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Post by Freeborn on Nov 23, 2018 20:06:39 GMT -6
Of the 180 acres I really only have about 70 huntable acres of high ground. I will be putting in about 10-12 acres of cover on the north side along the highway. I have a couple of questions; 1) what are your thoughts between switchgrass or a mix of NWSG’s for holding deer. (It is about 75-100 yards wide and about 1/2 mile long). The property across the road got 2 10-pointers, 2 8-pointers, and a 6 pointer. It’s pretty frustrating because there are no other crops of any type for over a mile. Everything is either CRP or state land. 2) How many total acres of food should I Plant? 3) Will a no-till drill work for WSNG’s or soybeans in the corn stubble left after combining? 75-100 yards is not very deep, Is this along the highway? If it's along the highway it deffinately won't hold deer in the fall. You will get deer to bed in it in the summer but once it dries down the cover quality goes down dramatically. Rows of Spruce would be better but they grow slow. What are are your goals for feeding? Do you want to feed them all year round or just into Jan? My plots typically last into the the following year which I figure is good enough for their survival. Hard to say on the no till, what unit do you have? Seed tubes often get jammed with residue. Depending on the mix you have NWSG can have see that has burs etc that require special handling. Switch would not be a problem.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 23, 2018 20:33:35 GMT -6
I would rent from local NRCS. They have a Haybuster. I plant for all year feeding. 3-4 acres of dbltree rotation, and will also leave some corn and soybeans standing. I will plant a screen of some type along the highway in the future. The big goal this year was getting rid of the brome grass. If no-tilling won’t work well with the corn stubble I may just plant soybeans in the spring and no-till in the fall. It kind of depends on if I will be eligible for CRP, but won’t know until the Farm Bill is passed.
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Post by Freeborn on Nov 23, 2018 21:00:45 GMT -6
I would rent from local NRCS. They have a Haybuster. I plant for all year feeding. 3-4 acres of dbltree rotation, and will also leave some corn and soybeans standing. I will plant a screen of some type along the highway in the future. The big goal this year was getting rid of the brome grass. If no-tilling won’t work well with the corn stubble I may just plant soybeans in the spring and no-till in the fall. It kind of depends on if I will be eligible for CRP, but won’t know until the Farm Bill is passed. If you have a flail mower/stock chopper and you set it low(2-3") you shouldn't have a problem with planting as NWSG are planted shallow. I plant 3 acres each of soybeans and corn and they typically last a month or two into the next year. I'm fortunate as I have a neighbor who always leaves corn standing, I think he has no way to dry it. Good luck on the CRP, is any of your land eligible for CCRP?
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 23, 2018 21:19:41 GMT -6
Long story but my uncle had it and crp, but got kicked out about 10 years ago. They made him sign a permanent reduction of base acreage. Now I have to wait until the Farm Bill gets passed. Usually you have to have reported crops for 3 out of the last 5 years to be eligible. I have been reporting crops for the last 3 years. The only thing I could do is some type of eqip program, I have applied for their pollinator program but won’t know on that until March. I had close to 45 acres of crops planted this year which was pretty overwhelming. I was thinking to keep it down to about 15 acres or so total in the core of the property, but I am pretty new at this and am not sure how much would be best for my situation.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 23, 2018 21:32:01 GMT -6
I wish Paul Knox was still around to ask.
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 23, 2018 21:49:10 GMT -6
Freeborn and i heard him speak once.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 23, 2018 23:06:25 GMT -6
I forgot to mention “The Garbage Stand” as part of my land tour. This was the garbage dumpsite for the farm from who knows when. After taking four 16’ tandem axel trailer loads packed front to back with old appliances (my uncle always let friends dump them there), we also took out 8 1/2 tons of scrap steel. 50+ old tires, and about 50 old batteries all went to recycling. That is a 30 yard dumpster in the field on the left. We filled 5 of those packed down with a front end loader with what was left. I hunted in that stand from the time I started hunting as a kid. I would look at that pile and think “man if I owned this place..” It was the first thing I did after I was fortunate enough to buy the property.
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Post by nhmountains on Nov 24, 2018 1:21:39 GMT -6
Of the 180 acres I really only have about 70 huntable acres of high ground. I will be putting in about 10-12 acres of cover on the north side along the highway. I have a couple of questions; 1) what are your thoughts between switchgrass or a mix of NWSG’s for holding deer. (It is about 75-100 yards wide and about 1/2 mile long). The property across the road got 2 10-pointers, 2 8-pointers, and a 6 pointer. It’s pretty frustrating because there are no other crops of any type for over a mile. Everything is either CRP or state land. 2) How many total acres of food should I Plant? 3) Will a no-till drill work for WSNG’s or soybeans in the corn stubble left after combining? Here's several questions as I compare your property to mine. I have 4-5 separate doe groups spread out on my land of around 140 acres. We had 2 resident spikes that were on the property all year as the sole bucks until the rut kicked in since then 8-9 large bucks have been hanging out. They'll disappear soon until next November. I do have a non hunting neighbor that feeds deer as soon as our hunting season starts and pulls deer from our property. On the bucks your neighbor shot, were they residents of both his and your properties? Did they stay mostly on his or yours? Or were they roamers that were shot during the rut? Are there travelways that the bucks used to go between yours and the neighbors? What part of the seasons were those bucks shot? Pre rut, rut, post rut? Were they killed with rifle,bow,etc? Were there other bucks that stayed on your property or was your property void of bucks (and does) during the rut? Do does stay on your property during all phases of the rut? Why were the bucks on the neighbors property rather than yours? How many weeks of the season are you hunting the property? Did you over hunt it early on and push deer from your land to the neighbors? Did a hot doe cause the bucks to leave your property and head to the neighbors to be killed or were they drawn for other reasons? Do your neighbors do the habitat game with foodplots and bedding areas? Do they bait? Were there other roaming deer that showed on your property and/or the neighbors or did your property go void of deer? Have you had success on your property in recent years or has it been going down hill? Have the neighbors been more successful in recent years or was this year the first big year for them? On the area you plan to create bedding , will you cause deer to get killed crossing the highway if they leave your property? Will they use it for bedding and then head to the neighbors? As for planting spruce instead as a screen from the road are there road hunters now? Is the road heavily traveled? Have there been deer/car collisions on this stretch? Are there other parts of your property that you could create bedding areas? Did the deer eat your brassicas? What were the bucks that were shot on the neighbors eating when they were killed ? Are deer eating them now? What are they eating now? Are they eating during daylight or nocturnal? Where are they currently traveling from to eat? Sorry for all the questions but, most of those are ones I've had on my property and other forum members in the past. They are part of the deer puzzle.
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Post by Freeborn on Nov 24, 2018 7:36:41 GMT -6
I wish Paul Knox was still around to ask. At the time Paul past his son was taking over his business, you could reach out to him. Based on your comment I would recommend you hire a land consultant to work with you on your property. There are a number of good ones around and in the long run it could be worth your time.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 24, 2018 8:09:39 GMT -6
Wow that is a lot of questions. The deer pounded the brassicas from the get go. I had 4-5 doe groups on the west side of the river and 3 on the east side. This year probably more than ever before. Had about 8 bucks: 2 tens, 2 eights, 4 four to six pointer. As prerut tured to chasing phase I saw another Giant 8 showing up on the cams. I bow hunted 1-2 x/ week from 5 different stands. Until early October, then didn’t hunt until the last week of October. I was up hunting the last week of October through gun season (November 3-11). On October 31 The coyotes moved in. There were 2 packs they came from the South and west and hung around for 2-3 days. Deer activity went to zero. That is rare here for this time of year. Even with the family (6-7) gun hunting there are usually plenty of deer around. Quite a few deer cross the highway from the north, but it is not a busy road. I had 1 roadkill this year.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 24, 2018 8:46:07 GMT -6
This is the type of cover surrounding my property, prime bedding area all over. The thing I don’t have is timber, It goes right from the bedding areas to the high ground. I did have a habitat guy look at aerial photos and make some suggestions, which were things I planned on doing anyway. I planted 100 hybrid chestnut tree seedlings, but a freak mid-may hard freeze killed almost all of them the following spring. Hopefully adding cover on the north side along the highway and the apple / pear tree plantings will pay off.
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Post by batman on Nov 24, 2018 9:43:14 GMT -6
Of the 180 acres I really only have about 70 huntable acres of high ground. I will be putting in about 10-12 acres of cover on the north side along the highway. I have a couple of questions; 1) what are your thoughts between switchgrass or a mix of NWSG’s for holding deer. (It is about 75-100 yards wide and about 1/2 mile long). The property across the road got 2 10-pointers, 2 8-pointers, and a 6 pointer. It’s pretty frustrating because there are no other crops of any type for over a mile. Everything is either CRP or state land. 2) How many total acres of food should I Plant? 3) Will a no-till drill work for WSNG’s or soybeans in the corn stubble left after combining? Too far north for consistent valued grass. Spruce. I have seen hybrid popple hinged for a quicker living screen until the spruce grows enough. 45 acres could feed about 300 deer year round. Your neighbors to the north are baiting the deer you hold all summer. Acres planted and What/how you plant depends upon what seasons and how many guys you hunt.
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Post by wintomatic on Nov 24, 2018 11:43:26 GMT -6
It’s just me and my 72 year old mother who bow hunt here. She is a born killer. She was always a crack shot with her Remmington 1100 20g. I have seen her drop ander at a dead run at 75 yards. Her boyfriend bought her a bow at when she was 65. She practiced off the deck for a month. Took an 8 pointer and a doe within 2 weeks into the opener. Gun hunting here has gotten rediculous, but family is more important.
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 24, 2018 13:23:33 GMT -6
I would plant 2-4 rows of spruce along the edge of all of the wetlands. Plant a few on any islands or points in the swamps. You can even plant them in the popples and release them later.
Get a plan with strings of spruce for travel lanes and clumps or circles for bedding.
Red cedar works but spreads disease to many apple varieties.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Nov 24, 2018 13:35:21 GMT -6
Nice place!
I’m about 20 miles north of you in Otter Tail. Tree plantings will help, also like that you have good crop on the property!
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