Starting this early for those that can start now or have ideas going into the next season I have tons of ideas running through my brain. Things that have to be done based on needed improvements and surrounding pressures. This in a neighbour that is paying big $$$$ putting in a big food plot. Not knowing what to expect from 2 other neighbouring farms. Share your thought projects and goals
I posted it on the tractor thread yesterday but I’m hiring a local excavating company to clear about 20 acres on my family’s 450 acre land. It’s about 95% hardwoods and nearly all hardwoods or horse pasture for a 5 mile radius.
Keep us posted on your progress This winter will be tree cutting. I realized that in one area where I dropped some bad bass wood and left the trunks the deer aren't walking that area as they use to. My hope was they'd use them to lay up against raking in the southern rays 40-70 yards from the farm field edge. Good bass wood can bring a decent price but holey ones aren't much good. They rot slow but burn a bit too hot and fast. Good for occasional stove cleaning burn but not so much for a regular burn.. I'd love to find a local carver that would want short logs. With their huge leaves they are a major shader Also going to camp this very early spring to dig up a bunch of the wild apple saplings and some white pine to plant here. Just have to make sure no part of a buck thorn make it as well.. holds ton of deer near impossibly to get rid of after just one fruiting season. We can not burn here so I'm going in some areas and leaf blow the ground clean and rake up the soil. Not same as a burn in benefits but it will open the ground to support before the leaves start shading. I'm considering a leaf shredder. It would help in composting
I’ve got quite a few things planned for the upcoming year. I’m def enrolling our big field in a CRP border program this year to help with erosion and to give a buffer and visual barrier between the field and the neighbors. I’m also going to have to reposition some of my food plots and box blinds based on that border. I also plan on clearing some trails on the bigger timber lot on the farm so I can easily access via UTV and tractor for deer recovery and checking trail cams. I also plan to do some hinge cutting in the late winter to thicken some areas up for bedding.
Old, my thoughts...., looking at the many pics of your land you hunt kinda drives me nuts. Being it literally looks like a vast desert of nothing but trees with zero understory. I just cant imagine hunting there? I'd do alot of things to create BEDDING on it. I don't know how much land you have to work with but just looking at your pics you've posted, I'd rather hunt thick/public/over pressured land then what you show. Deer like horizontal cover more then vertical. Not trying to be rude but I feel you could have WAY better hunting if youde get better/thicker understory. I can't imagine a deer bedding from pics you've shown. Lord knows you have the gumption too tackle that
One of our goals is to plant some fruit bearing trees. Multiple different apple species and pear trees. They are logging all of the timber surrounding the one farm I hunt. They have been leaving all of the tree tops lay. Going to make great habitat.. we need to make a reason for them to hit the farm. Fruit trees are our first step as the fields are usually rotated with crops.
Actually your preaching to the choir here. That said it's a marriage and I have most of the control over this land up to the logging. That has to be both and one half of this both just refuses. I drives me wild to see the what was great standing timber go to ****e due to disease ,weather and age. Money swirling the drain.. I did force a cut on 9 acres many years ago. This got him the tractor.. Now I have managed to get most of the yellow poplar cut, I'm working on the bad hardwood and damaged maples. Dead ash is going to be a big project. I've mentioned that burning here in NYS is not an option. So I'm going in with the leaf blower clearing then scratching or dragging up the top layer in early spring before leaf cover. Any ideas on woodland grass you guys have let me know because all we get for understory are bramble,invasive garlic,sheet moss, other nasty seeds. Much of our place is shale as a top soil. We are "glacial soil" This as in a glacier made our valley and as it slowly formed the valley below . Like a plow it deposited all the debis, mostly rocks, up its side where we live. I am going to go with a more " wild " type clover due to the acidity. So that's our situation
OK, I get it OND. To bad you're not allowed to form some tangled areas for bedding. As for grasses, I don't know about that.
Well actually I do have a few areas like that. I have one in the oak flats and I have an "island" in the big food plot in lower field. Then there is the mid hill and lower swamp areas. That said we do still get good bucks on the place. I have most pics on the computer but heres an example. Like our son said today when he was down, they are all hiding up on the neighbors 100 acres. They stopped going on their land mid bow season. They are feeding their " horses" and the "pheasant " plus have a large pasture on the side of an east facing slope surrounded by pines plantations along the farmers other corn field. It's a perfect place for the doe and buck. Big enough to hold both. They are blessed with the perfect land features for this hill and Winds. Her best decision was to let 50 acres of pasture revert back and planting a group of pines.
Went back up and worked on the plot some more, I picked up the stuff I left lay last time since the deer pretty much browsed all the good stuff off it. Cut a bunch more again and left it again for the deer, getting closer to getting this one done.
Did some more cutting yesterday again, trying to get a bunch done before we get more snow on the ground. The deer absolutely hammered the trees I left last time.
As I walked the property today thinking, it occurred to me my biggest error. Turnips and radish. I never planted either and always have at least some. I had the rape but it didn't do much and it was put in real late. They stripped the corn early as well as the sorghum though There are still a few bent over ears they completely missed. I opened up a bunch for what ever. I think the beans though they grew great may have been a mistake this year. Also a lack of rye.
New years eve and I'm out here in a light Henley and light yoga pants, 58 degrees. Perfect for rocking. That is removing the frost heaved butt busters, ankle rollers , toe grabbers and tire slashers. Took some pics of yesterday's work. I wished it showed better you need to enlarge screen.
Submitted everything for the CP33 CRP border program on our big field on top of the hill last week. Hopefully it’s approved. We did a 120 foot border on the north and south edges of the field to give me a good buffer from the neighbors property line, and to also knock back the erosion. We went with 30 feet everywhere else except for the most NW finger of the field which we’re filling completely in. The goal there was to force them to use the other plots and reduce the food location options to make movement more consistent. It ended up being a little over 8 1/2 acres of CRP and should be some pretty good income and bedding cover for every kind of critter up there. At some point once season is done and the ground is still froze I’ll need to move those box blinds, and will also need to move the plots next spring to accommodate the CRP borders. Next week I’m reaching out to the NRCS office to inquire about the forestry program. There are some great tax benefits to that so I’ll explore it a bit and look to see what the commitments are and if it makes sense for us. Map of the CRP border program and existing plots and box blinds below…
Today I started hauling the brush from the tree cutting around the house we paid for. They cut the trees and dropped the logs and limbs in place. Good in stacking much of the limbs. Well hubby was going to rent a professional sized chipper to handle them. The cost was a WTF! amount. So he put it off. Now I never planned to allowing that. I know I can use all of it and have no issues in the labor to fill Gator and haul it to where I need it. Today I took out one pile in two Gator runs. It went to one of my original brush pile fences that desperately needed to be built up. We had a serious issue with road shooters crazy stuff over the years so I built my first 400ft fence along our road frontage. 7ft high. Took two years to fill in and every year a bit of addition to keep it high enough. Well it worked but the last few years I've been too busy to keep it up. Also the town changed deer movement there. They dug 8 ft deep culverts and filled them with large jagged rocks on both sides of the road. Bam crossings ceased. I have not hunted that 5 acres in 10+ years. The top half was good but they could cross easily from near both drives. This year I found both the deer and the turkey are back in that area. Today I went in and did some work. Built up the fencing, cleaned up some of the woods floor. The area has two ground blind not used in a long time so those need work. I'm going in there and leaf blowing a lot of ground to open things up to some light. Most of the big poplar have been cut and some of the dead ash trees and diseased trees. Hopefully I can get some natural growth going by disturbing things with the blower. Burns are not allowed here in NYS The fencing has little openings that the deer and turkey use to enter and leave. That said after a shot it also steers them straight down the Hill on our place. Great to avoid a road crossing onto the guy next to us across the street, travel of least resistance in panic mode. Difference betweena wire fence and a solid brush fence is. Deer won't readily jump over a fence they cannot see on the other side of. They will readily go through openings along the fence but not over it. I make off set openings so the road hunters can't see through a big opening. Sections slightly staggered that bye pass each other with each end open.
My little work horse with my co pilot. It's helping to makes short work of building the original brush pile fence back up. I already have a new and older deer bed just 10 yrds from where I'm working. Hoping to increase movement in there. I have some saw work to do as well. Thank heavens for dump beds.
I cannot save the ash trees I have on our place I can hope they send out enough seed to attempt to beat the beetles. This said I decided to order 10 Mnt. ash that will produce a good crop of long hanging berries and produce a visual barrier when.young. what's the point with the ash borer killing all our ash trees? Well these will be in line in one area away from the main woodb line. I can start treating around them immediately before they are old enough to produce berries. To help prevent death and to help control the beetles with a insecticide root drench as recommended to take it up and kill any beetles that try to feed. I can have these away from an area that other animals want to feed. A vapor barrier around them will be placed to stop green growth. I also ordered another 10 hazel nuts that I allow to Bush not tree grow. They produce alot but with as many as I have now, never get a nut. The animals hit them hard the second their husks pop. I find the hulls scattered all over our woods. They also make a good visual barrier.
How are you coming along on plans and work as we go into Febuary? I'm doing pretty good with as many projects I have going on. This from new chicken prep to woods work. The Garden and green houses to the fields. Driveway has kept me busy and helping son with fire wood. Wind dependent there will be a lot of dropping done soon.
