Caring For and Feeding Wildlife by Planting a Wildlife Food Plot
Grow your own wildlife! Does that sound silly or counter-intuitive? Well, it’s possible. With the proper planting equipment, you can plant wildlife food plots that will attract and nourish wildlife. This equipment is small enough to be pulled by an ATV so that it will fit into small areas that a tractor can’t fit into.So why would you want to grow crops for wild animals? There are some good reasons. First of all, if you care about wildlife, particularly deer, you can give them better nourishment than they may be able to obtain in the wild. You can purchase bags of seed that are well-suited to their specific needs. And of course good nutrition means healthy animals. You can attract deer and also other animals that would flourish in the same area as deer. Your children can benefit from a close observation of wildlife in its natural habitat, close to your country home. They will be excited to see how close they can get while observing. And with you beside them, you can pass on your wildlife knowledge to them. This can be a real bonding moment for you and your children.Another advantage of feeding the local wildlife is that it just may be good for your landscape plantings. As deer habitat is taken over by humans, the deer are squeezed more tightly into their wooded areas. This means that they are forced closer and closer to our homes. If they don’t have enough wild land on which to feed, they will begin to feed wherever they can, which can be your front yard. While they don’t like to be near humans, they do like the yummy greenery that we plant around our homes. They love things like your prize tulips, hostas, and roses, don’t they? So maybe, just maybe, if you plant a plot of land with a crop such as chicory, clover, or buck beans, you can attract deer to this land, they may prefer to stay away from your decorative plantings to enjoy the lovely salad you are growing just for them.But there’s one more benefit of well-fed deer, and that’s good hunting. Then when hunting season comes, you won’t have to travel very far to find big, healthy bucks to put into your freezer. They will be right there, munching on the clover that you so conveniently planted for them. You won’t have to spend precious gas money to travel to where the deer are. They will be right there. And, conversely, you won’t have a long distance to bring them home. This is very convenient for you.So, as you can see, planting a plot of your land with wildlife-friendly crops is a win-win situation for both you and the deer. They will be less likely to be undernourished and maybe even starve to death. You can observe them in their natural habitat so that your children can be enriched by your knowledge of nature. And you will have deer available, close to home, to be hunted and served to your family over the cold winter.