Blasphemous Switchgrass vs Weeds Question(s)

[bigbendmarine]

Again, openly admitting my ignorance, for those with switchgrass who are talking about using it "for cover" do you see the benefit more in serving as a visual travel screen to hide you from the deer when you're going to stands / give the deer comfort when they're using switchgrass for travel corridors OR do you see the greater benefit being it serving as inviting bedding OR does it equally accomplish BOTH those goals?

When I referenced deer using regular grass among the weeds on my place for bedding it tends to be at outer field edges really close to forest wood-line and I think they're using it more for nighttime bedding / chewing cud than using it for daytime bedding. During the day (and especially during hunting season), my deer seem to have a preference for either really remote swampy pockets or relatively heavy thicket edges versus field bedding, though in summer I do sometimes jump them out of really thick weedy field areas. Would / could thick stands of switchgrass in fields pull them out of the more remote swampy / thicket areas and possibly have them bedding in the fields during daytime?

Appreciating I'm asking a question that may well have a different answer for those of us in the deep south than more northern climates, but rest assured MUCH appreciating the insight being offered!

Really have felt downright ignorant on the subject of switchgrass for longer than I care to admit!

 

[scott44]

Mine is used for both screening and bedding. I have it around a couple food plots and I also have it along the north fenceline to help screen the neighbors. I also have an experiment going with planting red cedars and MG in a switch field for bedding.

 

[j-bird]

I don't know... it does both depending on the area. Some areas I see bedding, but only when it tends to involve some elevation and other times it's simply travel cover from point A to point B, which was what I was after. I also know the switch does help hide my movements at least at a distance. The grass itself will get 4 to 5 feet tall. I'm 6 feet tall, so if I am walking along the edge of it - you can see me. However at a distance...now the deer can't lay back in the woods once the leaves fall and see me walking across a bare field anymore. I am using MG for taller screens. If you are happy with the cover you are getting - don't fix it if it isn't broke. Just weeds alone - I was getting very poor fall/winter cover and thus had to make an improvement.

The switch and buffers on my place made a big difference...but what I had before was either ag field or woods with a weak understory. Those are poor options for holding deer. As such...I implemented the buffers and switch to soften the edges and then implemented a timber harvest to improve the understory.... I'm still not holding mature bucks...never will, I still haven't killed a B&C buck...but I have taken several P&Y bucks since....and that may be as good as it gets for me. The buffers and switch helped me improve an aspect that Jeff Sturgis preaches...."Depth of cover".

 

[Native Hunter]

Again, openly admitting my ignorance, for those with switchgrass who are talking about using it "for cover" do you see the benefit more in serving as a visual travel screen to hide you from the deer when you're going to stands / give the deer comfort when they're using switchgrass for travel corridors OR do you see the greater benefit being it serving as inviting bedding OR does it equally accomplish BOTH those goals?

When I referenced deer using regular grass among the weeds on my place for bedding it tends to be at outer field edges really close to forest wood-line and I think they're using it more for nighttime bedding / chewing cud than using it for daytime bedding. During the day (and especially during hunting season), my deer seem to have a preference for either really remote swampy pockets or relatively heavy thicket edges versus field bedding, though in summer I do sometimes jump them out of really thick weedy field areas. Would / could thick stands of switchgrass in fields pull them out of the more remote swampy / thicket areas and possibly have them bedding in the fields during daytime?

Appreciating I'm asking a question that may well have a different answer for those of us in the deep south than more northern climates, but rest assured MUCH appreciating the insight being offered!

Really have felt downright ignorant on the subject of switchgrass for longer than I care to admit!

It depends on the time of year. It is used for travel cover and screening the entire year. Deer don't usually bed in NWSGs in the summer, because it's hot and there will be too much sun. They would rather be in a cooler place.

However, in the winter they will use the tall NWSGs for bedding. They are completely hidden, and now the warm sunshine feels good. Hot spots for bedding are where the NWSGs butt up to a small thicket or a cedar fence line. They can move in and out of the sun as necessary.

 

[j-bird]

When it comes to bedding in the grass I have seen that the deer seem to like some sort of "structure" in it. A downed tree top, a cedar tree, shrub, cluster of willow, something...they don't seem to like a see of sameness. Just what I have seen.

 

[H20fwler]

I find deer beds in mine and now and then bump a deer up especially during gun season I think they like to hide in it yet still have some view, mine isn’t crazy thick yet only been planted a few years.
It seems that does like to leave the fawns out in it we jump them out of the pasture all summer long.
Turkeys with poults chase grasshoppers and bugs a lot in native grasses during the summer in pasture, lots of different bird species nest and fly around eating bugs&seeds and bunnies and pheasant use it for winter cover. There is always some type of hawk or an eagle watching the pasture year round.
At the little woods I’ve got a well established mature thick border around the woods maybe ten yards plus wide of it and deer bed there year round and I always kick bunnies up in the switch.

 

[SwampCat]

As a southerner, I think it depends a lot on what else you have in the way of “cover” or if the majority of your acreage is open ground. I dont have switch, I have a lot of broomsedge bluestem, little bluestem, gamma grass, a little big bluestem, a very little switch, and some johnson grass. Around my property, there are hundreds of acres of clearcuts and swamp - that is where the deer normally bed - not in the nwsg. They bed in ash groves that are clean on the ground in the summer - you can still see 75 yards through them. They are cooler, breeze can circulate, it is open so they can see danger. I would only plant nwsg if i had a lot of open ground and there was no other bedding cover within a mile. My deer prefer bedding in eastern red cedar where there is a low volume mix of broomsedge and little bluestem. I have a buddy in GA who has 40 acres of switch he planted and in fifteen years, he has never seen a deer bed in it or a turkey nest. I think switch is an important cover in snow country. I think in the south, switch is an unneccesary vegetative component - in a lot of cases. I would much rather have five acres of mixed vegetation and blackberry than five acres of switch.

 

[bigbendmarine]

SwampCat, I have a 112 acre property that sits directly up against the border of a 4,000+ acre quail plantation (plantation sits along my west border)... and land wise my acreage is really more like 90, as 20 or so is a pond / water. My 90 land acres are comprised of about 70 acres of low-lying swampy woods near the pond rising up towards 20 acres of higher fallow fields. Because my house lies smack dab in the middle of the 20 field acres, I purposefully have my plots planted in an outer ring shape along the border edges of the fields. I highlighted my plots in green in the pic below, and if you look closely you can probably make out a few areas of weeds left standing by dark strips / spots around some of the plots. Areas free of weeds are acres I tend to keep mowed more regularly in the summer so can enjoy views from the house.

To the point of your post above, LOTS Of blackberries in the thicker areas I only cut once a year on my east side. As for buck bedding, as you can imagine NO shortage at all in the 4,000 uninhabited acres to my west... literally can walk 3 miles or so to the west before running into ANY inhabited structure. Blessedly, each year have about 4 shooter bucks show up on camera during hunting season chasing does into my plots and for the past three years at least 2 of the 4 have slipped up in daylight when I've been in the stand.

Picture below was captured in January 2018 so field areas cut low mostly had dead / brown bahiagrass.

Struggling with what / if anything I want to do with the areas outside of the plots. Thinking of planting tree cover along the inner edges of some of the plots and whether or not I plant any switchgrass or not, at least fertilizing and liming the entire property to increase nutrients levels (think I remember Sturgis offering this as a suggestion in one of his books / helping the weedy forbs that are browsed to at least be as nutritious as possible).

 

[SwampCat]

With all the deer habitat on the quail plantation, personally, my efforts would be directed to food - attracting as many deer from my neighbor’s ground that I could. If you have four shooter bucks showing up on 112 acres - I would continue doing exactly what you are doing.