I
t’s the stuff that gets all over your
truck when you travel the back roads
looking for the best properties to
hunt. The stuff that stains your
clothes and sticks to your boots. It’s
the stuff that you track through the
house and can’t seem to get rid of.
But “dirt” is more than just a nuisance
to our everyday lives. It is often an
overlooked resource on our
properties that could either make or
break our habitat management plans.
There has been several studies done
that have shown that there may be a
correlation between antler size and
soil fertility. They state, that states
with more fertile soils, like those in
the Midwest and Great Plains, produce more trophy deer because their
soils allow for better plant growth and
nutrition, which leads to better antler
growth.
conservation side of hunting and land
management, the management
techniques and goals I have deal a lot
with soil. We have all heard about
the Dirty 30’s and have heard the
stories about how the people in our
past thought soil was a resource that
would never go away. But in reality
soils should be a part of our
management plans just as much as
water management, hinge cutting,
For starters, the amount of organic
and food plots are. Without the
matter in the topsoil has a great effect
proper soil in place we can’t do the
First we need a name change. We
on the soils ability to support plants.
other things on our management list.
need to change our usage of the word Almost no property is completely flat,
Managing soil correctly will ensure
from “dirt” to soil. There is so much which makes soil even more imthat the food plots and oak trees you
more to soil then meets the eye, that portant. The suns relationship to the
planted will continue to grow year in
calling it “dirt” makes it seem useless different hills on your property will
and year out.
and one dimensional. Soil is far from dictate which places may or may not
one dimensional. The different
be good for food plots. Some of those So in the articles to come we will be
exploring the different aspects of soil
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