Mike Bolin
5 year old buck +
The property that I hunt (brother in law's) was logged in November 4 years ago. The logging company left the skidder trails a rutted mess and by spring there was quite a bit of erosion. I leveled the trails with a grader box, added lime and planted them in winter rye and clover. Figured I could slow down the erosion and provide a food source at the same time. This worked very well and I still have a decent stand of clover on most of the trails.
Being retired now, I spent a lot more time in the woods this fall. One of the things I saw, both with the trail camera pics and while hunting is that the mature bucks avoided using the trails for the most part. Unless a mature buck was right on a hot doe, he would parallel the trail. If a buck was just cruising, he would cut across the trail, maybe grab a bite as he crossed, but definitely not spend too much time on the actual trail. The bucks would still end up in the 1/4 acre clover plot (log staging area).
I want to try to narrow down the trails a bit. They vary from 8' to 12' wide and I would like them to be about 4'-5' wide. My tractor and all my implements are 54" or less.
I know that native vegetation will eventually take over, but I'm thinking an early spring planting of Timothy with some clover mixed in on the entire width of the trail, then just mow a 4' strip once it has established, then just let mother nature do what she wants with the in-mowed portion of the trails. I would like to plant NWSG, but once the trees start to leaf out there is only 4 hours of sunlight at best on the trails. Not really sure what way to go here and any input is appreciated!
Mike
Being retired now, I spent a lot more time in the woods this fall. One of the things I saw, both with the trail camera pics and while hunting is that the mature bucks avoided using the trails for the most part. Unless a mature buck was right on a hot doe, he would parallel the trail. If a buck was just cruising, he would cut across the trail, maybe grab a bite as he crossed, but definitely not spend too much time on the actual trail. The bucks would still end up in the 1/4 acre clover plot (log staging area).
I want to try to narrow down the trails a bit. They vary from 8' to 12' wide and I would like them to be about 4'-5' wide. My tractor and all my implements are 54" or less.
I know that native vegetation will eventually take over, but I'm thinking an early spring planting of Timothy with some clover mixed in on the entire width of the trail, then just mow a 4' strip once it has established, then just let mother nature do what she wants with the in-mowed portion of the trails. I would like to plant NWSG, but once the trees start to leaf out there is only 4 hours of sunlight at best on the trails. Not really sure what way to go here and any input is appreciated!
Mike