Just Closed On My First Place!!! Looking for ideas, input, ect.

[KSHUNTER]

It is 120 acres with about 60 acres in timber. All the open ground is currently in pasture/meadow. I know it is late in the year to get any big projects started but Im going to get some plots in before fall.

Im open to ideas of where to put plots where to possibly put a patch of switch in, or anything else to help hold deer. Currently the timber has cattle, but not for long! The undergrowth is pretty open because of this, I know that I will have lots of chainsaw work to get some areas opened up to sunlight and stimulate undergrowth.

 

[letemgrow]

If it were my place, I would do a burn next spring through the cattle pastures to release some desirable plants that may be in the seedbank. You could also wait another year to see what comes up anyways. Also I imagine the cattle ate down most the shrubs so I would for sure look to add back some desirable native shrubs that deer like to bed in and browse for your area.

I have a small acreage like you (140 acres), and I keep the middle of the property as the sancturary. I only put plots on the edges so I keep several deer in the middle of the property and I can get in and out much easier to stand sites. Some TSI work to all that timber as you mentioned, will do wonders for the timber and release valuable trees in the process for wildlife or timber. I see tons of browse and cover come back up around my valuable oaks trees when doing TSI work.

If the map is oriented N/S like I think, that bottom orange box would be an ideal location for an apple orchard where the deer will only be coming from the north so any type of north wind would allow you to hunt that stand site and come in from the east and they would never know you were there.

Those are some of my thoughts to start with.

 

[letemgrow]

Here is what I have done to my farm so far.

The red boxes are beans and the teal colored boxes are winter greens. Stand 4 and 5 are rut only stands to catch bucks cruising. Otherwise I do not step foot on those. Stand 1 and stand 2 are for north or south winds to catch deer coming up to the orchard. TSI has been done east of the apple orchard to promote oaks over the hickories and also funnel deer to only one place up to the orchard.

 

[KSHUNTER]

I want to start direct seeding some oak trees and get some mast producing trees as of now very little timber has any wildlife value. It has a lot of walnut through the property, and was logged 10 years ago or so. Not sure what to do with the big walnut, the little ones will get cut.

I like the idea of a sancuary, I have seen the results of what they can accomplish. I hope that I can start seeing results in 2 or 3 years that they may even be a little quick. There is a lot of work to be done.

I think the 4 acres on the north will be beans this year, I like the idea of an orchard.

 

[letemgrow]

I would imagine bur oaks would do well in your area and check around and see what other red and white oaks are dominant in your area. Deer browse the heck out of walnuts on my place so I cut all the ones that are not arrow straight back for browse and only keep the timber quality ones.

Walnuts produce juglone if you did not already know and not all trees/shrubs are tolerant of that. Oaks do well around walnuts so you do not have to worry about them.

An apple orchard requries some work every year so be ready for that. They need to be pruned/fertilized/limed/weeded and for sure protected from deer cause they will not leave a leaf on what they can find so be ready if you go with apples.

Also another great draw is chestnuts so if you have any areas where northern red oaks are doing well, American Chestnuts will do well there and they produce a lot of mast and grow faster than any oak I have seen.

 

[IowaDave]

I've got nothing to add as far as suggestions, but want to give you a Big 'Ol Congrats on your newly aquired property! :drink2:

I'm sure you'll get tons of satisfaction and many big bucks from it!

 

[KSHUNTER]

Thanks Dave!!

I have tons of smaller and lower grade walnuts that I will cut. I did not know about jugalone, I will have to read up. In my area oaks are very rare, state parks and lake have plenty, but as far as private stands very few. Is it best to try and find stands of oaks, identify them, collect acorns, and plant. Or just buy acorns?

What type of shrubs do you perfer? Is cutting undesirable trees to open the canopy the best way to create/stimulate undegrowth?

 

[letemgrow]

Thanks Dave!!

I have tons of smaller and lower grade walnuts that I will cut. I did not know about jugalone, I will have to read up. In my area oaks are very rare, state parks and lake have plenty, but as far as private stands very few. Is it best to try and find stands of oaks, identify them, collect acorns, and plant. Or just buy acorns?

What type of shrubs do you perfer? Is cutting undesirable trees to open the canopy the best way to create/stimulate undegrowth?

The best way is to release the oaks you do have available. Also identify what oaks are growing around you in the state parks etc and then replant those in your area. You can probably collect acorns from roadsides, lake etc, but be sure and check first.

The shrubs that wildlife really enjoy that I plant are, downy serviceberry, elderberry, chokecherry, chokeberry, hazelnut, nannyberry, arrowwood, blackhaw, dwarf chinkapin oak, silky dogwood, roughleaf dogwood, gray dogwood, eastern wahoo, strawberry bush, allegheny chinquapins and probably a few I am forgetting right off the top of my head.

I would search those and see if they grow in your area, if they do, they are a must have in my book. :way:

 

[Hardwood11]

Kshunter: Congratulations on your purchase, I would follow the advice of letemgrow...plant oaks. Bur oaks should do well in your area, or try a swamp bur hybrid, they seem to do well in most soils, and they grow fast, expect acorns in 8-12 years.
And of course, some apple and crabapple trees (make sure they are protected). Nice looking property!!!

If it were me, I'd keep several acres of walnuts, they will be very valuable down the road, and if you ever sell the property, they may increase the value of your property if you have some good walnut trees on it.

 

[letemgrow]

If it were me, I'd keep several acres of walnuts, they will be very valuable down the road, and if you ever sell the property, they may increase the value of your property if you have some good walnut trees on it.

I would get a forester out there to show you what walnuts will be valuable veneer quality, or have value and if there are several of those, the rest would go if it were my place. Cut them down so the deer can browse the re-sprouts. Here is what they do to my walnuts that were logged and re-sprouted or seedlings that are in reach. :way:

You can see I put some fencing around the strongest stem and look what it turned into the same year while the rest are still struggling from all the browse pressure. This is a stump that was logged and shows the re-sprout so they must have been pretty young walnuts.

 

[KSHUNTER]

So I should contact a forester and he will tell me what are the best trees and then the rest should be open season to my chain saw? I know there is little wildlife value in a walnut tree, but I don't want to throw money away either.
<O
Do any of you guys have any opinions about managing your property in a way that follows Don Higgins practices? His main practice is improving cover in late winter/early spring, providing food sources, and then only hunting the edges. He literally makes his properties into giant sanctuaries, not just small pockets of cover for sanctuaries. <O></O>
<O
How aggressive would you be in cutting trees? Is the main objective to cut large trees and let sunlight in to encourage undergrowth? <OWe camped this weekend at a local state lake; the main tree seemed to be a post oak. Are they worth anything as far as wildlife value, bitter/sweet acorns?

I closed on July 1<SUP>st</SUP>; I know it is late in the year to start many projects for this fall. If it was your property what would be the first thing you would start trying to establish/improve. The only food on the property is native grass and browse. Browse and cover are almost nonexistent due to overgrazing of the timber. By cover I mean lots of trees, no underbrush, can see quite a ways through the timber (very open).

 

[letemgrow]

It is better to just hunt the edges and make the middle a sanctuary. Deer pile out of my areas I never step foot into and I make sure they are designed to be bedding areas. Doing some TSI in those areas is a great way to make them thicker and create more browse. Also planting some dogwoods and other shrubs back into those areas makes even more browse if those are missing. The best thing to do is get an inventory of what you already have before you plant 100 seedlings of something that you already have a fence-line full of.

I would not cut any valuable trees, or ones that have big crowns to produce mast. Oaks need those crowns to have the best acorn production and I leave any walnut that has veneer wood in it. The rest are cut back to be browse.