As with most things in life, there are items you need to plant successful food plots and then there are items that aren’t a necessity, but would be useful and make planting your food plots easier. You may have achieved great success using disk harrows, an ATV, or tractor and a seed spreader, but the Quality Deer Management Association suggests you consider adding a cultipacker to your arsenal.

“A cultipacker is a heavy, iron roller, usually with iron cleats, that you roll over soil after it has been disked to firm and smooth the seedbed. The cleats help the cultipacker get traction and roll so that it firms the soil evenly. Cultipacking is especially important when you are planting small-seeded crops like clover, alfalfa, chicory, and brassicas, because it ensures consistent seed-to-soil contact across the entire food plot while minimizing the number of seeds that are planted too deeply. Small seeds like these do not contain enough energy to germinate and reach the surface if they are buried more than a quarter inch deep. Ideally, all they need is to be firmly pressed into the surface of the soil without being buried at all.”

Photo by: The Firmenator