T-Max
Well-Known Member
Well, after watching many of your threads from the old forum to here, I think it may be time to start my own. I always feared I would start one of these and it would get boring because I always forget to take pictures of what I do. We'll see what happens. 
I live on 5 acres in North Central Kansas (Zone 5a). Out my back gate my family has about 220 acres of ground where I do most of my hunting. The challenge I have is about 180 acres of that is great native grass pasture which is devoid of any trees and brush. At this point, I am powerless to do anything about that. The balance of the property consists of three bottom fields, two of which are in brome, the third is fallow and where my father winters our cattle. There is a spring-fed creek which is our southern border and runs year round. There is a 5 or so acre block of timber in our bottom as well. I have been girdling unwanted species and trying to release desired trees. Our timber is predominately bur oak with a mix of walnut, hackberry and elm making up most of the rest. It is heavily canopied and makes for a ton of visibility through the understory. Where I could I created a tornado effect to try and reduce visibility, create browse, and just generally set back succession. The neighbors to the South are great stewards. They own around 400 acres and solely promote wildlife there. It is the hub of our deer activity. The neighbors to the East lease their ground to an outfitter who has absolutely no standards at all. (That really sucks.) The neighbor to the West owns around 600 acres. He is a "decent" neighbor. He and 2 of his kids hunt that property. They have shot plenty of mature deer through the years, so they generally hold out for something that is grown. They practice some hunting techniques that I am not thrilled about, (radios, driving deer with 4 wheelers, etc...) but they will not hunt at night or out of season. Their pressure moves deer to the Southern neighbor where they are safe. Our property is almost exclusively a travel corridor from one neighbor's to the next. But I am working with what I have.
Besides the TSI, my main project has been a food plot. I have one acre of flat ground to work with. I am allowed to use it because it is very poor... I planted 25 persimmons there in the spring of 2014. Only 7 remain, but they look pretty good. That fall I tried throw-n-mow on about half an acre. The results were okay, but not great. I tried to expand it to the full acre last fall and was overrun with grass and weeds. That brings us to my current status...
I live on 5 acres in North Central Kansas (Zone 5a). Out my back gate my family has about 220 acres of ground where I do most of my hunting. The challenge I have is about 180 acres of that is great native grass pasture which is devoid of any trees and brush. At this point, I am powerless to do anything about that. The balance of the property consists of three bottom fields, two of which are in brome, the third is fallow and where my father winters our cattle. There is a spring-fed creek which is our southern border and runs year round. There is a 5 or so acre block of timber in our bottom as well. I have been girdling unwanted species and trying to release desired trees. Our timber is predominately bur oak with a mix of walnut, hackberry and elm making up most of the rest. It is heavily canopied and makes for a ton of visibility through the understory. Where I could I created a tornado effect to try and reduce visibility, create browse, and just generally set back succession. The neighbors to the South are great stewards. They own around 400 acres and solely promote wildlife there. It is the hub of our deer activity. The neighbors to the East lease their ground to an outfitter who has absolutely no standards at all. (That really sucks.) The neighbor to the West owns around 600 acres. He is a "decent" neighbor. He and 2 of his kids hunt that property. They have shot plenty of mature deer through the years, so they generally hold out for something that is grown. They practice some hunting techniques that I am not thrilled about, (radios, driving deer with 4 wheelers, etc...) but they will not hunt at night or out of season. Their pressure moves deer to the Southern neighbor where they are safe. Our property is almost exclusively a travel corridor from one neighbor's to the next. But I am working with what I have.
Besides the TSI, my main project has been a food plot. I have one acre of flat ground to work with. I am allowed to use it because it is very poor... I planted 25 persimmons there in the spring of 2014. Only 7 remain, but they look pretty good. That fall I tried throw-n-mow on about half an acre. The results were okay, but not great. I tried to expand it to the full acre last fall and was overrun with grass and weeds. That brings us to my current status...
