Habitat Improve your hunting land!

Whether you're planting your first food plot, working on forest stand improvement, or preparing for a prescribed burn, the NDA has the information you need to help you be successful. We rely on the latest research and experts in their field to bring you the most reliable, up-to-date information on managing your land for the benefit of white-tailed deer and other wildlife.

Habitat

Six Factors in Designing Successful Deer Hunting Plots

May 24, 2023 Kip Adams

There are two main types of food plots for deer, nutritional and hunting plots. In general, nutritional plots are larger (1 to 5 acres) and are intended to provide abundant nutrition over numerous months. Hunting…

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Habitat

How to Shop for Food Plot Lime to Maximize Deer Nutrition

May 3, 2023 Kip Adams

Calcium oxide is its chemical name, but we’re deer hunters rather than chemists, so we’ll simply refer to it as lime. It’s like your buddy’s nickname – more personal, fun, and, well, understandable. That’s important…

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Deer Diet Breakdown: What Do Deer Eat?

Mar 30, 2022 Matt Ross

White-tailed deer are absolute plant-eating machines, but understanding what foods they prefer to eat will vastly improve your knowledge and effectiveness in both managing and hunting them. A deer needs to consume about 6% to…

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Planting American Jointvetch for Deer

Mar 16, 2022 Mark Turner

Don’t overlook this browse-tolerant, easy-to-plant summer forage just because its name isn’t “soybeans.” Annual warm-season food plots are commonly recommended to address nutritional limitations when bucks are growing antlers and does are lactating. Warm-season plantings…

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Ladino Clover for Deer | A Step-by-Step Guide

Mar 15, 2022 Bob Westerfield

This article was updated on March 15, 2022 Few things are more attractive in the deer food plot world than a solid stand of ladino clover, particularly when it is still there after the third…

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Frost Seeding Clover and Other Food Plot Species: When and How

Mar 1, 2022 Kip Adams

This article was updated 3/1/2022 If you live in an area where the surface layer of soil freezes during winter, you can save fuel and equipment costs by frost seeding a portion of your clover…

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Burn Outside the Box: Try Prescribed Fire at a New Time of Year

Feb 9, 2022 Luke Resop

What do wildfires and prescribed fires have in common? Not much. Most fires we hear about in the media consume thousands of acres of forest at a time, threaten communities, and take weeks or months…

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Your Food Plots are Dying for You to Learn the Other 2 Types of Weed Control

Feb 2, 2022 Ryan Basinger

For the diehard food-plotter, it doesn’t get much worse than pouring time and resources into the perfect deer food plot only to see your hopes and dreams overtaken by undesirable weeds. Unfortunately this has been…

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Fresh Tips on Using Fire for Better Deer Habitat

Jan 12, 2022 Craig Harper

This is not the same old advice you’ve heard before about prescribed fire. These simple tips will increase your hunting and habitat management success. I continue to maintain that fire is the single best management…

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Do Brassicas Actually Get “Sweeter” After a Frost?

Dec 22, 2021 Mark Turner

We’ve all heard it in one form or another – that deer select brassicas more strongly after frost because the starches turn into sugars, making the plant sweeter. At the University of Tennessee, we set…

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