Raise Them- Hold Them- Eat Them

[Big E]

We all know about food plots and what they can do for your deer herd and your property but what if you hunt in farm country or already have enough food provided for the deer? I posted a while back about "It's not all about food plots in some cases" and this is true when dealing with some obsticles some of us don't face.
 Keeping and holding deer on your property is pretty tough. The main thing deer need is COVER. You may have the best food plot in the world but you more than likely won't get day time use out of it unless there is cover near by. I don't care where deer are at when it's 2 a.m. I care about where the deer are at 2 p.m. If you have enough food around the property or on the property you hunt you may want to think about farming for deer in a different state of mind. Think about planting something they can bed in like switchgrass or egyptian wheat. Also if you have a mature woods think about hinge cutting some trees and allowing some light to hit the forest floor to create some under growth. Maples are a great tree to hinge cut. They create cover and food for deer. A mature maple does nothing for you or the deer. Think about this when a deer is laying down it's worried about cover 2ft tall. Deer love laying by horizontal lines like downed logs and brush piles. Take a walk through your woods and croutch down and take a look around. If it looks open to you it's really open to the deer in the fall.
 Water! When the rut is going strong and it's 60 degrees out the deer will be thirsty. Bucks don't stop moving because of it being hot out. If you only got laid once a yr would you let a little warm weather hinder you of your pursuit? Nope! I shot my biggest buck over a watering hole during a warm rut. I had deer all around me all day long. Does were thirsty from being chased and I had buck after buck stopping for water.
 We didn't have any water source on our property and we noticed during warm weather we were not seeing deer. So I paid the neighbor 2 cases of beer (that's the currency in Pine County) and had him dig two small ponds on our property. Not even a food plot can beat a water source on a hot day. Food can be found here and there but water on a dry yr is hard to come by. We now provide cover, water and food so the deer have no reason to leave if they don't want to. Try to dig your ponds right next to bedding areas or in your sanctuary. Let the deer feel safe and secure.
 Deer like standing water apposed to running water. I don't know if it is because they can't hear well with running water or what but they like standing stale murky water. Notice on the creeks or rivers the deer trails tend to lead to back water or slower moving deep holes. Just something to keep in mind if you share a creek or river with neighbors. Make your property that much better.
 


I hope this post helps if you've been having trouble with keeping and holding deer on your property. We have 80 acres and "Brown is Down" neighbors on all sides of us. The hunting pressure is really bad by us. 16 guys hunting 160 to our NW and 11 guys to our North and not to mention the ones to our S, E and W but we still manage to keep and hold deer on our property by providing everything a deer needs. We buck manage and yes some of our bucks get shot and small bucks get shot every yr but we always come out ahead by providing what the properties around us don't.

[HUNTER2]

Good post. I have a river on my south border and now I think I will wait tell it dries up a little and try and dig out a water hole.

[deadeye]

Big-E, you are right about the tall grass holding deer.  As much woods and brush that we have, deer frequently can be found laying in the open field grass.  I think they feel safe as long as they can't see out while laying down. 

[Big E]

Good post. I have a river on my south border and now I think I will wait tell it dries up a little and try and dig out a water hole.

Can't hurt to try.

Big-E, you are right about the tall grass holding deer.  As much woods and brush that we have, deer frequently can be found laying in the open field grass.  I think they feel safe as long as they can't see out while laying down. 

You think about what's a better wind block trees or grass and what is softer to lay on and now we know why the deer lay there.

[Big E]

Here is a few pictures I took sitting in one of my cousin's stands on my Aunt and Unlce's property in WI. They have held and managed deer like you wouldn't believe on this 200 acre property. Their neighbors are the brown it's down type. They put in watering holes, Apple trees, Evergreens, Food plots and CRP grass fields. It took time but they now are reaping the benefits of their hard work. This stand has it all. South facing hill with evergreens, apple trees, tall native grass, thick brush and food plots. Deer don't have to go far for anything here.

Brassica food plot....little bit of a weed problem but still plenty of food. Surrounded by evergreens, thickets and Native Grasses. The deer can literally bed 10 ft off the plot.


South facing hill with evergreens, grass and brush. There's also a few apple trees planted in there. This is left as a sanctuary and nobody goes into it unless they are recovering a deer.


Clover surrounds this big Apple tree and a watering hole that is hidden by the tree. It creates a funnel for deer coming off the hill, out of the corn, CRP and low thickets to right out in front of the stand. These stands of tall native grasses are a must for good fawn survival.


Low thickets with a few apple trees around the edges along with oak and browse makes for great cover and staging areas for the deer. Notice it's not to thick until about 100 yrds or more. That is so the deer can see the plots so they feel safer coming onto the plot. Deer will stage in these areas eating acorns and checking the wind and the plot for any danger.

[deadeye]

So, just exactly where is this again?  No, not to hunt when no one is around, just to check out how things are going.  I'm thinking around Thanksgiving will be a good time. 

[Big E]

Now you know what Dakids and I were thinking when we were morel hunting!

[LandDr]

Great photos...I will try to get some of mine as well next time I am out at the farm.

Food is almost always the limiting factor when we start working on a piece of property...usually plenty of woody cover but the food is very limited or just in one spot.  We try to design in 20% of the acreage into food and have that 20% spread across the property (20% of each micro area we are managing).

However, the woody cover  can also b e enhanced with strategic shrub plantings to act as living snow fences to keep the snow out of the food sources and conifers can be planted to provide more thermal cover.  These will also act as travel lanes, corridors and core areas.

Grass...I see a lot of brome grass in  photos and that is often short and does not stand up well over winter.  A thick stand of native grass will dramatically increase bedding areas and doe carrying capacity...which means more dominant bucks!  You can go with straight switch grass but I would recommend putting in some Big Blue, Indian, Slender and Canada Wildrye as well...

3 - Switch Grass
1.5 - Big Blue
1.5 - Indian Grass
1 - Slender Wheat
1 - Canada Wildrye

* If you broadcast, you should double the seeding rate.
* Design in trails and food plots to act as firebreaks aroun d the native grass areas since native grasses should be burned every 3 to 7 years depending on how the stand is doing and what your goals are.

More or less you are trying to develop a "Bed and Breakfest" on the property to attract and hold the wildlife.  Build it and they will come!

Land Dr

[bowhunter73]

What would you do if you could not burn every 3-7 years? Would you till and replant or fertilize?? What and why please. I have a field I would like to improve (thin short grasses) but I will not be able to burn. Thanks

[Big E]

However, the woody cover  can also b e enhanced with strategic shrub plantings to act as living snow fences to keep the snow out of the food sources and conifers can be planted to provide more thermal cover.  These will also act as travel lanes, corridors and core areas.

Very good information! Our land is very wooded and every opening that we do have or make is put in with food. If I had the land I would love to put in some Big Blue stem and Cave in rock but where we are at it's just not possible. I'll try to get pics of my Aunt and Uncle's land where they plant native grasses. They got on a management plan with their local DNR or Forester. This was just the one stand that I was in and had my phone with to take some pics.
 On our land we are planting trees and shrubs like crazy to provide browse and thermal coverage. We planted 2,000 evergreens last yr and another 750 this yr. I did a lot of cuttings this yr with Red Osier Dogwood and planted 100 wild plum (bare root from DNR)
 After seeing how fast these Norway Spruce grow I will be putting 500 more in next yr. They  were super easy to plant and have no transplanting stress period. They just start growing. This one was planted on Easter this yr and this pic was taken June 5th.

Here's one of the 100's of cuttings I put in...This is a smaller one but the bugs were horrible and I didn't want to waste time looking for a better one.

We have a ton of Nanny-Berry growing all over the place now after we logged too.

I'm excited to see how the Grey Dogwood has spread after the logging too.

Land Dr-
 What other types of shrubs do you think I should look into? (for deer and grouse) I will be getting a few hundred Elderberry and Arrow wood cuttings next yr and also doing more Red Dogwood. Oh I won't do anymore Wild Plum after this yr. That root sytem sucks trying to bury even after you trim it. I'll just wait for the ones I planted to sucker from the roots.  Grey dogwood, pin and choke cherry and nannyberry is everywhere already and spreading fast.
 Do you have ways of getting Hawthorn? We have a few wild ones (pretty sure they are Downy Hawthorne but who knows there's only 100 different kinds.) and I tried growing some from seed this yr but screwed the pooch on it. So I'll try again next yr. The grouse go crazy for them by us.