A properly designed whitetail parcel will provide many benefits. My property is a long, narrow 40-acres that connects a large chunk of woods with a swamp across the street. In the past, most of the animals stayed on the neighbor’s property even where cover was lacking. The neighbor’ properties are fairly isolated and several hundred yards off the road. Any hunting pressure on my property would negatively impact my hunting efforts. Every property can be improved to provide great opportunity.

When I first purchased the property, I wanted to address the most limiting factors affecting my property. The center of my land consisted of a 12-acre field that had been planted in corn. My best management decision was to discontinue having the property farmed. I quickly added food plots, planted tall grass prairie and switchgrass, and planted pine trees. I also expanded my hedgerows by 60 ft. These improvements alone dramatically increased the number of animals I was seeing daily. The increased cover and diversity provide not only great travel corridors on my property, but animals now reside on my 40 acres.

The best benefit to having a well-managed whitetail parcel is hunting mature bucks throughout the hunting season. Additional benefits to my property include increased small game, better soil health, fauna and flora diversity, good neighbor relationships, honey bees and other insects, and the best outdoor classroom for teaching children conservation.

My son Noah was able to harvest his first gobbler this year overlooking the first improvement I made on my property. I have a horse shoe food plot that that has a brushy finger in the middle and is surrounded by switchgrass. Almost any animal on my property will eventually utilize this area because of the food, security, and topography this area offers. The food plot follows the land’s contours and is in a natural drainage area.

A properly designed hunting property should provide great hunting opportunities at mature bucks. A myriad of other benefits can be the byproduct of having a solid management plan in place for your property. Improvements such as access, bedding, travel, water, food, etc. can all work for you or against you. Trees can’t be uncut, money can’t be unspent, and some big buck opportunities never materialize. Be sure to maximize the strategic improvements you make to your property.

MS