How much is enough

[theburn]

Recently acquired a new farm, and have been working on getting in some fall plots for the first year. I was looking at an aerial photo last night and realized there is no Ag. food source anywhere in sight, which made me wonder if I had enough food. I'm looking to hunt over one of these plots, but the main purpose will be the benefit/ feed the deer thought the year. The farm is approx. 78 acres all together, and is surrounded on all 4 sides by cattle/ hay farms. Our farm in particular is very hilly. The red areas are plots I have established so far. I plan on rotating the two larger ones into spring plots this spring. The green area is a cleared hillside that was two steep to work the ground, so we will be slowly establishing a orchard. There are already several native persimmon and crab apple trees here. Of course the blue is a small spring fed pond. I'm guessing that approx.. 5-7% of my land is in food plots now. IS this enough without Ag. crops to supplement? We do have a good bit of native forage. We are covered up with blackberries and the like, and are going to have a good stand of mixed hardwoods.

Hope the pictures load right.

 

[BSK]

theburn,

Considering the potential range of an individual deer, and the fact that many deer shift their range areas throughout the year and between years, as well as the size of your property, I would not be focusing as much on food production as I would sanctuary cover production. It may literally be the case that the deer you are feeding with your plots in the winter, spring, and summer are not the deer you are hunting in the fall. Although feeding the local deer is a laudable goal and/or accomplishment, most landowners who hunt want to do something with their property that will benefit their hunting results. With your sized property surrounded by the habitat that it is, the habitat management options that would benefit you the most as a hunter would be to create as much sanctuary cover as you can while still providing ample hunting set-ups. Drawing hunter-wary deer to your property during daylight, during the hunting season is what would benefit you the most as a hunter, and the way to do that is not with food but with sanctuary cover.

Just my opinion though...

 

[fairchaser]

theburn,

Drawing hunter-wary deer to your property during daylight, during the hunting season is what would benefit you the most as a hunter, and the way to do that is not with food but with sanctuary cover.

Just my opinion though...

Pretty astute BSK. On all the leases we have had, the first thing we did was to make food plots with little thought to sanctuary cover. We did leave certain areas alone designatiing them as sanctuaries. This does little good if the deer don't see it as sanctuary. Of course, we were limited on what we could accomplish on somebody elses property. Good advice for someone who owns their own land. What would you suggest otherwise?

 

[Pine Ridge]

A wise man once told me " cover is king"

 

[BSK]

At first, I thought some of the things I was seeing in annual buck photo-census inventories was just specific to my own property. But as I've collected photo-census data on more and more properties over time, I know believe what I was seeing on my place is somewhat universal to expansive hardwood environments. And that is, the number of unique bucks that will use a property (again, in an expansive hardwood environment) is not driven by food resources (food plots, etc.) but is driven by the amount of thick cover habitat set aside as sanctuary from hunting property. I have now even seen properties where food production was increasing yet sanctuary cover declining, and they were seeing a decline in the number of bucks using their property. This trend was not reversed--they did not see an increase in the number of bucks using the property during the hunting season--until the landowner increase sanctuary cover again.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

At first, I thought some of the things I was seeing in annual buck photo-census inventories was just specific to my own property. But as I've collected photo-census data on more and more properties over time, I know believe what I was seeing on my place is somewhat universal to expansive hardwood environments. And that is, the number of unique bucks that will use a property (again, in an expansive hardwood environment) is not driven by food resources (food plots, etc.) but is driven by the amount of thick cover habitat set aside as sanctuary from hunting property. I have now even seen properties where food production was increasing yet sanctuary cover declining, and they were seeing a decline in the number of bucks using their property. This trend was not reversed--they did not see an increase in the number of bucks using the property during the hunting season--until the landowner increase sanctuary cover again.

What you have described is exactly what we have seen on our property over the last 13 years. As soon as we got it, it was getting more and more open from being logged years ago. Saw good bucks first couple years, then it declined big time. Got to where when you saw movement, you were 90% sure it was a doe. So we started logging 5 years ago and the last 2 years have been our best years since we have owned the place. When you see movement now, there is no telling what it is. We are going to continue to do this. I saw just as many bucks last year as I did does, if thats believable

 

[Nealmeally]

You have to have cover if you gonna have mature bucks IMO... I'd rather have 70 acres of thicket than 70 acres of hardwoods and plots..

 

[Scioto]

theburn -

I don't want to hijack your thread, but one of the concerns I have about getting some land is with trespassers/poaching. It would be a weekend place for me. From the aerial (and your 78 acres looks very nice by the way), it appears that you've got a right of way back into your parcel so you are landlocked so to speak. If my observation is correct, I would think that would help mitigate poaching and trespassing. My thinking is that the tresspassers are more likely to stick to the roads and enter from road frontage than to move into an interior piece of property via a right of way.

For everyone else, what is the best way to create sanctuary? Selective clear cut, use your own chain saw and start hinge-cutting, plant some pines on that cleared hillside? Would you recommend roughly 1/4 be made sanctuary or something less? I'd think you would want the sanctuary to be in the middle of the property not on the edges.

 

[theburn]

Thanks everyone. New to all of this, and had never really heard of a "sanctuary", but I guess I was ahead of the game. I have two different pockets of woods, one approx. 4 ac. and one 10 acres, that we have not even been in because I know this is the deer's core area. Both of these are fairly steep hillsides that have been logged about 5 years ago. They have quiet a bit of undergrowth and large brush piles still line them against the open area. Guess I will do what I can to manage these for the time being, and hope for the best. As for the land being secluded, that is correct and one of the more appealing things about this farm. You actually enter the farm through the back of a mans barn lot. Haven't seen much sign of hunters around, but we will find out before long.

 

[Football Hunter]

theburn -

I don't want to hijack your thread, but one of the concerns I have about getting some land is with trespassers/poaching. It would be a weekend place for me. From the aerial (and your 78 acres looks very nice by the way), it appears that you've got a right of way back into your parcel so you are landlocked so to speak. If my observation is correct, I would think that would help mitigate poaching and trespassing. My thinking is that the tresspassers are more likely to stick to the roads and enter from road frontage than to move into an interior piece of property via a right of way.

For everyone else, what is the best way to create sanctuary? Selective clear cut, use your own chain saw and start hinge-cutting, plant some pines on that cleared hillside? Would you recommend roughly 1/4 be made sanctuary or something less? I'd think you would want the sanctuary to be in the middle of the property not on the edges.

Chainsaw,no need for planting,just decide on an area and start cutting all the undesirable trees you can,regrowth will create the cover,and FOOD!

 

[Bobs8pt]

Just looking at your ariel view I can tell you I would try to move your plots closer to the center of the property and put the sanctuary around the outside edge of the property. having a thick edge does two things it gives the deer a place to hide and keeps the neighbors out.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

If it was mine, I would cut timber first, then worry about the food plots

 

[BSK]

If it was mine, I would cut timber first, then worry about the food plots

Agreed. In fact, any openings I had would get more native warm-season grass treatment than food plot seed.