Any Habitat Junkies Here?

[Paradice]

Curious if anyone on here is a habitat junkie when it comes to deer.  Our season wraps up Sunday evening and we're kicking off 2016 first thing Monday morning with the chainsaws getting prepped for bedding improvement, knocking some food from the sky, and making space for a big spruce planting come spring.  I'd put this over in the habitat section, but there's not much action over there. 

[smurfy]

We only own a little over 6 acres. All old woods. They are going to log out up to the property line. We actually hunt public land. Can't even cut up downed trees for firewood without getting in trouble.

[smsmith]

I've tried to engage in threads on the habitat forum here a few times.  Pretty much a waste of time IME

[leechlake]

I wish...my dad's old place has a nearly 1/2 mile road that winds through our neighbors property the majority of the way.  Our neighbor and I our friends  and for years he's been grumbling that there aren't any grouse on his 80 acres because he thinks I shoot them all .  About ten years ago his buddy, who is a forester, told him he needed to think about logging the land because the jack pines were getting a disease.  He didn't follow this advise and now there are dead and dying jack pines all over the place.  Why aren't there grouse?  It's basically an old growth norway and jackpine forest and habitat wise should be mowed down.

If it were me or if I can convince him it should be logged and while they are at it have them bulldoze some food  plot areas and in a few years time we'd have something fun to work with.  He just retired early...what a project to have to fill that time that used to be spent at work.  I don't like my chances but sure am going to keep working him.

[smsmith]

It seems a great number of central MN "deer property" owners think that mature oak forest is great deer habitat.  I suppose when the acorns are falling, that type of area may indeed produce some deer...but the other 11 months of the year those areas are a deer desert 

[bigbucks]

I would confess to being a habitat junkie.  I've owned my 50 acres 15 years almost to the day.  In that time I've planted a bit over 12,000 trees.  Primarily Norway & White pines, but also a lot of jack pines &, white spruce (which have had a horrible survival rate).  The first plantings of these went in that following spring, not long after we moved into the house we had built.  I established a salt lick in a small clearing I cleaned up & built a stand in a double trunk oak tree over it that first summer.  (In the pics thread that's the stand in the background that my brother shot the 13 pointer out of last Sunday.)

There's been much smaller quantities of green ash, flowering crab, birch, black walnut, red oak, nanking cherry, choke cherry, mountain ash, dogwood, caragana, cottonwood (there's about 3-4 of those left) & some other shrub types I can't remember.  Some spots I've replanted 2-3 times & had to give up, as they just don't survive there.  There's an old roadbed crossing my property & that deep gravel base has been tough.  I've let many volunteer boxelder & chinese elm stay when they were in spots where other trees wouldn't grow.  I've cut a majority of the dead wood & most of the blow downs in my 10ish acres of mature woods & mowed several paths.  I've also done that on my neighbors 15 acres of mature woods, to a lesser degree.

Several years ago I started fertilizing a selected few white oak trees every spring, many are stand trees or adjacent to stand trees.  I can't tell if it's produced more acorns for sure, but certainly the browse regrowth around them where I mow with the brush mower every year is more lush.

Several years ago I disked some of the paths & planted clover & winter rye, just on my portion of the woods.

I started experimenting with hinge cutting last spring in one area & have allowed a couple spots with significant blowdowns/uproots from 2-3 years ago to stay as they are.  Most of those are still alive & provide great bedding cover & some browse.

This year in August & early September I worked up 4 small spots of varying sizes, the biggest is 1/4 acre I believe & planted them.  Straight turnips in 2, straight oats in 1, & Honey Hole blend in the 4th.  So far the oats has seen the most traffic that I've observed, but also it's been a very warm fall.

The central portion of my property is a 5 acres hayfield I rent out that's occasionally been corn or beans over the years.  My neighbor has 2-3 additional acres that make the top of that T shaped field that's always been rented & planted by the same guys as mine.

Edited November 20, 2015 by bigbucks
typos

[ozzie]

interesting read guys!  I hope to own a little slice of private hunting heaven to do as I please but that is a few years down the road...in the meantime I will read and dream!!

[MJ1657]

I've tried to engage in threads on the habitat forum here a few times.  Pretty much a waste of time IME

You are always so positive.........

Has it ever occurred to people on here that the reason people don't respond to posts is because they are so often met with criticism and negativity.

Great thread op. Look forward to learning a thing or two.

[bigbucks]

I've mowed a bunch of trails on a couple of other properties I hunt that I have permission to & have also planted food plots there & cut a lot of firewood off of both.  Some of the improvements will benefit me as long as I'm able to hunt there, but certainly will also benefit the land owner, which they can figure out.  I have long maintained salt licks on almost all the properties I hunt & started one this year on one that didn't have one.  I read or saw a video, not sure which, that Charles Alsheimer from Deer & Deer Huntning said you should have one mineral page for about every 40 acres.  That seems about right to me.  Most of the properties it's less than that, maybe 1 per 100, but where it isn't they still get hammered & those trails become part of their normal routines even when they aren't taking the salt in.  I'm maintaining 5 as of this year.  For the most part I put a trace mineral (brown) block & a rock salt (white) block at each page.  The one at home I added a bag of trace mineral to mid to late summer as everything else was gone.

In my experience mineral sites tend to get more traffic & look more used on lower ground.  Near a creek or swamp edge, whatever.  They will work on higher ground, it's just my preference.  Also they make a lot more recognizable tracks on soft ground.

(I have no idea why the word "page" keeps getting changed to page, but whatever, you get the idea.  Maybe "sight" would work?)

Edited November 20, 2015 by bigbucks
screw ups

[Dotch]

You are always so positive.........

Has it ever occurred to people on here that the reason people don't respond to posts is because they are so often met with criticism and negativity.

Great thread op. Look forward to learning a thing or two.

Amen MJ1657. Parking egos and negative attitudes at the door is a prerequisite to making any of these forums work. Otherwise it becomes futile. If someone would like to moderate the Habitat Forums to make it a place more to their liking, I'm willing to bet the powers that be would be all ears.

While I haven't hunted deer in like forever the habitat we've created wasn't specifically designed for them. MN is one of the most diverse states in the US when it comes to soils and vegetation, therefore types of habitat. In southern MN, particularly SC MN, much of our focus has been on CRP. Recent changes have allowed better payout and lower commodity prices have farmers talking about putting more in again. I recently allowed the guy who runs the ground around mine to divert some of his water into our CREP wetland area. In fact I encouraged it. Too many times over the past several years it dries up leaving very little water for waterfowl, pheasants or for deer moving through. That doesn't seem to stop the deer from bedding down there, grinding on the saplings in the fenceline and leaving large piles of poo. Long term it should help the waterfowl situation and indirectly the deer. Water level is already higher this fall than it's been in a long time following the recent November rains. Looks like the deer also track through the EQIP planting we established a few years ago. It's become a great place to hide as they hopscotch there way cross open country. To answer the op question, I am a habitat junkie but deer are only an indirect part of it. Different game down here in much of farm country where there are literally 100's of thousands of acres of "food plot" surrounding the wooded areas.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Dotch

[smsmith]

 

This year in August & early September I worked up 4 small spots of varying sizes, the biggest is 1/4 acre I believe & planted them.  Straight turnips in 2, straight oats in 1, & Honey Hole blend in the 4th.  So far the oats has seen the most traffic that I've observed, but also it's been a very warm fall.

 

Did you get turnip bulbs planting them at that time?  If so, are the turnip bulbs getting used at all?  Have you planted turnips previously?

Edited November 20, 2015 by smsmith

[smsmith]

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Edited November 21, 2015 by smsmith

[NWKR]

I am all about habitat improvements. We are fortunate to have 40 acres bordering the much large family farm that my brother owns. I have been adding black, white and norway spruce and balsam fir on my 40 since there was no thermal cover. I have also been messing around with cuttings of hybrid poplar, willow, ninebark, elderberry, and dogwood. And I have tried and failed to grow crabapples and wild plums from seed, I will be trying that again with hopefully better seed storage practices. Trying to get my brother a bit more interested in improving deer habitat on the farm, but he hardly hunts and isn't too interested. Habitat is decent overall but we have been talking about doing some plantings and other changes that will manipulate the way the deer use the place instead of just randomly wandering from food source to food source. Food plots are also part of the overall habitat plan, but a minor one overall. 

[smsmith]

Who has their trees ordered for next spring?

[bigbucks]

Did you get turnip bulbs planting them at that time?  If so, are the turnip bulbs getting used at all?  Have you planted turnips previously?

smsmith,

I had never planted them before.  I'd had the seed a few years & decided I had time to put some in, albeit it was very late in the season, so I went for it.  I had one turnip that I pulled in one of the plots that was close to baseball size probably 3 weeks ago & they were still growing.  They're obviously quite frost tolerant.  In another plot that was planted the same day they came very poorly & they weren't much bigger than a single pea like you would eat, probably a week ago.  There's a lot of tracks in the plots.  I think they'd been starting to eat the leaves somewhat.  I expect them to get hammered any day now since it finally got cold enough to kill them.

I definitely would recommend planting them earlier than I did.

 

[smsmith]

Thanks for the response bigbucks.  

Have you ever planted forage radishes on any of your plots?

[Paradice]

Who has their trees ordered for next spring?

We're close.  Probably make the call tomorrow on my way outta Dodge.  We got most of our chainsaw work done today and have a good grasp on where we're planting come spring.  Looking like we're going to get three flats of 4a plugs.  1 norway spruce, 1 black hills spruce, and 1 blue spruce possibly.  If we can find another wet tolerant spruce other than black, that'll be what we get in place of the blue. 

 

We have one new trail to clear tomorrow in preparation for brush hogging in spring.  Just gotta get the junk off it that the brush hog can't handle.  We saved most of our basswood cutting for spring to try and hinge them down.  The ones we saved are just in the areas we're not planting back tight with spruce. 

[bigbucks]

Thanks for the response bigbucks.  

Have you ever planted forage radishes on any of your plots?

I have not. May try that at some point.  I would really like to try some forage beans, will see if that happens this year or not, have a senior this year, so there's going to be more than usual honey do's this spring.

'm really just getting a little more involved in it.  I've planted winter rye & clover mixed or oats & clover mixed mostly.  I did do one plot at my Uncle's place this spring that's white clover & chicory, from a commercial blend.  I can't remember what it was called, but that came great.  The deer were hammering on that all summer & fall.  The clover I planted on a little wide spot in the trail in my woods 5+ years ago, is still in pretty good shape.  It's surprising how long that can last.  I mow it once or sometimes twice a year.  It's never been a very productive spot to hunt, but it's still food they can snack on in cover when they want to.

[smsmith]

Here's a forage radish and some rutabagas from my place this year 

[bigbucks]

They look great, when did you plant those?

[smsmith]

They look great, when did you plant those?

Forage radishes were planted in early September, I didn't expect them to do much this year but since we had such an extended growing season they got pretty big.  Rutabagas were planted in mid-late May.

[bigbucks]

Man I don't know when those turnips finally quit growing this year.  It seemed like way after I thought we'd had a killing frost they were still growing.  The deer didn't really start pounding them until probably at least 12/1.  A bunch are now bit in half with the tops gone.

[Paradice]

Good stuff!  Did you snag any pics?

Here's a shot of ours from opening weekend.  Lots of the same.  Tops going fast, bulbs getting chewed, and even some popped out of the ground and carried off the plot and dropped.