Year 2!!!

wisconsinteacher

5 year old buck +
Now that hunting season is over, I can start planning for year #2!! Our first year on the 80 acres was better than expected. I saw 4-5 2.5 year old bucks and a 3.5 year old. My wife was able to shoot a doe off our food plot, I shot a 2.5 year old 8 point and she shot her biggest buck which was a 1.5 year old 6 point. We saw deer every time we hunted it even on the last weekend of WI rifle season so that made me feel good. For next year, I have a lot of ideas but have one big question about my food plot. Currently, it has a lot of dead smaller sticks still standing and it is rough and uneven. I would really like to level it out and remove the dead sticks prior to planting anything else. Would you try to find a farmer to disk it and then I could drag it with an ATV to smooth it out or do you think a 4' rototiller on the back of a tractor would be best to get the ground loose so I can drag it smooth?

My other ideas include making some subtle travel ways for deer and to cut a few trees to encourage deer movement past a stand site.

Land ownership is fun but I can see it is a never ending process where I will always be thinking about what to do next.
 
To figure that out, you need to know what your goals are for that plot:

* If you want a "doe factory" with tons of wheat/oats to grown up 3 feet for spring and summer than you're timing is probably leaning more towards the following spring (not 2022) as you would need the seed out there now along with soil tests/amendments/etc so that is comes up quickly or first thing in the spring.
* If you're looking for a low maintenance plot; clover is pretty solid for me. Grows natively and through seeds, plus it handles heavy browsing pressure. Comes back each year, doesn't even need to be mowed.
* If you're looking for that turnip/brassica/rape fall destination plot, you need to have a way to protect it from being eaten BEFORE the plants grow to maturity. I've failed here miserably too many years and am just going back to a clover field. I top-dress it with oats a few times each year and it's about as low-maintenance as you can get.

I'm a fan of the no-till method. There are TONS of posts on here about it (last I saw was over 90 pages on that thread here on Habitat-Talk: https://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/the-throw-n’-mow-method.5510/). The ideas that you mentioned, bringing in equipment and tilling means you're going to be bringing up seeds from the soil depths that will grow into "who knows what". So my thought is that if you have something going now, it might be easier to build off of that. Clean up the field manually (sticks/debris that you mentioned) and plan what you want to broadcast next year.
 
If you have ruts, holes, uneven terrain, etc - I'd recommend finding a farmer with a good heavy disc he can even out the field with, the wider the better in this case. A small tiller won't do that job, especially if there is much woody (you mention sticks?) cover. A narrower implement will just contour to the problems you already have. From there, you can switch to no til or whatever plotting means you want for the future after that point.

Some people are so gunshy about breaking ground, they're afraid one time will ruin the entire farm. Don't be intimidated, nature corrects itself very quickly (even earthworm populations completely recover one season after moldboard plowing) and in the future you'll be setup the way you want.. whether it be til, no-til, TnM, etc..

Good luck and have fun!
 
My other ideas include making some subtle travel ways for deer and to cut a few trees to encourage deer movement past a stand site.

I'm on year 2 as well, and one thing that I've had to stop myself from doing is jumping headfirst into stuff. I agree with the subtle pathways for hopefully funneling deer through them, as deer will likely take the easiest pathways as they are just as lazy as any other animal. However, on the other point of cutting a few trees to encourage movement closer to a stand site; I've been offered the suggestion of just putting up some sort of fencing where you would fell the tree. A couple of drive in stakes and a roll of wire is a whole lot cheaper and less permanent than cutting a tree down, especially if the deer don't move the way you anticipated. Moving the fence takes a lot less time than re-growing a tree. And after this year observing how even just small barbed wire fences (that I didn't even know were there) influence the movement of the deer, I'm convinced that this is an economical and practical way to make a subtle change without having to make super permanent changes. And after the fact if the idea worked, you could always remove the fence and drop the tree for a better aesthetic long term.

Just a suggestion, glad to see someone else as excited as I am about a new property!
 
I'm on year 2 as well, and one thing that I've had to stop myself from doing is jumping headfirst into stuff. I agree with the subtle pathways for hopefully funneling deer through them, as deer will likely take the easiest pathways as they are just as lazy as any other animal. However, on the other point of cutting a few trees to encourage movement closer to a stand site; I've been offered the suggestion of just putting up some sort of fencing where you would fell the tree. A couple of drive in stakes and a roll of wire is a whole lot cheaper and less permanent than cutting a tree down, especially if the deer don't move the way you anticipated. Moving the fence takes a lot less time than re-growing a tree. And after this year observing how even just small barbed wire fences (that I didn't even know were there) influence the movement of the deer, I'm convinced that this is an economical and practical way to make a subtle change without having to make super permanent changes. And after the fact if the idea worked, you could always remove the fence and drop the tree for a better aesthetic long term.

Just a suggestion, glad to see someone else as excited as I am about a new property!
I like the fence idea. I will look into it!!!
 
* If you're looking for that turnip/brassica/rape fall destination plot, you need to have a way to protect it from being eaten BEFORE the plants grow to maturity.

Interesting. I grow turnips, radishes, kale, etc. in a small plot with oats, and the deer do not touch the stuff until well after the first frost. Then they hammer it. But I never had a problem with deer wiping it out before it had a chance to reach full maturity.
 
Interesting. I grow turnips, radishes, kale, etc. in a small plot with oats, and the deer do not touch the stuff until well after the first frost. Then they hammer it. But I never had a problem with deer wiping it out before it had a chance to reach full maturity.
Yeah, I tried fencing 2 years in a row with no success. Might be environmental differences; my field is the only one around for 3 miles. Deer go through it nightly.
 
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Just a quick update on year 2. I tried to plant a no-till mix of seeds and had decent growth. Then in late July, I sprayed and did a no till of brassica on one half and cereal on the other. After 3 weeks, it was looking really sad. From there, I borrowed my buddy's ATV disc and worked the soil over and then planted winter rye. It came up well and the deer are really starting to hit it hard.

I did cut a travel corridor past tree stands on the outer edge of my land. At each stand, there is a licking vine. My goal was to create a pattern of movement on the outer edge for the land and leave the middle for bedding. So far it is working!!! I have been getting some nice bucks on camera during daylight hours. I'm even getting deer on one camera and then 20 min to 2 hours later on the next camera in the line.

My water tank, has had deer on it daily since digging it in this spring.

We plan to start hunting it this weekend. I believe there are 4 different 8pts that we are targeting.

I will let you know how the hunt goes.
 
I've got a new plot section like that. I dug out about 25 stumps and leveled the best I could with an underpowered junk skid steer. This summer I mowed it for the first time with a walk behind brush hog. That was an adventure holding onto that thing. I haven't decided if I'm gonna try to disc it flat in another year or two after the roots have rotted some more, or make my pond bigger and spread the spoils out over it to level it.
 
Great to hear from you and glad the place is working out,sure doesn't seem like 2 years
 
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