Establishing a beneficial wildlife food plot is not something that can be accomplished by simply going out one afternoon and tossing a little bit of seed over some bare ground.

Sure, there are plenty of products that fit this “throw and grow” convenience niche in the seed aisle of every outdoor store, but these blends lure dollars from our billfolds much more readily than the game featured on their extravagant packaging. To really do a food plot right - to transform a patch of ground into a wildlife magnet, which you can take pride in, knowing that all kinds of critters are filling their bellies and concealing their young within - takes a little bit of planning before the plow shank ever touches the soil or the first ounce of seed is broadcast.

Site selection is of the utmost importance, and with this in mind, bigger is not always better. Choosing a spot for a wildlife plot is usually limited by terrain or existing cover, but your reasons for creating a food plot also dictate its location. What is your motive? Do you want to plant the plot just to see animals outside your home, or do you wish to hunt near the plot during season? What animals or birds do you hope to attract and provide food and cover for? Is your equipment limited to a certain accessible area? These represent just a few questions, many of which will be examined more in depth in the coming weeks.

By far the biggest mistake beginning food plotters make is not acquiring a simple soil test of the areas they intend to plant.

“The pH is the first thing that you need to focus on during your soil sampling process; pH is probably the most important thing that you want to learn from the soil sample,” says Jared McGinnis, a consultant for Miles Opti-Crop. “If you’ve got a low pH and you put fertilizer out, you aren’t going to get the efficiency out of (the crop) that you would if your soil is at the 6.5-6.8 range.”

When McGinnis isn’t on the lake casting a plastic worm or sitting in a tree stand with his bow waiting for a big buck to pass by, he’s busy scouting the 10,000 or so acres of row crops for which he is responsible for as a consultant. Each year McGinnis plants and maintains a number of different plots on his own farm, catered to meet the nutritional needs of a variety of game animals throughout the entire year.

“For the cost and time associated with pulling a soil sample, it is money in the bank for either not applying fertilizer that you don’t need or having what fertilizer you’re putting out there not available to the plants (because of improper pH),” he says.

While all of this may sound confusing to someone without an agricultural background, the principle is simple - if the soil that you have chosen to plant is too acidic, the crops are not going to grow and produce nearly as well as they should.

Taking a sample only requires a moment of your time, and a small hand spade and a couple of brown paper lunch bags are the only necessary items.

“The best technique for pulling a sample would be to get a core in every soil type within your food plot,” says McGinnis, who recommends pulling a number of samples, no matter what the size of the plot, in order to get a good average. “Rake away any surface residue and take the core sample to a depth of six inches.”

Once you have a soil profile pulled, place it in fresh bag with other cores from the same area to be planted and label the bag with your own description.

“Take the samples to a local farm service or extension agency,” McGinnis says. The cost is less than $10 a sample.

“Tell them what type of crop you intend to grow, therefore the lab that is receiving the samples can make recommendations for that soil sample based on the crop you’re going to put in,” he adds.

In a couple of weeks, you will receive an easy-to-read printout that will show each of your chosen spots’ pH and how much lime, fertilizer, and other additives are needed on a per acre basis for that ground to help the plants it will be support reach their maximum potential.

For soils that need a quick boost in pH, McGinnis recommends buying pelletized lime.

He also suggests that average food plotters without a barns full of equipment handle and spread the 50-pound bags of pelletized lime - it’s much easier than a large pile of ag lime.

“Now is the best time of year to do it,” Jared says. By beginning the process now, you will be well ahead of the game when spring weather and the time to plant arrives.

— Geordon T. Howell is outdoors columnist for the Daily News. He can be reached by e-mailing highbrasshowell@yahoo.com.