Creating a green browse food plot

A lot of people provide wildlife food and cover during the winter, but with a green browse food plot, you can feed wildlife during the growing season.

Todd Bogenschutz is an upland game biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He says green browse food plots are usually planted with a high-protein mix of grass and perennial legumes.

"We're talking about things like alfalfa, the clovers, winter wheat,  forage oats, turnip rape has become pretty popular, chicory, those types of things," says Bogenschutz. "Spring wheat, it's pretty attractive to them when you put it next to the appropriate habitat."

What and where you plant depends on the wildlife you're trying to attract. You can customize it for a particular species or lay out a smorgasbord. For example, if you're trying to keep geese in a wetland area, alfalfa and spring wheat are good choices, and deer and turkey will enjoy it, too.

An increase in wildlife traffic attracts predators, so it's advisable to have a buffer strip of shrubs and perennials for escape cover. Bogenschutz says the size of the plot needs to correspond with who comes to dinner.

"A lot of times we'll work with landowners and it's like, well how much wildlife do you expect. If you don't have heavy use then you can get by smaller and if you've got an area with a lot of deer, a lot of waterfowl, then you probably to think a little bigger," he says. "So, we usually try to base it on what the landowner thinks his use of the area will be but as a general rule we say they shouldn't be smaller than maybe half an acre."

Maintenance is usually minimal. Some of the plants may need to be re-seeded from year-to-year, and renovation may be necessary every three-to-four years if weeds or grasses take over.