Ohio Farm Tours

[Buckhunter10]

Final Chapter - 7.5 years old.

if I only had one word to use to describe whitetail deer’s profound impact on me - it would be “life”.

I have poured a great part of my life into learning and respecting these animals.

I’ve managed the habitat to give life back to the once degraded and mis-managed soils and timber.

I’ve used the animals we’ve harvested as source of sustenance for our human lives.

When it comes to deer and specifically managing the farm - it’s easy to just get caught up in antler size. As time goes on and we harvest older and better quality deer- we realize how impactful we are on the landscape.

Dozer made it to 7.5 years old. That is old for a whitetail in Ohio. That deer survived cars, disease, hunting, coyotes, and more.

No matter how good of a hunter one thinks he’s or she is, luck plays a big part, and that is not lost on me. For me to have been in the right place, at the right time, when this old buck made one fatal mistake - maybe his only in almost a decade of life- is extremely humbling.

So I’ll say - I’m beyond thankful for harvesting an old and fully mature buck. This might be the oldest buck I ever harvest.

The life the whitetail deer has given to me is one of respect, passion and perseverance. It has been the foundation for my passion for all things wildlife.

For that I will forever be thankful to be able to manage the greatest (imo) animal on God’s green earth, in the greatest country in the world.

Dozer - thanks for 7.5 years!!

 

[356]

Final Chapter - 7.5 years old.
View attachment 70076
if I only had one word to use to describe whitetail deer’s profound impact on me - it would be “life”.

I have poured a great part of my life into learning and respecting these animals.

I’ve managed the habitat to give life back to the once degraded and mis-managed soils and timber.

I’ve used the animals we’ve harvested as source of sustenance for our human lives.

When it comes to deer and specifically managing the farm - it’s easy to just get caught up in antler size. As time goes on and we harvest older and better quality deer- we realize how impactful we are on the landscape.

Dozer made it to 7.5 years old. That is old for a whitetail in Ohio. That deer survived cars, disease, hunting, coyotes, and more.

No matter how good of a hunter one thinks he’s or she is, luck plays a big part, and that is not lost on me. For me to have been in the right place, at the right time, when this old buck made one fatal mistake - maybe his only in almost a decade of life- is extremely humbling.

So I’ll say - I’m beyond thankful for harvesting an old and fully mature buck. This might be the oldest buck I ever harvest.

The life the whitetail deer has given to me is one of respect, passion and perseverance. It has been the foundation for my passion for all things wildlife.

For that I will forever be thankful to be able to manage the greatest (imo) animal on God’s green earth, in the greatest country in the world.

Dozer - thanks for 7.5 years!!

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing the story of Dozer and the years of enjoyment and chase he provided.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing the story of Dozer and the years of enjoyment and chase he provided.

Thank you for allowing me to share and your time to read. It’s been a fun ride!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

My good buddy who helps me manage the farm punched his tag on a great, mature, Ohio whitetail. We always will send in teeth but we believe he’s a 4+ based on body size.

This buck stepped out into a Vitalize Seed Foodplot and that was all she wrote.

It will be hard to beat this season for us! Thanks for following along!

 

[Buckhunter10]

A great book all about fungi. I absolutely love learning about soils and using the information I learn both from our own testing and from a vast amount of books - to help others.

Fungi is one (imo) that is not often talked about enough and if it is, it’s far to general. This book does a great job highlighting what fungi can do for our plants and nutrient availability in the soil. It also highlights some areas in which fungi inoculation has not had a noticeable impact on plant growth and lastly, some areas we just don’t have all the pieces yet to fully understand the role of the fungi in its sole entirety.

What we can say for sure is that fungi play a critical role in soils, nutrient availability, robust cover crops efficiency, pest mitigation, phosphorus uptake, and even water conservation/availability.

If you’re interested in all things soil fungi- this is worth the read.

 

[Buckhunter10]

This is why we always recommend exclusion fences. We had the worst drought in a 100 years in Ohio and it would be easy to think that was the sole cause of reduced tonnage. However, clearly we need to either plant more food, create more food in timber, manage deer densities, or all the above.

Managing soils and deer is fluid from year to year and monitoring browse can have a major impact on your success as a manager and your decisions to be made.

Good news is- despite the heavy browse many of the forage brassica, clovers and grains are still putting on growth and feeding a pile of deer each day.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Surprise Buck -

My cousin Zack has been featured in the blogs I write for years. He’s been a huge part of my hunting life - since sitting with me in the blind when I killed my first Buck, to helping me track and drag Dozer ( a 7.5 year old 15 pt. I killed off the farm in 2024) and every mistake in between - Zack’s been around for it.

Zack and his wife moved to Maryland a few years ago and it cut our hunting time together down significantly. So between jobs, families and now the distance to Ohio - finding time to hunt is few and far between.

Zack and I had been monitoring a trail camera we had on a small food-plot. Over the past few weeks a few good bucks started to show up and we came up with a solid game plan. Zack would come into town early for Thanksgiving holiday and we’d have him get as much seat time as possible, over that 3-5 day period.

The first day (Thursday) he sat from dawn to dusk. He saw several deer but none in range worth shooting. He and I again reviewed weather and decided that going in Friday morning would be worth it due to a large weather front moving in Friday evening.

At 820am Friday morning - I get the text “I just shot a nice 10pt. But ugh it was a bit back”. This is where years of hunting experience aided in the recovery. We found arrow after 4 hours of waiting and confirmed it was back but did look like maybe liver as well. We decided to call a drone and back out.

The drone was absolutely amazing. He came in and found the deer that afternoon in 5 mins or less. We could see the deer, and wound. We decided to give the buck overnight - to ensure he wasn’t pushed.

First thing this am, we went and got to bring Bryce (my 3 year old son) on the recovery (his 2nd track -not bad for 3 lol!). The buck never moved from his first bed. That deer was shot back but with a rage broadhead. He went sub 150 yards and because we didn’t push him, we had a successful recovery.

I continue to be an advocate for large cutting diameter broad-heads and drones for deer recovery. When in doubt, back out.

With only a few days to hunt - congrats to my cousin Zack on a great Ohio buck!! This is a season we soon won’t forget!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

I couldn’t let Zack have all the fun. Little doe mgt. tonight!

 

[Buckhunter10]

Happy Thanksgiving to all who follow my thread l!! Thankful for you all! Have a blessed day with your friends and family!

 

[Buckhunter10]

Just in time for the holidays!!

Gift Card | Vitalize Seed Company

vitalizeseed.com

 

[Buckhunter10]

I’m Despite severe drought
Very high deer numbers and continuous browse
Our Vitalize Carbon Load plots are loaded with deer every night!

We certainly have more work to do. However, I recall when we bought the farm 15 years ago it was hard to see a deer. In a seemingly short time - we have watched the farm transform. More work to do!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

Benefit of diversity! We’ve recently received snow melt, rain and some warmer temps. This allows the clovers and grains in Carbon Load to pop! This is what truly makes an impact on the soil and deer herd. We are trying our best to never allow a “dead” period both for soil regeneration and for our deer to feed.

Won’t be long and we’ll be pulling soil samples, spreading Vitalize Micros, getting our sprayers primed for the Vitalize Fish Fert+Humics concentrate, and planting our NitroBoost!!

Here is to a great 2025!!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Brian662]

Did you intend to have a berm around your plot? Would you do it differently now? Seems like you are trying to make the best of the situation with the tree plantings.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Did you intend to have a berm around your plot? Would you do it differently now? Seems like you are trying to make the best of the situation with the tree plantings.

That’s a great question. I actually like it. I’ll have to do another video of it but it’s great rabbit habitat (I love running my buddies dogs). It also goes downhill past that berm, and there is a logging road below it. So it breaks up the flat ridge, logging trail and the big oak/poplar bottom- plus has a nice visual barrier so a buck can pop out of that bottom and see 8+ acres and leave.

Ideally, I’d have liked to maintain a bit more topsoil - but I got a screaming deal by selling these norways and getting them to agree to major dozer work, so I couldn’t really complain. In 2 years, we’ve killed 4-5 deer off this field already!!

Thanks for the great question sir. Happy New Year!

 

[Buckhunter10]

No shock to most of the country that we got hit with some snow over the past week. I’ve posted picture of the plots continuing to get hammered by deer. However, I never give up on the importance of woody browse. I knew the storm was coming and I had a free day, I busted out the saw and went to work edge feathering trails and releasing giants oaks.

I look forward to the pulling the camera I left here to monitor browse activity during the blizzard.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice work! Soft mast trees around the berm will be big pluses.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Nice work! Soft mast trees around the berm will be big pluses.

I sure think so! I did this on a field like 10 years ago now. Mossy oak had a sale for 10 trees for 50 bucks but they were small. Well last year I walked that field and noticed that they were busting out of the tube. Absolutely loaded with apples.

I look forward to sitting in the blind with my boy, watching deer come to feed in the plot and on the fruit of our labor - pun intended. Haha.

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]