Made it to the farm today

[Bill]

I posted this last year but these are from today. I've always lacked good cover. To the right of the mature timber is a 3 acre nursery in an electric gallager type enclosure. The mature timer is just a hedge row with a drainage ditch in it. To thin to hold deer so I expanded it. The fence is turned off and I'll take it down soon so the deer can use the area. Everything is above weed height now and can survive on its own.




At first glance it looks to be dominated by poplars and willows and it is. But there are some edibles in there to.

Elderberrys are 7 foot tall


American plums in front of poplars are 6 plus feet




Buttonbush is just above weed height



A row of dappled willows screens the thicket from the field.

 

[j-bird]

That low, shrub type cover mixed with the tall native grass is awesome. Seems like a great way to get lots of diversity and food and keep that level of security for the deer as well. Nothing makes a habitat nut happy like spooking a deer and having it run further into your property!

 

[Eggman]

Great looking place Bill!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Tremendous looking patch of stuff there Bill !! Really impressive. Eats and cover at different heights and seasons. Your pix point out more things I can / should be doing. I don't know if that's good ......... or bad. Congrats on the good work & plantings.

EDIT: Bill I was just catching up on J-Bird's thread and I saw where you told him you can cut elderberry down to the ground and it will re-grow and put up new sprouts. What time of year do you prune them down ?? Thanks.

 

[Bill]

Since this kinda morphed into the land tour after mowing some clover I decided to drive by some other tree plantings. This wraps around what was once a 10 acre hay field. These trees were about 4 foot tall when I bought the place. I spent years mowing around them so they had a chance. I added most of the cedars. It's mostly sycamore as the oaks were swallowed and rubbed to death.

I converted the hay field into switch grass but never burned or maintained it. On purpose. Mother Nature is taking over and we have 10 acres of blackberries. Soon the birds will be planting me all kinds of goodies.

Don't want to run through here naked :)

 

[Bill]

Tremendous looking patch of stuff there Bill !! Really impressive. Eats and cover at different heights and seasons. Your pix point out more things I can / should be doing. I don't know if that's good ......... or bad. Congrats on the good work & plantings.

EDIT: Bill I was just catching up on J-Bird's thread and I saw where you told him you can cut elderberry down to the ground and it will re-grow and put up new sprouts. What time of year do you prune them down ?? Thanks.

Anytime before spring green up.

 

[Bill]

The rope on my favorite Blair witch post finally broke. Tap says they like vines so I found one and replaced it yesterday.

Smeared a little ever calm on it and hey what do you know first visitor this AM

 

[John-W-WI]

Smeared a little ever calm on it

Dumb question, what's ever calm?

The place is looking great!

-John

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I could spend most of a day picking blackberries, Bill. That's a helluva nice patch. The area of young trees is excellent. One of the best pieces of deer hunting cover I ever hunted looked like that after a clear cut had been done. Deer were in that stuff like flies. Rubs everywhere.

When the rubs start to appear in there, maybe post some pix ?? Gotta be deer using that area.

 

[woodduck]

That's a lot of good looking cover!

 

[scott44]

Dumb question, what's ever calm?

The place is looking great!

-John

Deer cover scent,

 

[Bill]

I could spend most of a day picking blackberries, Bill. That's a helluva nice patch. The area of young trees is excellent. One of the best pieces of deer hunting cover I ever hunted looked like that after a clear cut had been done. Deer were in that stuff like flies. Rubs everywhere.

When the rubs start to appear in there, maybe post some pix ?? Gotta be deer using that area.

The Bucks have been working those trees over for years. Killed a lot of them. There beds in the grass all around the trees. I started hinge cutting some of the sycamore's this spring to see how they responded. From a distance they look like there taking to it. I wasn't walking in there for pics. No spray on and I didn't want to be covered in ticks. Next spring I'll hinge more in there to thicken it up more.

 

[Bill]

This is the flat above the trees and blackberries. Was 2.5 acres of clover but I killed about .8 acres in two spots and threw brassica's and mowed. I'll do another area for rye and oats in early sept. Never tried the LC mix but wanted to this year.

My apologies to anyone in N.MO or S. Iowa. When I plant brassica's it usually doesn't rain again until September.

 

[Someday isle]

Bill - I guess I missed it but how many acres do you have in MO?

 

[Native Hunter]

Since this has turned into my land tour thread I thought I'd share some pics of the bed and breakfast. It's starting to wake up now. 80 acres of lightly seeded switch grass, clover and weeds. I like to mow them paths through the grasses. Lots of paths that all end up down to one that goes right past a ladder stand...

If I showed you an Aerial photo of this 80 acres you'd swear it's not deer ground. But come November it's a meca. Kicked a doe up on the way out and she ran right down one of the paths I had mowed earlier. Evil :)



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Bill. I love how the bed and breakfast field looks.

The field with blackberries looks good right now too. If you could keep it at that point, it would be perfect. My problem is that the briers don't know when to stop. If I do nothing, they take completely over. I sprayed mine this spring and have it back in good shape again. Still plenty of berries in my tree planting, and that's where I want to keep them.

 

[j-bird]

Bill, your using grapevine as a "scent wick" at scrape trees?

 

[Bill]

Bill - I guess I missed it but how many acres do you have in MO?

240. I started with 160 and when the neighbors 80 that's now a bed and breakfast came up I over paid just to end the parade of trucks in there during rifle season. It was 80 acres with cows. Not anymore :) and it's now worth more than I paid. Win win.

Bill. I love how the bed and breakfast field looks.

The field with blackberries looks good right now too. If you could keep it at that point, it would be perfect. My problem is that the briers don't know when to stop. If I do nothing, they take completely over. I sprayed mine this spring and have it back in good shape again. Still plenty of berries in my tree planting, and that's where I want to keep them.

I was kinda afraid of that but I like the blackberries and the deer seem to go right through them. Will the deer avoid the area if it get to thick with them?

Bill, your using grapevine as a "scent wick" at scrape trees?

Yep, Tap has a grape vine growing naturally that seems to be his most active scent/licking branch. It took the original rope a year to air out and get used so I figured I'd try the Tap vine. So far so good.

 

[Native Hunter]

I was kinda afraid of that but I like the blackberries and the deer seem to go right through them. Will the deer avoid the area if it get to thick with them?

It can eventually come to that point, but you aren't close to that yet. I've seen blackberry so thick that it is literally impenetrable. And, some land is just more inclined to get to that point. If I did nothing, my land would. Mowing once a year when they flower will really slow them down but not keep them from spreading.

When I sprayed this year, my briers died really slowly over a course of several weeks. I think that is a good thing, because it tells me that the roots took it in good rather than just burning the leaves. Right now, they are crunchy toast. I really feel like (and hope) this takes care of me for many years.

 

[j-bird]

Yep, Tap has a grape vine growing naturally that seems to be his most active scent/licking branch. It took the original rope a year to air out and get used so I figured I'd try the Tap vine. So far so good.

I may have to try that as well. I try the scrape trees and get some interest but nothing serious.

 

[Bill]

I may have to try that as well. I try the scrape trees and get some interest but nothing serious.

I've used red cedar, poplar, sycamore and Willow. All dead because I cut them and put them in with a post hole digger. Cedar gets the most use followed by poplar. Don't ask me why??? They don't really use mine for scrapes. More for scent branches and rubbing on. When my rope was on that thing sometimes they would just slap it around to watch it fly. Like a bunch of kids...