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Post by nhmountains on Dec 31, 2021 5:12:35 GMT -6
November4ever aka NoFo on HT swore by conifer plantings with grasses in between rows. As the trees grew larger he would remove trees to keep sunlight hitting the ground so grasses could grow. As pompous as he was I believe he had a good formula.
If you had a couple of those setups you should draw deer to bed there. NoFo had tower stands setup to look down some of those rows and open spots in his plantings as well as his plots. I’m sure he probably baited as well though.
One of the properties I used to hunt had an acre of Christmas trees planted that had grown up. Deer went to that area heavy especially after the first good snow.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 31, 2021 7:05:19 GMT -6
Mine will be between a half an acre and two acres. I have a couple of spots in mind. The other option is getting a solid foundation of switch going first, then killing a few spots and planting clusters of spruce and shrubs... so many options. Making a bad decision isn't the end of the world. But waiting 5+ years to decide if it was a mistake or not is going to be tough. That's a lot of wasted time for a guy my age. I wouldn't wait to plant trees- I would plant at least two rows for the field screen and if trees are left over, plant one row along the bottom edge. The rest of the work can be done later. Maybe run a disk through a strip of the grasses and see how shrubs respond. Or scatter seed/ acorns and disk.
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Post by Catscratch on Dec 31, 2021 9:53:42 GMT -6
We don't have a lot of eoody cover here. Bucks bed in grass with good terrain, or open woods with good terrain (hillsides). Does often bed in blocks of cedars. Bucks check the cedars frequently. Treerows are used for travel.
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Post by nhmountains on Dec 31, 2021 11:48:59 GMT -6
We don't have a lot of eoody cover here. Bucks bed in grass with good terrain, or open woods with good terrain (hillsides). Does often bed in blocks of cedars. Bucks check the cedars frequently. Treerows are used for travel. I think the deer here use the hills and wind as a safety measure a lot. Especially in the more open hardwood areas.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 31, 2021 16:56:49 GMT -6
One of my friends hunts central SD. Someone planted 10 acres of cedars out there and he said there’s 20-40 deer in there at almost all times.
If you plant a conifer bedding area with little to no cover around it—big time hot spot.
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Post by honker on Jan 1, 2022 18:12:44 GMT -6
One of my friends hunts central SD. Someone planted 10 acres of cedars out there and he said there’s 20-40 deer in there at almost all times. If you plant a conifer bedding area with little to no cover around it—big time hot spot. The guy I know who lives west of Mitchell, SD and kills massive bucks on his farm uses those old cedar shelter belts as primary pattern points. When the corn is out there isn’t much else around.
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Post by nhmountains on Jan 1, 2022 21:37:40 GMT -6
One of my friends hunts central SD. Someone planted 10 acres of cedars out there and he said there’s 20-40 deer in there at almost all times. If you plant a conifer bedding area with little to no cover around it—big time hot spot. The guy I know who lives west of Mitchell, SD and kills massive bucks on his farm uses those old cedar shelter belts as primary pattern points. When the corn is out there isn’t much else around. I was thinking your property would benefit from a conifer thicket.
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Post by honker on Jan 1, 2022 23:43:14 GMT -6
The guy I know who lives west of Mitchell, SD and kills massive bucks on his farm uses those old cedar shelter belts as primary pattern points. When the corn is out there isn’t much else around. I was thinking your property would benefit from a conifer thicket. It has a couple of them that I have put in, problem is the conifers are only 12-24” right now
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Post by Sandbur on Jan 2, 2022 5:55:01 GMT -6
One of my friends hunts central SD. Someone planted 10 acres of cedars out there and he said there’s 20-40 deer in there at almost all times. If you plant a conifer bedding area with little to no cover around it—big time hot spot. The guy I know who lives west of Mitchell, SD and kills massive bucks on his farm uses those old cedar shelter belts as primary pattern points. When the corn is out there isn’t much else around. . I am quite happy with about 40 acres where the primary species are red cedar and buckthorn. There are another 2-3 acres of planted conifers. Other than a few creek and ditch bottoms with willows, I am surrounded by crop land. There is now irrigation on three sides of me.
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Post by Sandbur on Jan 2, 2022 5:57:33 GMT -6
The guy I know who lives west of Mitchell, SD and kills massive bucks on his farm uses those old cedar shelter belts as primary pattern points. When the corn is out there isn’t much else around. . I am quite happy with about 40 acres where the primary species are red cedar and buckthorn. There are another 2-3 acres of planted conifers. Other than a few creek and ditch bottoms with willows, I am surrounded by crop land. There is now irrigation on three sides of me. I am not saying anyone should plant buckthorn. I just am not going to spend the rest of my life battling it.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 17, 2022 18:52:26 GMT -6
On a scale of 1-10 I’d put a block of evergreen/conifers as a 9 on a property . It can really help ! A travel corridor from one to the other is very helpful as well.
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Post by kooch on Feb 17, 2022 19:44:53 GMT -6
It’ll just take so darn long to be anything if I plant from scratch at 53 years old.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 17, 2022 19:53:35 GMT -6
It’ll just take so darn long to be anything if I plant from scratch at 53 years old. I started planting in MN at 48. I'll be an old ass man by the time I have an actual conifer "stand"
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 17, 2022 19:54:01 GMT -6
At age 60 you’ll see wildlife using them. Guarantee!
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Post by smsmith on Feb 17, 2022 19:57:16 GMT -6
At age 60 you’ll see wildlife using them. Guarantee! I do agree, but to see 20-30' spruces a guy had better plan on at least 20 years. At least in central MN anyway
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