Deer bedding cover

[Bladesmith]

Hello all,
I have 40 acres that I hunt on. It's all wooded, 2 years ago I hand cleared approx. 1/2 ac and started a plot, cereal rye/ clover mix. Since it's all wooded and quite clean, as soon as the leaves fall the bucks disappear except for after dark. So I was thinking about using a rock rake behind my tractor and removing leaf litter and debris ( 6ft wide strips) between the trees to open up the ground and then planting tall grasses in the strips to create cover. Is there any tall grasses or anything else that will grow quickly in heavily shaded wood areas by just broadcasting. I don't care about food, just creating cover. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks

 

[Bill]

Where are you located?

Not much will grow thick in an understory. Mountain laurel would but I wouldn't introduce it if it's not native to the area.
A chainsaw sounds like your best friend but go easy with small areas rather then going hog wild. I'd experiment with about an acre or two in areas you would like to see bedding. Then I'd wait to see what grows. Often you get invasives like multi flora rose that has been laying in the seed bank.

Personally I'd take multiflora rose over an open understory but I'm probably in a very small minority with that thought.

 

[bigboreblr]

Could girdle or have a logger come in and harvest in lanes. Lanes get brushy and the deer will atleast travel along them, maybe make a turn that each leg ges southeast to southwest, can make the bend big enough for some bedding room.

If it could grow, it would of already.

Describe the wooded area, different spots of trees, different maturity. Could hinge cut a younger spot. Or cut a few trees and stock 15ft lengths is a triangle area or so for windbreaks, then let that spot brush up. Little lime, little fertilizer, some rye, and I would rake underneath some brushy spots and move the mulch / seeds over.

A spot that's a little higher would be great. Maybe plant a young pine or spruce tree or two. Can cage a spot or two and plant some shrubs that are native.

Can transplant young pine and spruce in the early spring to that spot.

A trail into and out of that plot you have combined with a quiet corner that provides a bedding spot will work great. How many folks hunt on this parcel?

 

[Tree Spud]

Not much will grow in heavy shade. Grasses certainly won't. Your canopy is restricting sunlight, and the leaf drop is not letting any sunlight to the soil, which is why the forest floor is devoid of understory plants. Black spruce will grow in shade and so will honeysuckle (some consider it an invasive).

As mentioned above, start removing sections of the canopy trees and see what happens.

 

[omicron1792]

Read Bill and others and go with it.

 

[Bladesmith]

Thanks guys, pretty much what I expected with the shade issues, but thought there might be a grass or briar I hadn't researched yet.Trees are all pretty big except for a long the ridge edge, to big to hinge cut with any satisfaction.
I'm in mid missouri, and have neighbors against my back west corner and another to my south and north and a road across my front, so I have only 1 option, to make a bedding area that won't be bothered and that's to try and give deer more security on me. I hunt alone and hunt the front edge never stepping inside the main property or hunting their travel routes coming to my plot. But once the leaves fall, they bed so far away, they can't get back on me until well after dark. I might try to make some brush pile areas, but with the woods being so open with little underbrush, I don't think brush piles will give them the security they need. There's no ag within 3 miles, so I always have does glore, but bucks after leaves fall, even during the rut are very seldom here during daylight.
Thanks,

 

[buckdeer1]

Do you have pic of your woods.Have you ask a state forester to look at harvest?What type of trees are they?

 

[Bladesmith]

Do you have pic of your woods.Have you ask a state forester to look at harvest?What type of trees are they?

In order to make a big enough area far enough away from the food plot to be beneficial I'd have to remove to many trees, and that would be back close to the neighbors property. The trees are mostly white and red oaks. There is a grass called river oats that has small groups of growth in these woods that grows about 30" tall, so since it grows some, maybe I can get more of it established in the lanes I make with the rock rake. Thanks

 

[PatinPA]

If your trees are big enough then get a forester to do a timber sale. That's going to be your best way. You'll have the tree tops as cover at first before new growth starts. A buddy's property that we hunt sounds very similar to yours. It was very open and he had it timbered. He doesn't hunt anymore, so there was no thought into hunting but it did wonders for daylight buck sightings. I hate to cut oaks just to cut them but if that's all your able to cut down, it's easily the best way to create cover.

 

[GMan5465]

You might want to consider cutting a section and opening up the canopy. Running a fire through it will get rid of the leaf duff and allow new growth.

 

[Tree Spud]

Another conifer to consider is Hemlock. We see it in our northern forests. It is very shade tolerant and do will well as an understory tree in your situation.

Eastern Hemlock

 

[jsasker007]

I would try to cut out a couple of horse shoe shaped areas on the south side if possible. Big enough to provide bedding area and should grow thicker brush there if cleared enough for some sunlight. jmo

 

[Someday isle]

What part of mid Missouri are you in? I’m in Crawford county in Cuba.

 

[Bladesmith]

Thanks everyone, I'll do some more studying and try to come up with a plan. With neighbors on my west corner line it limits where I can create bedding without people activity, even though it's not on me, it's close enough that their coming and going creates issues, and my north corner where it would be ideal solitude it's all big straight tall oaks and thats why I was wondering if I could get under rush cover/grasses to grow among them.

 

[Bladesmith]

What part of mid Missouri are you in? I’m in Crawford county in Cuba.

West central miller county.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

As PatinPA said in post #9, have a timber sale. But here's an idea we did at our camp with oaks we cut down - put sturdy cages around the oak stumps. The stored energy in those stumps will sprout new oak sprouts, the cages will keep deer from browsing them down to the dirt, and you get lower cover for deer to bed in / travel through. After a couple years, those oak sprouts will be big enough that the deer can't browse them to death, and you can remove the cages. Some of the young twigs will get browsed, but it won't kill the new oak trees growing out of the stumps. You get $$$ from the timber sale (or a bunch of great firewood to sell or use), new cover / browse, and a regeneration of your oak woods. You don't "lose" your oaks - just alter them temporarily. Cutting & caging some big oaks will also open up the canopy to get other native stuff hatching.

We used 5 ft. tall concrete mesh for cages for its sturdiness. Our cages are about 3 to 4 ft. in diameter. Works dandy.

Planting a few spruce in open areas will create good bedding / security cover. We did that too - to good results.

 

[jsasker007]

As PatinPA said in post #9, have a timber sale. But here's an idea we did at our camp with oaks we cut down - put sturdy cages around the oak stumps. The stored energy in those stumps will sprout new oak sprouts, the cages will keep deer from browsing them down to the dirt, and you get lower cover for deer to bed in / travel through. After a couple years, those oak sprouts will be big enough that the deer can't browse them to death, and you can remove the cages. Some of the young twigs will get browsed, but it won't kill the new oak trees growing out of the stumps. You get $$$ from the timber sale (or a bunch of great firewood to sell or use), new cover / browse, and a regeneration of your oak woods. You don't "lose" your oaks - just alter them temporarily. Cutting & caging some big oaks will also open up the canopy to get other native stuff hatching.

We used 5 ft. tall concrete mesh for cages for its sturdiness. Our cages are about 3 to 4 ft. in diameter. Works dandy.

Planting a few spruce in open areas will create good bedding / security cover. We did that too - to good results.

Any chance for the stump sprouts without caging?

 

[PatinPA]

Any chance for the stump sprouts without caging?

Not much but probably dependent on your deer density. Anything I cut that deer liked got eaten down to the stump immediately.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

On my SE MN property I have oak sprouts growing without caging. They are browsed, but the trees can stay ahead of the deer.

And I agree that the best way to increase deer usage after the leaves fall is to make the property dramatically thicker by logging. Have them log it hard and leave all the tops where they drop and you will have a giant mess that will hold tons of deer, especially as your neighboring pressure pushes them to your thick cover.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Any chance for the stump sprouts without caging?

I guess it depends on each location's deer density. The stumps will grow sprouts for sure, but the deer will eat them to the dirt. At least that's the case here in Pa. We tried some oak stumps with and without cages. Stumps without cages grew dozens of sprouts, but they were browsed multiple times until they all died. The ones with cages grew a bunch of sprouts, which thinned themselves out to the strongest 4 to 6. After 3 to 4 years or so, those oak sprouts (now saplings) were about 6 to 8 ft. tall with a trunk diameter of 1 1/2" to 2 1/2". A forester who looked at them said we should have done that to all our stumps for a couple years. YMMV depending on your deer numbers.