Clearing Land

[Cedarsavage]

I have another quarter acre of raspberries and high stem count regrowth. I want 1-2 deer a season and a bear every year or so. There is an obscene amount of cover close by minimal hunting pressure and minimal deer unless there’s good food. First year I had it, I put out bait and had two does daily and a buck occasionally until the rut. I think average success rate is %9 in that unit but I know some guys who kill big bucks on land with good food

Wow, such a diverse group on what to do.
1) Deer love new shoots of raspberries (and blackberries). I'm just saying, don't totally destroy them.
2) Get with your ag extension person in your area, what deer eat/need, where I am is different from where you are.
3) I understand not wanting to use glyphosate, but it will help, even if you tear them down, it still needs spraying to fully kill it all.
4) Have a plan with your ag person to know what the deer want for each season, play the long game, not just the short game. (What do I mean by that, you may need to plant some fruit trees (apples, plums, pears, chestnut) You may need, know I know you need, summer and winter plots.
5) Go on facebook or ask around, you may find someone with a tractor and implements that could do what you want, down here, it's $50 an hour for tractor work, not $150.
6) I know it is only 14 acres, but, if you can have a place right in the middle of those 14 acres that is a bedding zone (never hunt this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Kill them on the fringes of your property, leave the center for eating, browsing, lounging during the day. Put up some cell cams around this area, also, use solar chargers, don't disturb them. Some of it can be thick, some not, leave them alone. I know, I know, it's only 14 acres, and I said, if you can pull it off.
7) Have you a buffer zone between you and neighbors and have feeding plots for you. Develop a funnel from neighbors to your plots. Fell some trees and leave them, leave some thick raspberry thickets, and cut some holes for them to get through, etc.

My biggest questions, What are you wanting out of this 14 acres? Are you only wanting 1-2 deer a year and it doesn't matter buck or does? Are you wanting a huge buck every 2-3 of years? Are you just wanting a nice buck every year and maybe one doe? Are you going to turkey hunt? Are you going to trap? Are you going to coyote hunt in the offseason, maybe kill one if he comes by during deer season? There is a lot to consider on what you want.

Also, send in samples of your land to a local ag college, I think it is like $7 bucks per sample where I am, you would need about 3 samples for 14 acres.

The ag extension folks are pretty good where I am, very helpful, very easy with their time. The better prepared with what you have, what you want, etc. when you talk to him the better information you will receive. It also isn't just a one time talk, you can talk to them multiple times as you do things. If you have a good one like we do, he might even take the time and drive out, how friendly are you, are you someone he would want to help?

 

[Cedarsavage]

Somewhat unrelated, but I’ve always been a little confused by hunters who preach that wildgame is free-range, organic meat which eats a varied and native diet — and then go and remove native food sources (with glyphosate and other non-organic herbicides) and then replace them with commercial mono crop seed mixes that need to be supplemented with more synthetic fertilizer. And all that in order to keep those free-ranging deer free-ranging on their property.

If you’re only after growing and attracting big deer, I get it and I’m not judging, but it’s kind of funny when you stop to think about it.

Yeah I’m not big on chemicals. It’s virgin land other than being logged 6 years ago. There’s just not much for food to hold them there outside of summer when raspberries are in and during hunting season I suspect people baiting has pulled them away

 

[pacoalcracker]

A operator with a track skidsteer and a mulching head that isn't afraid to get into it and get that mulching head into the dirt will have that area cleaned up really well. Most don't want their mulching head teeth into the dirt very much as it wears them down quicker and it's costly to replace them..but, that's what needs to be done to get those stumps and shallow roots ground down. If after that you want it better have that same operator put a rototiller on that same track loader to till that ground real nice and it's prepped for your seed. I'm not sure who is renting out that kind of help for 150/hr or tractor work for 50/hr but it isnt in my area. Most charge 200/hr for a track loader with a mulching head and the operator. I wouldn't do it for less. That's 120K worth of machines, fuel and machine maintenance is expensive and so is the talent to perform that kind of work efficiently. You're not even getting an operator for 50/hr much less the tractor too.

 

[omicron1792]

What state are you in?

 

[MallardSX2]

I guess it depends on what you're mulching and who is running the mulcher but this has not been my experience. They are perfect for large blackberry thickets but herbicides will still be needed later when they start sprouting.

For trees especially eastern red cedar/junipers mulchers do leave a huge mess if the operator is in a hurry but with cedars the dozer just creates an enormous pile that has to be burned and a big cedar fire is an inferno and can be tough to manage. The mulcher operator I use is an absolute surgeon with that thing. He piled the cedars in one spot then mulched that spot (out of the plot) down to dust. It took a while but that area is all back to native grasses.

Your method sounds ideal if you have ready access to a dozer, subsoiler, landscape rake, tractor and a tractor tiller. That's a lot of equipment for a 1/4 acre plot.

As mentioned earlier, round-up and a brush hog then throw and mow would probably get the plot done well enough to keep the deer happy all at minimal expense.

Perhaps you’re right.

But experience tells me that your wrong and that throw and grow sucks and is a huge waste of money.

 

[LostArra]

But experience tells me that your wrong and that throw and grow sucks and is a huge waste of money.

It sure can be a waste but for 1/4 acre and even upping the seeding rate by 3X it's worth a try

Another tip: avoid seed with a large white tailed buck on the bag.

 

[wind gypsy]

If you're going to get anywhere close to making it gone without herbicides you're going to need heavy tillage, not just scratching the surface stuff.

I vote herbicides. Might want some broadleaf stuff in addition to roundup in order to make sure stuff stays dead. Without herbicide or aggressive tillage, you are going to have constant resprouts of whatever you cut.

Also hate to be the bearer of bad news but 1/4 acre plot isn't "holding" deer anywhere if there isn't abundant other food nearby but it may attract them to using an area for hunting. You're going to want browse resistant plants - Clover, Chicory, cereal Rye is probably what I'd do for a fall plot. All of that has worked well for me in throw and roll/mow applications if there is some moisture. Buckwheat could work as a first year summer plot to combat some weeds until fall plot planting time. Id probably throw some balansa or berseem clover in with it as well. After your first succesful fall plot, the rye/clover blend should come on strong in the spring and make for a good thatch to throw the next years plot seed in late summer. If you let the rye go to seed it may be as easy as just mowing it and letting it reseed naturally.

 

[wind gypsy]

Somewhat unrelated, but I’ve always been a little confused by hunters who preach that wildgame is free-range, organic meat which eats a varied and native diet — and then go and remove native food sources (with glyphosate and other non-organic herbicides) and then replace them with commercial mono crop seed mixes that need to be supplemented with more synthetic fertilizer. And all that in order to keep those free-ranging deer free-ranging on their property.

If you’re only after growing and attracting big deer, I get it and I’m not judging, but it’s kind of funny when you stop to think about it.

In agricultural whitetail land, the once a year shot of glyphosate in a food plot is like holy water compared to the chemical load in all the GMO corn and soybeans fields where the deer spend more time than any of the 1/4 acre food plots.

 

[wind gypsy]

But experience tells me that your wrong and that throw and grow sucks and is a huge waste of money.

Some rain, seed to soil contact, and some thatch to hold moisture and hide seed from birds/rodents, and i've had very good luck with throw n mow. I do a broadcast of rye over the top of existing plots every fall and it has yet to be a complete fail.

Heck, this is my mower a while after mowing rye/clover prior to planting fall plots. If the seed heads from existing rye and clover grow on top of metal without soil, they can do alright on the dirt.

 

[Cedarsavage]

What state are you in?

Central up of Michigan

 

[copenmechanism]

In agricultural whitetail land, the once a year shot of glyphosate in a food plot is like holy water compared to the chemical load in all the GMO corn and soybeans fields where the deer spend more time than any of the 1/4 acre food plots.

Agree — I’m just thankful I don’t live or hunt near ag so I don’t think as much about it.

 

[yfarm]

Not familiar with your flora but where I am at root plow and landscape rake does it without chemicals, shredding requires chemicals to achieve the same result.

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