Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

How big?

I

iowascott78

New Member
I was watching a show on the outdoor channel I believe it was realtree and Lee Lakosky was on and they were talking about managing properties. He manages 6,000 acres and has over 600 acres of food plots WOW! I believe he has four different farms I bet he is pretty busy. It got me thinking if you were to build a dream property how many acres would you consider a minimum if you are not relying on neighboring properties to help keep the deer in the area?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p></o:p>
 
  • Deleted by N/A
Show…
Size of the farm

Personally, I am a realist and would love 640 acres or more, but it probably will not happen in my lifetime. I have 240 acres in NW Minnesota and it hunts like more. The key is the mix (oak river bottom, aspen woods, block of spruce trees(sanctuary), crp, some cattail slough, planted trees and 70 acres of tillable). It is all spread out, so I can hunt many different winds, there are several bedding areas, rutting corridors and funnels, food etc...) We take a nice buck off of it every year, I am guessing we will take 1-2 130+ inch deer off of it this year. Nothing like an Iowa property, but for that area it is "big" enough and productive enough for my dream property.
 
I think 600 acres with the right mix would be PLENTY to grow and hold mature bucks. About 400 of that in oak woods, dogwood thickets etc, 100 acres of crops and 100 acres of native prarie would be my ideal mix along with a river funnel going down the middle of it.

The crops and prairies would be broken down into 10 acre sections scattered throughout the property.
 
Last edited:
I wander arounf a few sections (640) that I'd buy if I had the $. I think for the area I reside, 640 would be lots enough.
 
I'd go along and say 640 acres, which is a square mile, if it were in a square shape. That said, I'd rather have 40 acres of well managed land to hunt than 640 that had no improvements. Unless your neighbors are doing what you are doing, 40 acres is enough to pull deer from all of the neighbors properties and make for very good hunting.
 
NotEnoughDaysOff said:
I'd go along and say 640 acres, which is a square mile, if it were in a square shape. That said, I'd rather have 40 acres of well managed land to hunt than 640 that had no improvements. Unless your neighbors are doing what you are doing, 40 acres is enough to pull deer from all of the neighbors properties and make for very good hunting.
Click to expand...

I gotta disagree. Yea 40 acres of the right property is a great chunk but a 40acres isnt going to hold very many mature bucks at the same time. Consquently, I would want a minimum of 350 and 640 would be a great amount.
 
For sure 40 isn't enough to claim sole responsibility for raising and manage an animal to maturity without having him step off the property, so I guess I may have misread the question.

If the goal is to keep deer on "your property" 100% of the time, I think even 640 might be the minimum. But if you want to keep them on your property the vast majority of the time, 40 acres that got a lot of attention would still make for a nice dream property that a lot more people can afford.

Considering time to manage and money to manage, suppose you could have 640 acres and have 20 acres of food plots scattered throughout, and maybe some habitat improvement here and there. On 40 acres, for the same budget and time, you could have 20 acres of food plots in a higher concentration/closer proximity, and almost all of the remaining acreage could be improved habitat designed to benefit whitetails. I sort of think that the hunting opportunities on the smaller chunk might be better, as the deer could be more concentrated on the 40 improved acres, which was what I was trying to say with my original answer.

Defining dream property as the one that yields the best hunting opportunities, the smaller might be better until you have all the time and the money needed to really manage 640 acres. I think I'd rather have a smaller property I can really manage versus a big chunk that I can only half ways manage.
 
640 acres isn't enough land if the neighboring farmers (who have every available acre in crops) is enrolled in the drepredation program. You will need to police that piece of land the entire season to keep the army of orange off your land. I wonder where these farmers think that run-off from those fields go? I also wonder where the farmer thinks this orange army is going to hunt? In the middle of his 100 acre picked corn field? Sorry i just need to vent, and to let some of you know that all the great timber and food plots in the world doesn't always work the way you think!
 
I'll take the "wrong" 640 any day and I'd just need about 5 years with tree planter, tree spade, food plot equiipment and native grass seed.
My ideal piece would b 1000 acres+ with 600 acres timber in center with many fingers and across road on all sodes nothing but crop land.
 
Where Im from in SW Iowa. You need at least 2000+ acres. Not enough woods to hold deer to a area. I guess it all depends on cover.
 
He manages 6,000 acres and has over 600 acres of food plots
Click to expand...

I think there is a little exaggeration there...in fact a LOT of it! They own about 400 acres and then investor friends like Brad Penny own hundreds more that L&T do n fact have access too.

Google maps reveal however that they have a very very tiny amount actually in food plots and all the rest is commercially farmed and they just have the farmers leave some corn standing.

Nothing wrong with that of course but they are really not "food plots" in the sense that most of us think of them.

L&T travel non stop right up until hunting season starts so are rarely home and therefore do little "managing" as we would consider it. They don't get to enjoy their land like most of us do and become intimately familiar...instead they hire what little bit does get done out (usually their bus drive does the food plots).

I wouldn't trade with them for anything including a 200" deer and I certainly am not jealous of the kind of life they have to live to be able to hunt the land they do...;)
 
dbltree said:
I think there is a little exaggeration there...in fact a LOT of it! They own about 400 acres and then investor friends like Brad Penny own hundreds more that L&T do n fact have access too.

Google maps reveal however that they have a very very tiny amount actually in food plots and all the rest is commercially farmed and they just have the farmers leave some corn standing.

Nothing wrong with that of course but they are really not "food plots" in the sense that most of us think of them.

L&T travel non stop right up until hunting season starts so are rarely home and therefore do little "managing" as we would consider it. They don't get to enjoy their land like most of us do and become intimately familiar...instead they hire what little bit does get done out (usually their bus drive does the food plots).

I wouldn't trade with them for anything including a 200" deer and I certainly am not jealous of the kind of life they have to live to be able to hunt the land they do...;)
Click to expand...

I had always heard they worked year round on there own properties. Sounds like you know someone close to the situation so I will take your word for it.
I have watched the show maybe two times, but from what everyone says, I always assumed they were living my dream(minus the tv show) . Since my dream does not include someone else doing my land management, I guess maybe they are not.
 
......and I certainly am not jealous of the kind of life they have to live to be able to hunt the land they do...;)[/QUOTE]


I agree. I wonder if they enjoy their occupations as much as they did when it was just hunting big whitetail deer. I would think that their lives are pretty hectic with TV gigs, sponsors, travel, etc. Not to mention the pressure to put big deer on the ground for the camera and their show, not just for personal achievement. I wonder if they know their deer as intimately as they used to with so much going on in their lives. I love watching them though!:)
 
Last edited:
If u wanna see crazy big deer farms- u need to see decatur co where most the video guys have thousands they each owned and many own land bordering each other. Most the names u know and see on video. The big public knowledge one was Skoronski's 3500 acre chunk that sold last year. I can think of 15+ others that have 800+ Not knocking it- just saying that's where many dream farms are.
 
Last edited:
Sligh1 said:
If u wanna see crazy big deer farms- u need to see decatur co where most the video guys have thousands each owned and many own land bordering each other. Most the names u know and see on video. The big public knowledge one was Skoronski's 3500 acre chunk that sold last year. I can think of 15+ others that have 800+ not knocking it- just saying that's where many dream farms are.
Click to expand...


Hard to beat both Decatur or Wayne really.
 
Scooter1 said:
......and I certainly am not jealous of the kind of life they have to live to be able to hunt the land they do...;)
Click to expand...


I agree. I wonder if they enjoy their occupations as much as they did when it was just hunting big whitetail deer. I would think that their lives are pretty hectic with TV gigs, sponsors, travel, etc. Not to mention the pressure to put big deer on the ground for the camera and their show, not just for personal achievement. I wonder if they know their deer as intimately as they used to with so much going on in their lives. I love watching them though!:)[/QUOTE]



Without knowing for sure, I think that L&T are 'making hay while the sun shines'.
Nothing lasts forever and I think (hope) they're taking advantage of their current huge popularity and they're cashing in on it.
While I woudn't want to run myself ragged like they seem to do, by doing so, hopefully they'll make enough money that they'll really be able to live the dream at a younger age than most of us (and be able to fully enjoy it).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom