Hungry Mother Farm
Missouri is a great deer and turkey state and has large numbers of both animals. It also has a large number of deer with trophy sized racks. These “big” deer exists in far greater numbers north of Interstate 70 where Hungry Mother Farm is located. A lot of northern Missouri is devoted to cattle farms and CRP farms both of which are are generally seeded in fescue. Unfortunately, fescue has no value as a wildlife food source, so when you're looking for great deer and turkey hunting in Missouri you have to look for areas that are row cropped for corn, soybeans, milo, wheat, and oats or are planted in grasses such as alfalfa, clover, lespedeza, and native warm season grasses like little bluestem and side oats gamma. Good hunting areas also have to have acreage devoted to brush and timber for cover and bedding areas, and most of all “edge” where cover and food sources meet.
The light green area on the map is the Hungry Mother Farm. Because the terrain is hilly there are numerous watersheds that show up on the map as darker areas of timber. The areas we farm are on the ridge tops and those hill sides that are not too steep. Consequently we have miles and miles of “edge”; that special terrain where cover and food come together and deer and other wildlife feel safe. Flat land farms with large fields do not have this. Our largest field is 80 acres and it's shape is highly irregular. This isn't particularly good for farming, but it's great for producing and holding deer and turkey.
We farm about 800 acres of the Hungry Mother Farm's 1440 acres. Our main crops are wheat, corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. We also plant about 100 acres of food plots. These are usually located in areas of good cover like openings in brush or timber or next to cedar thickets, Some of these plots are planted in corn, soybeans, and milo which both attract deer and provide them with survival forage when winter comes. Other plots are planted in clover, oats, brasicus, and turnips which are plants that deer find hard to resist, Consequently, The Hungry Mother attracts and holds a lot of deer throughout the year.
