Prevailing winds are SSW,S and N, NE, NW. Entrance is only from the SE corner RED is the property boundaries. Blue is a creek and pond. I am thinking of leaving the NW oak stand and SW Oak stand as beading. Also Leave the majority of the central portion of the property just west of the creek as the main central bedding area. I am thinking about turning the 2 fields east of the creek into the main food crop field. possibly planting a fruit stand and a small kill plot on the north end of the main food crop. a kill plot and fruit tree stand just west of the creek in the center of the property between bedding and food crop. one other kill plot just west of the pond between it and the oak bedding in the SW corner.
Any advice?? idea changes??
Should I plant any blackberries or forage? What about pine stands or nut producing trees?
Can you come in from anywhere else?
The OP stated access is only from the southeast corner at the present time!
Access is VERY important.....so, just make sure whatever you do you have easy in and out with busting deer off everywhere.
Also consider where they come from....you don't want to deter them from coming onto your property from a neighbors bedding, but also want them to prefer your place.
It is in Oklahoma with no neighboring crops that I know of.
Ed. I like it!!!! What are you thinking for the "cover" area? Re-planting with a bush like plant? Are you thinking those would be good bedding sanctuary areas?
I was thinking everything basically west of the 3 west food plots I would pretty much leave alone since there would be 3 sanctuaries there. The open areas are actually much more thick in person with shrub brush/shoemake and small cedars than it looks.
Thanks for the input, keep it coming.
I will most likely use a chainsaw and create a trail system on the outer edge of the property to access my stands at the food plot locations.
I most likely will NOT hunt the corn or soybeans and just hunt between bedding and the major fields. I want the corn and soybeans to be the major feeding sight and have low pressure. I will avoid walking through it or around it.
Should I plant any cover within my sanctuary for added benefit. I am thinking about hinge cutting some trees in a few places in the bedding areas.
Cool project you have.
I'm assuming you are in Oklahoma. What part? Will you get enough rainfall to grow corn & beans? You might look into milo as a crop as well. I have never grown it, but I understand it does pretty well in drier conditions.
Lastly, if you plant some Cedar trees for more cover, don't let anyone find out about it. If the ranchers find out, you could get lynched;>)
Congrats on your new property & enjoy every aspect of your projects! Nothing like owning your own dirt!
t-roy: Our County avg's. 40" of rain per year. It should be enough, but I will give the milo a look at. The soy bean crop will be 2 acres and the corn will be 1.5 - 2 acres as well. Do you think that will be big enough that I won't have to fence them off? My plan is to have mature corn and soybeans, but I also know the soybeans will provide a good summer food source.
It currently has cedars so I plan on taking some of them out. I am not planting any new cedars. You can see the cedars in the picture as the evergreen trees.
Should I plant any pine species? Should I remove some cedars and plant pines?
It depends on how many deer you have in the area, other food sources in the area, etc. My suggestion would be to fence it off and mostly eliminate the possibility of them destroying your efforts. There are tons of other corn & bean fields adjacent to my small corn/bean plots & they will still pretty much ruin my plots unless I fence them out. My plots are pretty isolated near or surrounded by timber. They feel more secure feeding in those areas, therefore they will target those areas first.
The fencing system is fairly easy to install & maintain. There is some good info about this in the Deerbuilder Forum.
I was joking about planting the cedars. I lived out in western Okla. for 16 years & have several friends that ranch out there & they HATE cedars!! The cedars are a constant battle for them. I haven't planted pine trees but my understanding is that deer will browse on pines much more than they will spruces. Supposedly they won't browse on spruces, but I can tell you that is BS! They have destroyed my spruce trees in my front yard this year. If I were you, I would do more research on this before I planted a bunch of pines only to have the deer ruin your efforts.
One other thought on planting corn in your area. As noted above, I lived there 16years & I don't think I ever saw a cornfield down there that I was very impressed with, even the irrigated fields. Even if you get adequate rainfall, corn doesn't do particularly well in hot, hot weather. It stresses the plant. I'm not sure what those temps are, but I want to say anything above the mid 90's. That's just a nice day for you guys in July & August! Maybe someone else who knows way more about corn than I do will chime in on this. Hope this helps some!
