Buckeye's "new to land management / improvement" thread.

I've used a lot of labs for soil testing and I far and away recommend Waters ag. They'll even supply the sample bags and pay shipping if you have enough samples. Great folks and great results.
Waters Agricultural Laboratories, Inc.

 

OK, so I am going to get the soil tested. I want to do an early season mix in the small plot in the woods and a late autumn planting in the section by the ag field. The guy who farms it says it is good dirt, a little low in nitrogen so he planted beans the past couple years since he started farming this field. It was dormant off and on before that. He didn't plant that area next to the field as it was to tight to mess around with in his tractor and combine for 3/4s of an acre or whatever it is.

Now, where I am really at and have my mind on is the creation of bedding. Our trees are still dormant for the most part.

Having never planned a cut, I do not know what size would be recommended. Also, is there a a benefit to it's shape? Also, is there any sort of schematics I should follow to the direction felling the trees (ex. parallel, criss cross, opposite directions, ect ect)

Planning on Monday or Tuesday weather permitting.

 

There's a lot of info on that.....I'll post some in the morning

 

Soybeans won't necessarily raise the N levels of soil. The seed needs innoculated before they'll produce a surplus of N in most cases as most soil has too few Rhizobium bacteria naturally occurring for the roots to grow enough nodules to fixate more nitrogen than the plant itself will use. If the guy didn't use the proper innoculant he probably didn't add squat to that soil for Nitrogen. If you soil test it's a non-issue anyway....just saying it's common for folks to make that mistake and never know any better without direct input from a soils biologist.
I'll leave the bedding stuff alone as it's not my forte.

 

Sorry I thought you were talking their seed mixes. Soil tests yes I 100% agree with the WI comment you made.

 

Covey nailed the soil stuff, I yield to him and others there as I know enough to be deadly but no expert. While not an expert on the bedding I have done some and will give my penny advice. There isn't a set design to bedding that works better per-say....however depending on the size of your pockets within the bedding area you can encourage doe groups or bucks to bed. It's true it isn't certain a small individual bed will be utilized by a buck but it does generally yield or encourage their use of it due to the size.

You have a much larger area to deal with than many of the properties I have worked but I like to first pick the overall area of the bedding...segment/hinge/cut/plant the exterior borders of it first. Then within it's borders pick out spots that are already attractable for bedding and enhance them with more hinging/cutting for security cover, backrests and for some bedding options canopy cover. If you have anywhere within this bedding area that will see enough light planting grasses will provide a soft floor to bed on and encourage use as well. In the spring, actually will possibly be doing it this Saturday I will be re opening arteries in our bedding areas and laying down hay/pine needles and such to keep weed and briar growth down to encourage bedding. I have yet to not find hair back on these spots if I wait and return a few weeks later....not every spot but each bedding area yes.

Merely making pockets within your bedding area of varying types and connecting them with arteries is the basic stripped down basics to creating awesome bedding. I like to always give the deer 2 very obvious exits/entrances out of the bedding pockets and if possible a 3rd less obvious or open one. As for the bedding area I like to encourage 4 basic entrances/exits into the bedding areas as a whole (N, S, E, W). This allows the deer to feel secure knowing that no matter which way danger approaches, if danger does, they have an exit the opposite way.

Just some quick short thoughts on it...hope it made sense.

 

I don't think you should disregard the Northern plot all together. Maybe fertilize that area to encourage natural forage but also plant a small plot in the SE tip. This will help pull deer off of the Northern properties, and with a series of plantings or hinging you could have a define travel route all the way to the destination plot.

 

Sorry for not posting sooner....insane day at work....

Anyway, you can accomplish a lot more than just bedding if you design your cut. I'm a fan of round or oblong hinge cuts. The way I would typically do one is to fell all the trees around the perimeter of the cut towards the interior, leaving only a few carefully selected gaps where you want the deer to enter and exit. This will create a trail around the exterior of the cut. Bucks will use that trail to circle the bedding area to scent check for does during the rut. The corridors between the cut and food plot I mentioned before are awesome stand locations if you have that perimeter trail. On the interior of the cut, I typically hinge cut trees about face height and let them fall in many different directions. I also like to layer trees...letting one tree fall onto another i already cut. It is under these thick clusters of tops that I encourage bucks to bed by clearing a flat spot underneath.

 

Off to cut in the morning. I have the area mapped out in my head... Hopefully, the topography allows the cut I envision.

 

How did it go?

 

It went well. The overall area I got done was 1.75 acres. It was much harder than it needed to be because of all of the grape vines in the tree tops. Had to really fight to get a lot of the hinges down to the ground.

Some that I couldn't get down ebcause of vines or tree canopy I finish cut through the hinges so they wouldn't grow leaves so I can get more sunlight to the ground. Here is a few photos I took while cutting should have took more at the end of the day but I was ready to get home. The photos don't show the scope of the area at all. It came out pretty good. The first photo you can see the hollow looking area in the background where most of the hinge cuts were done. That is the location of the heart of the cut.

Also including two pocket sheds and a skull I found the past two days. Also, 40 pounds of minerals.

 

Other things I have learned. The guy didn't even know all of his property borders or acreage. He said it was 86 then 88 acres. Turns out it is neither... It is 73 acres. There is some small existing bedding pockets on this land (area I was not in previously as it was not shown to me that day as his land), however they are just marginal.One of the properties to the East with the round buildings is State of Ohio street department land. The area that looks like an unattended field is actually like 8 foot or taller weeds, the hollow type that grows in wet areas, you see these a lot around gas wells. There are some trails through it and it appears deer do bed in it at times, mostly on the fringe. I just do not know to what extent yet. The area outlined in bright green is a nice area for beds, it is also elevated 10 feet or so above "my" land.

Here is an updated aerial.

 

While I have yet to get a soil test done (I will soon), does anyone have any fall / winter mixes that they would recommend, that I can research? There is plenty of food around for them in the summer and early fall so I want to use it as a food source for them after the beans or corn is cut and through the winter. I know an acre isn't much but that's what I have to work with.

This plot looks like it will be about .75 acres, and the little existing plot back in the woods looks to be .20 acres. Roughly 1 acre total between the two.

 

Im reluctant to recommend something specific without knowing the soil condition first.....however, provided soil conditions are optimal, for late fall& winter plots I an a huge fan of brassicas. Nothing..not even corn or beans, produces as much forage per acre as brassicas. When I plant brassicas, im in favor of a mix vs. one variety.The mix I plant has turnips, siberian kale, dwarf Essex rape, sugar beets, daikon radishes, and small amounts of a couple other forage (leaf only) brassicas. cereal grains, especially oats, are great for little hunting plots too. In fact in my experience nothing attracts deer better than young tender oats. But they won't last as long as brassicas will. One more option would be winter peas. I love planting those for late season; the only thing is they are very susceptible to browse pressure. For this reason I don't recommend planting a plot of winter peas less than 1 acre....ideally 2 acres plus.....otherwise the deer will not let them get mature enough to produce any pods.

 

Sometimes I read Booner's recommendations...and it's like I'm reading my own comments.....^^^ creepy sometimes.

I concur with booner though, if sunlight isn't an issue and late season tonnage is the desire a mix of brassicas as described is the way to go! If sunlight is going to be an issue incorporate more oats and winter rye in as they will do better with less sun...leafy type brassicas we've found are more shade tolerant than the root/bulb producing ones as well.

 

How much sunlight is recommended for brassicas again?

 

All circumstantial but the figure you see a lot put out by seed companies is at least 6 hours of direct sunlight if memory serves.....

 

Thanks for the suggestion guys. I will read up on it.

Before the suggestions I was thinking buck forage oats or whitetail institute buck oats or whitetail institute winter peas.

Again, I won't hunt over this so I couldn't care less for the "Attraction" factor of the plot. Only that it provides food to them after the leaves are down, the crop fields are harvested and the acorns have been picked over.

Basically, I am saying if the barassicas provides them something they want to eat and provides good tonnage I'd rather have that than something they would prefer more that provides less tonnage.

As you know the one acre isn't much so the more it produces the better.

 

IF good light, go brassicas. Our 1 acre plot once the snow started hitting had anywhere from 10-20 deer visiting it for a couple months and well beyond the end of theseason this year. 1 acre of good bulb producing brassicas will definitely provide the tonnage no doubt about it, given the soil and lighting conditions are good. Put camera on it, you will get awesome late season pictures potentially.

 

Sounds like brassicas will be the way to accomplish what you want. Read up on whitetail institute's winter greens mix.....It will produce an incredible amount of forage.