The baseball analogy is appropriate if you were ever to pick up a copy of this book.

We’ll get right to the point: If you are at all interested in understanding or actually improving habitat then buy this book!

Certain ball players are destined for stardom and so it goes for certain authors. When it comes to habitat management (not just QDM) Craig and Neil Dougherty, of North Country Whitetails, come to the table with 10 years of "hands on" experience. Their education on the subject of habitat improvement was earned deep in the nooks and crannies of their New York State, Stueben County, property, called Kindred Spirits. We’ve seen this 500-acre parcel of heaven on earth, which serves as a living museum of successes and set backs. Kindred Spirits is Mossy Oak Biologic’s northern research facility. All manner of cultivars are being grown, observed, and consumed in this fantastic outdoor living library! Check out what’s going on by visiting the North Country Whitetails web site at NorthCountryWhitetails.com

As if the hard earned experience behind the authors of Grow Em Right wasn’t enough, the team roster of this 4-year-old company, reads like a who’s who of world-class experts, such as Charlie Alsheimer, Dr. Grant Woods and Bob Foulkrod. Grow Em Right is a written account that mirrors some of the stops along the facility tour you could actually see for yourself if you were fortunate enough to book one of the many weekend tours of Kindred Spirits. If you just can’t make the tour, you’re in luck! The book is the next best thing and then some! Read on.

Let's not kid ourselves. Habitat management and QDM have been around for many years. It’s gotta be hard to generate genuine excitement in such a relatively mature market, but in places like the northern states, habitat improvement is a very big and very new deal. There is no doubt there have been some excellent books on this subject, like Charlie Alsheimer’s newest work, Quality Deer Management, The Basics and Beyond. Maybe it’s us, but with some notable exceptions, the line up of basic resource material seems either to be so general and broad as to be useless in a practical application, or too highly academic so as to be impractical in the field. Honestly, some books on this subject are just plain boring to read.

Grow Em Right by Neil and Craig Dougherty is now the de facto standard for books that are part "do it yourself" and part knowledge based. We can easily see future generation books on this subject will need to step up to the bar set a notch higher by the Dougherty’s. It’s not so much the science packed into this book, as how it’s packaged. Mercifully, the writing style isn’t overly flowery, and I found the book to be a reasonably succinct read. Grow Em Right skips the rhetoric and gets right into rolling up your sleeves, executing on your plan, and reaching your goals.

This work is so "portable" in every literal and figurative sense of the word; the book begs to be smudged with the soil of your next food plot! Grow Em Right is as practical as the day is long. You’ll find yourself drawn in and understanding stuff that you put to immediate use. The added bonus of Grow Em Right is it’s much more than another QDM book. Sure, Grow Em Right covers all the intricacies of food plots, as you would expect, but expands concepts to include discussions on timbering, securing your property, creating wildlife sanctuaries, and a host of down to earth advice. The rest of the Grow Em Right title is A Guide to Creating Habitat and Food Plots. This pretty much says it all, as does the book itself. The Dougherty’s go light years beyond simple QDM philosophy without getting snooty about it. Grow Em Right is the most comprehensive, insightful, and well organized field encyclopedia on habitat development and building food plots we have ever seen! This book has hit a homerun the first time at bat and scored a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. A good book always keeps you wanting more. We’re wondering what the Dougherty’s may have up their sleeve for an encore!

Enjoy!

To order a copy of Grow Em Right, A Guide to Creating Habitat and Food Plots visit the NorthCountry Whitetails website at NorthCountryWhitetails.com