Converting Ag to Habitat

[H20fwler]

I think it is great that you are taking it back to more of a natural balance.

I’ve done the same on a couple properties in Ohio.
We also had all kinds of marestail and every other thing we really didn’t want in the seed bank…there is nothing you can do about the seeds that are already there just waiting.

What you can do is is not give them a good start by planting natives that will out compete them.

What we did is plant a good mix of native grasses warm and cool season with a great blend of other stuff mixed in that we did want there.
Grasses we planted, big and little bluestem/Indian/switchgrass..mixed in were a bunch of varieties of coneflower, wildflowers, clovers, trefoil, chicory and partridge pea. After a couple years most of the undesirable plants couldn’t compete. We do have some weeds but it’s not a bad thing and they are loosing the battle against the native stuff. Marestail will not be able to compete with native grasses.

Adding shrub strips filled with with small trees shrubs that produce hard and soft mast and good browse will make the property more attractive to all kinds of wildlife. LOTS of awesome shrubs you can plant in the strips. Over time if you chose you can let the shrubs take over the field or not, it’s up to you and whatever your personal goals are but anyway you look at it, it will be great for wildlife and the soil.

It doesn’t happen overnight but you will be able to convert farm ground into native habitat that you want with things that you picked to plant there.

 

[roymunson]

bought a piece with exactly this problem last year. 100 acres. couple that we let stay in ag, but we needed bedding. So we put a 3 acre pond in the bottom, planted 6 acres of switchgrass in part of it, and robably have 4-5 acres of "old field growth" that we're just letting go. Lots of thistles now, but hoping briars and other stuff comes in the next few years. We burn the switch each year for the first 2-3 years, but the old field is what has me excited. We put a 1/3 acre food plot with a water hole in the middle. Hopefully a hot doe will drag a big old buck thru there in November, or I can sit in the blind and patrol a hillside during gun season. if you have questions or want pics, let me know. I can get them for you.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

So I am doing the same thing. The front of the property has about 5 or 6 acres of some sort of grass that was round baled. So far I have planted 5 pears and about 9 apples. All caged. I just picked up about 100 various oak seedlings and am getting ready to plant them. Trying to figure out how far to plant them from the fruit trees. I'd like to plant something somewhat near (30-50 ft ) to provide security screening for the deer. Nothing that gets to high. I also want to harvest the apples and pears for eating and cider making, but not all of course.

 

[Diesel5610]

I have done this with a few areas and have learned some lessons. My best outcome was an area I planted several hundred Red Osier Dogwoods with a dibble bar. Deer browsed them hard and they had a hard time competing with the goldenrod and grasses but they eventually made it and it is about a 2 acre dogwood thicket now that the deer spend a lot of time in. I am very happy with it.
I have planted a couple of the other areas to Norway spruce and they have been a challenge. The deer destroy these in my area and I finally had to cage some to get them through. Some are just now getting big enough to take the cages off. Depending on your deer densities and depending if you plant anything particular, spend the money up front for caging and protection. It is a great idea but like almost everything else we do, there is no free lunch and will probably require a t least a bit of work to get it off on the right foot.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

Thanks for the input. I hate the idea of spending even more money but it sounds like it makes sense. Any ideas on what o plant near the fruit trees to provide screening but the won’t block out the sun By growing too high?

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Thanks for the input. I hate the idea of spending even more money but it sounds like it makes sense. Any ideas on what o plant near the fruit trees to provide screening but the won’t block out the sun By growing too high?

I'm a big fan of arrowwood viburnum. Deer generally don't browse it, it's native to my area, produces awesome bedding cover, and it typically doesn't get more than 8 feet or so.

The only thing that might be better, is the red hosier dogwood, as it provides all of the above and food, but of course would need some protection to get up and going.

We are in your same situation. Gradually converting old age ground to more cover because that is what is lacking in our area. I've been buying bare root seedlings from MO conservation of viburnum and dogwoods. I've been putting both in tree tubes for the first year or two to help them get started, but I am super happy with the results.

 

[ChadS]

We have 18 Acres we are reverting Ag Fields to Early Successional Woods. These pics are 4 years in.
Fortunately and unfortunately the year we started, we Frost seeded Clover and it took off and was super thick.
I think it caused the natural seed bank to start a bit slower. We now have Trees coming and many native plants and bushes.
Around the pond we dug, we are going to keep it mowed and probably always have Clover and Oats, or some combination of food plot stuff.
This will take some work to keep crap out. Curly Docks took over this summer, and they will be hard to get rid of.
I have a couple areas I am going to keep mowed and have planted some Crabapples and a few American Plums.
Every White and Red Oak seedling we find gets a tube, and they are responding vigorously, and some have come out of the tube in just a couple years.
I planted some White Pine and White Spruce and kept the weeds away, but I think it was just too open and they get wind burned in the winter and just won't take off. They also need cages to protect.
Love to hear others experience with turning Ag Fields into Cover.

 

[roymunson]

Chad,
That looks sharp. A well planned feral field is pretty neat, IMO

Mine was partly planted in switchgrass, but the stuff we are totally letting go was a corn field the year before we got it. LOTS of canadian thistle right now, but as it fills in, hoping we get the briars and eventually trees happening. I like it as it has diversity. Pretty neat stuff.

 

[roymunson]

fallow field. Not feral. It's not some mongrel cat... My bad

 

[yoderjac]

Actually feral is not a bad word choice when we talk about converting ag to early successional timber. Feral is usually used to describe a domesticated animal that has left captivity and returned to a more wild state. Feral cats and feral hogs are good examples. But there is no reason the word has to be restricted to animals. We are essentially taking a field that has been domesticated and returning it to a more wild state.

 

[Bassattackr]

ChadS - Agree looks great. Looks like that clover is supressing quite a bit of native growth however. You may try spraying the clover sections or perhaps running a disc just through those more dense areas.

Another option may be to planting a few cedars in those clover sections, they will naturally go away with time..

Always fun to do these types of projects.

 

[yoderjac]

Actually, I like the clover there. I would not want to speed up the process from a wildlife management standpoint. I'm on a pine farm, so we are going the other direction to get to the same place with some small sections of our land. The destination is early succession. We've been clearcutting some small sections each time we have a pine thinning. When we did this in hard woods, we had to deal with stump suckers. After they had sprouted and grown for a season, we went in and applied herbicide and then conducted a controlled burn the following year. I'm amazed at how quickly the canopy closes if you don't keep on top of things. We just attempted a growing season burn on one of these sections: https://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/growing-season-prescribed-burn.13660/

We probably won't know how effective it was for a bit longer, but it was a very tough burn. The saplings had overtaken the grasses and getting fire to carry during the growing season was difficult. The best habitat is diverse habitat. We are still learning and will be conducting dormant season burns to get some of these area back under control. Knowing the effort to keep areas in early succession once the canopy begins to close, I would just let the process go forward at its own pace.

Fire is a great tool. One thing I would do is to establish and maintain good firebreaks around (and depending on size, a few through) the area. They are much easier to establish now and maintain than waiting till you need to to create them.

Thanks,

jack

 

[TreeDaddy]

fallow field. Not feral. It's not some mongrel cat... My bad

By that definition, all my food plots are feral.......

bill