Hi I'm new to this site, and am planning on putting in several food plots on a 200 acre parcel of land in upstate NY. Currently there is next to no clearings with the exception of a 3 or 4 acre clear-cut. The woods seem to be primarily pine and hemlock with a few clusters of hardwoods scattered about. Beech being the only real mast crop on the property that I have found so far. In addition the property has a stream running through it and some marshy spots.. I have never done any food plot planting so I can use any advice you folks have. I spent several days reading various posts before posting to make sure I wasn't asking anything that was already posted. First order of business would be deciding where to put the plots one post mentioned laying it out to get the maximum sun exposure so cutting the plots in a east to west direction, soil samples being next, seems buckwheat rye and clover are the popular base to start with. Another post mentioned hinge cutting tree for food and cover for the deer which makes sense. I have access to quite a bit of machinery and farming implents discs and ploughs, brush hogs and backhoes. So I would say I am in pretty good shape to start. Thanks in advance for any guidance you may offer
Clearing land and laying out new food plots. Advice on where to begin
- Thread starter Irving
- Start date
Elkaddict
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the site! There lots of folks willing to help here. Can you cut and post a satellite photo with boundary drawn in? Most county online tools will facilitate this. This will be the most practical way of facilitating good advice.
What county are you? If you are anywhere near us, ph will be an issue. I think we’ve now spread 60+ tons of lime on our 17 acres of plots.
I hired a wildlife consultant early on which really paid dividends. He designed a layout to facilitate movement of bucks in the rut, and with water and bedding areas close to food sources.
I also hired a retired farmer to help the first year. Although I had plenty of tractor time as a teenager, I knew nothing about farming, implements or their purpose. 6 years later, I can be accused of having gone a little overboard. I frankly get as much enjoyment plotting as I do hunting, and the relaxation and exercise has really impacted my health and well being.
3 or 4 acres of plots won’t provide a lot winter forage on 200 acres unless you have really low deer numbers. It would be sufficient to have great bowhunting with grain/clover. Unfortunately, that game ends when snow begin to pile up. With our deer numbers, 4 acres of brassica will be half eaten before hunting season rolls around. Of course, you’ve got to start somewhere. Our first year, I had about 4 acres of buckwheat, grain and clover.....and it’s gotten better every year.
We did 24 acres of hing cuts and the cover/browse has been huge for holding deer on the property and providing winter eats. FWIW, if I had to choose between plots and hinge cuts, it would be the hinge cuts.
Habitat management takes time and effort, but the journey is so worth while. You should be excited!
What county are you? If you are anywhere near us, ph will be an issue. I think we’ve now spread 60+ tons of lime on our 17 acres of plots.
I hired a wildlife consultant early on which really paid dividends. He designed a layout to facilitate movement of bucks in the rut, and with water and bedding areas close to food sources.
I also hired a retired farmer to help the first year. Although I had plenty of tractor time as a teenager, I knew nothing about farming, implements or their purpose. 6 years later, I can be accused of having gone a little overboard. I frankly get as much enjoyment plotting as I do hunting, and the relaxation and exercise has really impacted my health and well being.
3 or 4 acres of plots won’t provide a lot winter forage on 200 acres unless you have really low deer numbers. It would be sufficient to have great bowhunting with grain/clover. Unfortunately, that game ends when snow begin to pile up. With our deer numbers, 4 acres of brassica will be half eaten before hunting season rolls around. Of course, you’ve got to start somewhere. Our first year, I had about 4 acres of buckwheat, grain and clover.....and it’s gotten better every year.
We did 24 acres of hing cuts and the cover/browse has been huge for holding deer on the property and providing winter eats. FWIW, if I had to choose between plots and hinge cuts, it would be the hinge cuts.
Habitat management takes time and effort, but the journey is so worth while. You should be excited!
Thanks, Elkaddict i stumbled across your thread and am about 10 pages into reading about your property. Great stuff I hope your health has improved since the start of it. I live in the foothills of the Adirondacks in Fulton County near sacandaga lake. I was fortunate enough to find a landowner looking for help maintaining his property, helping with deer stands, food plots, monitoring trail cams for deer and trespassers in exchange for hunting access. One thing I forgot to mention is the property borders a airfield which seems to provide a lot of grass for grazing.
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Thanks I miss read about the sat photo here's a better one there are two separate lots that he owns providing access from two roads. We haven't done any work yet as far as food plots or land clearing. There are two clearings on the property one is just a sand pit the other has a fair amount of vegetation and weeds that should be able to be converted to a food plot with minimal work as far as clearing land. The airstrip isn't fenced in I am not sure how much it is used anymore. Any features in particular we should be paying attention to for food plot and hinge plot locations?
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Elkaddict
Well-Known Member
I believe the key is identifying food sources (ideally substantial food plots) and creating bedding cover (hinge cuts) nearby. In turn, I would locate stands (based on prevailing winds) between bedding and food, and down wind of thick bedding areas. None of this works if your access blows out food, bedding or stand sites. If you can’t put in substantial plots, then I’d identify primary native food sources that will be productive during hunting season and work from there. A well designed layout would permit access to different stands that you chose by wind direction. A well designed layout also facilitates directional travel by rutting bucks.
We plan on putting a lot of work into the size of the food plots and a lot of leg work into scouting and trying to layout everything according to wind direction and access points. I see the two main strategies for creating habitat are hinge cutting and hack and squirt. I definitely see advantages to both methods and may try to incorporate both where applicable. What trees should be hinged cut as opposed to just removing
Elkaddict
Well-Known Member
We hinge cut everything that wasn’t mast producing (apple and oak primary). One reason I prefer hinge cutting is how quickly alive but horizontal trees thicken things up. I’m also a huge fan of mineral stumps, that is new growth sprouting out of live stumps but have the original root system flowing nutrients to the new growth. This is lost with hack and squirt. To be clear, significant hinge cutting creates a thick nasty browse producing mess…. It’s a nightmare to walk or drag a deer through, and visibility is very limited. That of course is also why it is such an important tool.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
You can mitigate that by cutting some roads through it and keeping them mowed. Just one shredder wide is all you need winding around through the woods. Makes it a shorter drag !
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Hack and squirt should mostly be used for invasives like tree of heaven and locust. For instance, we have a lot of red maple, which is almost worthless for lumber, but we would never hack and squirt it, we would hinge or cut for stump sprouts since the sprouts are amazing deer food, and hinging or stump cutting red maple in a stand of better trees pretty much removes them as competition for the saw timber trees like cherry, hard maple and oaks.
I have been to busy with work to do much with our project. I finally got out today to do some scouting these first two pictures are of the clearings already on the property with a little bit of work we should be able to expand them from a couple acres to 7 or 8 maybe more. They are already torn up with deer tracks and poop. There's a ton of pine saplings that we will remove to open up the area more. There is also quite a bit of oak which I was not expecting to find. The next picture is of the neighboring run way which always seems to have deer browsing in there. Also found a big pile of Moose crap and a large beaver pond so the property has a lot of potential
Travis Aasen
Active Member
Irving. that looks like paradise! You're very fortunate to not have to deal with stumps in those lush food plots. I have new food plots and I'll be burning the damn stumps for years.
Tap
Well-Known Member
I'll add this...
If you aren't already skilled at plant identification then you need to get learned-up.
When you open up the area and when you disturb the seed bank in the soil, you're gonna awaken a bunch of new plants. Some may be no issue or even desirable. But there will also be some invasive, undesirables. DO NOT LET THEM TAKE HOLD! Kill them asap or you will spend lots of time and money later on.
Thats exactly what I plan on doing. Once we get the land cleared to the size we want spraying to kill of the remaining plants before planting our crops. I am not sure how much we will get done this season. I think around January or February going back in and dropping some of the larger maples and other trees to open up the canopy and give the deer something to browse on late in the season
