Let’s talk Destination plots

[Rit]

I have a 9 acre former hay field. On 2 sides of the field is my woods. On the other 2 sides is a state route that is really busy and the other road is a residential road with about as much foot traffic as auto. For a visual the field is a rectangle.

I have tried unsuccessfully to put 7 acres of Swithgrass into this field 2 years running and planned to leave 2 acres for a destination plot. I actually have some noticeable switch this year but not near what I should for the amount of seed I put down. The field is starting to fill up with weeds even though it has been sprayed with Atrizine, Simizine, and hit with Glysophate in early May. I’m not sure what happened to the germination of the switch but it’s not nearly what I was hoping for. I have pretty much decided this field won’t be in switch.

The spring was wet and cold then we went better than a month with no rain and very high temps. I have put double the effort into this field but very short on the return. The weed prep the fall prior both years was fantastic. The field has some clay in it but alfalfa grows just fine.

When this was a 9 acre hayfield only and nothing screening the roads it wasn’t uncommon to see deer in it every night. Sometimes as many as 20. You could watch 150” bucks spar in early October it was a sight to see. But I wasn’t in control of the field and no fertilizer was used after the first planting. The use became less every year and last year the field was a total bust.

Sorry about the long intro. With all that being said I am surrounded by a 1000 acres of Big AG fields. I would really like to make this 9 acres the ultimate destination plot. I’d like to start working on screening the two sides that have road traffic and have 4-5 acres of premium food in the rest. I have already planted 2 Kieffer pear trees with plans to add more pears, American plum and a few chestnut trees, along with other native browse plants. I have a fair amount of Eastren Red Cedar trees on the property so Apples are a big question mark. Just looking for some more ideas on what I can do in this space to maximize the drawing power.

Just inside the wood line on this plot I have another smaller plot 1 3/4 acres that was a TNM WR plot. It was a good draw and more than likely I will put that plot back into WR this year.

I may even put in an acre of Norway Spruce to add some thermal cover. The overall plan now is to have 4-5 acres of food in one large plot but create lots of edge, bends, and little coves to separate the plots using fruit trees, dogwoods, and any other native browse trees that I can plant. I also dug a small water hole on one end of the field.

Thoughts?

 

[trampledbyturtles]

With a 1000 acres of big ag surrounding you. It will be tuff to compete focusing on food.
If it were me I'd focus on creating heavy cover, with a mix of preferred browse species, then sprinkle in a doz fruit trees for a candy crop.

Get them to bed on your ground during the day with the cover, browse will allow them to stay, then a quick snack on an apple or pear on the way out the door before nightfall.

 

[Rit]

Thx Tbt I have pretty good cover. I have spent a lot of time hinging trees and opening the canopy. This is year 3 from when I started. I don’t want to compete with the AG fields but in the fall I want to create a spot where the deer will go and be a true destination. I have a good population of white Oaks on my property and the natural pattern change seems to bring them along towards the end of August. The WR I planted last year really kept them on my place after the Ag fields were stripped.

 

[j-bird]

I would screen the roads with grasses for short term (MG or switch) and conifers (cedar or spruce) for long term. I transplant cedar in winter with good success. Once the roads are screened you can do as you wish. I personally think I would shoot for a winding type plot and allow the rest to grow up into brush. I live in heavy farm country as well.....and cover is king here. You may want a nice picture perfect square or rectangular plot.....but the deer want and like the edges and will spend more time on your place if you make them search for other deer. I would also put some sort of food in this plot to hold the deers attention on a year round basis. I would look at DNR tree sales and cuttings and the like to plant what you want and then let mother nature do her thing from a regen perspective. The big thing is to do this with hunting/wind direction and stand access all in mind.

As for your prior sightings and what you may be seeing now. It may be food related.....it may not. I would suspect that it may have more to do with your activity level in that area more than anything. You may be making the area better......but if you are disturbing the deer in the process they will move off (especially older mature bucks). Young deer and does will tolerate a lot more disturbance. I am not saying your messing it up.....I'm saying that per your comments....sighting have gone down while the food changed AND your activity level in that area increased. You may need to look at how you can best address both.

I know I am guilty of making things "better" from my perspective, yet the deer didn't seem to think so. Sometimes....many times, once we make our improvements.....less is more. We tend to like to do the work and create a better habitat but we disturb the area too often in one way, shape or form.

 

[bbcoach]

With a 1000 acres of ag around you, you will not compete with this until October or November when the corn and soybeans are harvested and the leaves fall off the trees. At that time, you want to have the largest GREEN grocery store around. I would advise grains and brassicas to carry the deer through the reminder of the fall and winter months. I would be working on that screen. Conifers would be a start but they can take awhile. A couple of rows of hybrid willows or poplars will grow quickly and with some conifers that should do the trick.

 

[Native Hunter]

Don't let the presence of ERCs keep you from planting apple trees. Just be sure to put in varieties that are CAR resistant. The variety makes all the difference. My place is covered with ERCs and I see the same trees affected every year. The resistant ones are either not affected at all or not enough to matter.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

One big plot can become as many small plots as you want. Plant a clover chicory mix, a soybean plot, a brassica plot, and a pea oat rye and sunflower mix. Divide each of the plots with perpendicular strips of corn for the final "plot" and for reducing the social stresses of having one big open plot. I would love to have your "problem" Hopefully the woods is situated geographically to take advantage of wind direction that time of year. Hang a camera on each individual "plot" to see what is being used most and when throughout the hunting season.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

My post applies only for spring planting because of the bean and corn component. You can however plant strips of peas this fall where you would plant the corn next spring. The peas will provide food this season and give you N credit next year when planting the corn. Plant clover/chicory plots this fall with a nurse crop of WR. Plant the brassica where you want the beans to be next year and crimson clover where you want your brassica plots next fall. Good Luck

 

[Rit]

I have kicked around for months on starting a land tour but thought I’d give an update on my destination field. What started out as 4-5 acres in food has since shrunk to about 1.5 acres. After watching the deer in my other plots I’ve leaned more on the cover side. I elected to plant less food plot and more browse and fruit trees. I also opted for blocks over strips broken up with trees and shrubs. I have no plans to hunt this field just the trails from bedding into it.

The switch has made strides and with a little help should really turn it on the next couple of years.

Here is the North border of the field. It has a residential road along it that will be screened. As of now I am planning on using a row of hybrid willows with Spruce or ERC on the inside is that. The ditch also has decent size trees in. I will hinge them back into the screen this year.



Here is a wave of foxtail matted down where some of the switch didn’t take. This will get over seeded with Kanlow in the next month. I’ll mow it down in the spring and spray.

West border with a busy state route. Same as the North side a screen with hybrid willow and spruce or ERC will be started in the Spring. I will mow and spray with a ground cover.


More foxtail with a good stand of 1st year switch in the background.




1st year switch

Trail mowed through the switch. This will be in clover and maintained to battle weeds the first year.


First time deer have eaten radish tops. The 1.5-2.0 acres were planted in TNM with WR, Clover, and Radish. Most of the field was BW and Triticale in the Spring.

 

[Rit]

South end of the plot. This was planted in WR, Clover, Radish. This will be mowed in the spring to release the clover. Thistle moving in so it will be spot sprayed.


Looking North all TNM. This will be broken in two blocks separated by 2 rows of shrubs and trees.

Deer bed in the WR

The start of the dividing shrub/tree wall between the two blocks of food.

South end of the plot. Holds water from December through May. This will get some water loving shrubs. Cuttings maybe.

Transplanted Cedars among the edge of the plot and switch.

American plum the deer shredded. It is still alive. It will be caged before green up.

Sumac shredded by deer. Caged soon

North view of plot. One half will get more clover frost seeded in a month or so. 1/2 of this plot will be TNM brassicas, the other half will be WR, Radish again

 

[Rit]

Just for reference. Here is the plot just inside the woods that borders this destination field. This photo was Brassicas from 2016. I hunt this plot over the destination field because access is much better.

 

[Bill]

Looks good!

I don't think I'd over seed the foxtail with more switch.. I'd bet It's already there just hit that area with herbicide again.

Willows will grow fast as a screen but they do lose thier leaves by mid November. I planted mine about 3 feet apart and that helps keep the traffic moving. You can see trough it when the leaves are gone but good luck getting a bullet through it. I like J-Birds ideas long term.

 

[Scott S]

View attachment 21927
Just for reference. Here is the plot just inside the woods that borders this destination field. This photo was Brassicas from 2016. I hunt this plot over the destination field because access is much better.

That picture makes me sweaty with envy.

 

[Rit]

Looks good!

I don't think I'd over seed the foxtail with more switch.. I'd bet It's already there just hit that area with herbicide again.

Willows will grow fast as a screen but they do lose thier leaves by mid November. I planted mine about 3 feet apart and that helps keep the traffic moving. You can see trough it when the leaves are gone but good luck getting a bullet through it. I like J-Birds ideas long term.

Thanks Bill. I probably wouldn’t overseed it again either but I have two reasons for considering it. First some of the foxtail areas you see there have rows of switch on each side and it clearly looks like I just completely missed while seeding. I broadcast the seed in November last year. And second I used more CIR than Kanlow and early on I like the Kanlow better than the CIR. It’s standing up better, stayed green longer, and was taller than all the CIR. Now of course that could all change next year but I seeded CIR 5 to 1.

Willows are not my first choice and it’s hard to tell but the State Route to the West is about 4’ taller than my field edge and I really need somethng taller as fast as I can. I have mostly no plans to hunt this field but you ever see a few bucks do the same thing in an area you wish you had a stand? I have some temptations of putting a stand in the timber to the South of this field off the edge about 25 yards in the woods. The only afternoon access would be this field edge along the road. The willows and switch would hopefully be a decent screen for the 1 or 2 times a year I would hunt this area on a front with a NorthEast wind.

There is an area all way around the field, kinda of a buffer zone on the two sides that need a screen. It’s about 60’ wide between the area I would put in the screen and before the switch starts. This would be a great spot for natural regen. It also would be cheaper. This was a hay field for a long time. Would I just mow it down, kill all the cool season grasses with Glyph? And maybe run a light disc over it? The area is mostly foxtail now and the one thing I noticed is birds are nesting in the clumps. Should be a lot of seed getting deposited.

 

[Rit]

That picture makes me sweaty with envy.

A few more Scott. This was planted traditionally which I no longer use. But the conditions that year were perfect as far as rain and temp. I used too much seed and when the weather went to adverse conditions the plot suffered tremendously.

 

[BobinCt]

One thing I would definitely do which will cost $$ but who ever said improving habitat was cheap. I’d cage all shrubs, trees and conifer planting’s along with a weed matt. I use 4 ft welder wire fence. I planted 60 apple/pear trees about 5/6 years ago. I left a couple without cages just because I never got around to it and it is night and day on the difference in growth. Without cages, the deer just destroy them. Spend the $$ on the rolls of welder wire fence and you will be glad you did in the end. Keep the cages on for 5 years. The shrubs will start to grow outside the cages and deer will still use em to browse. Plums are great to add to your habitat as well. Spraying your fruit trees is another book that I won’t get into . Good luck , but please take my advice and cage off and use a weed barrier.

 

[Rit]

One thing I would definitely do which will cost $$ but who ever said improving habitat was cheap. I’d cage all shrubs, trees and conifer planting’s along with a weed matt. I use 4 ft welder wire fence. I planted 60 apple/pear trees about 5/6 years ago. I left a couple without cages just because I never got around to it and it is night and day on the difference in growth. Without cages, the deer just destroy them. Spend the $$ on the rolls of welder wire fence and you will be glad you did in the end. Keep the cages on for 5 years. The shrubs will start to grow outside the cages and deer will still use em to browse. Plums are great to add to your habitat as well. Spraying your fruit trees is another book that I won’t get into . Good luck , but please take my advice and cage off and use a weed barrier.

 

[Rit]

100% agree. I didn’t get around to it and it cost me. I have already decided that I’ll plant quality and correctly over quantity. I’d rather plant 20 trees that are protected than 200 that are not.

 

[weekender21]

Are you guys caging pear trees too? I've caged all my apples and chestnuts but my pears are tubed with 5' tubes.

 

[BC Buck]

You need to post areal pictures with prop lines and details of neighboring land. I think your on the right track getting road screened. Iv been working on that for 10 years.