Get More Deer with Food Plot Screening

In my experience, most hunters associate plot screening with access - getting in and out of the blind without spooking deer. Whether your blind is over a food plot, or a timber setting, having that screen to conceal your movement and avoid disrupting the deer movement on your farm is ideal. Plot screens can also be used to create a buffer between a plot and some other potentially disruptive source like a road. That screen might be thick enough and high enough that when Joe Schmo drives by the deer might not be scared off and instead will spend more time in front of your blind.

Plot screening can provide an excellent source of increased security perception for deer by limiting what they can see. But plot screening can also be used to help control deer movement. Similar to the way a hedge maze can force people to take specific routes, a strategically placed plot screen can also be used to encourage deer to enter from a specific side and congregate in specific areas. The deer don't want to have to cross through the gnarly screen so they will take the path of least resistance. You can wall off certain sides of your plot and create a gate where you want the deer to come in. On large plots, this can be utilized in a way to keep them in bow range of your blind.

I also find that one advantage to plot screens is that they can be used to pique a buck's curiosity. When I'm calling to a buck across the field, if he can't see into the plot or the stand behind the screen, I may have a better chance of getting him to come investigate within bow range of the blind.

I like to use sorghum for plot screen. If I'm using drilling to form the lines of the plot screen, I'll do 2-4 drilling passes, making sure to cut my drill rate in half every time I double the number of passes. Using more passes creates a better spread of the seeds, which helps the plants lean on each other, not snap, and not get brittle as they grow to maturity.

If I'm not drilling, I'll use the method I was first shown when I started plot screening. The very first step is to have a soil test done so you know exactly what will work best for fertilizer. Otherwise, you may waste a lot of time and money trying to create a plot screen without knowing exactly which nutrients your plants need to flourish and grow to the right height by fall. The next step is to spray the entire area of the plot with Roundup to kill all the weeds. If there are any tougher, more resistant weeds in there, like water hemp, you may need to use a heavier chemical. You just want to get as good a burndown as possible right away, so your sorghum plot screen comes up without any weed competition. After the weeds are all dead, there are multiple ways to go in and rip the dirt up. You can use a rototiller, a disc, a field cultivator, etc., to churn up the top three inches. Once the soil is all worked up and fluffy, we broadcast it then cultipack it. It's important to get the seed pressed into the ground since it needs to be between a half inch and three-quarters inch deep into the soil to germinate. After the seed is broadcasted and packed, you can go back over it with the broadcaster -- this time with fertilizer in the broadcaster instead of seeds. What fertilizer you use, of course, will be based on the soil test you had done beforehand.

I hope these tips help you if you're looking to get into plot screening. To get the best visuals for this information, be sure to check out the video above!

--Kaleb Greiner, Midwest Whitetail