Honyock
WKR
I know that I'm not the only one on here managing land specifically for wildlife (whitetail, turkey, quail). For those of you who are, what change or improvement has made the biggest difference on your place? Also, what do you wish you would have done earlier? I'm always looking for new ideas to try/steal. I don't compete with anyone hunting and hoping we can share some ideas.
Three years ago we decided to pull the cows on 240 acres and to manage the land solely for wildlife (deer, turkey, quail). I'm at a stage of life that It's not all about making more money and have been blessed with the resources to be able to do this. The 240 is about 1/2 native grass and 1/2 big mature oaks with two spring fed creeks and two wells. It has a very healthy turkey population (120+) and a lot of deer live on and/or move through this property.
My #1 recommendation is to put together a realistic plan before you start. When we started we pretty much used the shotgun approach and started winging it (controlled burn, food plot, minerals, feeder etc.). At first, we had a little going on in a lot of places and not a lot getting completed. What probably made the biggest difference was when we finally put together a written plan and started managing the property in 40 acre parcels instead of as a whole. Pro Tip #1: have a plan before you start. When we broke it down into smaller parcels we actually started seeing improvements. There's only so much you can do time wise, so we also list in order by priority what we want to do first, second, etc. We started with the 40 acres where we saw the most sign and focused on what we could do to maximize that specific parcel (control burns, food plots/feeders, hinge cutting, etc.). When we complete a parcel, we move to the next one on the list. We've now got about 120 acres completed.
My #2 recommendation is to run cellular trail cameras. I know that the mention of trail cameras will start a revolt but If you're not running cameras on your land, you have no idea what's on your place. No we are not running all over the place from one feeder to the other chasing deer on pictures. I'm too old to run and that's not my idea of hunting. We use cell cameras on feeders and food plots solely for inventory purposes. Cameras will provide you a lot of information in regard to the health of the herd (buck to doe ratio, age distribution of bucks, what bucks made it through the orange army and the winter). We went back through pictures at the end of the year and identified 31 different bucks (spikes on up) on camera. Some were frequent flyers and some were occasional late night guests. The only way that I knew there were that many bucks, their age and their headgear was trail cameras. It's a whole lot easier to pass up those young bucks and the "decent" bucks when you have pictures of bigger bucks. Pro Tip #2: If you want to kill big deer, you have to quit shooting young bucks and "decent" bucks. If you put one by your gate you also might get to catch the State Rep for House District 24 climbing over your gate and illegally hunting turkey.
Three years ago we decided to pull the cows on 240 acres and to manage the land solely for wildlife (deer, turkey, quail). I'm at a stage of life that It's not all about making more money and have been blessed with the resources to be able to do this. The 240 is about 1/2 native grass and 1/2 big mature oaks with two spring fed creeks and two wells. It has a very healthy turkey population (120+) and a lot of deer live on and/or move through this property.
My #1 recommendation is to put together a realistic plan before you start. When we started we pretty much used the shotgun approach and started winging it (controlled burn, food plot, minerals, feeder etc.). At first, we had a little going on in a lot of places and not a lot getting completed. What probably made the biggest difference was when we finally put together a written plan and started managing the property in 40 acre parcels instead of as a whole. Pro Tip #1: have a plan before you start. When we broke it down into smaller parcels we actually started seeing improvements. There's only so much you can do time wise, so we also list in order by priority what we want to do first, second, etc. We started with the 40 acres where we saw the most sign and focused on what we could do to maximize that specific parcel (control burns, food plots/feeders, hinge cutting, etc.). When we complete a parcel, we move to the next one on the list. We've now got about 120 acres completed.
My #2 recommendation is to run cellular trail cameras. I know that the mention of trail cameras will start a revolt but If you're not running cameras on your land, you have no idea what's on your place. No we are not running all over the place from one feeder to the other chasing deer on pictures. I'm too old to run and that's not my idea of hunting. We use cell cameras on feeders and food plots solely for inventory purposes. Cameras will provide you a lot of information in regard to the health of the herd (buck to doe ratio, age distribution of bucks, what bucks made it through the orange army and the winter). We went back through pictures at the end of the year and identified 31 different bucks (spikes on up) on camera. Some were frequent flyers and some were occasional late night guests. The only way that I knew there were that many bucks, their age and their headgear was trail cameras. It's a whole lot easier to pass up those young bucks and the "decent" bucks when you have pictures of bigger bucks. Pro Tip #2: If you want to kill big deer, you have to quit shooting young bucks and "decent" bucks. If you put one by your gate you also might get to catch the State Rep for House District 24 climbing over your gate and illegally hunting turkey.
