Sample Plan

[sandbur]

Steve=Two years ago I was running my lawn mower through a 14 month old standing corn field. I was mowing some clover that I had scattered in it the fall before and ran over a fawn

These corn fields in their second year function as great cover (and feed).

do you have any comments on managing a year old corn field as a doe bedding area? Open up areas in it and mow them??

Do they function like a switch grass stand for part of that first year and do you modify the switch for deer bedding?

I will have a 3 acre year old corn field by my driveway-the same one where I ran over the fawn, two years back. There is one flooded out area in it. I might go in there and plant rye, maybe a few radishes/ptt if it dries out. Or should it be left to weeds, or managed for grass in that open area?

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Art,

Have to be honest and admit I don't have any experience with manipulating last year's standing corn. If I was in that situation and didn't need to reclaim the crop ground, I could see letting it go and use it like an imitation Switch plot. I don't think I'd plant anything inside it, though. It'd be too tough to hunt.

I could see mowing a couple trails late in summer, if that would help me lead them past a stand. Otherwise, I'd bank on the weeds getting tall enough to help supplement the standing corn to thicken it up.

Take all that with a grain of salt, as I'm just thinking it through out loud and, as I said, I've never actually done it.

 

[sandbur]

Art,

Have to be honest and admit I don't have any experience with manipulating last year's standing corn. If I was in that situation and didn't need to reclaim the crop ground, I could see letting it go and use it like an imitation Switch plot. I don't think I'd plant anything inside it, though. It'd be too tough to hunt.

I could see mowing a couple trails late in summer, if that would help me lead them past a stand. Otherwise, I'd bank on the weeds getting tall enough to help supplement the standing corn to thicken it up.

Take all that with a grain of salt, as I'm just thinking it through out loud and, as I said, I've never actually done it.

It works like an imitation switch grass for the first year and then the grass takes over if you leave it for year two. I find lots of beds in the corn up until the second fall or so. Maybe certain varieities of corn would stand longer.

 

[Deer Kar]

It works like an imitation switch grass for the first year and then the grass takes over if you leave it for year two. I find lots of beds in the corn up until the second fall or so. Maybe certain varieities of corn would stand longer.

Poor mans switch grass. I like that idea. I have tried a few different varieties of switch grass to no avail . But I have rotations of corn and beans every other year. I think I might try beans,corn,fallow corn field in a three year rotation?

 

[sandbur]

Poor mans switch grass. I like that idea. I have tried a few different varieties of switch grass to no avail . But I have rotations of corn and beans every other year. I think I might try beans,corn,fallow corn field in a three year rotation?

I leave the corn stand with no tillage. You get weeds and cover the second summer.

I once had my renters come in and harvest alfalfa with choppers and semis.

I had a 1 acre 13 month old corn patch along side the alfalfa field and I could see this from the house. The semi's came by and 4 deer left the corn/weed patch. The semit made a second round closer and 3 more deer left the corn patch. Now I don't have 7 deer in the whole section!

 

[wiscwhip]

Some of the largest bucks I have ever encountered have been kicked-up while pheasant hunting, out of patches of foxtail(and to a lesser extent reed canary) that had taken over low, poorly drained areas in corn fields.

 

[West Branch]

Thanks for sharing Steve! This is the kind of information that I need and I have been trying to work on similar idea for our property. Our main hunting area is about 600 acres and about 460 of that would be considered "deer habitat" if you include the first 100 yards or less of field and open space from wooded areas. While I am currently focusing on the 40 acres that I own I want to make sure that what I do it fits in with the rest of the property that the rest of my family owns. Your drawings definitely help!

One "good" problem we have is public land with limited pressure that borders us. How would you factor in public land with limited pressure?

I don't expect you to spend time analyzing my situation but it works well for me to put it into words. Here is our situation:

There are 200+ acres on our north side that is county land with a little over 100 being swamp.

The 100+ of swamps is mainly black spruce with some tamarack, some open peat bog, and then thick brush and grasses. It runs east and west separating the north part of our land from islands in the swamp. Deer will bed on the swamp islands and the deer do not get onto our property until dark. The islands are mainly aspen with some oaks, maples and other trees mixed in. Virtually no evergreens on the hard land. The 100 acres of islands has all been logged in the last 10-15 years so it is very thick.

The main trails where deer cross the swamps are fairly easy to find with Google earth and we have done some tree stand placement based on that. It is just tough to get started with a plan.

Improving bedding areas on our land with better sanctuaries would likely help as well. Then we would have deer bedding on our land with hopes of bucks traveling during the rut coming from the public land sanctuary to the north.

Hopefully I have some time soon to get a thread started with some aerials to get some ideas from all of the people here.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

West Branch,

You probably won't be able to get the bucks to stop bedding on those islands no matter what you do. Islands are just such prime bedding spots.

So, try to flip that into a positive. For one, that is going to help put age on your bucks big time, as most swamp islands can't be easily hunted.

You may not be able to get them to abandon those islands. So, try to give them more things to check/waste time on before getting back in the AM and check in the PM. It's impossible to say with any accuracy exactly what you need to do without in depth study, but things like creating more doe bedding on your ground, giving them more food plots to check, increasing the scraping they do, all on your dry ground, could potentially help getting them off those islands earlier and having them return later. Just do so in a way that it encourages use of the islands/swamp trails that on can access and hunt low impact on your dry land. How I'm taking what you wrote is that you probably won't get the bucks to stop bedding where they are, but that's OK IF you can get them to use those swamp trails more during legal light. That's one of the things I'd likely focus on doing.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

OK, I'm going to try to upload a boat load of pics to illustrate what I've been discussing in this thread. Don't be surprised if it takes me several attempts.



These 2 pics should give a decent idea of the false ceiling I'm trying to create in doe bedding areas. As you'll notice in the top pic, I drop the biggest trees first, both to try to create "support beams" for the smaller trees, as well as not have them smash my "roof" in when they fall.



On the "sidewalks," I simply cut at a height that's comfortable and try to drop the trees perpendicular to both sides of the "sidewalk. You can see a higher dollar timber tree I left in the 1st of the 2 pics. Leaving a few trees isn't a deal breaker, but you just don't want to over do it.



When edge feathering food plots, I generally like to cut lower and am trying to create a mess that's a pain for deer to get through along the food plot. The way, they're more likely to use the trails that I leave open entering the plot near stand sites. Many times, I also have a "sidewalk" leading to that opening, to enhance the deer trail's use.




When creating food plot openings with a dozer or backhoe, one can make it idiot proof where the deer will enter by using the removed trees to create impenetrable blockades everywhere but where you want the deer to enter and exit. to help reduce the feeling of being "trapped," I generally make the openings bigger than when edge feathering (they can almost always get in and out of edge feathered areas, IF they want to bad enough, but can't when this is done right) and have at least 4 openings on plots an acre is size or bigger, leaving both ends open on plots less than an acre in size.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

As you can see, nothing overly difficult with planting scrape trees...Just cut a suitable tree (hardwoods lasts longer, but softwoods work too) and plant it so it offers linking branches at about nose level, pointing those branches back towards the stand. I find "bushier" trees work best, as they offer more of a visual draw (more dramatic turd in a punch bowl effect). The 3 bucks (2.5, 3.5 & 5.5+) all visited that same tree the evening/night it was "planted" in the 1st pics. Great free trick for helping lure bucks into shooting range and positioning them for the shot (cam location is right in front of tree stand).



Example of funnel blockade along property lines. Since I so often bring in a dozer to create edge access, I also use the process to create a screening/blockade hybrid. Makes for easy, low impact killer stands for intercepting deer going between you and the neighbors...Just be careful where you put them in relationship to how the neighbors hunt. I do my best to create the openings in areas that they have to explode their woods to get to them, if they try to hunt them, as well. They are 100% in their right to hunt them on their side of the line, but I'm 1005 in my right to make it a REAL pain for them to get to that location.



Just a simple pic showing spruce spacing. When used as a screen, I space them 10' and 10' between offset rows. When used for bedding cover, I go 12' by 12'

Unfortunately, I've done a MUCH better job documenting all this in video than in photos, over the years. So, that's about all I have for now...Hope they help a little, at least

 

[sandbur]

some older pictures of Bur's deer trails.

Here is a controlled exit/inlet to the neighboring irrigated crop field. this is in a narrow pine plantation that was planted 25 years ago.

 

[sandbur]

I usually do not hinge alongside the trails as they go further back into the woods. I just cut and then mow the trail with a push lawn mower. Here is a picture of the deer trail, 180 degrees from where the above picture was taken. Those red cedar are so thick that just clipping a trail seems to work.
I do have some hinge cutting/dropped trees by one stand for a browse feeding area and it also acts as a block to deer movement. They work the edges.

 

[sandbur]

Your picture of the spruce spacing reminded me of this picture with Black Hills spruce at what I think was 3 paces. Swamp and tag alders behind the spruce with a few mixed in spruce and an island in the swamp.

 

[sandbur]

Younger spruce, older spruce, with tag alders and reed canary behind them.

 

[wiscwhip]

Awesome photos guy, thanks for sharing!

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Great pics, Art. Thanks for the additions.

In my experience, when the "sidewalks" are going through thick stuff, like your cedars above, there is no reason to hinge the sides. Creating the trail is good enough. Though I'm often trying to create extra browse with the sidewalks, the other 2 main purposes are creating security cover (make deer feel safe when walking them) and easy travel. When cover is thick, just creating the trail accomplishes both those things.

I know you know that. I'm just trying to make this essentially a manual on habitat plan lay out and implementation. So, I'm trying to include highlights of things I find important (such as bolded above) when time and/or opportunity arises.

 

[sandbur]

Steve-I felt a bit guilty about posting pictures on your thread.

I hope it did not offend you.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Art,

If this was a thread where I was trying to pimp books or services, I guess maybe I would be offended, as it would distract from my sales pitch and I'd probably even be a bit offended that some may look to you for answers instead of my products. I sure hope no one has the sense that I'm trying to pimp anything in this thread.

I made this thread for 3 reasons:
1) I told you before the server switch that I'd get something posted that showed how I try to "section" properties to hold more deer. I do my best to follow through on the things I say I'll do.
2) I'm all for selling products that offer a value. It's the American way, but all the pimping of services and books at the other place has been bugging me lately, for a bunch of reasons. So, here's something no one has to buy (which is why I eventually created the parallel thread over there, too).
3) More than any other collection of people, those in this forum have allowed me to build and continue my career. How many of you saw me how many times speak at the MN Deer & Turkey Classic? How many bought my 1st book at one of those shows before it was even done being published (had 90 something people hand me $20 at that show, just to put their name down on a piece of paper and hope I sent them something when it was done)? How many are true gluttons for punishment and have both of them and will no doubt buy my 3rd this winter, all without me ever trying to push any of them on you? 1 guy here drove all the way from NY to see me in OH. A bunch more have seen me in Madison. A few more have paid to see me speak God only knows where. I know several here that actually look through magazines in search of my name to decide if they will buy it off the shelf or not. I just read a thread where someone wrote that they have no respect for D&DH magazine, outside of me?! Maybe I'm a big cheese ball, but I don't forget stuff like that. Pardon my French, and sorry if this makes me look like a sissy, but I find all that type of stuff to be humbling as hell and makes me feel like I have a responsible to fulfil in return.

No, Art, not the LEAST bit offended that you added pics. They made this thread better, and that's the only goal on my end.

P.S. All those ?s were rhetorical, as I already have a good grasp on the answers...Just meant to explain what I was getting at and why.

 

[bueller]

2) I'm all for selling products that offer a value. It's the American way, but all the pimping of services and books at the other place has been bugging me lately, for a bunch of reasons. So, here's something no one has to buy (which is why I eventually created the parallel thread over there, too).

Rest assured it's not just you that feels that way ;). Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. People buy your products and services because you have proved their worth, rather than just telling everyone how great they are.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Thanks Bueller...I try. I know I don't always have the answers and the beautiful thing about all this stuff is anytime I even start getting a little cocky, Mother Nature or a deer (or my wife for that matter) does way too good of a job of feeding me some humble pie. I do sincerely try to give the effort/produce the products i'd be happy with if I was on the other side, though. I'm easily my own worst critique.

As far as the other part goes, as my mommy always told me growing up (think I posted this somewhere here already). If you have to jump up and down, acting like a fool and screaming look at me, this is who I am, odds are you aren't that person or you wouldn't need to try so hard to tell everyone you were...they'd know. That's what pops into my head when reading some of those marketing threads/posts.