Help on new farm

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Primetime41
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Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:30 am

I received permission to hunt a new farm last year and am looking to make some improvement for the 2014 season. Everyone on this site is so knowledgable, and I would greatly appreciate help/recommendations from beast members.

Some background: The farm is an 80 acre horse farm. All of the fields are hay right now, but I may be able to have a farmer put crops in 1 of the larger fields, and will also be putting in some smaller food plots myself. The landowner is very cooperative and I believe I will be allowed to make any improvements necessary, as long as there is room for his horses to roam and there is a sufficient amount of hay on the property.

I don't think the deer are bedding much on the property, but I will know more once I spend some time scouting this spring. We did run a few cameras this year and had several small bucks and a few bigger bucks frequenting the property, but the majority of the activity was at night. We passed a few small bucks this year, but did not have any encounters with bucks older than 2.5 y.o.

The property to the south is heavily hunted, and I think the deer avoid that area, even though there are some good thickets for bedding.

There is a small cattail section on the property that I have marked on one of the maps. I think this could be good bedding, but the horses walk thru often. One of my projects that I'm hoping to do this spring is add fence to prevent the horses from entering the cattails.

Any suggestions on food pots, bedding, entry/exit routes, etc. is much appreciated.

Thank you!

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Bucky » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:35 am

Not much to work with there bud...

As long as the horses are pastured there is going to be too much activity and too little cover to really "hold" deer.

One easy add would be a mineral lick to the West of the lower pond.... place it in shaded cover if possible within 30-50 yards of the pond (if legal and you have permission from the landowner to do so).
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:52 am

Bucky wrote:Not much to work with there bud...

As long as the horses are pastured there is going to be too much activity and too little cover to really "hold" deer.

One easy add would be a mineral lick to the West of the lower pond.... place it in shaded cover if possible within 30-50 yards of the pond (if legal and you have permission from the landowner to do so).


I appreciate your honestly...and I tend to agree with you.

Not really looking to hold deer on the property though, just hoping to get more daylight visits. I think I can convince the farmer to confine the horses to smaller areas than they are currently using but then again, I don't pretend to know anything about horses or how much space they need. They are not pastured in all of the hay fields. Most of those fields are just hay that is cut by a nearby farmer.

Last year it got hit hard by EHD and we found 3 nice bucks dead. Probably have another 12 bucks on trail cam this year. That, and the farmer wanting to get rid of the horses, is what gives me some hope that I can make this work. If not now, in the future.
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby dan » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:25 am

I agree that its not much to work with. The private farm I hunt and manage is similar. I do think it has some potential for buck bedding if there are bucks in the area and the pressure in the bedding spots receives very little pressure from you or the horses.
I circled the bedding areas I like in red... The hillside above the pond should hold some buck beds and if it don't that can be changed with a chainsaw. The dike along the property line in the cattails should have good bedding for sure... I marked in yellow where I would put some food plots... I would leave the guys fields alone. I would plant some brassicas and clover mixes, try to have stuff for the whole season.

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:44 am

Will the horses be contained within the blue area?
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:47 am

DEERSLAYER wrote:Will the horses be contained within the blue area?


Yes.

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:56 am

dan wrote:I agree that its not much to work with. The private farm I hunt and manage is similar. I do think it has some potential for buck bedding if there are bucks in the area and the pressure in the bedding spots receives very little pressure from you or the horses.
I circled the bedding areas I like in red... The hillside above the pond should hold some buck beds and if it don't that can be changed with a chainsaw. The dike along the property line in the cattails should have good bedding for sure... I marked in yellow where I would put some food plots... I would leave the guys fields alone. I would plant some brassicas and clover mixes, try to have stuff for the whole season.

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Thanks for your input, Dan. When I saw that farm on last year's scouting workshol it reminded me of this farm, although I think yours has some better features.

I set up on that small red circle on the NW side that you marked and had a 1.5 y.o. come out and pass me at 5 yards.

I will add another map in the morning that will show apple/oak trees and some other stuff.

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:19 pm

Here is a map that I've added a few things to.

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The small light green dots are apple trees.

The yellow dots are oak trees.

The green shaded are is a small plot I put in this year using leftover Crimson Trail from Slayer Seed. Bucks spent a good amount of time in here early in the season. Mostly at night though. Here's a pic of that small plot.

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The pink shaded areas are places I thought about putting plots.

The red dot was a spot I hung a stand for 1 sit and had a 1.5 year old come out of the potential bedding area directly south that Dan circled on his map. Here is a pic from that set-up.

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Here's a couple of the better bucks I got pics of.

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:21 pm

First I would plan on doing what Dan said, but I would see if you could get the areas circled in white into a tall (5'+) CRP mix with some stout plants like Cave in Rock switch grass in it that will hold up to snow well. This would give you some great bedding and food plots (crp allows for a certain % to be put into plots for wildlife) and the farmer would recieve a guaranteed pay check from the government for the next ten years which would also give him more free time since CRP is low maintenance and lower expenses.

The black is screening cover, the green is food plots, the gold dots are stands and the little bit of red around the east stand is wooden snow fence. This is not a complete plan and I didn't even finish adding stands (I'm really tired & heading to bed!) but it's a good base to start off with. If you did the CRP you could do another 3-6 stands or more and another 1-3 small food/kill plots could be added (plus some fruit trees and chestnuts) depending on a few things. Something to think about anyway. Doing the CRP would be a huge plus for pumping out big bucks IMO. Chainsaw work will likely help a lot too. Especially if it has an open understory.

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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Jan 11, 2014 5:13 am

I think the biggest thing the property lacks is cover. I do like the idea of the food plots. I also like Lance's idea of the 5 ft switch grass. This would help the lack of cover situation. It would be nice to see some of the land put into CRP but normally only tillable ground that has been cropped for a certain amount of years can be put into the CRP program. Once in the CRP program it could not be pastured for the horses.

In my thinking food plots would help some. Cover would help hold deer during day light hrs.
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:56 am

DEERSLAYER wrote:First I would plan on doing what Dan said, but I would see if you could get the areas circled in white into a tall (5'+) CRP mix with some stout plants like Cave in Rock switch grass in it that will hold up to snow well. This would give you some great bedding and food plots (crp allows for a certain % to be put into plots for wildlife) and the farmer would recieve a guaranteed pay check from the government for the next ten years which would also give him more free time since CRP is low maintenance and lower expenses.

The black is screening cover, the green is food plots, the gold dots are stands and the little bit of red around the east stand is wooden snow fence. This is not a complete plan and I didn't even finish adding stands (I'm really tired & heading to bed!) but it's a good base to start off with. If you did the CRP you could do another 3-6 stands or more and another 1-3 small food/kill plots could be added (plus some fruit trees and chestnuts) depending on a few things. Something to think about anyway. Doing the CRP would be a huge plus for pumping out big bucks IMO. Chainsaw work will likely help a lot too. Especially if it has an open understory.

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Thank you for your input.

I can discuss the CRP with the landowner. He might be interested in that since it will be income producing. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, he would like to get rid of the horses in the near future, and having the opportunity to put his land into CRP would maybe encourage him to get rid of the horses sooner.

The small woodlots are pretty thick as is, but I was hoping to do some chainsaw work this spring to make it even better.

Just out of curiosity, how would you utilize the wooden snow fence?
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby Primetime41 » Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:02 am

Stanley wrote:I think the biggest thing the property lacks is cover. I do like the idea of the food plots. I also like Lance's idea of the 5 ft switch grass. This would help the lack of cover situation. It would be nice to see some of the land put into CRP but normally only tillable ground that has been cropped for a certain amount of years can be put into the CRP program. Once in the CRP program it could not be pastured for the horses.

In my thinking food plots would help some. Cover would help hold deer during day light hrs.


Stanley, I always look forward to reading your posts and I appreciate your response!
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby dan » Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:13 am

how would you utilize the wooden snow fence?

I would block off access the way the deer want to travel but leave an opening where I can shoot... I would also consider blocking access of deer to my set up tree.
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:03 pm

Stanley wrote:I think the biggest thing the property lacks is cover. I do like the idea of the food plots. I also like Lance's idea of the 5 ft switch grass. This would help the lack of cover situation...

Hence the CRP in addition to the marsh. Great cover and it is easily returned to a tillable state in the future for cropping.

Stanley wrote:...It would be nice to see some of the land put into CRP but normally only tillable ground that has been cropped for a certain amount of years can be put into the CRP program...

The last I knew (& it's been a few years) it had to be in a cash crop (hay, corn, beans, etc.) for at least three out of the last five years. The farmer most likely knows this, but I would have given Primetime41 details like that if the farmer had an interest in this just to be sure. It also looks like the fields are being cropped.

Stanley wrote:...Once in the CRP program it could not be pastured for the horses...

Correct. The government is very clear that is the point of the program so the farmer can make sure to put less into CRP if he thinks he may want to expand on the hayfields he already has in the next ten years (or add a new crop, build, etc.)

Stanley wrote:...In my thinking food plots would help some. Cover would help hold deer during day light hrs.

The food plots would help now and once more cover is added they would help A LOT.
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Re: Help on new farm

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sat Jan 11, 2014 1:36 pm

Primetime41 wrote:...Just out of curiosity, how would you utilize the wooden snow fence?

Dan hit it on the head.

Like I said earlier, what I marked on the map is not a completed, fine tuned plan. Just a solid base. It is more of an example, although doing this would make a BIG difference, but it could be tweaked a lot, depending on what the farmer is willing to do/allow. I have done plans that were far better and more complicated for clients when I used to do consulting on the side. There is also a lot of profit potential on that property for the farmer while turning it into an excellent piece of hunting property at the same time.

There are 2-3 other programs that property may qualify for also and one of them can pay very well. Up to the value of the property.
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