Grow the Hunt

Food Plots Hollywood Style

-By Brandon Wikman

Creating that idyllic ‘Hollywood’ style food plot that you’ve seen on TV and magazines seems nearly impossible. Leafy greens stretching hip high, weed-less and lush doesn’t have to be a dream, it can be a reality. With enough planning, hard work and luck from Mother Nature, you too may grow your own hot-spot-plot.

Taking it step-by-step:

1. Location is critical. Considering the hot summer months ahead may wither your power-packed plot, be sure to use shade to your advantage. A plot only needs, on average, four hours of sunlight to flourish. Too much sunlight absorbs moisture within the soil, which steals the necessary water requirements for your plants. Use trees or hedgerows to your advantage in maximizing the most shade and sun combination for your plots’ growth.


2. The PH level of your soil will either make you or break you. Many companies have PH level soil kits, which you can use to determine the amount of lime and fertilizer to lay. Or else, you can always send a sample of soil to a lab to have it tested. I always use ammoniated lime, which breaks down and activates much quicker. Bumping your PH level to 6.5-7 will result in maximum development.


3. Look for thriving weeds and grasses. Planting your plot in an area that’s bare of vegetation is absurd. Although it may seem simple to plant, considering you don't need to mow or spray herbicide, there’s a reason no plant life existed. Extremely poor soil! Find a piece of ground that has an abundance of thick undergrowth and displays potential of actually growing something!


4. Giving a buzz cut. Snipping your future plot will be essential in preparation for spraying herbicide. Mow the area, rake the debris off the plot and wait a week or two for the grass to regenerate. Then attack! Hacking the weeds and grasses down to a few inches assures that the chemicals will reach the root systems quicker and be deadlier. It’s important to spray Round-Up on the weak up-and-coming grasses. This will guarantee a successful kill.
   
   Always wear long sleeves, pants, and gloves for your own safety when dealing with chemicals.


5. Seed to soil contact. Once the ground is ready for planting, there are many options to use, depending on what machinery you have access to. If you are planting a small plot and don’t have a disk, plow, or roto-tiller, you can use a garden rake to scuff the topsoil and make enough room for your seeds to drop and grow. As long as the seeds have contact with the soil and enough gaps to germinate, it will grow! It may take a lot of elbow grease, but will still work. Otherwise, using heavier equipment is faster, and easier. After you lay down seed, be sure to use some sort of a cultipacker to compress the seed into the dirt and eliminate any air pockets within the soil. When a seed germinates and the taproot begins tunneling into the ground, it has to redirect itself if it hits an air pocket. It only takes a couple air pocket detours to stress a young seed into withering.

It’s exciting to watch your hours of tending ground evolve into that dream plot you’ve always wanted. Remember, you can only control the planning, preparation, and planting stages of creating your food plot. After that, it’s left to nature to care for. Rain will be critical to spurt your new seedlings and supply enough food for growing.

Enough devotion and land labor supplies sufficient groceries for your deer herd to thrive. This will keep deer on your property and supplement them with an antler boosting, high-quality diet and health plan for seasons to come.

Power of Planting

-By Brandon Wikman

Watching a tiny seed transform into a full-fledged, antler-blooming plant has always amazed me. The essence of understanding what it takes to be a farmer, wildlife manager and patron of the forest is what I consider to be a true hunter.

Planting food plots is a critical step in response to a whitetails desire for taste variety, and nutrition. Implementing a seasonal mix of early and late season plots insures not only a healthy deer herd, but also a herd that will stay on your property, for good. Whether it’s opening weekend or the final weeks of the deer season, taking the ‘food buffet’ approach to your land will keep you and your freezer stuffed.

A few weeks ago I met with my uncle, who owns a dairy farm and the woods I grew up hunting. I simply asked what he planted and where. It is important to know what crops are going to grow, where it will be planted, and how much of it. I can take this information and relate it to what I will plant and how I can make the most out of my food plots.

Many people complain that food plots are worthless; because deer stomp right through that lush green acre of clover you busted your butt growing all summer en route to the farmer’s crops. Well, they’re right... but only to a point.

Timing is everything in the whitetail world. They’re stomach runs on a timed dinner bell, based on weather, time of year, and a list of other motives that are out of our control. Anytime we can control a variable in the deer woods, we must capitalize on it. When a farmer has grown a field covered in soybean plants during mid September, when the plant is most desired, your custom plot isn’t going to be on the top of a deer’s grocery list. Your mindset needs to be based off of what plant you can substitute after the soybean craze mellows.

In my case, all the fields planted near me are sprouting with mini-corn leaves, surfacing the soil, and supplying a tasty carbohydrate treat for deer mid-to-late season. My uncle said his crops would be harvested around November, so I will have a variety mix of chicory, and clover to supplement their diet after the corn is stripped.

For the time being, I planted a new product that is primarily comprised of soybeans, peas, and sunflowers. This will be a guaranteed hot spot for early season bow hunting. I planted several strips along my uncle’s cornfield. Not only is the soil already super charged with fertilizer, but also there’s enough light source and food availability for deer to browse. Deer will feed on the plot religiously until the corn or acorn frenzy begins. Although, once another crop competes with your own homemade honey hole, it’s still nice to have a variety of food for your herd to munch on.

We happen to forget deer eat what they want, when they crave it. And when they crave a particular plant, it is for a certain reason. Plant your plots during the time of year that deer will need it and benefit from it most!

Plotting Points

• Plant enough seed in a big enough area so deer won’t demolish it before it has a chance to even grow to its potential!
• Use a PH Soil testing kit to determine whether you need to put lime on your plot.
• Remember to fertilize your plot for maximum plant forage.
• Use a seed spreader to cast your seed to ensure proper coverage.
• Make sure there are enough light sources; don't be afraid to trim branches or clear away trees.
• Hang your scouting camera and let the scouting begin.

Soil Test

Since most woodland soils have a low pH level it is a good idea to obtain a soil test from the sites you are planning on planting your food plots. A soil test is used to determine the amount of nutrients in the soil. The soil test results are then used to make a soil test report. In addition to indicating the level of nutrients in your soil, the report will also tell you the pH value or how acidic or basic your soil is, and it will make a recommendation for the amount and type of fertilizer and/or lime you need to add to the soil for optimum plant growth. This allows you to customize your soil fertilizer and lime applications to your food plots needs.

Collecting soil samples is a simple matter. Contact your local county Extension office for instructions on how to collect the sample. Generally there is a small charge for the test but it is a minimal expense. Knowing exactly how much fertilizer and lime your food plot needs will save you money by preventing you from wasting fertilizer and lime on a plot where it isn’t needed or by preventing low crop yields due to the fact that you needed to add fertilizer and lime to optimize your food plots.

Things That Go Crunch in the Night

-By Randy Cooper

Many Georgia hunters will not forget the year 2003. Some really good bucks fell to our arrows that year, but we also had record crop and food plot failures due to something that we never saw coming - a thief in the night.

The story I’m about to tell you is true and has a valuable lesson to be learned from it. Read carefully, it may just help save your food plots and vegetable gardens this fall.

My best friend of over 25 years, Jon Henning, and I have been strictly bow hunters since the mid 80’s. Meriwether County Georgia is one of the most highly sought after places to hunt big bucks. I learned an awful lot from him about planting food plots, how important their shapes are and where to strategically place them on our property. He is a hunting machine and I have more respect for his knowledge and abilities than any other hunter I know.

Jon had gone through all the ritualistic chores of hiring a tractor to disc up a full acre in a place right along a travel corridor that was flat and didn’t have many trees. He hired a truck load of lime to put on the plot and fertilized it. He made the most beautiful turnip patch you’ve ever seen. With the lime and fertilizer he used, these turnips grew big and the leaves were green and healthy. I remember going over to his house and him showing me the turnip greens he had put up for the winter. Every time that he hunted the turnip patch he would grab a few to take home with him as he left the woods.

Jon doesn’t like to use a flashlight to go to his stand before daylight. He would walk to a point where, in the pink light of predawn, he could see the turnip patch. He used it as a landmark that told him where to enter his approach trail to the stand. It was early October and Jon had taken the day off on a Thursday to hunt the club literally by himself. He knew a good buck was working the turnip patch and wanted to get a shot at it before the other club members came down for the weekend. He didn’t see the buck he wanted that day so he returned Saturday morning. As he got to the familiar place on the hill where he could see the turnip patch, he couldn’t find it. It usually looked lime green against the dark woods and was easy to spot but even as he stood there letting it get lighter, he still couldn’t see it.

It was now light enough to see the ground well enough to continue. He walked to the edge of where the turnip patch should have been and almost passed out. IT WAS GONE!!!! He walked out into the middle of an almost bare ground spot where his food plot was just two days ago and stood there. In the dark silence of morning he could hear a sound that resembled two pieces of 80 grit sand paper being rubbed together. A grinding, chewing sound he would never forget. As the sun climbed higher, he said it looked like the ground he was standing on was moving.

He was looking at the results of the devastating power of FALL ARMYWORMS!!!! In less than 48 hours they had completely wiped out a healthy turnip patch that was over an acre in size. What was left was brown and dead. He was sick. All the planning, preparation, money and time that it took to create this beautiful food plot, was for nothing. We went to the local archery shop not far from where we hunted and told them what had happened. We started hearing that other hunters in the area were also being hit by a caterpillar-like worm that could wipe out everything in a food plot in a single night. These hunters had never seen or heard of anything like this before. By the end of the season, we had heard many stories around the area just like Jon’s.

I contacted our local County Extension Agent, Paul Pugliese, to find out more about fall armyworms. Paul was a valuable source of information on the subject. Paul said that in the fall of some years, not every year, a mature moth will migrate from Florida into parts of Georgia around late-September and into October, about the time most fall food plots are up and going good. The moths come here and search out a host crop to lay eggs on. Each moth can lay hundreds of eggs at a time. It seems that the eggs are evolved to hatch at the same time in the form of a caterpillar-like worm. This is the larvae stage of the moth. It ranges in color from greenish brown to black with lines running the length of their body. For two to three weeks the larvae feed on the host crop that is deposited on, to the point of absolute destruction. Many times nothing is left. They are so aggressive that they could be compared to locusts descending on crops. They feed on broadleaf plants, vegetables and legumes.

What can you do about them? Keep a close eye on your food plots. Talk to your neighbors in the area and see if they have seen anything suspicious going on in their gardens or crops. The best thing you can do is to apply an insecticide at a regular interval to your plots with a broadcast sprayer or handheld pump type if you can’t access your plot with an ATV. I suggest using LIQUID SEVIN CONCENTRATE available at most hardware or farm supply chain stores. Another chemical that Paul suggested is called LANNATE POWDER. It is mixed with water and sprayed on the crops just like SEVIN. Either will wash off with rain so it’s important to keep some handy whenever you go to your property. This WILL keep the ARMYWORMS under control.

For further information on these pesky critters and other ways to deal with them, I’ve included a couple of websites that have very good information and pictures to help you identify these unbelievably aggressive worms. Don’t become a victim of them. SEVIN concentrate is too cheap not to go to the trouble of using it. Do yourself a big favor, look at this information and educate yourself on ARMYWORMS. Learn how to recognize and control them. Don’t wind up taking a big loss like we did in ’03 when a thief in the night came calling.

Websites for further information:
www.gaipm.org/turf/tarmyworms.html
www.gaipm.org/top50/fallarmyworm.html

Enhancing Natural Food Production on Your Property

-By Randy Cooper

I’ve been asked a lot lately about how to get natural vegetation, fruit and mast bearing trees to produce more on hunting properties and attract more wildlife. The answer is to fertilize the already existing plants and trees that benefit deer, turkey, quail and the host of other critters on your hunting property.

Through scouting, I’ve noticed the places deer like to feed and the travel corridors they like to use. I’ve found several varieties of oak trees on my property that deer love to feed on when acorns are falling. Knowing the area and lay of the land really helps put the puzzle together in plotting a hunting strategy. I’ll find a stand sight in a tree with good foliage cover that allows me a bow shot at an oak tree I know from experience the deer love to hit when the acorns start falling.

I’ll mark these trees with surveyors ribbon so that in the winter, when all the leaves have fallen and the sap in the trees is at its lowest, I can find and fertilize them. There is a specific way I go about this that I have learned from the advice of farmers, QDMA members, respected wildlife biologists and from hard learned personal experience.

If I can find a tree that deer seem to pay more attention to than any other tree in the area, I’m in business. Usually the reason they are hitting this tree and ignoring the others that are dropping just as many acorns is that this is what I call a “SWEET TREE”. Simply, this means that the tannic acid content in the acorns this oak tree is producing is lower than any of the other trees in the immediate area. The acorns don’t taste as bitter to the deer, therefore they are sweeter. Finding one of these special trees takes some looking but when you find it, you’ll know what you’re looking. From the base of the trunk, all the way out to the drip line and beyond, there will hardly be a leaf to be found and the ground itself will look like a roto-tiller has chewed it up with all the tracks and droppings there. It truly is a sight to see! By fertilizing this already good tree, I’ll make it even better next fall.

I like to do this after the season closes. I’ll get several bags of 10-10-10 fertilizer. The first number is for nitrogen, the second number represents phosphorus and the third number is for potassium. Along with this I like to add zinc in a granulated form. I mix the zinc with the fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket and then fill my handheld broadcast spreader. I spread fertilizer around the entire tree at the DRIP LINE. This is the imaginary line formed by how far out from the trunk of the tree the limbs grow. Underground, the root system will reach out to the drip line and that’s where you want the fertilizer to reach when the rain soaks it in. You don’t want to get any closer to the trunk of the tree than that.

A good rule of thumb as far as how much fertilizer to use is: 1POUND OF FERTILIZER TO EVERY INCH OF DIAMETER OF THE TREE TRUNK AT ABOUT CHEST HIGH. So if the diameter of the oak is 14 inches, use 14 pounds of fertilizer.

You can also fertilize greenbriar, honeysuckle, persimmon trees, crabapples and muscadines in the same manner. I buy persimmon, apple, crabapple and sawtooth oak tree saplings from an online supplier. They ship them in good shape with very little soil on them. They are wrapped in wet newspaper surrounded by plastic sheeting to hold the moisture in. I plant these in the corners of my food plots. I usually use potting mix and about a cup of lime mixed together in the hole I’ve dug for the sapling. I water it in with Miracle Grow mixed in the water. For support, I stake the tree to the ground using rope tied to it in three directions. I also use a piece of flexible black drain pipe that we’ve all seen with the drain holes in it to put around the trunk of the tree to protect it from bucks rubbing it and possibly killing it until it gets to be about a year old. At that time I can just cut it off with sheet metal shears and the tree is on its way.

I know all this sounds like a lot of work and it is. For me, I get the thrill of truly seeing the FRUITS of my labor. If you’re as passionate about farming for wildlife as I am and so many more that I know, it’s an accepted part of the big picture we all want to see each and every fall and we don’t mind doing it. I live for doing this in my beloved woods and absolutely love seeing the difference I’ve made in the health of the deer, turkey and other animals that live there. This is one more way that I attract and hold deer on the properties I hunt. Try employing some of these time tested tactics that I’ve used on your property and see the difference it makes in your wildlife and in your experience.

Setting the STAGE for Hunting Success

-By Randy Cooper

Hunting deer and turkeys for over 40 years has been like going to school. Every time I sit in class (the woods) I learn something new. By sitting in class I evolved as a hunter. In the beginning I did all the traditional things like focusing on the rut. I knew that bucks would be moving and more visible at that time more than any other. I hunted the ridge tops, bottoms, funnels and transition zones. Don’t get me wrong, I STILL hunt all these places. However, I have changed the WAY I hunt altogether.

Years ago I belonged to an archery only club that taught me a lot. We hunted the traditional places using the age old traditional tactics with limited success. At the time we thought that the piece of land we leased was the reason, and that we had to accept what we had and be happy with it. We just didn’t know any better.

Through information gleaned from great magazines, books and videos, we as a club began to realize that what we had was a property with potential. That with some work we could MAKE it into the kind of property that would be productive, have a healthier deer herd and increase the overall health of all the game animals that lived and thrived there. We started concentrating on ALL parts of the season, not just the hunting season. We asked a lot of questions to the Ag department on what crops would do well during different times of the year. I talked to successful farmers who also planted for wildlife on their farms. They, after all, had the hard-earned, long-term experience that we needed to know. We learned a lot about soil preparation, clearing, herbicides, lime, fertilizer, year round mineral stations, supplemental feeding through broadcast feeders and most importantly, food plots.

As a group and as individuals, we completely changed our mindset and approach as to how we looked at the property we had then and every piece of ground we’ve hunted since. It took time and a lot of work, but the end result was that we went from HOPING we would see something to KNOWING we were going to; and letting it walk if it wasn’t mature enough. We started spreading the news about what we were doing and showed the proof in the animals we were harvesting. People began to take notice and these techniques began to spread.

Slowly, people around us began letting smaller deer walk and planting for wildlife. We didn’t realize it at the time but we were planting the seeds of a CO-OP with the properties around us. A lot of those properties were gun hunters and once our ideas caught on, it didn’t sound like a war zone anymore with hunters shooting anything that came by. The attitude of “If it’s brown it’s down” went away and was replaced by “Maybe next year little fella.”

I don’t look at things the same as I once did. Now it’s a more tactical, scientific approach that involves year-round work and management. It has made me more mature and responsible. I truly feel like a STEWARD of the land doing my part to help produce bigger bucks and other wildlife.

Probably the most important thing I do differently now is using a strategic approach to planting my food plots. I categorize them into two groups. First is the MAIN PLOT. This is where deer ultimately go after dark or when a cold front is approaching and they want to pick up plenty of groceries before it hits. This can be from a half acre to several acres and in different shapes. I like the boomerang shape and the racetrack. Both will be completely surrounded by woods. The middle of the boomerang is a good place to put a stand because you can see down either of the sides. The racetrack is circular or oval in shape and has woods in the middle like an infield. The opportunities for stand placement here are endless. In the Main plot, I’ll plant corn, brassicas, turnips, chufa and millet for turkeys. Just plant the groceries and they will come.

I view these as the ultimate destination for deer. Everyone knows that deer move near dark, still within good shooting light, on the way to the food source they are moving toward. I use the Main Plot to my advantage. Through scouting, I determine which trails are getting the most use coming into the Main Plot. Then I back track as much as a couple of hundred yards to find just the right location to make a STAGING PLOT. We have all found clusters of rubs in a small area before. These are staging areas that a buck has used waiting for darkness to fall before exposing himself in a big opening to feed or check out does. During the pre-rut and rut, bucks will vent their frustration by horning every little sapling around where they are staging.

I take advantage of this tendency and try to find a place that has a natural opening, or even a place between pine plantation rows. Somewhere that will allow plenty of light to the ground. Right here I’ll make a small food plot back in the woods away from the Main Plot. In short order, this will become a common place for deer to stage, waiting for dark while giving them something to snack on. It doesn’t have to be big in size, maybe 20 feet wide and about as long. I use a variety of plants on these out of the way plots. I’ll always use something different in each one to see what gets the most use. Some of the seeds I use are corn, clover, chicory, soybeans and peas.

Carefully placing your stand at the STAGING PLOTS will give you a great place to take the bigger bucks that don’t like to show up in an open place during shooting light. It will also work well during the post rut when bucks are trying to recover. They don’t want to wander far from their bedding area to find food so this could be your ticket.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I just grabbed my weapon and went hunting hoping I would see something. I have evolved as a wildlife manager, steward of the land and matured as a hunter. I’ll never look at anything the same way again. I’ve learned to look at the whole picture and come up with a strategy that will work for both me and the wildlife on my property. By using the great seed products that are available, we now have the tools to make a good place a fantastic place to hunt and have a quality experience. Everyone is getting on the bandwagon of Quality Deer Management. Try looking at your place from a different perspective and give some of these techniques a try. You and the wildlife you take care of will be glad you did.

Planting for Spring Food Plots

-By Randy Cooper

It seems that we are going from one extreme to the other with the weather. Last summer, here in Georgia, we were in a severe drought that hurt native vegetation, mast bearing and soft fruit bearing trees and bushes. Gardens withered up and died because of the lack of rain and the endless heat. Food plots really took a hit for the same reason. Vegetable gardens were exempt from the watering bans but not food plots for wildlife. They suffered and most didn’t produce very well.

So far this year it seems to be turning around. We’ve had regular, good-soaking rains as well as some of the most violent weather I have ever seen here in Georgia. A couple of weekends ago we had 22 confirmed tornado touchdowns in less than 16 hours. They even hit downtown Atlanta, which had never seen a tornado in the city’s history. It’s been crazy.

Anyway, it’s time to plant food plots for the spring. So far I’ve prepared my places by doing a total kill using herbicide through Moultrie’s Deluxe Boomless sprayer. It really works well and I’ll talk about my experiences with it in a future entry. Prior to spraying, I took a soil sample and adjusted the PH in the soil by broadcasting pelletized lime with my spreader, also a great tool from Moultrie. The amount of lime you put out depends on the results of the soil test. In my case I put out about 350 pounds for the half-acre sized plot I’ll be planting. I did this back in January to give the lime plenty of time to leach into the soil to have its sweetening affects.

I fertilized the plot with a common 10-10-10 all-purpose fertilizer and worked it in by tilling it under. I’ll do this one more time before planting.

For spring and summer I’ll be planting a combination of iron and clay peas, several rows of corn, two kinds of clover with different maturity times and chicory. I hope for plenty of rain resulting in a large yield. This combo will have lots of protein for does that will be fawning, for the fawns after weaning and for bucks growing their new antlers. As things get out of the ground, I’ll be using a monitoring cage that will allow me to tell how much use the new plants are getting. This is a good combination and it will be interesting to see how well the deer like it. I hope for rain and no more droughts. I’ll be preparing several different size plots the same way on this property. Time will tell if all the work will pay off. I’ll say a little prayer and keep my fingers crossed.

ATV's - The Tractor Alternative for Food Plots

From preparing and planting food plots to hauling your harvest out of the woods, ATV’s have definitely made hunters' lives easier. For many small land owners and hunters it is hard to justify the expense and upkeep that comes along with owning a tractor. With a few implements and accessories an ATV can become a worthy alternative to tractors for hunters.

There is a wide array of implements on the market but the basic ones that you will need for planting food plots include:

• Agricultural Sprayer - this is an important piece of equipment to have in your arsenal. Since most disks that are pulled by an ATV are light compared to the ones used by tractors, spraying becomes a vital step by killing the vegetation on the plots so that the disk can easily get into the soil.
• Disk - Don’t skimp on this piece of equipment. Lightweight disks bounce over the top of the ground and do not really get down into the soil to disk it up. Buy the heaviest one that your ATV is rated to pull.
• Spreader - it is a great time-saving tool for spreading fertilizer and seed.
• Harrow - this is needed to smooth out food plots and cover the seed after it is spread.

Most four-wheel drive ATV’s with at least 300ccs are capable of handling most implements. It is a good idea to talk to your dealer to make sure your ATV is compatible with the implements that you are planning on using. ATV’s are great tools to have as a hunter. With the wide range of accessories that you can purchase for them there is no limit to what they can be used for.

Agricultural Sprayer Tips

Spring is around the corner. We just moved our clocks ahead an hour this past weekend. With the longer days, it will soon be time for us to start getting our warm-weather food plots ready. Having a productive food plot begins with proper preparation. One step many people often overlook is spraying food plots to rid them of unwanted weeds. Agricultural sprayers that can be used from your ATV or UTV are usually the best tools for the job. Here are a few basic tips to help you get the most out of your sprayer:

• Determine what type of plants you want to get rid of first, then choose the correct herbicide for the job
• Follow all safety instructions listed on the label when mixing and applying chemicals
• Know the size of your food plot. Using too much herbicide on an area is wasteful and increases the cost of spraying. Not using enough herbicide may make the treatment unsuccessful
• Be sure to use the correct ratio of herbicide to water
• Do not spray when plants are wet or when rain is expected within 24 hours
• Do not spray when it is windy. The drift can be harmful to the applicator and kill surrounding plants
• Do not spray during an extended drought because weed control is ineffective and valuable crop species may be injured or killed
• Always be sure to clean your sprayer after each use

Moultrie’s line of sprayers makes prepping food plots simple. The sprayers easily mount on the back of your ATV or UTV, making it easy to reach remote areas.

Spreading the Word

-By Randy Cooper

“You look like a kid on Christmas morning.” That’s what my wife Betty said as she watched me jump out of the truck to see what the UPS man had left for me. I had been waiting on my new ATV broadcast spreader that I ordered from Moultrie. I’ve needed one of these to spread lime, seed and fertilizer. Doing it with a walk behind spreader is a major chore, especially when you are going up one hill and down another and running into stump holes and rocks. The hoppers on most walk behind spreaders only hold about 25 lbs at the most. They run out literally before you get started. Then you have to walk it back to the stack of sacks, reload it and here we go again. The Moultrie spreader will hold about 100 lbs in its hopper and it has a tight fitting lid that prevents spilling.

What I like most is that it comes with a mounting bracket allowing you to mount it on any kind of ATV. Or you can order brackets that will mount it to a utility vehicle or on the back of a truck. In my case, I mounted it on the back of my golf cart. I have a utility bed on the back of my cart with a fold-down gate. I’ve mounted the bracket in such a way that when I’m not using the spreader I simply remove two bolts and I’m able to fold the mounting arms out of the way and close the gate back up.

The set up is easy. It runs off 12 volts and plugs right into a cigarette lighter or an adapter that is available at any of the motorcycle or ATV shops. After powering it up, you go through a simple programming procedure. The spreader I am using has an electric slide gate that is remote controlled. It has six different opening positions for seeds of all sizes. When broadcasting lime, I open the gate all the way and move at a moderate speed. When I’ve reached the end of a row or need to stop and turn around, all I do is close the electric slide gate. You can leave the turntable running so that when you make your turn and line up for the next pass all you have to do is once again open the slide gate with the remote control and you’re back in business. This is a dream tool come true for someone like me. Not only can I use the spreader to spread lime, fertilizer, and seed in my food plots but I can also use it to spread lime and fertilizer in my yard, vegetable garden and flower garden as well.

To some, this might seem like cheating or taking the easy way out. Some guys I have met want to do things like they learned to do in the “old school.” I guess there’s nothing wrong with that if you insist on wearing yourself out to the point that you’re no good to yourself or anyone else when or if you finish. I learned from the old school too and that’s why I’m using the NEW implements of today that make these tough jobs so much easier than ever before. I have so much time and energy left over from using products like this to get the job done that I actually have time for other things. In fact, I was able to completely lime, fertilize and till the plot I was working on in about half a day.

I’ve included a few pictures of my new broadcast spreader. Call it a “guy thing” if you want but there is just something about new tools and gadgets that just makes you proud to have your picture taken along side of them. My wife calls it “A GUY AND HIS TOYS SYNDROME.” Oh well; I guess she could have called it something a lot worse!! I’m proud of it and all the work it’s saved me already as well as in the future.

Just one final note; when you use lime or fertilizer in the spreader, be sure to clean it out with a water hose and dry it good. Fertilizer is especially corrosive and will rust and pit just about everything not made of plastic.

Tools like this are worth their weight in gold in the amount of work and time they will save you. Invest in tools that will last you for years. The wear and tear it will take off your body will probably add years to you, too.