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Habitat Gurus- What Would You Do?

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CottonwoodCanyon

Well-Known Member
I was having a discussion with a friend about his property and thought I'd ask the forum gurus. He has ~70 acres in south central IA that he recently purchased. Mostly timber but there are 3 small fields, about 4 acres each. They were clear cut at some point and turned into ag, but the soils are pretty poor on these hilltop fields and they are pretty sloped so he is leaning towards just turning them into habitat or food. Maybe CRP? He was leaning towards maybe some switch, maybe some food plots? Maybe some timber regeneration? I understand a lot of it has to do with site specifics but I think there's a lot of knowledge in this group and I'm curious what some of you would do with a blank slate.
 
I'd see what pops up just from the seed bank. Although, it being ag (which I'm not very familiar with), it may not have a whole lot pop. I'm always in favor of early successional habitat that is Rx burned every 2-3 years.
 
I would want some food on a 70 acre piece myself. So I would lean towards something like clover and if there is any area flat enough, then do the Dbltree rotation there. Although...if one of the slopes was south facing...then maybe do that one in switch for bedding and the other two in food.

OR :) One in clover, one in switch and one dedicated to tree plantings like chestnut, fruit trees, etc. BTW, I have recently purchased some tall fence from a deer farmer and will install that in an area on my place that I will then use as a "tree sanctuary" to get chestnuts, etc, going. So rather than fencing off each tree, etc, I will fence off a zone that I can enter with a mower, etc, to maintain, but keep the deer out of so the trees can get established.

After a few years and the fenced off trees are good to go...move the fence and start over, doing roughly a 1/2 to 1 acre or so at a time. Somewhere down the road though, I will have a really well developed tree based "grocery store", fruit, nuts, etc. Also, this "zone" will be strategically placed near the center of the farm and will have established ways to hunt the travel to and from it.
 
Awesome feedback Daver. Very interesting thoughts on the tall fencing! How tall is it? And why is it that you'd need a "flat enough" are for the Dbltree rotation versus a clover plot?
 
I'd want food given the rest of farm is already cover. If it's hilly like you describe I'd take soil samples, get PH right, fix PK, micronutrients and then go clover and or alfalfa. Maybe look at renting it all to someone who is willing to have a predominant alfalfa hay mix.
 
I like alfalfa or clover in that situation. I would not be opposed to one area of switch!!
 
CottonwoodCanyon said:
Awesome feedback Daver. Very interesting thoughts on the tall fencing! How tall is it? And why is it that you'd need a "flat enough" are for the Dbltree rotation versus a clover plot?
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I believe the fencing is 7' tall, maybe 8', definitely well over my head. It came from a place where the guy was raising gigantic bucks and it held them in...so I am counting on it holding out the same at my place. :)

As far as flat enough...I just personally wouldn't want to be potentially contributing to soil erosion. I know my farm is "southern Iowa clay" and if you have bare dirt, a modest amount of rain and fair to steep slope...you have gullies and washouts right now. I have mucho food plots...but nowhere where I experience runoff. Clover would in theory never be bare dirt, obviously once you got it established that is.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
I'd want food given the rest of farm is already cover. If it's hilly like you describe I'd take soil samples, get PH right, fix PK, micronutrients and then go clover and or alfalfa. Maybe look at renting it all to someone who is willing to have a predominant alfalfa hay mix.
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FWIW, I just recently had a farmer friend tell me that he would not put alfalfa in a small plot, say 3 to 4 acres or less, that gets a lot of deer action. They will grub it so close to the ground in the winter so as to kill it. Now this was just one person telling me this, so who knows. But he was being serious.

I was planning on having him plant and maintain about a 4 acre alfalfa spot on my farm that would absolutely be marauded by deer, so that is what brought the conversation up. I am not an alfalfa expert, so I took him at his word. This is an area that used to be in CRP at my place, but is no longer in the program. So I was looking for a "win-win"...he could grow and take the alfalfa off and we would purpose not to scalp it in the fall...essentially providing some food on into the winter too.

But alas, it is not the way we are going at this time due to his concerns.
 
Mow short, then spray with roundup, the no-til in a winter wheat/oats/rye/winter peas. Possibly plant some turnip and radish if you want. These plants all help build souls…. And the deer will eat them all fall. I’d plant in about one month. First week of August!!!

Good luck! Anxious to hear how it goes!
 
We hadn't considered alfalfa hay...interesting thought too. The mow, spray, winter rye and peas in 1/2 and then switch in 1/2 was the leader in our heads. Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming if you have thoughts!
 
Three 4 acre fields is a decent amount on 70 acres. Reason I say that is it would be tough to pattern certain deer given the many options in such a small area.

Personally, I'd convert one of the three to cover, taking into account the proximity to other field(s), adjacent other cover types, slope of the field (worse slope more desirable for a CRP option) and location on the property vs roads, neighbors, etc.

I wouldn't abandon food on at least one (if not two) of the fields. Soil amendments can be done easily, as others have pointed out.

Good luck!
 
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