How Many Pines to Leave in a Food Plot
Filed under: Ask Grant, Food Plots
I talked with an uncle of mine recently who has been planting food plots for quite awhile. He suggested cutting down all the pine trees in my plot area. I have a variety of pines out there but they all have weeds and grass growing under them. I plan on taking out a few of them to open shooting distances but wasn’t planning on cutting them all down because I want to maintain as natural a setting out there as possible. What do you think? Gerald
Gerald,
As long as there is enough sunlight reaching the ground to produce the desired crops’, and enough acreage available to produce more food than the local herd can consume, the amount of trees left is more of a choice about aesthetics. Deer certainly prefer feeding in areas close to cover versus wide open fields, especially during daylight hours. There needs to be enough room between the trees so they won’t be damaged by equipment used to establish and maintain the crops. Another consideration would be the types of herbicides you plan to use on that plot. Many ag crop herbicides are not harmful to pines, but some are. It would be a waste to design and establish a beautiful plot, only to kill the cover trees when simply spraying herbicide. A lesson I’ve learned the hard way more than once is that it’s always easier to remove trees that you question may or may not be in the way when establishing a plot, then removing a tree that has fallen in an established plot.
Growing Deer together,
Grant
