Your most impactful habitat improvement

[MarkDarvin]

Biggest impact? Getting food plots carved out and up and running.

Biggest eye opener? Sulfur.

The earth is covered in clover. I could never understand why someone would plant clover next to an entire field/pasture/woodland full of clover. I planted the stuff and never saw it used. I hated it. Then I got to reading about sulfur and what it does. Looked at my soil test and saw I had ZERO sulfur. Once I put on a full shot, the deer starting hammering it and haven't stopped. Doesn't matter what time of year it is.

 

[JFK52]

All best improvements.
Buying a Kubota L345DT 4x4 with FEL and then the implements to use behind it. Land Pride brush hog and disc, Fimco 55 gallon PTO pull behind sprayer, Hurd fertilizer hopper/ spreader, and cultipacker. Other than the no till planting I contract out every year this gives me the ability to do all my own work on the land.

Clear cutting 7 acres of Scotch pine and 5 acres of black locust the second year I owned my land 25 years ago. This has allowed me to see the long term results of these clear cuts and how they improved my land.

Planting a 12 acre prairie with 7 grasses and 20 forbs in the third year I owned my land. The prairie is a living ecosystem and is different every year. I will be doing my 8th controlled burn on this prairie in 2019.

Putting in a pond 15 years ago as a water source for the deer. There is no water within one mile of my land so this pond gets lots of use by everything.

Taking down every piece of standing barb wire on the perimeter and interior of my land and burying it deep with rocks on top of it. This was done during the first two years and over 120 man hours of work.

Having every third row of my plantation pines thinned five years ago. This project was supposed to be done several years before it was completed. That was the winter of 100 inches of snow on my land and the logger cancelled.

 

[Brushpile]

Going all the way back to where I started... Killing fescue!

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

Biggest impact? Getting food plots carved out and up and running.

Biggest eye opener? Sulfur.

The earth is covered in clover. I could never understand why someone would plant clover next to an entire field/pasture/woodland full of clover. I planted the stuff and never saw it used. I hated it. Then I got to reading about sulfur and what it does. Looked at my soil test and saw I had ZERO sulfur. Once I put on a full shot, the deer starting hammering it and haven't stopped. Doesn't matter what time of year it is.

That’s interesting. I remember you bringing that up in the past and I looked into it a little. If it works well it’s just weird that it isn’t more popular in the food plotting world

 

[HB_Hunter]

That’s interesting. I remember you bringing that up in the past and I looked into it a little. If it works well it’s just weird that it isn’t more popular in the food plotting world

Based on a quick Google search, it lowers PH. I don’t need that in my plots . I’ll start looking for that in my soil test results. The deer seem to like my clover though.

The biggest improvement I’ve made is hunting low impact. I try to hunt on the best days and hunt the edges of the property and around places people generally travel until the rut.

The second best is the food plots I’ve carved out in some challenging places. There are hundreds of oaks and persimmons and lots of browse from a recent timber harvest, but they help concentrate movement a little and provide food if there is a mast failure.

The worst is the 300 red cedars I planted for an edge screen. I don’t think more than a handful survived. A better plan would have been to hinge some trees along the edge.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Mistakes... trying to force the land to accept plantings of plots or trees it is not willing to accept. Observe and she will teach you her ways.

i,also learned this hard lesson

bill

 

[MarkDarvin]

That’s interesting. I remember you bringing that up in the past and I looked into it a little. If it works well it’s just weird that it isn’t more popular in the food plotting world

You'd only know you need it if you test your soil. If you don't pay for a real soil test, you won't get a sulfur reading anyway.

https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/doc/library/articles/s_basics

 

[MarkDarvin]

Based on a quick Google search, it lowers PH. I don’t need that in my plots . I’ll start looking for that in my soil test results. The deer seem to like my clover though.

Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is pH neutral. Use that.

 

[Elkaddict]

23 acres of hinge cuts provide much need cover and has provided a huge amount of browse.

 

[E_308]

Best = FIRE!

Worst = not killing every autumn olive I could find 20 years ago

 

[Triple C]

Great thread. We're just finishing up our 8th season of hunting and habitat stuff on our place. Regrets...none. Most impactful...improving destination plots and doing our best to have something growing in them year round. We figure if we can keep the mama deer happy then we'll always have the daddy deer visiting quite regularly in November.

 

[THE LLC]

If the neighbors don't hammer them on their way over.

 

[Triple C]

If the neighbors don't hammer them on their way over.

Ha!!! You know that's right. We do manage to keep a few on our side of the road though...

 

[Ryan]

Best: TSI / Spraying Gly on the fescue
Worst: Not enough free time to do it all

 

[j-bird]

By far and away the 2 biggest things I have done was address the cover aspect of my place with 2 different projects. The first was a timber harvest/TSI. I was told by the state forester that my woods needed another 20 years... I called BS and had anything the logger was interested in that wasn't a walnut or oak cut. We removed over 600 trees from less than 50 acres of timber. They removed lots of maple and polar and other low value trees. This allowed the understory to explode AND I retained my higher value trees and mast production. Second thing was getting involved with CRP... It's not for everyone, but with my place and area being tillable soil it was the only way I could increase cover AND not lose financially. Every field edge that was next to any sort of cover I used. Max I was allowed to enroll was 120 feet wide. It's not much but any little bit helps in my area. This also made a few areas impractical to farm and thus created my plot/orchard areas.

The least impactful thing I have done...is 2 fold as well. #1 - buck bedding... This is a TOTAL waste of time on my place. The mature bucks don't bed on my place....never have, never will. When I first got started I saw my place as an island and it isn't. My place is a travel area between larger areas of cover. Once I realized that and work WITH what I had and not against it things have improved. A 5 acre sanctuary in my area isn't going to cut it and when I do get bedding ...it's does. So now I simply keep the does happy and let them bring the bucks to me. #2 - year round food plot nutrition... Again a total waste of time and effort in my area. With the heavy ag all around me...I am far better off focusing my efforts on feeding deer when there are no other crops in the ground. As part of this I am also trying to move away from annuals and focus more on long term foods so I don't have to be as active on the place. I still plant corn and soybeans...but as a fall/winter grain food source.

What I learned is that you don't affect ANYTHING until you address the lowest hole in your habitat bucket (in my case cover) AND you waste time, money and effort buy working on things like food plots when food isn't even close to being that lowest hole (which is my case). We don't manage "islands" and we need to see a far bigger picture and understand how deer in the area use our properties and why and then work WITH mother nature... The other thing is not educating your deer. Sometimes less really is more.

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

By far and away the 2 biggest things I have done was address the cover aspect of my place with 2 different projects. The first was a timber harvest/TSI. I was told by the state forester that my woods needed another 20 years... I called BS and had anything the logger was interested in that wasn't a walnut or oak cut. We removed over 600 trees from less than 50 acres of timber. They removed lots of maple and polar and other low value trees. This allowed the understory to explode AND I retained my higher value trees and mast production. Second thing was getting involved with CRP... It's not for everyone, but with my place and area being tillable soil it was the only way I could increase cover AND not lose financially.

Lots of good stuff. In this past year I realized that cover was what I was missing, Big time. Just signed a contract to have about 15 acres of overgrown Christmas trees taken out, along with having a few acres of poplars, basswood and soft maples clear cut. I’ll almost instantly go from no acres of high quality cover to about 15 acres (out of 80).

 

[j-bird]

Lots of good stuff. In this past year I realized that cover was what I was missing, Big time. Just signed a contract to have about 15 acres of overgrown Christmas trees taken out, along with having a few acres of poplars, basswood and soft maples clear cut. I’ll almost instantly go from no acres of high quality cover to about 15 acres (out of 80).

That stuff should bounce back real quick and provide some great cover for you...the softer hardwoods like those you mention seem to stump sprout well if given the chance.

 

[TreeFan]

I'm drinking the timber harvest/TSI koolaid. 40 acres of tranquil, heavily wooded, leaf covered, rolling hills -gone. All soft maple, poplar, and poorly formed oak removed along with a 5 acre portion almost clear cut. What's left is quality oak, sparse pine, hard maple, 5 foot high stacks of tops littering the area and 5 acres where I can plant some trees. The objective is to create some cover/sanctuary, provide browse to improve the habitat and the hunting. Been waiting for about 10 years to do this. I am going to miss that tranquil forest, but at the same time, looking forward to the results.

 

[Elkaddict]

Treefan, I predict 3 years fro now you’ll see huge improvements. Watch for mineral stumps and the incredible nutritional draw they provide. We have a couple of big stands of mature hemlocks that foresters tell me the beatles will kill the next few years. As they die off, all the new growth will provide another 40 or so acres of great habitat. Not happy about loosing the thermal cover/majestic old growth trees, but long term, it will further benefit the property.

 

[j-bird]

I'm drinking the timber harvest/TSI koolaid. 40 acres of tranquil, heavily wooded, leaf covered, rolling hills -gone. All soft maple, poplar, and poorly formed oak removed along with a 5 acre portion almost clear cut. What's left is quality oak, sparse pine, hard maple, 5 foot high stacks of tops littering the area and 5 acres where I can plant some trees. The objective is to create some cover/sanctuary, provide browse to improve the habitat and the hunting. Been waiting for about 10 years to do this. I am going to miss that tranquil forest, but at the same time, looking forward to the results.

Just curious....why did you keep the hard maple? Hard maple here brings a decent price, yet does very little for wildlife once it grows out of reach. It's VERY shade tolerant and casts a significant shadow and is very prolific...at least in my area. I had all of mine that was of marketable size cut and removed. Hard maple is a significant part of the woods in my area and easily takes over and out-competes other species in my area.