And I'm Done.

[Trapper John]

Planted all plots today with wheat, oats and dwarf essex rape. NOAA is showing a 70% chance of rain Monday night for the farm and a 40% chance on Tuesday. I'll take my chances.

I've got that nice vibrating feeling in my back that comes after riding a tractor all day. I've also developed a new hatred for sicklepod.


On a side note: I've never seen such rubbing activity! It's insane. Instead of the random rub lines we find every year we're finding pockets filled with multiple rubs. Five or six trees rubbed raw in a 20 or so yard radius. One little cedar took such a thrashing I doubt it'll make it. Someone out there is angry!

 

[BSK]

Rainb chances for west TN look very good early Tuesday morning.

 

[BSK]

The local buck in my neighborhood finally finished the job of killing my ornamental maple tree in my front yard. last year he shredded one side of the tree. In just the last few days, he finishing girdling the tree. Son of a b....

 

[RKenney]

BSK,
I always heard that deer love maple leaves. I guess it's true!

 

[BSK]

BSK,
I always heard that deer love maple leaves. I guess it's true!

If he had just eaten the leaves, I would be fine with it. But he rubbed that poor tree to death (and it has a trunk about the size of my forearm).

The funny part is, I know the buck. Last summer, I chased him around my yard with a shovel! I was going to pound his head for eating my roses. Now he's a 3 1/2 year-old 100-class 8-point, and I'm a bit wary of chasing him, as he's got 40 pounds on me and a nasty set of weapons on his head!

 

[Hogbear]

I planted some pine seedlings behind the house a few years ago and the deer tore every one of them to the ground before they got 6' tall. I guess it was just the novelty of them since there are no pines at all in the local woods around here.

 

[BSK]

Pine is a preferred species for rubbing.

 

[stryker]

I agree they kill the pines around here and the cedar trees. I do wind other trees that they have wore out but as a consistent point of view they love the pines and cedars. I wonder why this is BSK?

Pine is a preferred species for rubbing.

 

[stryker]

BSK is it the texture of the tree or what triggers this?? Thanks for any info I've always wondered this.

 

[BSK]

stryker,

A great deal of debate exists in the scientific community concerning why bucks prefer specific trees for rubbing. One camp holds that bucks prefer aromatic trees (trees that produce a strong scent when rubbed, such as cedar and pine). However, in some geographic regions, the preferred trees are not aromatic (such as basswood and aspen in the North). I'm of the camp that believes it is the color of the inner bark. Bucks prefer to rub trees that have either a bright orange or white inner bark

And most interestingly, these preferences only seem to appear when we start talking about really large-diameter trees being rubbed, and most specifically "signpost" rubs (trees that get rubbed year after year). In my decade-long rub density and distribution study, I found that as the diameter of rubbed trees increased, the number of tree species represented declined dramatically. Although small-diameter rubbed trees could be any species (and basically represented the abudance of each sapling species in the area), at the very largest rub category I had, only 5 different species were represented. By preference, those species were: eastern red cedar, loblolly pine, beech, poplar, and maple.

In each geographic region, rub studies will find a different species preference list. In Coastal SC, sassafras is tops. In the Deep South along the Gulf Coast, bald cypress is the most preferred. In the Midwest, basswood.

 

[Boone 58]

so what you are saying is that you two have a warm fuzzy relationship>............... :whistle:

 

[Football Hunter]

The local buck in my neighborhood finally finished the job of killing my ornamental maple tree in my front yard. last year he shredded one side of the tree. In just the last few days, he finishing girdling the tree. Son of a b....

when you plant a new one,put a fence around it in the fall,seems to work.

 

[BSK]

The local buck in my neighborhood finally finished the job of killing my ornamental maple tree in my front yard. last year he shredded one side of the tree. In just the last few days, he finishing girdling the tree. Son of a b....

when you plant a new one,put a fence around it in the fall,seems to work.

That's exactly what I'm going to have to do.

...as well as fence in my roses, which the deer have learned to love.

 

[Trapper John]

Well it looks like this was timed out perfectly for rain. I just didn't count on the three nights of potential frost that are predicted to follow the front. Be tough, little sprouts!


And I'd rub on cedar if I were a deer. I love that smell.

 

[RKenney]

In my area young maple trees, cedar, and young beech trees seem to be rubbed quite often. Some of the best rubs that I have ever seen were made on large sumac trees. Believe it or not.

 

[BSK]

In my area young maple trees, cedar, and young beech trees seem to be rubbed quite often. Some of the best rubs that I have ever seen were made on large sumac trees. Believe it or not.

Sumac is #6 on my preference list. However, it didn't make it into my "big rub" category because sumac doesn't get that big.

 

[Football Hunter]

Well it looks like this was timed out perfectly for rain. I just didn't count on the three nights of potential frost that are predicted to follow the front. Be tough, little sprouts!


And I'd rub on cedar if I were a deer. I love that smell.

 

[RKenney]

BSK,
I think the sumac trees I was referring to are staghorn sumac. I have found many with 8 to 10 inch diameters.

 

[BSK]

Ours usually die long before they reach that age/size.

 

[stryker]

Thanks BSK

stryker,

A great deal of debate exists in the scientific community concerning why bucks prefer specific trees for rubbing. One camp holds that bucks prefer aromatic trees (trees that produce a strong scent when rubbed, such as cedar and pine). However, in some geographic regions, the preferred trees are not aromatic (such as basswood and aspen in the North). I'm of the camp that believes it is the color of the inner bark. Bucks prefer to rub trees that have either a bright orange or white inner bark

And most interestingly, these preferences only seem to appear when we start talking about really large-diameter trees being rubbed, and most specifically "signpost" rubs (trees that get rubbed year after year). In my decade-long rub density and distribution study, I found that as the diameter of rubbed trees increased, the number of tree species represented declined dramatically. Although small-diameter rubbed trees could be any species (and basically represented the abudance of each sapling species in the area), at the very largest rub category I had, only 5 different species were represented. By preference, those species were: eastern red cedar, loblolly pine, beech, poplar, and maple.

In each geographic region, rub studies will find a different species preference list. In Coastal SC, sassafras is tops. In the Deep South along the Gulf Coast, bald cypress is the most preferred. In the Midwest, basswood.