How to Turn Old Hay Field Into Deer Habitat

[hunterman23]

Have 20 acres of hay field and 6 acres of hardwoods. There is a creek almost touching the property line but not exactly on my property. Basically my question is where do i start? Let the hay grow and don’t cut it? Prescribed fire? Plant bedding areas? How long will it take for it become deer habitat? This piece of land is in Tennessee.

 

[Mortenson]

Sounds neat. Are you willing to share a pic zoomed in close and another zoomed out of the neighborhood? Blur out road lines if you want.

 

[hunterman23]

Sounds neat. Are you willing to share a pic zoomed in close and another zoomed out of the neighborhood? Blur out road lines if you want.

X marks the spot, blue is that creek. thanks for responding not sure how active it is over here with this being my first post.

 

[Mortenson]

Can deer travel to get to your land in a safe manner from any direction? Or is it hostile everywhere? How is the hunting pressure on the adjoining lands? Do they bed in your hardwoods?

 

[hunterman23]

Can deer travel to get to your land in a safe manner from any direction? Or is it hostile everywhere? How is the hunting pressure on the adjoining lands? Do they bed in your hardwoods?

to the right there a a good bit of forest and bedding area ( i have spooked deer there before that were bedded down). below as you can see it’s just pasture. to the right of those hardwoods there is probably a 2-3 acre bean field. there is no deer than bed on my land bc there’s really no where to bed. there’s no cover in the hardwoods. i’m pretty sure there is no hunting pressure from neighbors. basically the only way to travel safely is to the right side where all the woods are.

 

[BenA]

What kind of grass is in the field? If any of it is cool season, and greening up now, spray the whole field with glyphosate to kill it. You'll get a flush of stuff in the spring that you can spot spray out what you don't want. In Tennessee, they'll be feeding in it this spring and summer. In 3 years, it will be wooly. Put firebreaks around the whole thing to maintain it easier. Break it up into couple acre units with firebreaks that you can maintain at different intervals. You could plant the firebreaks that you don’t need for travel and that can't be seen from the neighboring properties or road with a clover mix. Just a few ideas.

 

[Barndog56]

Ben stole what I was going to say, kill off the grass and let the forbs grow. I would probably frost seed alfalfa or red clover to add to it. If frost seeding is a thing in Tennessee?

 

[Barndog56]

Before doing anything permanent I would learn as much as possible regarding deer travel, wind patterns, neighbor activity, etc. Then I'd plan out stand placement, access routes, fruit trees, nwsg.....

 

[Bill]

Don’t forget to take a chainsaw into the timber you have. You can make that bedding tomorrow. Search hinge cutting here for some of the smaller trees. If hinge cutting don’t make blockades. Knee high hinges make blockades. Shoulder high hinge cuts make bedding. Be careful hinge cutting it’s flat out dangerous.

 

[hunterman23]

Don’t forget to take a chainsaw into the timber you have. You can make that bedding tomorrow. Search hinge cutting here for some of the smaller trees. If hinge cutting don’t make blockades. Knee high hinges make blockades. Shoulder high hinge cuts make bedding. Be careful hinge cutting it’s flat out dangerous.

i’ve heard hinge cutting isn’t so great in the south and that hack and spray is a better option. is that true?

 

[Bill]

i’ve heard hinge cutting isn’t so great in the south and that hack and spray is a better option. is that true?

That I’m not sure of. Maybe some of the southern guys will chime in. But don’t think killing the tree by squirting it is a good idea. At least on many species the tree will re-sprout many branches thickening the place up faster.

 

[SwampCat]

In addition to what Ben said about killing the existing vegetation in the field - which I agree with - I would have a hard time not planting a two acre food plot in that “V” from the field that extends into the woods a little bit. Food plots almst always will see at least a little deer use - kind of instant gratification thing. Figure out within a year or two where you want to plant fruit trees if any. It takes awhile to see the results and starting sooner is better.

 

[buckdeer1]

I would plant a food plot to right of X and plant trees with a screen so you can get in and out and something to block view along road. Then 2 choices either plant trees and shrubs and let field grow maybe even part of it by lightly discing to get weed and forb growth, Or if there is enough cover around you screen off property lines and plant food if thats what area is lacking

 

[H20fwler]

Plant the field to native grasses, switch/big bluestem/ little bluestem/indian grass, with an understory of clover/birds foot trefoil/partridge pea/wildflower mix. Put in a few clumps of ten each white pines in middle.

Plant a couple shrub strips around the outside with ROD/high bush cranberry/pin oak/indian current/wild plums/fruit trees like crab apple/pears/apples/chokeberry/snow berry/elderberry.

Along the edge of woods plant chestnuts/hazelnuts/swamp white oak/chestnut oak/sawtooth oak/chinquapin/pecans.

Along road put in conifers for privacy block, white pine/norway spruce/blackhill spruce.

Save a nice three acre spot along corner of woods and fence row for a food plot… and ad a few koi ponds.

That’s what I did with thirty acres like yours ten years ago, 15 woods15 hay field, instead of koi ponds I put in two wetland ponds…it’s worked out great.

 

[Double Creek]

I would start with Craig Harper’s book on managing early successional habitat.

 

[cbw]

1. If you are new to managing habitat for deer, I’d invest in hiring someone to write up a habitat management plan. Best investment we made—shaved years off our learning and gave us confidence to do crazy stuff like TSI, controlled burning, old field management. That will also put whatever you do with this space into the bigger perspective of your property and goals.

2. I’d put a good chunk of that into “Old field management” / early successional growth. Which was described above by killing off the cool season grasses (gly in Nov or March) and releasing the seed bank. Best thing we did with large hay fields (brome) that we had on our place.


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