By: Craig Harper

Dr. Craig Harper is a Professor of Wildlife Management and the Extension Wildlife Specialist at the University of Tennessee. Craig is a regular contributor to Quality Whitetails and a Life Member of the QDMA. Dr. Harper and his graduate students concentrate their work on applied management issues, including forest management, early succession management, food plot applications, and the effects of quality deer management.

Fresh Tips on Using Fire for Better Deer Habitat

Jan 12, 2022 Craig Harper

This is not the same old advice you’ve heard before about prescribed fire. These simple tips will increase your hunting and habitat management success. I continue to maintain that fire is the single best management…

8 Winter Projects for Better Fall Deer Hunting

Jan 25, 2017 Craig Harper

Unless you hunt in portions of the Deep South, deer season is over. And for those who hunt in south Alabama and Mississippi, you have precious few days left. The end of the season can…

Deer Prefer Awnless Wheat

Jul 16, 2015 Craig Harper

Winter wheat is an excellent cool-season forage for white-tailed deer. Healthy, green, growing wheat contains more than 20 percent crude protein, and with less than 25 percent acid detergent fiber it is highly digestible. Forage yield is…

4 Ways to Light a Prescribed Fire

Oct 22, 2014 Craig Harper

Prescribed fire is an excellent and cost-effective technique for setting back existing vegetation and stimulating fresh growth from the seedbank and from sprouting, which increases the quality and quantity of deer forage and cover. To…

Get Ready to Use Prescribed Fire

Oct 22, 2014 Craig Harper

A deer and habitat management program can gain considerable benefits from the use of prescribed fire, and knowing these benefits is the first step toward bringing fire back to forests that need it. I covered…

Try These Warm-Season Food Plot Mixes

Feb 20, 2013 Craig Harper

In my past article “Weed Control Primer” in Quality Whitetails magazine, I shared strategies for effective weed control in cool- and warm-season food plots. I also included several food plot mixtures and matching weed-control methods…

Try These Cool-Season Food Plot Mixes

Aug 6, 2012 Craig Harper

There are a myriad of combinations that can be used with cool-season food plots. Many contain grasses, leguminous forbs (such as clovers and alfalfa), and non-leguminous forbs (such as chicory and brassicas). This can be…

How to Calibrate a Food Plot Sprayer

May 23, 2012 Craig Harper

So, you have learned to identify your major weed problems. You have done your homework and identified the herbicide necessary to control the weeds in your food plots. You have planned ahead, and you are…

Mixing Corn and Soybeans in Food Plots

Mar 28, 2012 Craig Harper

The species and rates of plants included in a seed blend is an important consideration when planting food plots. Certainly, you want to include species that are compatible with each other in terms of growth…