One of the key ingredients of quality deer management is planting year-round food plots. There are many benefits of planting year-round food plots. Not only can food plots provide a high quality food source for you deer herd, they can also serve as an effective means of concentrating and attracting deer on your hunting property.
Traditionally, sportsmen have used farm tractors and farm implements for planting food plots. However, many sportsmen cannot afford nor have access to farm tractors and/or implements. In recent years, many sportsmen have discovered a much easier and cost-effective means of planting food plots-using ATVs and ATV implements. Today’s ATVs are much larger and more powerful than ATVs of the past. Today’s larger ATVs can pull ATV implements such as the PLOTMASTER™ by Plotmaster Systems, Ltd with ease. Today’s ATVs are being used for recreation as well as being used to plant food plots and manage recreational properties for wildlife.
The PLOTMASTER™ is a multi-use implement designed specifically for planting food plots. This all-in-one unit comes with an electric system, adjustable disc harrow, plow attachments, cultivator, seeder, cultipacker and drag. Due to its compact design, the PLOTMASTER™ is ideal for planting food plots in rough, hard-to-get places such as firebreaks and small openings in planted pines, cut-overs, swamps and wooded areas. The PLOTMASTER™ has a one-point hitch as well as a three-point hitch which allows you to operate the PLOTMASTER™ with your ATV and/or small tractor.
The PLOTMASTER™ is also very economical. It can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of a tractor and multiple pieces of larger equipment. Food plots can also be planted in a single pass using a single of equipment rather than making multiple passes using multiple passes using multiple pieces of equipment. The single pass planting can save an enormous amount of time, fuel and money. With today’s high fuel prices, this can be a huge savings in itself.
Many sportsmen such as Blaine Burley, President of Woods-N-Waters, Inc. and Inventor of the PLOTMASTER™, have realized that small plots and small tracts can also produce BIG BUCKS. This past fall (November 2007), while filming for “The Bucks of Tecomate” TV Show for VERSUS, Burley harvested one of his largest bucks ever. This MONSTER 16-point buck (see photo below) was harvested on a small 80-acre hunting tract in Illinois which is owned and managed by Mali Vujanic of Outdoor Essentials, LLC. This small hunting tract contains numerous small food plots which are used to grow and attract big bucks each year.
Traditionally, food plots have been planted in areas that are easily accessible to tractors and large equipment. One of the benefits of using ATV implements, such as the PLOTMASTER™, is that it enables hunters to plant food plots in the isolated, “hard-to-get” places. This enables sportsmen to plant food plots in the areas that are closer to established bedding areas.
By locating food plots near established bedding areas, deer do not have to travel as far to get to these food sources. Mature bucks tend to feel more secure and travel more, especially during daylight hours, in the isolated places. Therefore, hunters have a better chance of harvesting trophy class bucks during legal shooting hours. In other words, sportsmen can now bring the “food” to the deer using their ATVs and ATV implements leading to more successful and enjoyable hunts.
Many companies such as John Deere and Frontier Equipment have also recognized the value of using ATVs, tractors, and the PLOTMASTER™ to manage recreational properties and to plant food plots for wildlife. Frontier Equipment currently distributes a full line of Frontier PLOTMASTER™ units for ATVs and tractors through the John Deere dealer network. Plotmaster Systems, Ltd also distributes a New Hunter line of PLOTMASTER™ products through Independent Territory Distributors. For more information on the PLOTMASTER™, call 888-MAX-GAME or visit the www.theplotmaster.com.
