Thedeerfarmer
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2018
- Location
- Polo, IL and Fort Collins, CO
Hi All!
I am relatively new to the forum, and have learned quite a bit about western hunting from my reading! I cannot contribute much to the western hunting side of things, but have quite a bit of knowledge on whitetail and habitat/conservation in the midwest! This past couple weeks, I began a restoration project in some old pasture and grassland areas on a farm I have back home. This will be significantly different than most whitetail habitat management as I am starting from scratch and building from there. I will be updating this post as I do more management, and I hope someone can find something of value to improve their hunting grounds! If anyone has any questions about habitat, working with farmers, or anything else you see please do not hesitate to reach out. I am always happy to discuss any of those topics.
The first thing I wanted to establish is cover for the deer. I cleared and established a couple of areas for food plots last summer and fall, and need to screen them in and provide some cover to make sure the deer can hide out near the food. I planted some cedar trees along field edges, trails, and in clusters to create cover. Cedars have a number of benefits over something like a white pine or loblolly pine. The biggest advantage in my mind is the lack of need for tubes or bud capping. In only a couple years, they will reach a size deer will bed in them, and can be planted without the fear of a deer, squirrel or other animal eating them every year asa snack. The second advantage this is adding is thermal and bedding cover. Cedar trees are great at providing both of these things. The next advantage is they have heavier limbs and thicker cover. This means that usually, the snow will not fall to ground level as much, making better bedding cover in the cold winter months when it matters most. I purchased my cedars from the Missouri Dept. of Conservation at 16 cents per tree. It is a cheap investment for the payoff years down the road.
The next project was to screen off the food plot areas I created. I had originally planned to use Red Osier Dogwood as this is a preferred browse species for whitetails. However, most places that had it sold out quite quickly, not allowing me time to get any. I replaced it with an Allegheny Chinquapin, and some strawberry bush, or hearts a bursting. These will provide additional forage during the summer and early fall, in addition to the AU Buck IV chestnuts I planted along the edge of the food plot.
My next project was a large ravine, running along a pasture. It was cleared of trees and has been native warm season grasses for as long as I can remember. I had a spectacular food plot in the bottom of the ravine. This past fall a neighbor cleared some bedding right by the plot, leading me to plant a number of mature white pines and spruce on one side of the ravine, and about 100 loblolly pines on the other side. They were planted fairly close in staggered rows to create bedding habitat in 5-7 years when they begin to put on some serious size.
In the ravine where my food plot was previously, I added 75-100 oak trees to begin to rebuild a wooded habitat. This was a mixture of white, cherry bark, northern red, chinquapin and bur oaks. Some will begin producing acorns in 5 years, while other species will take 20. This will pay off when they all start dropping acorns! 
I have a lot more content to add into the post, but limited time as a college student. Once I am able to edit more content and look through everything, I will add to the post! If anyone has questions, I'd love to discuss them!
I am relatively new to the forum, and have learned quite a bit about western hunting from my reading! I cannot contribute much to the western hunting side of things, but have quite a bit of knowledge on whitetail and habitat/conservation in the midwest! This past couple weeks, I began a restoration project in some old pasture and grassland areas on a farm I have back home. This will be significantly different than most whitetail habitat management as I am starting from scratch and building from there. I will be updating this post as I do more management, and I hope someone can find something of value to improve their hunting grounds! If anyone has any questions about habitat, working with farmers, or anything else you see please do not hesitate to reach out. I am always happy to discuss any of those topics.
The first thing I wanted to establish is cover for the deer. I cleared and established a couple of areas for food plots last summer and fall, and need to screen them in and provide some cover to make sure the deer can hide out near the food. I planted some cedar trees along field edges, trails, and in clusters to create cover. Cedars have a number of benefits over something like a white pine or loblolly pine. The biggest advantage in my mind is the lack of need for tubes or bud capping. In only a couple years, they will reach a size deer will bed in them, and can be planted without the fear of a deer, squirrel or other animal eating them every year asa snack. The second advantage this is adding is thermal and bedding cover. Cedar trees are great at providing both of these things. The next advantage is they have heavier limbs and thicker cover. This means that usually, the snow will not fall to ground level as much, making better bedding cover in the cold winter months when it matters most. I purchased my cedars from the Missouri Dept. of Conservation at 16 cents per tree. It is a cheap investment for the payoff years down the road.
The next project was to screen off the food plot areas I created. I had originally planned to use Red Osier Dogwood as this is a preferred browse species for whitetails. However, most places that had it sold out quite quickly, not allowing me time to get any. I replaced it with an Allegheny Chinquapin, and some strawberry bush, or hearts a bursting. These will provide additional forage during the summer and early fall, in addition to the AU Buck IV chestnuts I planted along the edge of the food plot.
My next project was a large ravine, running along a pasture. It was cleared of trees and has been native warm season grasses for as long as I can remember. I had a spectacular food plot in the bottom of the ravine. This past fall a neighbor cleared some bedding right by the plot, leading me to plant a number of mature white pines and spruce on one side of the ravine, and about 100 loblolly pines on the other side. They were planted fairly close in staggered rows to create bedding habitat in 5-7 years when they begin to put on some serious size.
In the ravine where my food plot was previously, I added 75-100 oak trees to begin to rebuild a wooded habitat. This was a mixture of white, cherry bark, northern red, chinquapin and bur oaks. Some will begin producing acorns in 5 years, while other species will take 20. This will pay off when they all start dropping acorns! I have a lot more content to add into the post, but limited time as a college student. Once I am able to edit more content and look through everything, I will add to the post! If anyone has questions, I'd love to discuss them!
