Episode #114 - FOOD PLOT SEASON IS HERE!!!!!

Published: 2022-04-25
Episode page
Duration: 71 min

In this episode

bow-hunting

• Have you ever had a target buck pegged, missed the shot, and gotten another chance at him? 43:37

broadheads

• Why would Don do a broadhead debate with Joe Miles if he already agrees with Don’s mechanical broadhead concerns? 51:01

charity

• Terry described the Lester’s Feet raffle, thanking Larson Farms and Fall Line Ridge for helping sell tickets to raise money for a family. 35:54

consulting

• Don finished consulting visits in Indiana and Ohio and has one or two more local stops planned for nonresident landowners during turkey season. 1:09
• Don plans to discuss four standout properties from four different states next week, without revealing them on screen. 26:50

consulting-trends

• Don said he is now seeing more clients doing things right, like watching wind and access and maintaining sizable sanctuaries, than five to ten years ago. 23:39

customer-service

• Ethan Fitzwilliam and his wife Caitlin stayed late at night to help Terry fix a flat trailer tire before he drove home. 12:36
• Terry compared Ethan’s service to how Chris Yates and Joe Miles do business, saying that’s who he wants to work with. 13:22

deer-bedding

• Don expects deer to bed right against the scattered Miscanthus clumps in his switchgrass field. 67:45

doe-fawns

• Do doe fawns come into estrus at the same time as their mothers because their cycles sync up? 27:57

equipment

• Terry bought a 65-horsepower cab John Deere tractor. 14:09

equipment-purchase

• Terry bought a tractor from Sloan Implement in Effingham, Illinois, through salesman Ethan Fitzwilliam, praising the service. 11:08
• A mutual friend and Don’s land consulting client, Todd Covey, lent Terry his gooseneck trailer to haul the new tractor home. 11:25

erosion-control

• Don and his son-in-law Corey cleared creek debris last weekend to stop it from damming and flooding his bottom food plot. 9:15

faith

• Terry said he has watched all three of his children be saved and baptized, calling it a big deal. 64:48

family

• Don’s grandson Walker decided this week to get baptized, and the family is traveling to Indiana to attend the ceremony. 64:34

farming

• Don said today was the first big planting day in his area, with farmers going hot and heavy after days of no activity. 6:22
• A large amount of corn got planted in Illinois today once the wind dried the fields. 6:59
• Terry noted that big farm YouTube channels like Larson Farms, Millennial Farmer, and Welker Farms operate on very short planting windows. 7:08
• Farmers rush their crop in because it must be harvested before bad fall weather sets in. 7:47

food-plots

• Duane Hopkins, the seedsman from Kitchen Seeds, always says to read the conditions and not the calendar. 7:38
• Unlike farmers, food plotters don’t need to rush in the fall since they leave their plots standing rather than harvesting them. 8:00
• Terry advised food plotters to read the conditions rather than the calendar and make smart planting decisions. 8:46
• Terry plowed a food plot in an old hayfield near the urban buck’s woods to create an easy early-season hunting spot. 17:50
• Terry plowed a food plot behind a pole barn in town for a buck he believes is bedding inside city limits. 16:41
• Terry plans to help his friend Patrick Simpson work ground for his food plot next week. 69:23
• Is there anything that can be planted in a fully shaded strip of timber to attract deer without cutting trees? 58:03

hunting-behavior

• Terry said nearly every hunter in Kentucky walks straight to the back property line, which is a habit worth exploiting. 24:44

hunting-pressure

• Don said too many hunters on a property for the stated goal, not too many hunters in general, is a common problem lowering trophy potential. 21:46
• Don’s strategy is to let neighboring hunters push deer onto his property, then use a safe sanctuary and food to create huntable travel patterns. 26:00

miscanthus

• Don plans to travel to Real World headquarters Monday for an even bigger Miscanthus rhizome shipment than the last one. 65:45
• Don is having Jay Gingerich of Gingerich Tree Farm plant Miscanthus rhizomes in rows eight feet apart, spaced five feet within the row, scattered through his switchgrass field. 67:06

orchard-management

• Don cleared volunteer trees like box elder and honey locust from his orchards to give the fruit trees more sunlight and less competition. 4:32
• Don removed protective wire cages from orchard trees now that they’re big enough to thrive without them. 5:57

orchards

• Terry observed that one of Don’s orchards is strategically placed to funnel deer past a 360 blind at a specific spot. 5:20

podcast-debate

• Terry noted Joe Miles is the podcast’s primary sponsor, showing two people can disagree while doing something good for the outdoor community. 54:55

prayer-request

• Terry asked listeners to keep T Bone Turner in their prayers as he recovers from cancer in his leg. 54:39

property-potential

• Terry said every property has its own ceiling of potential that differs from property to property. 22:41

raffle

• Terry closed by asking listeners to share the Lester’s Feet raffle to help drive it as big as possible. 70:30

sanctuary

• Don said most people don’t understand that zero human intrusion into a sanctuary truly means never entering it, even once or twice a year. 20:32

security

• Terry joked that if Russians hacked Don’s computer they could sell his camera location data to the highest bidder. 2:55 (light moment)

soil-management

• Terry explained he is forced into moldboard plowing because his fields have extremely heavy clay soil. 14:33
• Terry described his soil as so hard and compacted that a clump of it could be balled up and thrown like a baseball. 15:12

soil-nutrition

• Dwayne Hopkins told Terry to picture a tree’s root system underground as the same size and diameter as the canopy above ground. 62:48
• Terry said woodland soil has poor nutritional value because trees absorb most of the available moisture and nutrients. 63:18

sponsor-summit

• Terry has a sponsor summit with Penske Racing in Indianapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday. 69:08

tillage

• Terry got criticized on social media for using a moldboard plow on his ground. 14:24
• Don said watching what ag farmers do in your specific region reveals the best tillage method for that area. 69:42
• Terry noted every ridge top in his area was being plowed and that hunters must adapt to local conditions. 69:58

trail-cameras

• Don is still working to gather his trail cameras and currently has only three left in the woods. 2:07
• Don keeps trail camera data in a spreadsheet rather than a mapping app because he fears a hacked computer could expose pinned locations to thieves. 2:44
• A trail camera Don pulled had not been checked in six months, since October 19, because it was hard to reach. 3:18
• The biggest buck on that remote camera was still under 140 inches. 3:33
• Are you still using a spreadsheet for camera locations, or are you pinning them on a map now? 2:23

tree-planting

• When planting 10 or more apple trees, why do you pick that specific spot on the property? 32:19

tree-stand

• Terry plans to hang climbing sticks and set a stand roughly 25 feet up at his urban buck spot. 68:13

urban-deer

• Terry doesn’t want to wait until he gets a trail-camera picture of the urban buck as a shooter before hunting him, since he could become something special. 16:55

Deer activity

• unnamed buck (trail-camera) 16:27
• unnamed buck (history) 18:09
• cedar house buck (hunt) 44:15

Listener questions

Question: Are you still using a spreadsheet for camera locations, or are you pinning them on a map now? 2:23

• Answer: Don says he still just uses a spreadsheet for his trail camera locations rather than pinning them on a map. 2:31

Question: Do doe fawns come into estrus at the same time as their mothers because their cycles sync up? 27:57

• Answer: Don said doe fawns enter their first estrous cycle once they reach about eighty pounds, regardless of the time of year, not tied to their mothers’ cycles. 28:24

Question: When planting 10 or more apple trees, why do you pick that specific spot on the property? 32:19 — asked by Tyler

• Answer: Don looks for one of two spots: right next to a food plot or close to a tree stand. 33:12
• Answer: Fruit trees are placed either beside a feeding area to diversify food sources or near a stand to draw deer close. 33:29

Question: Have you ever had a target buck pegged, missed the shot, and gotten another chance at him? 43:37 — asked by Jesse Vandenberg

• Answer: Don says one buck, later called the cedar house buck, still haunts him after all his years of hunting. 43:54
• Answer: Don shot the giant buck at 20 yards at dusk and believed he had made a fatal hit, but the deer ran into the brush. 48:47
• Answer: Examining the recovered arrow showed the deer wasn’t hurt, and that missed giant buck still haunts Don to this day. 49:57

Question: Why would Don do a broadhead debate with Joe Miles if he already agrees with Don’s mechanical broadhead concerns? 51:01 — asked by John Peterson

• Answer: Don says he respects Joe Miles as a friend despite their opposite opinions on broadheads. 52:13
• Answer: Don says his only motive is helping hunters avoid wounding and losing deer, since he has no broadhead sponsor. 52:44
• Answer: Don believes mechanical broadheads are a failure waiting to happen, which is the core of the planned debate. 52:50

Question: Is there anything that can be planted in a fully shaded strip of timber to attract deer without cutting trees? 58:03 — asked by Ryan Hunsaker

• Answer: Don says nothing will grow in fully shaded woods, so planting seed there is a waste of money. 59:06
• Answer: Terry recommends instead talking to the neighboring farmer and paying for oats to be blown into the adjacent ag field as a cover crop. 62:10

Sponsors this episode

• QuietKat

Don and Terry covered spring land-management prep and planting timing. Don detailed clearing volunteer trees from his orchards, removing tree cages, and pulling a remote trail camera untouched since October 19 (biggest buck under 140 inches); he also explained keeping camera data in a spreadsheet over a mapping app for security. Both discussed regional planting: heavy corn planting had started in Illinois, and Terry urged food plotters to read conditions rather than the calendar, referencing seedsman Duane Hopkins. Terry described his new tractor purchase from Sloan Implement, praising salesman Ethan Fitzwilliam’s service despite social-media criticism over his moldboard plowing on heavy clay soil, and outlined plans for a plot near an urban buck he intends to hunt without waiting for a trail-camera photo. Don discussed sanctuary discipline and his grandson Walker’s upcoming baptism. Listener questions addressed doe fawn estrus timing, orchard placement, a missed giant buck called the cedar house buck, and shaded-timber food plots.

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.