Habitat Consultants - MN

[Wind Gypsy]

Thanks for the input thus far everyone!

I started this thread a while back about getting some late planted fall plots in: https://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/newby-central-mn-hayfield-to-food-plots.13533/

I have to correct what I said above---I meant North East corner of the big field. Mondays!

Right about where that Green box is in the background? I noticed a bunch of deer beds right behind it last time through there which was kind of a bummer.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I like the plot potential there in the top right field (assuming that's NE). Prevailing westerly wind?

Yes

Is that all commercial Ag?

It was all clover/hay fields. Previous owner stopped having it cut a year or 2 ago so it was pretty overgrown. The spot in the picture above he said he tilled and had a failed food plot but the rest was left alone. Lots of hay ground immediately surrounding the property and commercial ag a little further within a mile or 2.

 

[BenAllgood]

Well, you have your goal and you have your land. Congrats on both of those.

So, your goal is to put a 3.5 yo buck in front of you during daylight. Keep that your focus and ask if your improvements increase that chance or not. They want to feel protected and not think you are there.

One item of improvement you can start on now is screening that field for both access and security.

Then, learn everything you can about that property, it's plants, and it's animals. Inventory. You can't manage what you don't know. I don't think this gets as much attention as it should. People see a plant and don't know if it does anything for them or their goals. If it doesn't, why keep it? If it does, can it stand improvement, and how so?

Don't be afraid to pull that foodplot out into the field and create travel corridors to it once your screening is in. You have a good amount of field in your SW corner. I'd make a good portion old field you can see into from above.

Also, this year, if you don't have a target buck on it right now that you know where and when to kill it, don't be afraid to be real aggressive and learn how deer use that property. Find the does and the bucks' daylight use areas, then ask why are they there and is it because they want to be or have to be?

 

[PatinPA]

Yes

It was all clover/hay fields. Previous owner stopped having it cut a year or 2 ago so it was pretty overgrown. The spot in the picture above he said he tilled and had a failed food plot but the rest was left alone. Lots of hay ground immediately surrounding the property and commercial ag a little further within a mile or 2.

I don't see why that couldn't be a great plot. You could mow it down this year, the clover should grow up through and be attractive. You could also broadcast some rye into it. Tough to tell how weedy it is but Rye will grow just about anywhere and you can plant it pretty late.

 

[j-bird]

Take every opportunity you can to learn from YOUR deer. All year long the deer leave signs of what they are doing. Tracks, droppings, finding evidence of feeding, beds and the like....even signs of previous season rubs and scrapes can help tell you what to expect. Look at your topo maps and you will see how bottoms and ridges and the like can influence how deer move in general. I find that in my area the deer in general typically follow a pretty predictable route that is mostly driven by cover/edges and terrain features.

Your other resources are books (I like Jeff's "by design" book series) as well as "mapping trophy bucks". These will help you understand how terrain and property layout can impact your hunting efforts. You can then look at your own property and see what may fit. It's also good base info to have should you actually hire a consultant.

Another resource is any members of this forum or a few others that you may trust that may be willing to have someone come over and take a look or maybe even show you their place. Seeing things first hand is by far the best. You may also find that other folks see things you may have walked past 100 times for some reason and never noticed.

I am not saying a consultant isn't worth the money....what I am saying is that the more prepared and knowledgeable you are....the more beneficial I think a consultant can be. You have a wonderful resource here to draw from as well, and most of us have been there at one point or another, so never feel like you are asking a dumb question. This group collectively has a lot of dirt on their hands form this sort of work and we all have taken our lumps along the way.

 

[j-bird]

I closed on it exactly a month ago. I planned on going through this season and learning how animals use it as is but i'll probably still have a lot to learn. Really my biggest urgent desire is to get some security cover and screening in the SW field next year but I didn't want to mess things up right off the bat.



I had planned on doing egyptian wheat or something like this https://northwoodswhitetails.com/product/food-plot-screen/ next year but also planting spruces as a more permanent solution. Here is a zoomed out look at the area.


View attachment 36988

I don't think you would find anyone objecting to implementing screening from the road and neighbors at ANY point. The only thing I would warn you about is that often time perimeter access for hunting can be critical in an effort to disturb as little of the cover as possible.... As such you may keep that in the back of your mind when laying out your screening plans. If you need room for an ATV of the like, make sure you have that "offset" from property lines and the like. Screening tends to be a multiple year project, so getting started sooner is better. I would even argue that screening would be more important than even implementing bedding cover and food plots at the moment.

Based on the bigger area photo it looks like you are going to see some general movement from the North west to the south east of the property. The cover and I would venture to guess the lay of the land all sort of indicate that. As such, you are not going to want to really mess with that much. You can provide bedding and cover along that general movement to help hold those deer however.

I still think the more you can learn before you really jump in with both feet the better. This is especially true of the cover and food sources you may already have. I have seen some folks destroy productive mast trees or nice bedding thickets simply because "the plan" called for it. You can wipe out decades of mother natures work in just a few minutes...so we need to use some common sense as well. I know one of the biggest things t took me a while to get a handle on is that sometimes you have to cut trees to have more/better trees/cover as I had a woods of shade tolerant trees that needed a good thinning.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Good luck … what part of Minnesota?

Near ogilvie.

 

[jsasker007]

I am about 45 minutes from Ogilvie. Just south of Mille Lacs Lake.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I don't think you would find anyone objecting to implementing screening from the road and neighbors at ANY point. The only thing I would warn you about is that often time perimeter access for hunting can be critical in an effort to disturb as little of the cover as possible.... As such you may keep that in the back of your mind when laying out your screening plans. If you need room for an ATV of the like, make sure you have that "offset" from property lines and the like. Screening tends to be a multiple year project, so getting started sooner is better. I would even argue that screening would be more important than even implementing bedding cover and food plots at the moment.

Based on the bigger area photo it looks like you are going to see some general movement from the North west to the south east of the property. The cover and I would venture to guess the lay of the land all sort of indicate that. As such, you are not going to want to really mess with that much. You can provide bedding and cover along that general movement to help hold those deer however.

I still think the more you can learn before you really jump in with both feet the better. This is especially true of the cover and food sources you may already have. I have seen some folks destroy productive mast trees or nice bedding thickets simply because "the plan" called for it. You can wipe out decades of mother natures work in just a few minutes...so we need to use some common sense as well. I know one of the biggest things t took me a while to get a handle on is that sometimes you have to cut trees to have more/better trees/cover as I had a woods of shade tolerant trees that needed a good thinning.

They definitely seem to travel along the river corridor. It seems like flooding/wet springs has kept mature growth from developing near the west bank of the river and all the young growth seems like great bedding to me. lots of younger maple/aspen/and some birch on the west side. East side has all of the mature oaks but the woods are a little thin, interested to see what they look like with leaves down.

I've always been a very casual whitetail hunter. Was a bonafide waterfowl addict for about a decade when I spent 6 years on a 4 year degree in ND and the last 7 years i've been obsessed with western hunting. 2020 ended up with a wedding and a pregnancy so no more spending 3+ weeks hunting out west every year. Hoping this can fill that gap.

More than anything where I struggle is figuring out how to manage pressure, access routes, and stand locations. It seems like almost every stand location has flies in the ointment. Maybe that's just reality that the people selling habitat plans don't acknowledge?

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I am about 45 minutes from Ogilvie. Just south of Mille Lacs Lake.

Cool deal, actually looked at a couple properties just outside of onamia before settling on this one. My uncle/aunt owned a resort in Isle until a year ago and I grew up spending my summers there.

 

[jsasker007]

You can learn a lot from the guys right here on this forum. Things that work and things that don't---it's all here.

 

[j-bird]

They definitely seem to travel along the river corridor. It seems like flooding/wet springs has kept mature growth from developing near the west bank of the river and all the young growth seems like great bedding to me. lots of younger maple/aspen/and some birch on the west side. East side has all of the mature oaks but the woods are a little thin, interested to see what they look like with leaves down.

I've always been a very casual whitetail hunter. Was a bonafide waterfowl addict for about a decade when I spent 6 years on a 4 year degree in ND and the last 7 years i've been obsessed with western hunting. 2020 ended up with a wedding and a pregnancy so no more spending 3+ weeks hunting out west every year. Hoping this can fill that gap.

More than anything where I struggle is figuring out how to manage pressure, access routes, and stand locations. It seems like almost every stand location has flies in the ointment. Maybe that's just reality that the people selling habitat plans don't acknowledge?

I don't have a "perfect" stand. Every stand I have - requires only particular wind directions, both while on stand as well as my route to and from it. Some of these even require some visual screening (it's pretty flat here). The other thing I have learned is to not hunt harder....but to hunt smarter. I used to hunt every day...in October....and then I realized I was only stinking up the place by doing that. So I actually now hunt less, but have more success....so this is where sometimes we are our own worst enemy. I also have become a weather watcher....I love a good cold front!

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I don't have a "perfect" stand. Every stand I have - requires only particular wind directions, both while on stand as well as my route to and from it. Some of these even require some visual screening (it's pretty flat here). The other thing I have learned is to not hunt harder....but to hunt smarter. I used to hunt every day...in October....and then I realized I was only stinking up the place by doing that. So I actually now hunt less, but have more success....so this is where sometimes we are our own worst enemy. I also have become a weather watcher....I love a good cold front!

The main one that gets me is I may be able to access and hunt a stand effectively in a certain wind, but doing so without burning other areas to get there is a huge challenge.

 

[sandbur]

They definitely seem to travel along the river corridor. It seems like flooding/wet springs has kept mature growth from developing near the west bank of the river and all the young growth seems like great bedding to me. lots of younger maple/aspen/and some birch on the west side. East side has all of the mature oaks but the woods are a little thin, interested to see what they look like with leaves down.

I've always been a very casual whitetail hunter. Was a bonafide waterfowl addict for about a decade when I spent 6 years on a 4 year degree in ND and the last 7 years i've been obsessed with western hunting. 2020 ended up with a wedding and a pregnancy so no more spending 3+ weeks hunting out west every year. Hoping this can fill that gap.

More than anything where I struggle is figuring out how to manage pressure, access routes, and stand locations. It seems like almost every stand location has flies in the ointment. Maybe that's just reality that the people selling habitat plans don't acknowledge?

I am 40 miles west of you.

If you are/were a western hunter, you are probably used to walking and covering ground. You can’t do that with 40 acres.

I would select two stands. One for N or NW
winds and one for East/ south winds. I would then stay out until the rut and only walk specific trails to those stands.

Don’t jump in with the chain saw and cut a lot of things this winter. Instead, walk the property thoroughly after your hunt is done. Maybe after the rifle and muzzle seasons are closed. Mark all rubs , scrapes, trails and beds on an aerial photo.
I did that for several years, all on paper when I bought my place. That was over 30 years ago. You can do it electronically if you wish.

You will need a sanctuary and it or they should be as much of the property as possible.

If you decide on a consultant, make sure he is familiar with your type of habitat.

They key is pinch points or funnels or whatever you want to call them. Every property has one or two. Once you find them, and figure out access with the proper wind, perhaps you can strengthen them. Perhaps they won’t need to be altered.

Enjoy the process and the time on the land. The journey can be more worthwhile than the big buck. It took me 15 years to figure that out.


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[sandbur]

The main one that gets me is I may be able to access and hunt a stand effectively in a certain wind, but doing so without burning other areas to get there is a huge challenge.

That is the key. You need dead, downwind areas of your access trail. These need to be areas that deer seldom frequent.


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[Wind Gypsy]

I am 40 miles west of you.

that’s a good area to be!

I would select two stands. One for N or NW
winds and one for East/ south winds. I would then stay out until the rut and only walk specific trails to those stands.

So I understand this right, are you saying to settle on just two with good access and then not hunt at all until the rut? That isn’t real far from what I planned for this year unless I have reason to believe there’s a good buck I’ve got a chance at in there (cell cams). I figured it might be more than two stands but planned to stay out of the core area for the most part.

I have a 1 week old daughter, a CO elk hunt, and time hunting the parents place up north planned so it should be kind of easy to keep pressure off it.

 

[sandbur]

that’s a good area to be!



So I understand this right, are you saying to settle on just two with good access and then not hunt at all until the rut? That isn’t real far from what I planned for this year unless I have reason to believe there’s a good buck I’ve got a chance at in there (cell cams). I figured it might be more than two stands but planned to stay out of the core area for the most part.

I have a 1 week old daughter, a CO elk hunt, and time hunting the parents place up north planned so it should be kind of easy to keep pressure off it.

Congratulations on the daughter.

Could the SW field be a future area for your family to enjoy the property? Camping, cabin, etc?


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[Skeeter]

Lots of good advice already. From my experiences on my property 80 miles west of you, food has been the foundation of my hunting season. As soon as the food runs out, the deer move out. Next in importance is limiting pressure(access and stand location), then improving habitat. This year I would want to have some rye growing in a couple locations. Doesn't mean that it has to be where you put food next year.

How is your creek for access? I'd be tempted to access and hunt along it in the evenings if possible.

At my place the winds tends to have a westerly or southerly component to them most days during hunting season. Straight north, northeast, or straight east are rare during season.

 

[Mortenson]

Congrats on your land and growing family. A quick glance online said that wind is from the south with most regularity from 11/1 - 11/21, that's near the twin cities. Looks like your front field is maybe around 6 to 8 acres? Any chance you can grow corn in it and leave it stand to winter? That's usually my fall back answer but it's a simple idea that often works.

 

[TreeDaddy]

They definitely seem to travel along the river corridor. It seems like flooding/wet springs has kept mature growth from developing near the west bank of the river and all the young growth seems like great bedding to me. lots of younger maple/aspen/and some birch on the west side. East side has all of the mature oaks but the woods are a little thin, interested to see what they look like with leaves down.

I've always been a very casual whitetail hunter. Was a bonafide waterfowl addict for about a decade when I spent 6 years on a 4 year degree in ND and the last 7 years i've been obsessed with western hunting. 2020 ended up with a wedding and a pregnancy so no more spending 3+ weeks hunting out west every year. Hoping this can fill that gap.

More than anything where I struggle is figuring out how to manage pressure, access routes, and stand locations. It seems like almost every stand location has flies in the ointment. Maybe that's just reality that the people selling habitat plans don't acknowledge?

hire J Bird and be done with it

bill