it. The main goal I throw at people is we do not want a deer, no matter buck or doe or fawn from the previous fawn [inaudible 00:03:58] our goal should be to reduce the amount of weight they lose throughout the winter. Next to impossible no matter where you live to put on weight. If you don’t lose as much weight and body condition, guess what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna…the term’s called compensatory gain. So instead of having to replenish those bones, you know, with the calciums and the proteins and our nutrients, they’re able to…if you don’t have to worry about…if the deer doesn’t have to replenish itself, guess what’s gonna happen with those added nutrients that are out there? Whether it be from browse or supplemental sources, going towards antler development.