Soil, Seeds Makes Super Bucks!

Joel LaPierre of New York with his deer in a tester field of Imperial Whitetail Clover.

An E-newsletter from the Whitetail Institute recently featured an article by Brad Herndon on the importance of soil, seeds and Super Bucks. He related a story of a man back in 1996 in his mid-20s in Wisconsin who had amassed an incredible record of 27 fish and wildlife convictions. His hunting privileges were revoked in Wisconsin, but even this didn’t cure him of his dastardly ways.

Driving around with a friend in Wisconsin one night, he spotted a trophy buck, which he instantly shot. Concealing it in his vehicle, he and his buddy drove to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that night and placed an unused deer tag the man had from Michigan on the deer. To prove he had taken the deer in Michigan, the man had his buddy video tape him tracking and recovering the trophy whitetail in a wooded area.

Knowing no one could prove he didn’t legally tag the buck in Michigan, the man confidently returned to Wisconsin with the deer tied to his vehicle, making sure the trophy was in plain sight for all interested spectators to see and admire. And this included conservation officers.

Knowing he had most certainly taken the buck illegally, conservation warden John Welke worked on the case for two years. Finally the man who had video taped the recovery confessed to Welke what had happened. Welke then turned the case over to Ed Spoon, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Spoon knew he still didn’t have enough information to convict the man, but he knew Brian Beard of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Geology and Geophysics might have the knowledge to put the final nail in this poacher’s coffin.

By analyzing the antlers for their strontium isotope, which is a trace element in bone-like structures, Beard can tell exactly what part of a geographic region a deer grew up in. It works because rock deteriorates and turns into soil, soil then produces plants, the deer eat the plants, and then these trace elements become part of the antlers. It’s like the DNA of the soil in a region.
Sampling the strontium isotope of six bucks near Portage, Wisconsin, where the man lived, Beard was able to ascertain the man’s poached buck did indeed come from this same area. The strontium isotope taken from antlers of six bucks in the region of Michigan where he was supposed to have killed the deer were considerably different. This occurred because the geologic formations from the Michigan area are among the nation’s oldest, while those from the Portage, Wisconsin region are among the nation’s youngest. Beard was now able to obtain a conviction.

It's also important to know exactly what type of soil you have in order to plant the most productive food plot product for that soil. It’s also critical to plant these seeds properly and to build your soil up to its maximum potential by applying the proper amount of lime and fertilizer products. You’ll be astonished to see how much better your plants will grow in the area that was fertilized and limed. It confirmed once more the old saying, “You are what you eat.”