So I'm looking for some pointers on how I should go about making this bedding area. I'm sure it would be difficult to screw it up completely but I want to create the best possible movement on my property. I have never planted any type of screening or bedding before but have done a little research and want to make sure we don’t regret doing it wrong. My first concern I have is it being beaten down from the weather by the time November rolls around and it becomes a useless thinned out 2 acres ground. I have heard that if you purposely stunt the crop by over seeding or not fertilizing like you should it will not grow quite as tall which will help it maintain its strength. My second concern is if those 2 acres of bedding will actually hold a significant amount of deer that justifies not planting it in something else. I’d love to hear some past experiences or strategies. I’ll attach a little property overview and map below if anyone wants to give it a look, I love trying new things that are a little out of the box.
This particular property and the surrounding area has a very high deer density and consistently produces mature bucks. A pretty notorious buck was recently killed across the street, so for those of you who recognize the property map you probably know what I’m referring to. After running cameras throughout the summer we figured to have around 8 bucks that were mature and probably 5 would have been around 150”, one of which could have touched B&C. Obviously we were extremely optimistic going into the season. Our farm is basically a river bottom with extremely thick cover because a tornado went through a few years back but the majority of deer, bucks especially didn’t bed on our property because it stays really wet in there. The property is only 200-500 yards in width and winds through farmland for about half a mile, the entire property was surrounded by 300 acres of corn last year. When the corn was cut all of those bucks suddenly went from showing up near daylight to well after daylight. We still had half of those bucks on camera through the rest of the year, but they were clearly bedding across the road. Luckily we had some awesome plots that got hammered in the late season which gave us some opportunities but it was a little too late. This year those fields will be beans and the amount of cover will much smaller and will be interesting to see the difference it makes. We have a 2.5 acre plot that we had planted this past year along with another 3 acres of plots around the farm. We decided that we can sacrifice 2 acres of food for 2 acres of bedding if we can manage to hold some more deer in that small area. I’m thinking of going with Hornybuck Seeds mix of HB Forage Sorghum, Egyptian Wheat, and Forage Brassica. The property is outlined in yellow, our food plots are purple. The second picture is the design I had in mind, the maroon bump outs will be miniature food plots around each “X” stand site for any given wind.
One of my concerns would be that the deer will trample it if they indeed decide to use it as bedding. Its a very interesting thought! I just think each time a deer lays in it there will be 6 sq ft permanently flattened... I would give it a go and see how it works! take lots of pictures throughout the process!
I was thinking the exact same thing. If we do decide to make this plot I'll be sure to update with photos.
If you are looking to make long term bedding, I would also take a look at native grass plantings or tree plantings. We have done both and are happy although the deer still bed in the willow swamps as well.
Can you grow sunflowers? You could try a mix of foxtail millet and sunflower. I've never tried it but should be a solid theory. If you go heavier on the sunflower, the millet should provide a nice thermal cover and the sunflowers should make a nice heavy stalk. I'd think they'd compliment each other pretty well. I may try this idea this year myself.
Maybe that's something I will look into. If you come up with some more ideas feel free to send me a message!
I recommend going with some type of warm season grass blend. Little Blue Stem, Big Blue Stem, and Switchgrass is a good option. The smaller grasses will offer structure for the larger grasses and keep everything standing year round. This blend will also create a monoculture of grasses and supply cover to a variety of wildlife; deer, turkey, pheasants, quail, etc.
My recommendation would be to stay away from the annual screening mixes. Just as Daryl stated, I believe you need to invest in more of the native grasses and forbs that can be a managed bedding and prairie location. This will not only provide cover, but also food for your whitetail and birds. In addition these blends are encouraging a beneficial sanctuary for spring fawning. One example of a good mix is the following by Grandpa Ray Outdoors; Perma Blend This perennial native grass mix acts as plot screening and permanent cover mix. You have blend of grasses 3-7' tall. annual cover. This mix is a long lasting mix that might not every need to be reseeded or touched again. 40% Switchgrass 30% Big Blue Stem 10% Litttle Blue Stem 10% Indiangrass 10% Side Oats Grama
I know you are going a different route, but I will give you my experience. I have planted Egyptian wheat on 3 occasions. I killed a buck that scored just shy of 150" and I can directly credit my Egyptian wheat screen for the opportunity at that buck. I planted a screen around the edge of my plot that was near the creek and was visible from the road. One area was particularly thick and several does had been bedding in it. The morning I killed that buck, a younger buck had bumped a doe out of the bedding area and ran her right past me. About 30 minutes later I could hear a mature buck grunting up at the Egyptian wheat. I grunted at him a couple times and he came in on a string, shot him at 12 yards. No doubt he was looking for does bedding in the EW and that screen funneled him right to me. FYI, if you overseed it, not only will it stunt the height, it will also stunt the diameter and strength of the EW. I wouldn't overseed if you can avoid it. Also, you really need lots of Nitrogen to get the most out of the EW.
Awesome! Sounds like a cool set up, if you have any pictures of how your Egyptian wheat looked later in the season that would be great. I know you guys don't get as rough of winter conditions as we do up here but I am curious to how it held up by the time late season rolled around. We really need a quality bedding area to hold a greater number of our bucks on our property on our higher ground. Being surrounded by beans this year I would think our 2 acres of standing corn will be definitely offer some good cover. We also wanted to design our plots this year with some sort of screen for us to sneak into our stands unseen. I think the best thing that will come from having our plots screened off is that it deters bucks from just turning and looking into a wide open plot when they are cruising the outskirts of these river bottoms and they actually have to get inside the screened edge to check it before moving on.
This is the first time I have ever planted corn but I think I have done my homework and we have some quality ground so I expect it to turn out well. Everything got sprayed Saturday with the exception of the little bump outs in front of each stand which will get planted late summer. I am a construction manager and do a lot of mock ups with SketchUp so I whipped up a couple plot design ideas and this is what I came up with (The winds we hunt those stands are what is in parenthesis) . I think it will really benefit us this season with some more opportunities. If anyone has any tips or info that gets overlooked for someone planting corn for the first time, or some better ideas to funnel deer with the rows feel free to let me know. I put a few pics in there of what the plots looked like from this past season from different stands. You can see how pounded down our small brassica plot on the West side of the farm in that late season picture.
