J-birds place
- Thread starter j-bird
- Start date
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone - it's been roughly a decade of work and if it was for the old forum I would have never of tried half of what I have done. I made many mistakes along the way and I am not afraid to share those as well. Updates will slow down as most of what I have posted is stuff done in the past. I find these "tours" interesting because they can really demonstrate different challenges we all face and thus show why some things work and others do not.
J-bird - do you have any trail cams out yet on your place?
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I set two up about a month ago (both over mineral sites). I had a malfunction with one (operator error) and I pulled the card for the other....my only buck I posted a pic of in the trail-cam section. Keep in mind I just had logging done so the deer are starting to settle back down.
Ok, Gotcha!
I would like to get some logging done on our place but I fear I have nothing they would want and what they would want I wouldn't let them have...
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Massey - this is over the course of several years.....I was simply pulling info from over that time to show the various work I have done and the results. Hopefully it will encourage others to take that "next step" - I know I was very hesitant about the logging and CRP, but both have been absolutely the best things I could have done for my situation.
Year in and year out - I try to get 1 decent project done and then simply plant my plots and do maint type work. I do all the work myself so funds are limited and so is the scope of what you person can get done safely by themselves.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I went thru that in my initial logging effort. To make it worth their while you will need lots of trees to go if they are of low value timber. My first cutting we removed roughly 700 trees! If you look at the limited cover I have - that's a lot, but I told them, "NO oak, walnut or cherry - unless I say otherwise". We removed a few damaged trees that either we cut or mother nature would take down. That first cutting went so well I then had my second cutting this summer and they specifically targeted the walnut - I see little overall wildlife value to walnut as I have lots of other hickory and the like.
All I can suggest is that you know your trees - be able to ID them, and have a logger come out and take a look or generate some sort of inventory yourself and see if they are interested. Removing the large low value trees can grossly improve your understory and production of your remaining trees. The worst thing that can happen is that they tell you they are not interested. Also in the back of your mind consider how they can efficiently get the trees out, logging decks and the like as well. I say this because if you need any additional work done like adding a culvert or the like you can negotiate that into the price as well......I did, worked out great.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I started another project in early spring of 2014. This is a road screen of cedar trees. On the north side of my place between the ag field and the county road there is a strip where the deer like to feed in the mornings and evenings. I didn't plant anything there and I don't really encourage the use of the area, but you can see the deer from the road even though the road is lower that the area I am talking about. As such I am lining the fence (with room to mow) with transplanted eastern red cedars. They are on about a 6 to 8 foot spacing and they are transplants from other places on my property where they would be otherwise of little use to me (CRP area since I can;t have woody plant sin there) - so I figured I would put them to some use. As you can see I don;t baby them and not everyone of them lives, but overall they seem to at least survive. The other thing I have tried it to get honeysuckle to grow on the fence, but I have not had good luck with transplanting honeysuckle thus far. Once I get a decent screen - I may actually plant something in here like a small orchard, but that remains to be seen yet.....gotta get a decent screen first. I have had issues with poaching in my area in the past....not my place specifically, but I don't want to encourage the deer to be near the road.....bad things happen.
I hear ya, I'm in a very similar situation. Absolutely the best thing we did was log as well. before we did that, we'd only get nocturnal use by deer. Now, they bed less that 100 yards from their food source, whether it be plots or trees.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I might as well add my chestnut planting to the list here. In 2014 I purchase 3 chestnut trees from my local rural-king store. I got them on sale for roughly $15 each and figured why not. The first three are planted in my north clover plot and they are caged in a similar fashion as I do my fruit trees. I then followed that in 2015 with planting an additional 3 that I planted in my southwest perennial plot along side some apples of mine.
I have gotten some "catkins" as they are called, but no signs of nut production ......yet.
I always plant these in groups of three to aid in pollination (I do the same with my fruit trees as well). Thus far I have only had 1 tree die and I think that was my fault. The tree was felt with essentially a depression and at the lower end of a slope I think it actually got too much water. I always try to get my trees cheap (on sale) and I always end up watering the summer they are planted. These are "Dunstan" from Chestnut Hill farms - I think. I'm not going to claim they are better, worse or otherwise. All I know is trees take a long time so I needed to get started.
I have gotten some "catkins" as they are called, but no signs of nut production ......yet.
I always plant these in groups of three to aid in pollination (I do the same with my fruit trees as well). Thus far I have only had 1 tree die and I think that was my fault. The tree was felt with essentially a depression and at the lower end of a slope I think it actually got too much water. I always try to get my trees cheap (on sale) and I always end up watering the summer they are planted. These are "Dunstan" from Chestnut Hill farms - I think. I'm not going to claim they are better, worse or otherwise. All I know is trees take a long time so I needed to get started.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
I'm glad you like it - I hope it helps folks do their own thing. I know I got lots of motivation and support from the other members and I hope my thread here will help provide that same support to someone else. Heck - if I can do it anyone can.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Ok - I'm going to do something that most people will tell you is a bad idea. I'm going to show you a representative sample of how age and antler size is related on my place. Now - I will preface this by saying I have been taking deer off the same property now for the better part of 20 years. Now I will also tell you that these are generalizations and that there are exceptions - but the general guidelines I have below tend to hold pretty constant as far as I have seen in my specific location.
Familytradition
Active Member
Good stuff.
j-bird
Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone for your comments. My place is still a work in progress - like most others, but I enjoy doing it. Like many others I wish I had more time and money to put into it but we all have other responsibilities as well. I wasn't sure what a "land tour" was supposed to look like so if I'm way off, or coming off the wrong way please say so. I'm not very versed in the whitetail world as a whole but I'm not afraid to tell you when I have made mistakes and I AM the worlds leading expert on my place....as far as I am concerned that is the way it should be! I will continue to post as things progress (I have noticed acorns starting to be visible on some of my oaks) and little observations along the way. Please feel free to make suggestions, ask questions, or offer alternative solutions - I try to be fairly open minded.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
J, your deer are super nice, and I really admire all of the hard work you have done. I've noticed in your posts that you and I probably face some similar issues with good cover being very important to us because of the more open areas we live in. But you do have a great advantage of having lots of AG to help feed the deer.
Awesome job with everything.
Awesome job with everything.
