Whats everyone doing?

JCDEERMAN

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Jul 19, 2008
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NASHVILLE, TN
Scouting primarily. We have a logging operation starting as soon as it dries up. Clearing almost 20 acres for new food plots, and also about 40 acres of select cut that will be burned every 2-3 years. Will start to create fire breaks for 4 areas in the next couple months and will burn them when appropriate (before mid-April).
 

BSK

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Mar 11, 1999
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80,883
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Nashville, TN
Realizing none of the hunters in my family are getting any younger, and anything we want to do habitat-wise that we get to see full benefit from needs to be done NOW, we're having a pretty heavy timber cut done on 1/5th of our entire property. In addition, hardwood value is sky-high right now. In the old growth sections (80-90 year-old timber), just about everything is being cut (because it's all marketable). In the younger growth hardwoods (40 years old), probably a 30-40% thinning.

Hope to expand our food plots considerably (to near 10 acres instead of the current 5). And I can't believe I'm saying this as I swore I would never do it again, but looking at planting sections of the clear-cut areas back in pines.
 
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PickettSFHunter

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Jan 11, 2004
Messages
21,756
Location
Jamestown, TN
I'm got some liming and frost seeding to do. I've done some TSI already and have more to do. I still take care of my orchards even though it's pointless anymore. I plan to plant about 100 sawtooth oaks at the farm to break up a field alittle. I've got a big access project to do after the dump truck destroyed one of my entrances to one property. Not habitat related but also plan to get started on a cabin spot after the road is repaired. I will need to do a few burns this year also on spots that I burn every other year.
 

DoubleRidge

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Nov 24, 2019
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Location
Middle Tennessee
TSI project including hack-n-squirt wrapped up last year.....now I'm focusing on two areas of old cedar thicket.....one is 14 acre with the other around 3 acre....trying to decide best options...been talking with our Forester..... hoping to Ag lime food plots soon....tried to get big truck in there last year and they were all booked up on big hay fields and we're not interested in my 8 or 9 acres of food plots... lol....so we did Pelletized lime best we could with rented buggy.....had plans last year for four new shooting houses and lumber prices stopped that project....we completed two of them....hope to do the other two this year....was gifted some sawtooth oak acorns...hope to get them started.... Would like to buy some chestnut and get them going as well....then the normal bush hogging and planting warm season plots......we have some old rotten shooting houses that are coming down this weekend..... always something to work on.
 

DoubleRidge

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Nov 24, 2019
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Location
Middle Tennessee
I'm got some liming and frost seeding to do. I've done some TSI already and have more to do. I still take care of my orchards even though it's pointless anymore. I plan to plant about 100 sawtooth oaks at the farm to break up a field alittle. I've got a big access project to do after the dump truck destroyed one of my entrances to one property. Not habitat related but also plan to get started on a cabin spot after the road is repaired. I will need to do a few burns this year also on spots that I burn every other year.

We did an "entrance project" last year....had to take the old single gate down for the timber harvest project with big trucks coming in and out..... had them rework entrance....widened it....we went back with double gates and plank to each side....went ahead and set gates back off road where I can pull in with gooseneck trailer and get off of the main road.....love it..... before I was parking on side of main road and unloading tractor, etc....much better now.
 

Popcorn

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Jan 30, 2019
Messages
3,478
Location
Cookeville, TN Cadiz, KY and random other places
Hard thinning of approx150 acres of large pine for warm season grasses and forbs, clear cutting another 50 acres to plant native grasses .
Thinning another 50 acres of hardwoods that have canopied over to produce browse and forbs.
Starting to prove firebreaks before burning approx 500 acres scattered all about the farms .
Preparing to order spring seed for plots and will soon frost seed a couple clover plots established last year to fill in and strengthen the stand.
about to clear cut 20 acre overgrown sanctuary to return it to its previous glory of grasses and cover.
then to thin about 100 acres of too slow growth pine that wont make pulpwood to generate tons of browse and acres of cover with grasses and forbs. If everything goes well, ill finish just in time to plant in April.
 

buckaroo

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Jun 18, 2009
Messages
5,984
Location
easttennessee
Realizing none of the hunters in my family are getting any younger, and anything we want to do habitat-wise that we get to see full benefit from needs to be done NOW, we're having a pretty heavy timber cut done on 1/5th of our entire property. In addition, hardwood value is sky-high right now. In the old growth sections (80-90 year-old timber), just about everything is being cut (because it's all marketable). In the younger growth hardwoods (40 years old), probably a 30-40% thinning.

Hope to expand our food plots considerably (to near 10 acres instead of the current 5). And I can't believe I'm saying this as I swore I would never do it again, but looking at planting sections of the clear-cut areas back in pines.
Pines? I'm clearing out 2 acres of cedars, thinking they arent much benefit, going to keep half acre of them for the birds
 

buckaroo

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Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
5,984
Location
easttennessee
I'm got some liming and frost seeding to do. I've done some TSI already and have more to do. I still take care of my orchards even though it's pointless anymore. I plan to plant about 100 sawtooth oaks at the farm to break up a field alittle. I've got a big access project to do after the dump truck destroyed one of my entrances to one property. Not habitat related but also plan to get started on a cabin spot after the road is repaired. I will need to do a few burns this year also on spots that I burn every other year.
Why is the orchard pointless? I have 125 apple trees
 

buckaroo

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Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
5,984
Location
easttennessee
Hard thinning of approx150 acres of large pine for warm season grasses and forbs, clear cutting another 50 acres to plant native grasses .
Thinning another 50 acres of hardwoods that have canopied over to produce browse and forbs.
Starting to prove firebreaks before burning approx 500 acres scattered all about the farms .
Preparing to order spring seed for plots and will soon frost seed a couple clover plots established last year to fill in and strengthen the stand.
about to clear cut 20 acre overgrown sanctuary to return it to its previous glory of grasses and cover.
then to thin about 100 acres of too slow growth pine that wont make pulpwood to generate tons of browse and acres of cover with grasses and forbs. If everything goes well, ill finish just in time to plant in April.
You have a lot of work! Hope your retired
 

DoubleRidge

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Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
9,621
Location
Middle Tennessee
Pines? I'm clearing out 2 acres of cedars, thinking they arent much benefit, going to keep half acre of them for the birds

I'm struggling with two areas on our place that are cedars....one large area and one smaller area.....these cedars are old and all the bottom limbs are dead up 6 foot high...wide open in this thicket....other trees in area are dogwood and a random poplar....but ground is shaded out with nothing much of benefit growing....wanting to open it up...or at least portions of it....to allow sunlight in.....just struggling with best route to take to get it done.
 

PickettSFHunter

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Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
21,756
Location
Jamestown, TN
Why is the orchard pointless? I have 125 apple trees
I started with several hundred. We didn't have bears everywhere at the time. Now we have bears everywhere. Bears don't let the fruit get ripe. They tend to rip all of the limbs off and break the trees down as early as June. A deer doesn't have a prayer of getting an apple or pear or persimmon or anything here.
 
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JCDEERMAN

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Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
17,482
Location
NASHVILLE, TN
Hard thinning of approx150 acres of large pine for warm season grasses and forbs, clear cutting another 50 acres to plant native grasses.
I'm curious, and I'm sure there's a purpose, but what's the reason for planting native grasses versus burning and promoting it? Fire stimulates decades-old seed beds of native grasses and forbs (which I'm sure you know)
 

buckaroo

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Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
5,984
Location
easttennessee
I'm struggling with two areas on our place that are cedars....one large area and one smaller area.....these cedars are old and all the bottom limbs are dead up 6 foot high...wide open in this thicket....other trees in area are dogwood and a random poplar....but ground is shaded out with nothing much of benefit growing....wanting to open it up...or at least portions of it....to allow sunlight in.....just struggling with best route to take to get it done.
I've worked on my for 7 yrs, but looking back a dozer would have been the easiest
 

megalomaniac

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Oct 28, 2005
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14,598
Location
Mississippi
Waiting till early summer for my new property to dry out.

Next summer, bringing in a forestry mulcher to double the size of the new plot i dozed in, create travel lanes through the jungle for deer to access the new plot, and get the beans/ sorgham in. Keep chipping away at the privet with hack and squirt and basal bark spraying.

On another farm, going to spend the $$$ amending the soil and putting in a 2ac plot.
 

Popcorn

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Jan 30, 2019
Messages
3,478
Location
Cookeville, TN Cadiz, KY and random other places
I've worked on my for 7 yrs, but looking back a dozer would have been the easiest
about to clear 20 acres similar ground. Dozer would be easy but will leave a mess of rough ground unless you are disking nd planting. I dont want to deal with that and the seed bank stored there. I will cut and pile with a tractor in windrows that will burn next year and hope for a return of the natives that thrived here before. Warm season grasses and forbs, cover and browse.
 

BSK

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Joined
Mar 11, 1999
Messages
80,883
Location
Nashville, TN
Pines? I'm clearing out 2 acres of cedars, thinking they arent much benefit, going to keep half acre of them for the birds
In a purely hardwood environment, thick evergreens, such as younger pines or cedars thickets, are Mana from Heaven to deer. They use them extensively as cover and during cold, wet weather. However, as pines and cedars mature, the quality of the cover they provide diminishes.
 

Popcorn

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Jan 30, 2019
Messages
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Location
Cookeville, TN Cadiz, KY and random other places
I'm curious, and I'm sure there's a purpose, but what's the reason for planting native grasses versus burning and promoting it? Fire stimulates decades-old seed beds of native grasses and forbs (which I'm sure you know)
You are absolutely correct and with time might work on this property but This ground was part of a commercial pine property and has had generations of pines raised and harvested then they bulldozed and bogged before replant. This was some of the poorest soil I have ever worked with when I built plots in it and now we are clearing around the plots to create cover, security and native browse, will also have to burn, doze and bog to make it manageable and the owner wants to insure a good stand hopefully sooner rather than later. It takes seeded warm season grasses 3 years to establish (Sleep, creep and leap) are what some call it. On grossly abused and poorly managed soils hoping for the seedbank to deliver can be a long wait. We are hoping for the process you mentioned to work over most of the thinning ground.
 

wildlifefarmer

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Joined
May 21, 2018
Messages
218
Location
MdlTn
Waiting till early summer for my new property to dry out.

Next summer, bringing in a forestry mulcher to double the size of the new plot i dozed in, create travel lanes through the jungle for deer to access the new plot, and get the beans/ sorgham in. Keep chipping away at the privet with hack and squirt and basal bark spraying.

On another farm, going to spend the $$$ amending the soil and putting in a 2ac plot.
I've been testing small areas using a forestry mulcher. Early summer mulching had a postive response, early fall mulching for firebreaks are looking on the plus side so far. We are just starting winter mulching. What kind of results have you had and what time of the year did you do the mulching?
 

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