| The Family Farm - Check out my Pennsylvania Property |
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By:
Parker35
Date:18-May-13
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Check out and Discuss my The Family Farm hunting property! Hit the link above to view.
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By:
huntmaster
Date:20-May-13
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Are you planning on hunting these plots regularly? I love small plots setup between a "line of travel" from bedding to feeding.
Are you planning on putting bedding areas back in the woods behind the stands?
Keep in mind that the does will bed close to their main food source and bucks bed for security usually layered behind the does.
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By:
Parker35
Date:20-May-13
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Thanks Pat and HuntMaster,
I am in Wayne County, which is in the North East part of the state. My family has owned the property for a long time now. It is no longer an active farm so I have decided to try to improve the habitat where I can.
I have hunted for 25 years now, but I am new to QDM, and I am quickly getting hooked. The 100 acres, outlined in red, is the area I am working on. We have two abandoned commercial apple orchards in the southern part of the property. (I have attached a photo.) The one orchard probably has 200 trees that I spent pruning this winter. The second orchard has more trees, but it is near the house so it is more for night time feeding.
So with the apples and beach trees we do have food. Right now I am focusing on taking those ten acres of hay field that I don't feel offer much to the deer or hunter, and hopefully turning them into a hot spot of bedding and isolated feeding.
The goal is to have about 4 acres of food plot and 6 acres of NWSG. I am hoping the NWSG keeps mature bucks on our property more often. Also, I hope breaking up all the plots gets the bucks to move more during the day and feel comfortable in the smaller plots.
Once I am happy with those ten acres I do want to create bedding areas and do some TSI, but that is probably a few years off. And if i feel that more food plots are needed I can put a destination plot in the field near the house.
Like I said, I am new to QDM so if anyone has any insight , I'll listen.
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By:
huntmaster
Date:20-May-13
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It looks like you have the largest piece of solid cover in the area. That can be a good place to hold the deer during daylight hours and let your neighbors feed them at night.
You won't likely get much bedding activity in the WSG fields as they are a little on the small side preference wise. Large WSG fields of 30+ acres will see bedding, but you likely have much better bedding in your woods. If you don't, then a chainsaw will give you results in a hurry...
I would use your current fields as low pressure "feed" lots and I would hunt them very sparingly if at all. Likely only if you have to many deer, then go back in late in the season to control the numbers.
The rest of the year, I would setup bedding on the North 200 acres and try to get the deer to move to the South towards your destination fields and then off to the SE to the farm ground.
You can add small food plots in between the bedding and feeding fields. This will help prevent you from over hunting the kill areas as the deer are not likely to be in any of the smaller plots much more than a few minutes.
Your idea of using the WSG to breakup the fields is a good one, because you can get a territorial old doe that will run everything off the field. So, maybe use the grass to cut the field up and then use the entire field for a variety of feed types of food. Clover in spots, WW or brassicas in others and then maybe even add corn to the mix if you can grow it. The idea is to give them something to eat all year round in the same general area. Then hunt them while they are coming to and going from that area...
The next thing you need to think about is wind direction and access. Where is you scent blowing while you are walking into the stand?
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By:
Mad Trapper
Date:20-May-13
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Huntmaster is spot on. I would break up the large hay field into various types of foodplots and may be a centrally located WSG bedding area. The WSG may hold some deer. You want the deer to feel comfortable enough to hit the food plots during daylight. This means using screening whenever practical. SG may work. Other options are available though including planting trees. I would fire up the chainsaw and start making some thick bedding areas by hinging and dropping some trash trees. That will also open up your canopy for your oaks. Good luck!
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By:
Teeton
Date:20-May-13
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I think I know right where your at. Beautiful area and Turkeys all over there... You'll get lots of info from the BowSite. Don't forget the forest. Some forests only have 50/100 lbs per acre of food for winter.. Get it up to 1000/2000lbs per acre and that's easy to do... It well take some time, but you'll get their. I have lots of info on seed sources. I've been working the qdm stuff for a long time. Let me know if you need any info.
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By:
drycreek
Date:20-May-13
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Okay, ya'll can start laughing anytime now, but what the hell is WSG, or NWSG ?
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By:
Teeton
Date:20-May-13
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nwsg = native warm season grasses
wsg = warm season grass
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By:
Teeton
Date:20-May-13
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nwsg = native warm season grasses
wsg = warm season grass
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By:
Parker35
Date:20-May-13
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Hey thanks for the great feedback. NWSG is native warm season grasses. Hunt master, it sounds like you have had some experience with switchgrass, have you planted small plots of it before?
I know 6 acres won't provide an everyday bed, but it is another place for them to hide.
Much of the Property is thick, solid bedding already. And there is a two acre food plot on the north end of the property. My thinking was the combo of food and cover would keep older bucks close to home more often. There are 7 of us that hunt this property and between the family and neighboring properties not many bucks make it to 3.5. I would like to improve that.
Cost is also a factor, I figure I can frost seed an acre of switchgrass of $40 an acre and not have to feed it. And if I think I need more food plot I can put it in in the far southern part of the property.
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By:
fuzzy
Date:23-May-13
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Teeton, could you elaborate on the idea of improving food yield in forested areas? I'm intrigued by that.
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By:
huntmaster
Date:23-May-13
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Parker,
I have planted mostly Big Blue, Little Blue and Indian Grass with a little switch mixed in, but for the most part the deer will use the grasses the same.
I have been able to observe the deer use various size fields on our family farm. We have WSG fields that vary from a couple acres up to 100 acres, so I get to see how they use the different size fields. The little fields are used during the summer and non-pressured months to bed in and fawn, but come hunting season, they abandon them pretty fast and move to the woody cover. In our large field, they will use it more, but they still drift to the pockets of trees that we have planted come hunting season.
In your case, I would think you can provide them ample "woody" cover in your woods and just use the already established fields for food. You are on the right track of using the WSG to break the fields up, but unless you just want to see a flowing filed of WSG (Which is a beautiful sight I might add) I would use the fields for feeding and use you surrounding woods as cover.
You can plant the switch in strips 8-12' wide around the outside for screening and to make smaller fields out of the bigger field. Five small fields totaling one acre will hold more deer than a single one acre field.
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By:
huntmaster
Date:23-May-13
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fuzzy,
What Teeton is talking about is a mature woods with a completely grown over canopy will have very little food at the 4' and down level during the hunting season/winter. Therefore, it only provides food for a brief time when you have an acorn drop if you have oaks.
If you were to either log out or just hinge cut some of the canopy, sunlight will hit the ground and produce a large amount of "browse" during the winter. During the spring and summer, all of this new growth is some of the best food deer can eat, in many cases better than food plots. So if you can remove enough canopy in your woods, you will effectively provide them with exponentially more food across the landscape than just planting a single food plot.
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By:
Teeton
Date:23-May-13
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Yep what Huntmaster said! Only thing I'd like to add is to pick out certain tree's. Not just any tree. I'll see if I can find a link with good info on this. But I may need sometime. Going away tomorrow.
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By:
fuzzy
Date:24-May-13
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ok thanks huntmaster and teeton, been doing that for years :-)
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By:
Parker35
Date:24-May-13
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Huntermaster & Teeton,
Thanks for the insight. I was hoping the deer would use the WSG for some bedding. I am rethinking my design now to incorporate more food plot and less WSG. I still want to cut them up with cover and keep the plots small enough so the deer feel secure during the day. I really want encourage the bucks to move from plot to plot in the rut.
How close to the woods line will switchgrass grow? I have a lot of mature trees along the field edge. I wasn't planning on surrounding the plots with WSG but if it makes the deer feel more comfortable then I will give it a go.
Teeton, I look forward to reading up the trees options as well. A 15 to 20 foot shrub that produced food and didn't require pruning would be ideal. I already have more apple trees then I can manage at this point.
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By:
fuzzy
Date:24-May-13
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"A 15 to 20 foot shrub that produced food and didn't require pruning" American Persimmon, Crabapple, Red Mulberry
