Bowhunter14’s Farm thread

[bowhunter14]

Hey guys! New to the forum and wanted to try my hand at this property tour thing! I bought my place in October of 2019 and have been trying to improve habitat for deer and turkey since then. My place is located in southwest Missouri and nothing but timber. So improvement will involve a boat load of TSI work and chainsaw time. Hopefully I can figure out how to upload some pictures and I’ll be asking for advice from y’all along the way!

 

[howboutthemdawgs]

What’s the details of your place?

 

[Mennoniteman]

Hey guys! New to the forum and wanted to try my hand at this property tour thing! I bought my place in October of 2019 and have been trying to improve habitat for deer and turkey since then. My place is located in southwest Missouri and nothing but timber. So improvement will involve a boat load of TSI work and chainsaw time. Hopefully I can figure out how to upload some pictures and I’ll be asking for advice from y’all along the way!

Welcome to the forum. Your place sounds exciting, I myself prefer timber over all other types of habitat as a base to start management, because the options with timber are often greater than other types. With timber you will want to consider your plans very carefully, a tree that is cut in error takes 30 years to grow back.

 

[bowhunter14]

It is 65 acres of younger timber. Dominated by red oak and quite a bit of white oak. The mid story is covered with butternut hickory and sassafras trees. And the understory is pretty empty. I hired out a dozer and pushed over two acres of trees for my first plot. And tried my hand at a poor man plot back in the timber. But I need to expand it cause it got grazed down to nothing. The soil at my place is a pinch of dirt mixed with rocks. I have already started a 13 acre TSI in the middle of the property to create bedding and natural browse.

 

[bowhunter14]

 

[bowhunter14]

After a couple of hours with the track loader this happened! This was my first lesson in sometimes waiting on things is best. I had this done in December and the soil all was gone from erosion by planting season..

 

[bowhunter14]

Borrowed a buddy’s skid steer and dug in this watering hole. Holds right about 500 gallons. I took about 4 or 5 scoops out with the bucket and lined the bottom with some old pool sand. Laid weed barrier as some added protection then a tarp that was about the same material that bike inner tube is made out of. Water is a limited resource on the ridge top

 

[bowhunter14]

As you can see by this picture the plot got washed away pretty good. I ended up harvesting this Tom the following spring after I bought the place. My first turkey and the first thing the land blessed me with

 

[Native Hunter]

Nice start on your new land. Congratulations on purchasing it and also on the nice Turkey.

 

[bowhunter14]

 

[bowhunter14]

As you can see in these pictures there is absolutely no where for a deer to bed down. But I am in the process now of a 13 acre TSI that should draw them in as a bedding area / sanctuary. This will be one of several over the next couple winters. Walked the land with a forester and decided there isn’t hardly any logging sized trees on my place. So we decided to remove quite a bit basal area per acre. Mostly removing junk trees but also doing a pretty extensive thinning of oaks. Marked trees in September and started work this winter about the end of December. Currently still running saws about once a week for a couple hours. No current pictures on my phone but I’ll snap some next time I am out

 

[bowhunter14]

This was the view from my blind on the north side of the rock plot from this current year. We had almost no rain over last years summer. In September I went for a Hail Mary and chain harrowed all the scorched clover and broadcasted a mix of clover and chicory. With some fertilizer and some timely rain it greened up great.

 

[bowhunter14]

Ended up harvesting this 7 point out of the same window the picture above was taken out of at 35 yards. Finally starting to feel like I own hunting land and not just trees. Second deer of the place since I harvested a doe the week prior to the 7 point.

 

[OkieKubota]

Congratulations on the property! From the looks of your place it is pretty much identical to my property here in Oklahoma. My wife and I have 90 acres that we purchased 80 of in 2014 and then an adjoining 10 in 2019. I have a bulldozer, tractor, implements, and a chainsaw...some of the work I have done is in my land thread. This place has blessed us with great hunting since we purchased it and in 2015 we even moved onto it because we love it so much. My dozer is home right now and not on a job and I have this week clear so I am going to do some work again here. If your plot is level you shouldn’t have really lost the soil...more like the rain washed it back down between the flint that was brought up with the dirt work. Winter Rye Grain is your friend and a great soil builder and small flint burier...if you clear with a tracked machine on a hillside native grasses will cover it and as you Brushhog it time and again it gets better and better as far as soil.

 

[bowhunter14]

The plot does have a lot of warm season native grasses. I can’t remember the actual name of it off the top of my head. But yeah I already had another thread on adding rye and wheat into the plot. Wanna try and go as close to no till as I possibly can. I’m gonna compile a list of all this years projects and hopefully I can complete them.. hey @OkieKubota a dozer would come in handy lol

 

[OkieKubota]

The plot does have a lot of warm season native grasses. I can’t remember the actual name of it off the top of my head. But yeah I already had another thread on adding rye and wheat into the plot. Wanna try and go as close to no till as I possibly can. I’m gonna compile a list of all this years projects and hopefully I can complete them.. hey @OkieKubota a dozer would come in handy lol

Winter Rye Grain and Wheat are great! Might do buckwheat in summer as well. The dozer is a cool tool and sometimes much too effective! It doesn’t take long from the time you start till the time you look around and say “holy cow, what have I done!” Lol

 

[bowhunter14]

Oh I’m sure. For now I’ll stick it out with a couple saws and a four wheeler. A dozer might be in the works if I can get all my other tasks done.

 

[bowhunter14]

So the plans for this year are as follows.

1. Finish 13 acre TSI/ bedding area
2. Burn the TSI area
3. Revamp the food plots
4. Plant 2 pear trees
5. Get the pond cleaned out and apply more rock. To hide the liner a little better
6. Edge feathering around the perimeter of the plot
7. Set a 6x6 shooting house on the edge of plot

 

[lakngolf]

Congrats on your OWN land and the harvest so far. Sounds like you have some good plans. Just listen to OkieKubota, Native Hunter and Mennoniteman and you'll be good to go. Looking forward to following along.

 

[Elkaddict]

Welcome to the forum. I’ve now put in approximately 12acres of plots in our deep woods. Our soils are thin, very rocky, and very acidic because of the tannin in all the oak leaves. We started with plots in the low 4s PH wise and I learned very quickly lime was more important than fertilizer for getting our soil in shape. I’d start with buckwheat in the spring and cereal rye/clover/chicory mix planted labor day weekend. I’ve found that for October and early November, there is no stronger draw than grain. It may be with your milder weather, you can substitute oats and plant much later. Folks in milder climates may be able to say whether oats will have the same soil building qualities.

Regarding TSI, I think you will see far quicker results if you hinge cut. You’ll put literally tons of browse within reach, and you’ll thicken up quicker. We did 24 acres and it was a game changer for us. I confess I have no experience with burning (not allowed here) but getting a bunch of horizontally growing trees together with opening up the canopy will most certainly be quicker. It will make it so thick you’ll dread the day you have to drag a deer out of it….and thick is what you pictures suggest you need

Good luck on your journey and be patient. It takes time but is so worth it.