Someday Isle

Someday isle · Jan 26, 2025

I haven’t added to this thread in awhile. Last year I had a forestry mulcher out and expanded my food plots to where I now have about three acres of food plots on my 36 acres. I started another thread showing some of that last summer. With the summer long disruption after the mulcher came through, and an extended drought that ran well into September, my expectations for the year were a little lower. Next year I hope to draw in more deer with more food Strange year in Missouri with a bumper crop of acorns and we’re mostly oak hickory forest so while I had lots of nighttime pictures of deer I didn’t see much during the hunting season. It was still a successful season though with three deer harvested. I shot a little four pointer during the archery season. Rifle season I shot a nice doe the last hour of opening day and then harvested a spike buck in the final few minutes of the season on the last day. Plenty of meat in the freezer.

Now with the focus on habitat season my main focus is creating cover. I’ve marked out three separate areas, approximately an acre each, to do a combination of clearcutting, hack n squirt, girdle and squirt, and hinge cutting. I have two of those areas completed and will start working on the third area next weekend. There’s an additional half acre near my north property line that is a south facing slope above a wet weather creek bed that’s adjacent to the half acre area I cleared in 2021 that’s filled in very nicely with cover. I may do a little lighter clearing there but I want to be careful putting a potential bedding area right on the property line. I’d be interested in opinions on that.

Since my property is mostly closed canopy forest with a few exceptions, including the food plots that we’ve cleared ground for, I decided to go heavy with my cutting process this year. I’ve tried a little here and there over the last few years but never was very aggressive with it. This year I cut down most of the smaller mid story trees, dropped most of the cedars, did some hinge cutting to create immediate side cover, and killed virtually every other tree in the over-story with hack n squirt or girdle and squirt. I left a small handful of oaks that were really nice looking trees but I’d estimate I removed 90 percent of the canopy in these areas. I’m not too concerned about having enough acorns in good acorn years because the whole property is full of oaks. In fact, this year we had so many acorns a walk through the woods was like walking on marbles.

I don’t know that the pictures really show what it looks like in person but virtually every tree left standing has been treated and there’s plenty of side cover (at least that’s my opinion). Before I left yesterday I walked through each section and made sure there were clear paths through the area in every direction and tried to remove any dead ends. If all goes well I’ll do the same thing in late spring and make sure there’s plenty of ways in and out for the deer. Hopefully the results are good and then each year for the next few years I can add additional areas like these three.

That’s pretty long winded. Here are the pictures.

Catscratch · Jan 26, 2025

Its looking good!

Bill · Jan 26, 2025

Looks good. Next time maybe cut higher so the deer can walk under them. But you have paths through it so you're good. Don't want to drop those big ones? Hack and squirt works but I worry about where they will someday fall. Guess you could go back later and cut the ones that landed where you didn't want them.

Someday isle · Jan 26, 2025

That’s the plan Bill. I was afraid if I dropped the big ones I wouldn’t have as much open space for them to move around. I figure I’ll walk through them every spring anyway and make sure there’s paths for the deer. In fact, I like to take my DR through my thicker areas and make paths for them to follow. Plus I’m doing most of the work by myself and as the trees get bigger I force myself to err on the side of caution. Most of them aren’t big enough for marketable timber but honestly I don’t care too much about that. I just want good deer habitat.

Bowsnbucks · Feb 4, 2025

^ ^ ^ ^ Making paths for the deer to walk works. We've done it here. Deer like easy walking - just like people do! I've used "walking paths" to my advantage in archery season.

Your place looks great.

Someday isle · Jun 20, 2025

Planted food plots three weeks ago (memorial weekend). The cereal rye and durana clover were looking really good so it was kind of painful to disc the clover in but that was the plan. The areas where the forestry mulcher worked last year were much thinner but still had stuff growing. I left a few strips or blocks of clover in every area and then lightly disced everything else. I Broadcast about 70 lbs per acre of iron and clay cowpeas, 25 pounds of buckwheat, and then a little bit of Milo around the edges to act as a screen. The Milo was just an experiment, We’ll see how it goes. I went out today to spray the clover

Topic 1) I used durana clover last year just to see if it handles our annual drought better than ladino. It came in really thick and lush this year already. I’ve been battling a Smart weed problem for a few years now. Today I sprayed the areas where I intentionally left clover in each feeding area. I used Octivio which is the same as imox/raptor. We’ll see if it works on the smart weed but I didn’t have near as much weed competition as I’d expected. The clover had really shaded everything out except the smart weed. Time will tell I guess. Really pleased with the Durana so far but we’ve had plenty of moisture and the Missouri heat hasn’t started yet - 96 degrees forecast for next week.

Topic 2) while I had disced the rye and clover under in the main food plot areas the clover really rebounded and survived the discing. The buckwheat came in nicely, I didn’t see as many cow peas as I’d hoped because I think the clover bouncing back might have shaded it out a little bit. We’ll see, but I’m not too disappointed because the buckwheat and clover couldn’t look better. I’ve never planted milo before but it seems to be growing okay, it’s an experiment so if it doesn’t do anything I figure nothing ventured nothing gained.

Topic 3) I walked through the four bedding areas that I worked on creating this winter. There are three areas about one acre each and another area that’s about a half acre. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results! The last area I worked on was the half acre area at the corner of my property. It’s a south facing slope but pretty rocky and on the other side of a wet weather creek about yards from a food plot. I walked through it first and was happy to see a little bit of new growth and even found a deer bed. That’s was encouraging. BUT…when I walked the the other three areas I was blown away. Maybe I underestimated what would happen the first year and since I don’t plan on doing any fire I figured it’d take a couple years to see any effects from sunlight on the forest floor. I tried a couple years ago in one of these areas and was disappointed with my results because I really wasn’t aggressive enough with my cutting or hack and squirt. This year I just decided to go for it be really aggressive. I couldn’t be more excited. My intention was to walk through today and look for areas I need to clean up through July and make sure the deer can get in and out okay. After today I’m just staying out of there until next winter and then I’ll go in after deer season and clean things up as necessary.

Topic 4) I’ve only got 36 acres. Cameras show three fawns, several does, and at least four different bucks using the plots right now and plenty of browse in the new bedding areas.

I’ve got a few small summer projects to do and I’d like to add a couple stands now that it’s been a year since the forestry mulching - but I might wait another year to really see how movement patterns change after both the mulching last year and bedding area work this year.

Pics to follow