From Rocky Ground to Thriving Wildlife
How Soil Health Principles Transform Wildlife Management
In the rugged Ozark Mountains of Missouri, where limestone chunks scattered across the landscape make farming seem impossible, a revolution in wildlife management is quietly taking place. On what was once a depleted cattle ranch littered with livestock skeletons, wildlife biologist Grant Woods has proven that regenerative agriculture principles can dramatically improve wildlife habitat and hunting success.
Woods' journey from traditional wildlife management to what he calls "The Release Process" mirrors the broader regenerative agriculture movement, but with a unique twist: instead of cattle or crops, he's using whitetail deer as the primary "livestock" to build soil health and ecosystem resilience.
The Proving Grounds: Starting Point
The property Woods calls "The Proving Grounds" outside Branson, Missouri, challenges every conventional notion about what makes good farmland. "Most people wouldn't even drive their farm equipment across my property," Woods explains. The terrain is so rocky that soil testing requires carefully maneuvering probes between countless limestone chunks. Yet despite these seemingly impossible conditions, Woods has built soil organic matter to 5-6% through regenerative practices. This transformation didn't happen overnight. When Woods and his wife Tracy first purchased the property 25 years ago, it was agricultural wasteland. The previous owner had allowed cattle to literally starve to death on overgrazed, depleted land. "I'd never walked a property and found as many cattle skeletons per unit area as my own place," Woods recalls.
The turnaround began with a simple shift in thinking. Instead of fighting the rocky terrain with traditional tillage, Woods embraced no-till methods and diverse cover crop plantings. He started reading about pioneers in regenerative agriculture like Gabe Brown and Ray Archuleta, adapting their row crop principles to wildlife food plot management. Over the following years, Woods systematically implemented soil health principles, watching as seemingly lifeless ground gradually came alive.
The Release Process: Unlocking Nature's Potential
Woods coined the term "Release Process" after studying historical accounts of early American explorers. Lewis and Clark's journals described grasslands "as tall as a horse's bridle," while Daniel Boone wrote of abundant wildlife and rich soils across Kentucky. Daniel Boone claimed he never spent a day in Kentucky without hearing wild turkeys gobble. Lewis and Clark encountered vast prairies supporting millions of bison, elk, and other wildlife. These ecosystems functioned without external inputs, powered entirely by solar energy, atmospheric nitrogen, and biological processes. The historical records revealed that the land's biological potential was already present—it just needed proper management to unlock it.
"All the essential components are there," Woods explains. "We're not creating anything new. We're just releasing the potential that God built into these systems."
The Release Process centers on two annual plantings designed to maximize soil biology and plant diversity. In the fall, Woods plants complex mixtures containing 6-8 different species from multiple plant families. A typical fall mix includes cereal rye (grass family), winter peas and crimson clover (legume family), forage radish and turnips (brassica family), and chicory (asteracea family). This diverse blend grows through winter, providing both wildlife food and soil coverage.
In the spring, he plants directly into the standing crop, either crimping it down with a roller-crimper or allowing the new planting to grow up through the terminated winter cover. Spring mixes might include cowpeas, soybeans, sunflowers, and sorghum-sudangrass, again representing multiple plant families.
This approach mirrors regenerative agriculture's emphasis on keeping living roots in the soil year-round while maintaining maximum plant diversity. The difference is that instead of harvesting grain crops, Woods allows deer to "harvest" the plots, returning nutrients through their waste and saliva.
The Microbial Connection
The secret to Woods' success lies in understanding soil biology. Research in deer physiology shows that adult deer salivate approximately two gallons per day, and this saliva contains beneficial microbes from their rumen. When deer concentrate on high-quality food plots rather than dispersed natural forage, they deposit massive amounts of microbial life directly onto the soil, accelerating biological activity.
"That's one of the ways we were able to make such rapid progress," Woods notes. "There was a concentration of microbe deposits going on, unlike areas where food is scattered everywhere."
To accelerate this biological activity, Green Cover inoculates all seed with three types of beneficial microbes: nitrogen-fixing rhizobia for legumes, compost-extracted fungi to build soil structure, and mycorrhizal fungi to extend root systems and improve nutrient uptake. Woods and his team also apply additional microbes via drone throughout the growing season.
This biological approach has allowed Woods to eliminate synthetic fertilizers entirely while reducing herbicide use to less than 20% of conventional levels. The soil biology does the heavy lifting, cycling nutrients, suppressing weeds through competition, and building the organic matter that holds water and nutrients.
Results and Benefits
The implications of Woods' work extend far beyond individual food plots. His property now supports thriving populations of wildlife that are struggling elsewhere. While wild turkey populations are declining across most of their range, Woods' land teems with turkeys. His deer are producing antler growth and body weights comparable to Midwest animals despite the challenging Ozark environment—typically achieving weights 30% higher than regional averages.
The benefits of soil-health-focused wildlife management extend to the dinner table. Woods recently had venison from his Missouri property tested by Dr. Stefan van Vliet, a leading researcher in grass-fed meat nutrition at Utah State. The results showed omega fatty acid profiles and nutrient densities that exceeded most grass-fed beef samples.
This superior nutrition makes sense when you consider deer biology. As "concentrate selectors"—meaning they're extremely choosy eaters who take small bites from the highest quality plants available—deer naturally gravitate to the most nutrient-dense forage. When those plants are grown in biologically active, mineral-rich soils, the resulting meat becomes a concentrated source of nutrients.
Perhaps most significantly, Woods has proven that these principles work across diverse climates and soil types. Through his consulting work and television show "Growing Deer," he's helped implement similar systems from the deep South to the northern Plains. In northern Alabama, a client started with heavily logged land featuring compacted clay where spilled hydraulic fluid had created nearly impermeable surfaces. Within just two years of implementing the Release Process, the property showed dramatic improvement with measurable increases in organic matter and wildlife populations. In South Carolina, an innovative landowner has transformed abused cropland into calendar-quality habitat with deer that rival Midwest specimens in size and health.
Practical Implementation: Getting Started
For landowners interested in implementing similar systems, Woods recommends starting with three key practices:
First, plant diverse mixes focusing on plant family diversity, not just species count. A basic fall mix, such as Fall Release, includes cereal rye and oats (grass family), winter peas and crimson clover (legume family), forage radish (brassica family), and chicory (asteracea family). This represents four plant families, each contributing unique root exudates that feed different microbial communities. Even small food plots benefit from this diversity.
Second, inoculate seeds with beneficial microbes. While microbial inoculation adds modest upfront cost, it accelerates soil biology development and typically pays for itself in reduced fertilizer needs within 2-3 years. The three key inoculants are nitrogen-fixing rhizobia for legumes, mycorrhizal fungi for improved nutrient and water uptake, and compost-extracted fungi for soil structure building.
Third, avoid practices that harm soil life, particularly fungicide-treated seeds and excessive herbicide applications. "If it's a bright green or yellow-orange seed," Woods says, referring to the warning colors of chemically treated seed coatings, "we're probably not going to plant it." Woods has reduced herbicide use to less than 20% of conventional levels by allowing diverse plantings to outcompete weeds.
The key is patience—significant improvements typically require 2-3 growing cycles as soil biology becomes established. Don't expect overnight transformation. Start small if necessary. Even a quarter-acre plot managed with these principles will outperform larger plots managed conventionally. As you gain confidence and see results, you can expand the approach to more acreage.
Releasing What Was There All Along
The lesson from the Ozarks is clear: when we work with natural systems rather than against them, both wildlife and land can thrive in ways that seemed impossible under conventional management. Grant Woods' rocky Proving Grounds—once a graveyard for starving cattle—now teems with life, produces nutrient-dense venison, and demonstrates the regenerative power of soil biology.
The key insight is that soil health and wildlife management aren't separate disciplines—they're intimately connected aspects of ecosystem function. Healthy soils support diverse plant communities, which in turn support diverse wildlife populations. Wildlife, through their feeding and waste deposition patterns, further enhance soil biology and plant diversity. The system becomes self-reinforcing when managed properly.
This approach reflects faithful stewardship of creation—working with the systems God designed rather than against them, healing damaged land while meeting human needs. As Woods puts it: "It's never too late. We can recover it." His rocky Ozark Proving Grounds stands as a testament to the regenerative power of biological systems when given the chance to function as designed.
For hunters, landowners, and conservationists, Woods' work offers a compelling vision: wildlife management that improves rather than degrades the land, producing not just bigger antlers and more game, but healthier ecosystems that can sustain abundance for generations to come. The potential has always been there, buried in the soil and encoded in natural processes. Sometimes it just takes the right approach to release it.
