How to Grow Corn for Food Plots

A food plot can offer supplemental food for wildlife during winter weather, when foraging for food becomes more challenging. Although growing a food plot does not take the place of general wildlife habitat management, it can help you attract wildlife to your property and help improve nutrition for nearby animals. Food plots are more of a need in the southeastern United States, according to Purdue University, because there soil fertility limits the food quality and quantity available for wildlife.

Things You'll Need

• Tractor
• Disk
• Fertilizer
• Lime
• Corn planter

Instructions

1. Determine your purpose for planting a corn plot. Do you want to attract deer for hunting? Do you want your plot to benefit other types of wildlife? Knowing your purpose will help with several key decisions related to growing your food plot.

2. Select a location near a wildlife travel lane. This is usually an area where two or more different habitats meet: woods, stream, field, brush or swamp. If your plot is in an area that receives significant snowfall, you will want to establish a snow trap on the windward side of the plot. Snow accumulation in a plot will make it less attractive to deer.

3. Till the soil in your plot and amend with fertilizer and lime as needed. Consider what measures you will take for weed control.

4. Plant corn in the spring at a rate that is less than the normal agricultural rate if you are hoping to attract a variety of wildlife. Ohio State University Extension recommends planting seed corn at 3 to 4 pounds to the acre for food plots. This reduced seeding rate will allow the field to provide better nesting cover and insect habitat for ground-dwelling birds like quail and pheasant.

5. Rotate your food plots to allow each plot to stand three to four years before replanting. If you have three plots, for example, you can replant one each year. The newly-planted plot provides forage for deer while aging plots provide habitat for many other types of wildlife.

Tips & Warnings

• Plant corn in areas that are one acre or larger, with at least one food plot per 40 acres of farm or woodland. Food plots should cover no more than 5 percent of your total acreage.

• If no other source of cover is available for wildlife, create brush piles near your food plots with one brush pile for every half acre planted.

References

• University of Tennessee: Growing and Managing Successful Food Plots
• Ohio State University Extension: Establishing Wildlife Food Plots
• Purdue University: Food Plots for White Tail Deer

Resources

• University of Tennessee: Growing and Managing Successful Food Plots