CNC,

Let me also point out that the types of properties I work with have very, VERY limited acreage for food plots. Imagine Skyline WMA in northeast AL. That's the type of terrain and habitat I work with, except their are no bottomlands at all. Steep hillsides drop almost vertically to rocky tumbling creeks. Ridge-lines are hog-backs, only 10-20 yards across. The only places available for food plots are along the long, narrow ridge-tops, where the soils are very thin, rocky, and highly acidic.

Because the acreage is so limited for food plots, most of the time no attempt is made to "feed" the local deer herd with food plots. Habitat management of the hardwoods is used to feed the deer with early stage natural regeneration (and a variety of management techniques used to produce the most summer forb growth). Food plots, often comprising no more than 1-2% of the property, are used simply to attract deer to the property in a poor acorn fall.