A little more about this concept of understory production……..Something I’ve come to realize over the years as I’ve tracked through more and more understories across an area of the state where the black belt transitions into sand……is that when we think about the better soils producing better deer herds and better bucks, etc……Yes, the soil is the engine that is driving the cycle but it’s indirectly impacting the deer and wildlife……The next link in the chain and the one that has DIRECT impact on the animals is the understory and vegetation that's produced from that "fertility". What I have noticed from tracking through it is that the better soil produces a hell of lot more intense understory and its this understory that in turn has the ability to support more deer. The more fertile the soil is…..the more it’s able to produce dense tonnage of forage and cover and the more its able to grow different species of plants that the lesser soil is not. So we cant change the underlying soil from sand to prairie soil but what we can do is manage the lesser soil to be more fertile and still produce very vibrant understories……Just like with the food plotting though…..the fertility of these lesser soils is heavily impacted by soil organic matter.