A few habitat pics I thought you might enjoy

[Bowsnbucks]

Those 3 deer must really be suffering - standing knee-deep in thick clover !! Great for Mom's milk production for sure. Good location to ease off milk and onto greens when the time comes. Have a beer for the rest of us, Native. We celebrate long-distance !!;)

 

[Native Hunter]

I hadn't update this thread in a while. Thought I would share some pics. I put in fall plots today. This was 6 small plots averaging from 3/4 acre down to 1/3 acre. The old International run like a champ and my antique disk held out another year...LOL.

After doing the plots I mowed trails with my mower last few pics are those with some good NWSG pics. Indian Grass still hasn't flowered but all others have done their thing for the year.

 

[Native Hunter]

Lots of deer but no great deer yet. Hoping at leaf drop to possible see some more. I can't keep batteries in this camera. I get between 600 and 900 pics a day on it. Plenty of cover so they are at ease.

 

[scott44]

I hadn't update this thread in a while. Thought I would share some pics. I put in fall plots today. This was 6 small plots averaging from 3/4 acre down to 1/3 acre. The old International run like a champ and my antique disk held out another year...LOL.

After doing the plots I mowed trails with my mower last few pics are those with some good NWSG pics. Indian Grass still hasn't flowered but all others have done their thing for the year.



/QUOTE]

Good looking International, your NWSG's are looking good again this year. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MoLandOwner]

Stop looking at the horns scott, I think you have a couple pretty good deer there!

 

[Native Hunter]

Good looking International, your NWSG's are looking good again this year. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. I hired some spraying done early in the year, and it worked good for the NWSGs. I've got more partridge pea this year that ever before.

 

[Native Hunter]

Great pics and thanks for posting. What is it about an old fence and gate on the farm....it makes a perfect picture.

Glad you enjoyed them. I like old fences and gates for taking turkey harvest pictures too.

 

[SD51555]

And you're growing white pine. Send that picture to the MN DNR. There is a firm belief here that you cannot grow pines and deer within the same county.

You've got some fantastic looking cover there!

 

[Freeborn]

NH, great looking photos. Your partridge pee and NWSG look great. Do you see much browse pressure on the Partridge pee? Being a legume I thought the deer might browse it. I see you have a young bachelor group, nice to have deer staying on the property.

 

[sandbur]

I liked the tour!

 

[Native Hunter]

NH, great looking photos. Your partridge pee and NWSG look great. Do you see much browse pressure on the Partridge pee? Being a legume I thought the deer might browse it. I see you have a young bachelor group, nice to have deer staying on the property.

Freeborn, I never see browsing on it, but its so widespread on the place that they could be hitting it some without me seeing it. I do know its great for quail, and my quail have increased a lot since the NWSGs were drilled in.

Yes, I do love having so many young deer around. It takes young ones to make old ones.

 

[Native Hunter]

I liked the tour!

Hopefully will have some nice green plot pictures to share in a few weeks if we get some rain now. My disking was making powder. Rain forecasted for Monday.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Great pix Native !! I don't know what the neighbors have on their land, but the deer are loving your place. Real good diversity. Your old International looks great and does a good job of plot workings. Your pic of the disc knocked me over - we have the same exact disc at camp !!! We've got a newer one now, but we still have the old one as a back-up. Our blades look the same as yours too - all nicked up and with pieces gone from rocks !!!

 

[Native Hunter]

Great pix Native !! I don't know what the neighbors have on their land, but the deer are loving your place. Real good diversity. Your old International looks great and does a good job of plot workings. Your pic of the disc knocked me over - we have the same exact disc at camp !!! We've got a newer one now, but we still have the old one as a back-up. Our blades look the same as yours too - all nicked up and with pieces gone from rocks !!!

Thanks Bowsnbucks. For my small plots that old disk still does a good job. I like it because some of my plots are in tight places and its small enough to make easy turns. Hopefully it will outlast me...lol.

 

[foggy]

^ Nice pics! tis

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Native - Our soil is a heavier clayish - loam, so we lay some cement blocks in those angle-iron top frames to get some depth to our disking. Ours still does a decent job of it though. We also got a newer cultipacker too. Had to - the old one corroded apart.

How much acreage do you have in food plots ??

 

[Native Hunter]

Native - Our soil is a heavier clayish - loam, so we lay some cement blocks in those angle-iron top frames to get some depth to our disking. Ours still does a decent job of it though. We also got a newer cultipacker too. Had to - the old one corroded apart.

How much acreage do you have in food plots ??

Bowsnbucks, I think this year I have about 3 acres total in plots, and this is something new I'm trying. These are divided up in 6 small plots that range from about 1/4 acre up to maybe 3/4. I have spread these spread out in spots that I can see from one hunting location in every direction except that nothing is planted in the direction of my entry point to the stand. There is nothing in that direction to draw deer to that area.

I actually wanted to put in another small one but chickened out because of how close it was to where I know a large group of deer are currently bedding. I mowed a shooting lane up to the edge of that spot recently, and I could tell that it did move them out for a few days.

Shown below is an example of what I did this year. What you are seeing is a small 1/3 acre plot in the distance 225 yards away from my primary hunting spot. My camera is about 21 feet above the ground and I'm looking over native grasses to a woods edge where an L shaped plot goes back into the woods a good ways and comes out into the edge of the field. This pic was taken yesterday after the disking and planting on Friday, so the food plot stands out as brown dirt.

I made different mixes at each spot, depending on what I wanted to achieve. If it was where I wanted a perennial plot of clover and chicory, I planted that with cereal grains and added a few goodies like Winter Peas. If it was a spot I just wanted annuals this time, I mixed a bunch of those.

One reason for spreading these out like this was to create a lot of movement for bucks needing to check them and also to relieve tensions between deer to reduce fighting. That goes for both does and bucks. I have about as many doe fights as buck fights.:)

 

[Native Hunter]

That spot above will be a perennial clover plot. I really don't like them in the woods due to leaf drop, but I will go in sometime this winter after hunting season with the DR Mower and clear out the leaves. I will be needing some good exercise after getting fat from Christmas eating anyway.:D

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Native - I like your thinking on making the bucks move more from plot to plot, or doe group to doe group. We're trying to accomplish the same thing with our security / bedding cover areas. Our plots ( about 8 to 10 acres worth ) are centrally located on our property to maximize movement from deer coming in from neighboring land, but are separated by patches of woods. The biggest problem we had was acres of " sameness " of cover ( or rather - lack of it / openness ). Where you have tons of diversity at your place, we had large tracts of open hardwoods with only mountain laurel as any cover ( and it's not a food source / only in case of starvation ). That's why we've done some logging - the most recent is this year - previously 15 yrs. ago ). We'll plant pockets and random " meanderings " of Norway spruce, white spruce, white pine, hawthorn, witch hazel for more edge and diversity. The older area of logging from 15 yrs. ago we had planted Norway and white spruce in there, white pine & hemlock seeded in on their own as well as black and white birch & red maple. Now it's our best deer holding area for bedding/security/thermal cover.

Hopefully, the added diversity and increase of " edge " will get the deer moving more and provide some scattering of doe groups/fawns too. Over the years of hunting and studying deer, it seems they like to stage and scout plots and fields from darker, shadowy pines, spruce, or hemlocks before exposing themselves. And deer always seem to find a reason to walk thru our hawthorn patches, either to lay scrapes or pick up dropped berries. Or maybe just because they're thick and thorny ( no human traffic / scent ?? ).

I've also noticed that deer - especially bucks - like to travel the " edges " where one kind of flora & fauna meets another. Evergreens meet hardwoods, hardwoods meet sumac / weeds, evergreens meet open, logged area with brush / brambles. I saw it while hunting up in the wilds of Maine, too. Edge travel. Lots of rubs, scrapes, droppings, tracks along the edges. So we're trying to increase diversity and " edge " at camp.

 

[Native Hunter]

Native - I like your thinking on making the bucks move more from plot to plot, or doe group to doe group. We're trying to accomplish the same thing with our security / bedding cover areas. Our plots ( about 8 to 10 acres worth ) are centrally located on our property to maximize movement from deer coming in from neighboring land, but are separated by patches of woods. The biggest problem we had was acres of " sameness " of cover ( or rather - lack of it / openness ). Where you have tons of diversity at your place, we had large tracts of open hardwoods with only mountain laurel as any cover ( and it's not a food source / only in case of starvation ). That's why we've done some logging - the most recent is this year - previously 15 yrs. ago ). We'll plant pockets and random " meanderings " of Norway spruce, white spruce, white pine, hawthorn, witch hazel for more edge and diversity. The older area of logging from 15 yrs. ago we had planted Norway and white spruce in there, white pine & hemlock seeded in on their own as well as black and white birch & red maple. Now it's our best deer holding area for bedding/security/thermal cover.

Hopefully, the added diversity and increase of " edge " will get the deer moving more and provide some scattering of doe groups/fawns too. Over the years of hunting and studying deer, it seems they like to stage and scout plots and fields from darker, shadowy pines, spruce, or hemlocks before exposing themselves. And deer always seem to find a reason to walk thru our hawthorn patches, either to lay scrapes or pick up dropped berries. Or maybe just because they're thick and thorny ( no human traffic / scent ?? ).

I've also noticed that deer - especially bucks - like to travel the " edges " where one kind of flora & fauna meets another. Evergreens meet hardwoods, hardwoods meet sumac / weeds, evergreens meet open, logged area with brush / brambles. I saw it while hunting up in the wilds of Maine, too. Edge travel. Lots of rubs, scrapes, droppings, tracks along the edges. So we're trying to increase diversity and " edge " at camp.

Sounds like you are doing all the right things. Those habitat improvements will pay big dividends for you in the long run.