Food Plots

 One truly underestimates how valuable a 20 foot x 50 foot sunflower bed is to perhaps hundreds of different pollinators, 20 different songbird types, countless insects, and many mammals including mice that are crucial in the food chain.  In East Tennessee, with proper timing, these food plots can be planted 3 times per year. Not to mention the beauty of a sunflower bed which provides sunshine to the souls of humans when witnessed in quantity. When sunflowers are mixed with buckwheat, a flowering plant that looks similar to baby's breath, you will have a metropolis of life. 

Corn, along with sunflowers, are loaded with protein and loved by birds, mammals, and even fish. Planting corn is very easy as it can be sown in rows or broadcast. The key to suppling food for many different varieties of animals is getting corn on the ground and chopped up when it has matured. Corn can be stagger planted which allows bushhogging parts of the corn, while leaving some for cover and future mowing. Plant it and they will come. Add some Austrian peas in the midst, and you will see immense wildlife activity.

Nature provides food when an ecosystem is perfect, but we don’t live in a perfect world. Invasive species have encroached on 30 percent of our lands and forest. Preparing a food plot is a great way to help animals overcome starvation and help wildlife thrive. When it comes to food plots, a little goes a long way.