Introduce yourself

Hello all. I'm Matt - I'm an engineer by profession in my mid 40's. I have a wife who's way out of my league and three kids, with one just about to start college. My hunting property is 127 acres of mostly timber in SE Ohio. In addition to hunting, I put a lot of time into timber management on the property, so I'm trying to achieve 2 goals on the same piece of property.

When I'm not working at the office or on the farm, I'm probably running the sound for my sons' band (If you ask, I'll bore you with endless details and links to their music). I'm also a ruling elder in the PCA.

I've been following this forum (albeit sporadically) for several years, and I've always been impressed by the collegiality. I'll try to be a little more regular with my posting and reading in the future.
 
Hello all. I'm Matt - I'm an engineer by profession in my mid 40's. I have a wife who's way out of my league and three kids, with one just about to start college. My hunting property is 127 acres of mostly timber in SE Ohio. In addition to hunting, I put a lot of time into timber management on the property, so I'm trying to achieve 2 goals on the same piece of property.

When I'm not working at the office or on the farm, I'm probably running the sound for my sons' band (If you ask, I'll bore you with endless details and links to their music). I'm also a ruling elder in the PCA.

I've been following this forum (albeit sporadically) for several years, and I've always been impressed by the collegiality. I'll try to be a little more regular with my posting and reading in the future.
Habitat work is a lot of fun, and a great way to de-stress from the more complicated things that life throws at us. The most rewarding part is to observe the fruits of your labor multiplying exponentially on their own with only a few inputs to nudge things in the right direction. Welcome to the discussion of all things Habitat.
 
Welcome Matt. Folks here are knowledgeable and care about presentation and demeanor. How close to the river are you?
 
New to food plots and QDM but eager to learn. I was finally able to purchase some land of my own and first thing I did was clear out an acre and plant an orchard with late bearing apple trees. The next year I put in a half acre food plot with daikon radish and beets. I have killed a couple of nice 8 points and my son killed a large bodied 8 last year that dressed 210 lbs. How do you decide when and how many does to harvest? Thank you for your attention.
 
New to food plots and QDM but eager to learn. I was finally able to purchase some land of my own and first thing I did was clear out an acre and plant an orchard with late bearing apple trees. The next year I put in a half acre food plot with daikon radish and beets. I have killed a couple of nice 8 points and my son killed a large bodied 8 last year that dressed 210 lbs. How do you decide when and how many does to harvest? Thank you for your attention.
Welcome to the forum. Let me give you a warning on how addictive food plots can be. It can get so bad that you enjoy working on your place more than hunting deer.
As to how many does to harvest, if you are asking this question you should probably be harvesting more than you have been. The short answer is that if you have deer year round on your property you need to take a doe every now and then to keep a balance. Do your apple trees need caged to protect the trees?Put a cage in your plot to measure the browsing pleasure, if there's a browse line in the woods and planted plots are being used pretty heavily and you see more than three deer at one time in the plots its time to be taking does by multiples. Once you've allowed your place to be overrun with doe groups its a little late, you will see less big bucks, and rebalancing is a lot more difficult.
 
I did cage all my trees when I planted them and a couple have been browsed. I have added some dunstan chestnuts this year which they really seem to like. I have not noticed a browse line but we have a lot of honeysuckle and Russian olive as well as small maple and beech trees they grouse on. My preferred method of hunting is still hunting which on 25 acres is limited. Seems every time I try I am getting busted by unseen does. We also have periodic vists by black bears. Fawn recruitment doesn’t seem bothered by the bears that we notice. Gotta admit I am hooked. We have also increased our population of ruffed grouse which I love to hunt and eat. Thanks for the tips.
 
Welcome to the new guys ! Lots of habitat and food plot knowledge on this forum, as well as a couple amateurs like me.
 
I am a Hunter and Landowner from Southern Indiana, here to pick up some tips and share stories with fellow Whitetail Fanatics.
 
Howdy! I am Belleauwoodsman (former Marine) from East Texas. I have some hunting land and am continiously improving it for future generations to hunt on. I got a later start in life than I would have hoped, but so far have planted over 50 trees of several fruit varieties (pear, peach, plum, mayhaw, persimmon, apple, mulberry). Looking to add some chestnutts to the mix here soon and found ya'll to be an excellent resource. I will be creeping early on to poach as much knowledge as I can.
 
Howdy! I am Belleauwoodsman (former Marine) from East Texas. I have some hunting land and am continiously improving it for future generations to hunt on. I got a later start in life than I would have hoped, but so far have planted over 50 trees of several fruit varieties (pear, peach, plum, mayhaw, persimmon, apple, mulberry). Looking to add some chestnutts to the mix here soon and found ya'll to be an excellent resource. I will be creeping early on to poach as much knowledge as I can.
Welcome and thank you for your service in the Marines.
 
I have found Jarheads to generally be my kind of people. Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are already doing things right. Hope we can help or at least point you in the right direction.
 
Welcome to a fellow East Texan. I’m from near Tyler, where I SHOULD HAVE planted a bunch of different fruit trees but didn’t. 😖 You will like it here. I’m on a lot of hunting and firearms forums, as well as a couple of habitat forums, and the atmosphere here is the best. The admins don’t tolerate discord and malcontents, I like that !
 
Thank you for the warm welcome. I am currently researching a gravity drip system to water my trees. The last two years have been a dry hell and I have a two hour drive to the ranch just to spend a day with a 100 gallon water tank in the pickup watering my (the deer's) trees.
 
Hello Everyone, My name is Jeff, I am a 61yo retired firefighter, and a born-again Christian. I manage about 300 acres in South Central Kentucky. While I am new to this forum I have been hunting and trying to practice QDM for going on 30 years in the South. I have primarily used the disc, spread and cover methods and had good success, but I just recently finally purchased a no-till drill and will be trying it out this spring. I have been involved with the Chestnut reintroduction in my area for 20 years now and also trying to plant heirloom varieties of fruit and nut trees on the property. I am no expert, but have a lot of trial and error experience, so I am hoping you guys can help cut down on some of that with the no-till drill..... I will be asking soon..
 
Back
Top