J-birds place

[j-bird]

Took a walk with the dogs Sunday just to get out of the house. I went and checked out my southwest area and the deer seem to have taken advantage of my small corn plot.

I did find some evidence of deer using my turnips.....finally. Still pretty minimal - only two I found. My radish have all turned to mush as well, but the turnips are still good and firm.


The corn was pretty HAMMERED as well. This was a pretty good stand for a 1/4 acre corn plot, but the deer and other critters seem to have put a pretty good hurt on it. This was a 30" row planting on a 30 to 35,000 population setting. Good thing I have another 3/4 acre plot not a 1/4 mile away. This plot is really close to some really good cover so it always get hit hard and gets visited first.


Here is a 180 degree pano view


This is what this plot looked like back in the summer. I removed the central part as the corn there didn't do well and I added some brassica.


I also tracked down the basswood tree that was hammered back in 2014 - I saw only some light sign of it being visited recently, but you can see the scars on it. These three leaders are about the diameter of a 2 liter bottle.

The 2 nice bucks we killed back in 2014 we had shot within 200 yards of this spot. So obviously I try to keep an eye on when this get revisited. I have very few basswood on my place, but the deer sure seemed to find this one back in 2014. The deer in my avatar was one of those bucks back in 2014.

 

[KDdid]

It's funny how you can go through life with blinders on...over the decades, I had one section of a woods that I hunt constantly have more rubs than all the rest combined. As I've gotten more into foraging and wild foods (basswood leaves are tasty when young), I've come to recognize this area being full of basswood saplings. This spot is fairly open, a small slice of woods between a thick bedding area and crop fields. Once I got smart enough to quit walking through this spot to spook all the deer bedding further in, my luck improved.

 

[j-bird]

It's funny how you can go through life with blinders on...over the decades, I had one section of a woods that I hunt constantly have more rubs than all the rest combined. As I've gotten more into foraging and wild foods (basswood leaves are tasty when young), I've come to recognize this area being full of basswood saplings. This spot is fairly open, a small slice of woods between a thick bedding area and crop fields. Once I got smart enough to quit walking through this spot to spook all the deer bedding further in, my luck improved.

I agree - at times I have been my own worst enemy regarding hunting and my habitat work as well.

 

[j-bird]

Well with the nice weather over the weekend - I was literally wearing a short sleeved shirt - I hit the woods to do some TSI/hinge work saturday. It was so warm I saw a small cloud of gnats/skeeters/no-see'ums - whatever they where........not something your supposed to see in my are in February!

I have an area where a wooded hillside is pretty steep. On the hillside I have a small bench where the deer like to bed. The bank behind them protects them from view and they have a commanding view of everything to the south of them. Earlier in the year I went in and identified any oaks - especially the small ones as they can be difficult to ID without leaves. I marked them with some orange flagging tape. This area had some logging done this past summer, but I wanted to go in and thin out/hinge some of the hard maple and hackberry. I have poor luck getting hard maple to live as I have to hinge pretty deeply but we will see. Some seemed to hinge better this time and if nothing else I should get some more sun to the ground and mother nature can do her thing.

This is a decent view of the "bench - it's a nice flat area about 50 yards wide or more and a good 10 to 20 yards deep. This is standing on the west end of it looking east.


This is a close up view of some of the hard maple I hinged for cover and to release a small chinkapin oak These hinges are about 5 feet hing so the deer can easily pass underneath.


This is sort of the view looking south. You can see I have some other oak sin the area that needed some help also. There is a 120 feet wide switchgrass buffer at the base of the hill and then a 15 acre corn field beyond and the deer have a real good view of it all from this location.


Last one. This is a pic looking back across the bench and a view of some of the other hinged maples. There is a very defined trail leading to and from this area and it is fairly common to have deer bed in and around this area al ready. I simply wanted to make the cover a little better and release some of these younger oaks at the same time. This is looking on the east end and looking west across the "bench"

 

[Triple C]

j-bird...Just catching up on your thread. Love the example you posted on the previous page about your lone white oak. We have only one hardwood draw with mature white oaks on our place. Most of our hardwoods are comprised of red and water oaks. The white oak draw has very large, mature white oaks with huge crowns that produce ample acorns in the years they drop. It's almost like baiting for deer if your sit when the acorns are dropping. And, I'm convinced that every deer that regularly uses our property knows where the white oaks are located. As for the beech trees, we have very, very few on our property. Since we have so few we don't cut them. I think they are one of the prettiest trees in the forest when they mature.

 

[j-bird]

j-bird...Just catching up on your thread. Love the example you posted on the previous page about your lone white oak. We have only one hardwood draw with mature white oaks on our place. Most of our hardwoods are comprised of red and water oaks. The white oak draw has very large, mature white oaks with huge crowns that produce ample acorns in the years they drop. It's almost like baiting for deer if your sit when the acorns are dropping. And, I'm convinced that every deer that regularly uses our property knows where the white oaks are located. As for the beech trees, we have very, very few on our property. Since we have so few we don't cut them. I think they are one of the prettiest trees in the forest when they mature.

I hear you on the deer knowing EXACTLY where that tree is. Mine doesn't drop every year and it does some funny things sometimes.......one year only the lower third of the tree produced acorns? Anyway - I try to collect them when I can to plant them to try to get more of them, but I am still very early in that process. Most of the oaks I have are northern red, chinkapin and bur......I have that one white oak that I am aware of at the moment. As for beech trees I have plenty - I like the cover they provide when younger and the deer and turkey like the nuts. They are great for hiding stands in as well because they hold their leaves so late into the year here. Once they get "real big" they do little for me and I tend to bring them down as they produce a lot of shade. They do make great cavity trees and if I know they are being used for that I tend to leave them alone. its funny how location and soils can make properties VERY different. My folks place is less than an hour away, but he has lots of grey clay ground and his trees are totally different than mine.

 

[Weasel]

Excellent work J. I have the same problem with my turnip & radishes. The deer are slow to catch on.

 

[j-bird]

Excellent work J. I have the same problem with my turnip & radishes. The deer are slow to catch on.

I honestly think they just prefer the corn and beans I tend to have available- who wants a salad when you can have steak? I keep planting to though just as insurance.

 

[OkieKubota]

Plenty of corn in our area but it is all out of a bag and run in spin feeders...I have 1 in our hunting area but I can't hear it from my favorite stand but I can hear 4 others that aren't on our property...

First year I planted Brassicas I got spotty usage mainly on the radishes but the turnips got very little usage. 2nd year they hammered all of them and I was completely out of the brassica business before December even rolled around...

I am thinking about logging 20 acres of white oaks, red oaks, and post oaks this year to create a large bedding area and to draw the deer deeper into our place to feed on acorns.

 

[j-bird]

I have planted turnip and radish and the deer seem to take to the radish sooner, but it still tends to be pretty minimal. I have planted for a few years now and the use seems to increase a little every year - but I still don't see it as a significant part of my plotting plan. That's ok - they are cheap and easy to plant so no worries.

 

[j-bird]

well I didn't get out to do any habitat work saturday.....instead I pursued another passion of mine. My cubbies!!!! The 2016 world series trophy made a stop in Indianapolis Saturday and I was going to see it and my youngest wanted to go as well, so we made a day of it.


Sunday was nicer outside as well so I DID take advantage.

Burned some of my switchgrass.


I had some cool season grasses and the like coming in that I wanted to be able to address. Th eheight of the grass was going to make spraying difficult.


Stiltgrass and some others are my primary target at the moment.....I did double check the ensure the switchgrass had not woken up yet.


End result....

 

[j-bird]

Also found what I think is AO.......I will post in another thread.


Also mowed my corn plots - lots of corn left.....I think due to the mild winter. After mowing and burning and the like not a shed was found!


Any way after a long day and being concerned about my kids and the coming week I got a little surprise. As I was heading across my field I saw a red thing moving! I stuck in on the tractor for the way back to the house.....I think it added a little color!!!

 

[Weasel]

Good job on the burn. I've never done a burn before.

 

[j-bird]

Good job on the burn. I've never done a burn before.

I do it red-neck style. I pretty much pick a day when the wind is pretty calm, the ground is wet and the switch is dry and toss a match to it. My switch is in field buffers so it either burns my woods or my crop fields if it goes any where so I am not too concerned about it. I have some other areas to do as well. It is a great way to control saplings and allow me to fight invasive cool season plants.....before the switch wakes up and starts to grow.

 

[j-bird]

Well I got out and got some more work done over the weekend. After seeing how well the switch was doing in providing cover - I was really disappointed in some of my other CRP areas. They do OK for cover in the summer, but year round it just isn't cutting it. So I decided to do something about it. I'll have to pay for it out of my own pocket, but to get the results I want it will be worth it. I should have done this in the beginning.....but hindsight is always 20/20.

This pic is looking down into what was there. This area was all goldenrod and other weeds that just don't stand up to the winter weather well. There is no food and ZERO cover for deer. Only things calling that home is mice and voles and the like.


Here is a side-by-side I have share before I am sure. The switch just simply does a much better job.


So I went to work with the rotary mower because there isn't enough fuel there to burn. Plus it also resets lots of the saplings that had grown. Turned it into a parking lot from a habitat perspective. I did however save some cedar trees for transplanting.


I then transplanted the young cedars - I planted them in a cross pattern at about 8 feet apart. I will spray to kill off the cool season plants in this area and then plant switchgrass. I figure the combo of the cedars and the switch should promote a sweet little doe bedding area.

IF this idea works I will plant little "cells" like this in other areas as also. My timing was pretty good as well as this was all done before we got a day of rain showers so that should help the transplants. There was good moisture in the soil as it was, but nothing like a little help from above. Hopefully in a few years those cedars will provide a decent wind break for the deer in that little pocket and the switch will provide that sense of security as well. Doesn't look like much now, but nothing ever does in the beginning states of most habitat projects.

Next phase will be spraying with gly to kill off everything (except the cedars) and then putting down some switchgrass!

This will also hopefully help improve my overall cover situation AND assist in moving some deer bedding more to the central portions of my property instead of the extreme edges or even the neighbors. I don't have visions of "owning" the deer, but if I can get them to spend more time on my place the better......I am also looking at alternative walking/hunting access as well that should help this.

I did also get my apple pruning done as well, but 5 trees don't take much work. And NO - no pics of those. I suck at it and sharing my lack of ability in that would just bring some of you all to tears.....I figure the trees don't die and I'm starting to get apples so I must not be screwing it up too badly!!!!

 

[Gravel Road]

Looks great! That's on my to-do list with switch, cedar, and ROD patches. Tried it a few years ago but had heavy rains in the spring and got flooded out.

 

[j-bird]

Looks great! That's on my to-do list with switch, cedar, and ROD patches. Tried it a few years ago but had heavy rains in the spring and got flooded out.

This is in a bottom area and tends to flood in the spring from time to time. I won't put the switch seed out until I think the threat of flooding is past. No need in have a few hundred dollars in seed washing away or young grass silted an dying on me.

 

[j-bird]

Well another forum had a link to a mapping program called "cropscape". It essentially measures land usage. In using the program I thought I would share both my county info as well as a more localized look at the 2 square miles my property touches. Habitat on a regional and localized basis can have huge impacts on deer numbers and can lead us to direct our habitat work in different directions.

My county:


So in general terms across my county - row crop farming and livestock pastures account for 70+% of land usage. What we would consider "deer cover" accounts for roughly only 20%, while development is between 5 and 10%.

On a localized basis, the 2 square miles my place touches - the numbers are only slightly better. Farming still accounts for 70+% of the usage, but the "deer cover" increases to roughly 25% as development is much lower.

So what does this mean? It means deer have lots of food in my area and county wide, but not much cover to support large numbers of deer. I knew this, but it took me some time to realize it. As such I have shifted my habitat efforts away form plots and focused more on improving the cover I do have and increasing the amount of cover where I can.

Here is the link that I used to find the info above.
https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

 

[Weasel]

Good stuff J. I will planting a lot more switchgrass this year also.

 

[j-bird]

Good stuff J. I will planting a lot more switchgrass this year also.

It's just a great way for me to increase cover while staying within the rules of my CRP program.....the natural weeds just where not cutting it. Cover is king in my area, but I have to walk a fine line between my deer hunting needs and adversely affecting the bottom line from the farm income. Turns out that open dirt that grows a decent crop can make me some decent money and helps a single income family!