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Food Plots/Habitat Improvements

Bourdeau

Bourdeau

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
375
Location
Caroga Lake, New York
I know from my recent survey many of you hunt primarily public land, I do too.... but I still work on my own land for the improvment of the habitat for my girls and little ones that live on it. Recently a 55 acre piece of land next to me sold and I am excited that the new owner and I have started a co-op of sorts that will now include both parcels totaling 120 acres. I just wanted to start this thread to see if anyone here is busy working on this years improvements?
 
I bought 50 acres a few years ago that had had about 50% of the timber cut just before I bought it. Mostly only hardwoods left. I am constantly working on something while juggling building my small house on the property. The past 2 winters I've planted over 300 pear, persimmon, apple and sawtooth oak trees. And 2500 pine saplings. Its a bunch of work. The fruit trees are in groups of 30 to 50 trees and should bear fruit next year and I will plant those areas as well. Luckily I am surrounded by thousands of acres of privately owned QDMA land and have made good relations with my neighbors. I absolutely love to work on and improve my property.
 
Bourdeau said:
I know from my recent survey many of you hunt primarily public land, I do too.... but I still work on my own land for the improvment of the habitat for my girls and little ones that live on it. Recently a 55 acre piece of land next to me sold and I am excited that the new owner and I have started a co-op of sorts that will now include both parcels totaling 120 acres. I just wanted to start this thread to see if anyone here is busy working on this years improvements?
Click to expand...
Your story sounds similar to mine. I own 31 acres and the neighboring 83 was bought by, not only a friend, but a bowhunting friend. We agreed we would "manage" our 114 acres as 1 unit. We seemed to be on the same page with our goals. That was the good news.

The disappointing news is the new neighbor isn't exactly sticking with the plan. It hasn't been a big deal, though. I'm still very grateful that the property is owned by my friend. It very well could have turned into a housing development, so I'm not complaining.

As for my own property, I've been practicing habitat improvements since around 1990. It's been a roller coaster ride. I currently plot about 5 of my acreage and also have a variety of planted mast (both hard and soft mast), and I also have a few hundred wild crabs, raspberry, and heavy cover.

But weeds and other invasive crap has really become a major challenge. I can barely keep up.

And I certainly have not seen any improvement in deer quality. Our DPSM is huge and buck quality is decent, but rack size has not really increased since my habitat improvements. Our average 3.5 year old buck won't break 120". 4.5 year old bucks exist, but aren't common. Buck:doe ratio is all screwed up. It's hard to stay motivated towards habitat work in an area like this. We are surrounded by the brown-down crowd. I work my butt off to improve the herd, but I don't see the results.

This spring's wet weather has me a bit behind schedule. I normally like to put up an acre of E fence and sunflowers with a few other things mixed in that plot, but, I gotta say, the wind is a bit out of my sails right now. It's rough trying to accomplish everything when you are a one man show.
That reminds me...time to go outside and get to work.
Good luck with your property. Property work has some hazards. Machinery, power tools, chemicals, big trees...there's lot of stuff that can hurt you. Have fun, and stay safe.
 
Last edited:
I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few years with habitat improvements on my land. A few food plots, successful and failures. I’m very selective as to harvesting deer on my land. I enjoy working the property and seeing the deer herd improve. But the frustration comes from neighbor properties that have the philosophy of anything goes. It’s very hard to hold deer to small properties especially during the rut. I give it my best try though
 
Been there done that, it does not matter what kind of agreement you have with neighbors or land owners. When little Johnny wants to shoot a deer QDMA will change to BID quickly.
 
On these smaller tracts you have to be putting in the work because you love being outside and working on habitat and improving your land as you see fit. Having an expectation of managing a deer herd on tracts like that just isn’t a realistic goal. Manage, work, enjoy it. Knowing that one day an old bruiser will figure out he’s safer there and you’ll get a chance. Or a doe group will make it a core area and you’ll get the benefit of bucks coming and going that others in your area may not see. There’s nothing I enjoy better than hours of bushogging and planting and the time spent with my buddies doing that work. The trophy animals that occasionally show up are a bonus.
 
Until Little Johnny kills 10 deer or so in ok with him shooting whatever he wants.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
Let me correct myself...He can kill the legal limit till his heart’s content and me worrying about what he does only ruins my enjoyment so I don’t worry about it.
 
CarolinaDog said:
I bought 50 acres a few years ago that had had about 50% of the timber cut just before I bought it. Mostly only hardwoods left. I am constantly working on something while juggling building my small house on the property. The past 2 winters I've planted over 300 pear, persimmon, apple and sawtooth oak trees. And 2500 pine saplings. Its a bunch of work. The fruit trees are in groups of 30 to 50 trees and should bear fruit next year and I will plant those areas as well. Luckily I am surrounded by thousands of acres of privately owned QDMA land and have made good relations with my neighbors. I absolutely love to work on and improve my property.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a great start in the right direction. I know it's all a ton of work and juggling the priority of things often is the hard part. But someday when you have the homestead finished you'll have more time to work the land. If you love the land (and the herd)as much as I do it's easy to justify the work.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Your story sounds similar to mine. I own 31 acres and the neighboring 83 was bought by, not only a friend, but a bowhunting friend. We agreed we would "manage" our 114 acres as 1 unit. We seemed to be on the same page with our goals. That was the good news.

The disappointing news is the new neighbor isn't exactly sticking with the plan. It hasn't been a big deal, though. I'm still very grateful that the property is owned by my friend. It very well could have turned into a housing development, so I'm not complaining.

As for my own property, I've been practicing habitat improvements since around 1990. It's been a roller coaster ride. I currently plot about 5 of my acreage and also have a variety of planted mast (both hard and soft mast), and I also have a few hundred wild crabs, raspberry, and heavy cover.

But weeds and other invasive crap has really become a major challenge. I can barely keep up.

And I certainly have not seen any improvement in deer quality. Our DPSM is huge and buck quality is decent, but rack size has not really increased since my habitat improvements. Our average 3.5 year old buck won't break 120". 4.5 year old bucks exist, but aren't common. Buck:doe ratio is all screwed up. It's hard to stay motivated towards habitat work in an area like this. We are surrounded by the brown-down crowd. I work my butt off to improve the herd, but I don't see the results.

This spring's wet weather has me a bit behind schedule. I normally like to put up an acre of E fence and sunflowers with a few other things mixed in that plot, but, I gotta say, the wind is a bit out of my sails right now. It's rough trying to accomplish everything when you are a one man show.
That reminds me...time to go outside and get to work.
Good luck with your property. Property work has some hazards. Machinery, power tools, chemicals, big trees...there's lot of stuff that can hurt you. Have fun, and stay safe.
Click to expand...
Sounds really nice what you have for an opportunity and the work you have invested so far. I know brown is down is hard but if you give your deer even on a 31 acre parcel a safe place to hide that kind of external pressure can actually work as an advantage. Don't get me wrong I was saddened last year a hunter killed one of my twin 4 pointers and another hunter killed one of the twin sixes I was watching -and for me that's definitely the hardest part letting deer pass only to get killed on the adjacent public or private land. I like to look at my improvements in terms of health of the does who live on me and how many fawns they produce because my dpsm is horrible in the Adirondacks and I'm doing my part to increase that one year at a time. I let bucks get 4-5 years old even on the public near me, I'm not interested in killing just for the sake of killing, I like mature bucks and where I am there are very few deer that age.
 
fbwguy said:
I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few years with habitat improvements on my land. A few food plots, successful and failures. I’m very selective as to harvesting deer on my land. I enjoy working the property and seeing the deer herd improve. But the frustration comes from neighbor properties that have the philosophy of anything goes. It’s very hard to hold deer to small properties especially during the rut. I give it my best try though
Click to expand...
Could not have put it any better "I enjoy working the property and seeing the deer herd improve." I only have just over 65 acres and I actually had my target buck from a mile away on the public visiting my girls during the rut....I was at work of coarse but happy to hear from a logger friend who saw him coming from my property chasing a doe....made everything I've done worth it right then and there!
 
Benman said:
On these smaller tracts you have to be putting in the work because you love being outside and working on habitat and improving your land as you see fit. Having an expectation of managing a deer herd on tracts like that just isn’t a realistic goal. Manage, work, enjoy it. Knowing that one day an old bruiser will figure out he’s safer there and you’ll get a chance. Or a doe group will make it a core area and you’ll get the benefit of bucks coming and going that others in your area may not see. There’s nothing I enjoy better than hours of bushogging and planting and the time spent with my buddies doing that work. The trophy animals that occasionally show up are a bonus.
Click to expand...
They sure are the quintessential bonus we strive for!
 
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