Climbing The Wildlife Habitat Staircase

It’s also wise to consider if your set goals are realistic and/or contradictory to one another. For example, a common goal of the majority of my clients in the Mid-South is the ability to grow, view, and ultimately harvest mature bucks, (4.5 years old plus), on an annual, or at least semi-annual, basis. This goal is often achievable, but it tends to be contradictory to other goals set by the landowner. The same landowner that wants to have a mature buck on his property also wants to have a dove hunt the week before opening day of bow season for deer. Or he wants to leave the majority of the farm in mature hardwoods that are unsuitable for bedding/cover that a mature buck requires. I’ve also had landowners who want to walk their whole property with their wife each morning to get exercise and enjoy the scenery on their farm. All of these activities are great and make owning recreational land fulfilling and enjoyable, but all these activities are very detrimental to holding mature bucks on your farm, more less actually harvesting them. Another example is that I had a landowner that had a roughly 100-acre farm that’s number one goal was to create quail and turkey habitat. This gentleman knew enough about these animals to understand that creating early successional cover for nesting, as well as brooding habitat was key for both species’ success, and especially quail. We encountered one major problem with this goal that could not be overcome – this landowner lived on his farm and had a house and barn standing in the middle of the farm. He and his wife really liked to keep the long driveway area and fields mowed down clean and neat. These field and driveway areas were expansive and ran through the center of the property from one end to the other. Picture the filling in the center of an Oreo and you’ll understand the concept. These grass areas were a monoculture of tall fescue and comprised around 30 acres in the center of the farm. This tall fescue was mowed but often would get thick and clumpy if areas became too wet to cut or if equipment broke down. These tall fescue areas did nothing to benefit wildlife and it became a roadblock between the two sides of the farm. While turkeys could often be seen strutting and feeding in these areas, they offered little food for the birds, and zero cover for them. They also would be unpassable to young quail chicks and turkey poults, and even mature quail when thick. The large acreage of fescue in the center of the farm did look nice to the untrained eye, but to folks looking to promote wildlife it was a missed opportunity to create cover and forage opportunities, and greatly reduced the landowner’s ability to sustain healthy populations of game birds.

Managing expectations in goal setting is also wise. If a landowner wants to perennially produce 150″ bucks in a county or area that very rarely, if ever, has done so, this can be a tall order. I try to always remain positive in the pursuit of goals, but also want to keep them based in reality. I am certainly a “if there’s a will, there’s a way” type of guy, but at the same time recommend keeping the goals realistic in order to prevent burnout. With this being the consideration, I advise the setting of short-term and long-term goals. A good example of a short-term goal would be that if a landowner just purchased a 50-acre property, was on a limited budget but wants to get the property in good order for the approaching hunting season in a few months, let’s get some supplemental food plots in place where we can to provide wildlife viewing and hunting for fall. Be sure not to bite off more than you can chew and install plots where they make sense and in the proper manner. Get to know the property that fall and gain understanding of your equipment situation and what it will take to reach your long-term and short-term goals.

A good example of a long-term goal would be to create diverse and varying-aged timber stands on your property. Timber takes long periods of time to grow back after harvest, and harvest alone presents its own challenges of dealing with loggers, debris, reforestation, site prep, and tree planting. To be conducted properly, managing timber takes a well thought out plan and time to be executed properly and goals realized.

Choosing A Property

Now that we have our goals set, we can choose a property that has the potential to achieve them. Choosing a property with wildlife potential could be an article in itself but I’ll mention a few thoughts here to consider.

When it comes to purchasing property for wildlife, one of the most important factors that I see often overlooked is the farms and land that surrounds it. This factor’s importance is compounded by the size of the property as well. For example, if you are buying a 500-acre farm you’ll have the land to manipulate and therefore control more of the wildlife usage of the area compared to a 50-acre piece. If your desire is to grow and harvest mature bucks or promote wild quail populations, it’s vital that the surrounding habitat and landowners are suitable and like-minded for this to become a reality, especially on smaller acreages.

Another consideration I see that’s often not thought through is “can this property be manipulated to provide that habitat required to reach my goals for wildlife?”. Example being that deer certainly, but really all forms of wildlife, need quality year-round forage to thrive. Deer in particular have requirements such as high-protein content in their diets at certain times of the year, and often native habitats can’t meet those needs. As a wildlife manager we tend to plant supplemental food plots in order to be sure that deer and other wildlife species never go without quality forage and specifically target these plantings to provide a food source in the lean times of native forage production. I’ve worked on and cruised many farms that don’t have enough acreage of open land to create food plots. The reasons vary, but a common one is that the land isn’t flat enough to be suitable for planting. The areas of flat land on some properties can be so limited on some farms that any forage planted there quickly gets eaten up and has no real effect on providing nutrition to wildlife. Also, did the landowner max out his budget on the purchase of the property, and if fields aren’t in place, do we have the money to clear and create them? Does the farm, or only fields/openings on the farm, consistently flood each year and therefore limit our ability to provide forage in them? Another example would be the timber existing on the property. If the property is a 50-acre clearcut with very few, if any, mature trees on it, a turkey hunter will have very few opportunities to have turkeys roosting on his farm until the trees that are replanted have time to provide the proper height and branches for turkeys to utilize them to roost. Setting your goals first and matching the correct property to them will greatly speed up the process in realizing them.

Make A Plan

As I mentioned earlier, I get to cruise a lot of unique and interesting properties dedicated to the production of wildlife. Sometimes these properties are still under contract or have just been purchased when I get to consult on them. More often than not though I’m brought in by a landowner that’s owned the property for a while, and he’s started to manipulate habitat and work the farm to increase wildlife. A trend that I often encounter is the obvious lack of a plan in the work that was conducted in the past and even the present. I often see field creation and timber management work that doesn’t make sense to meeting the landowner’s stated goal. Tree plantings, digging of ponds, permanent stand placement, trails, placement of sheds or home sites, etc., all can often be seen with the obvious lack of planning to reach a goal. The really unfortunate aspect of this lack of planning is that once some of those permanent attributes are put in place, (cabins, barns, timber cutting, etc.), they are often very hard, if not impossible, to correct and leave landowners facing the harsh reality that they will have to start over to an extent or the goals they have set can’t be realized if their current land usage or situation continues. A few examples would be field and food plot creation and placement. I can’t tell you how often I see food plots, or even native plant fields, that naturally congregate deer and make for excellent hunting sites placed on the farthest point of access on the property. What ends up happening is that deer in particular will use these areas heavily and often in daylight due to their seclusion deep in the farm. Hunters often see this activity via trail cams and will walk all the way through their whole farm to hunt these secluded fields at the back of the property. In doing so, allowing their wind to blow throughout the farm, deer seeing them get in and out, as well as leaving a long scent trail to and from the stand. Even worse, there is no safe area to blow your scent in these secluded plots, thus alerting deer at a high rate to the hunter’s presence. By planting and hunting these fields at the back of the farm, a hunter is not only affecting that small hunting area but is also pressuring the whole farm in his entry and exit by his scent, sound, and physical presence. This issue could easily be prevented by creating these plots or openings toward the front of the farm, making them much less intrusive for deer and allowing the deer to feel safe in a larger portion of the property.

Another example is having a cabin or building deep into the body of the farm. I’ve seen many properties that have structures and road systems deep into them and make it very hard to provide animals with a safe space where they rarely are bothered by humans on the property. This effect is much worse if a client doesn’t live on the farm full time, allowing the deer and other wildlife to be conditioned to the coming and going of vehicles, equipment, and ultimately people at the homesite. If the sight and sound of vehicles around the house equals hunting pressure to animals, they will quickly respond negatively to a vehicle entering the farm.

Planning for the financial requirement of managing property to reach your goals is also needed. Equipment, fuel, fertilizer, herbicide, seed, etc., all are expensive and can add up quickly. If faced with the decision to buy a 100-acre farm but you won’t have any cash left over to manage it properly versus a 75-acre farm with cash to manage it, I would take the smaller farm every time. Also consider how your budget is spent. If you spend a large chunk of your budget on enclosed permanent blinds and can’t afford to plant food plots or conduct prescribed fire, was your budget best utilized to reach your goals?

Make sure your habitat work is executed in proper order and included in your overall plan. For example, if the Mid-South we frost seed, prune, and plant trees, and conduct TSI in January-February. This is the best time to conduct these practices and also doesn’t interfere with hunting seasons or spring/fall planting times. We plant spring plots in the months of May-June typically with September and early October being ideal for fall plots. We install permanent blinds in the summer as well as creating new fields and access trails, etc. All this work falls into its planned time frame for best results and hunting seasons to limit conflict with other chores. Having a yearly plan such as this really helps to make your management time productive and ensures the work gets done.

Also, don’t be scared to ask for help. Bring in experts in their field to build a plan for your farm and to help execute it, if need be. Most states have county foresters, agricultural extension agents, biologists, etc. that often will come out and cruise your property and consult with you on best practices. These folks are paid by your tax dollars, and I advise my clients to take advantage of this knowledge. Also, there are private consultants such as myself that charge for time and travel to inspect your farm and, in most cases, provide a detailed plan on how to manipulate it to meet your goals. I have seen countless scenarios where I’ve been able to tweak a landowner’s plan and allow them to achieve success where they have been struggling to do so. I’ve also been able to get new landowners on track right out of the gate, allowing them to save time and money in their journey of land management. Knowledge is power and bringing in experts to help build a plan is a great idea. That said, bad advice is expensive so choose your sources wisely.

Equipment

Choosing to purchase the right type, size, and quality equipment to match your property and capability is also very important. We have our goals set, have found our property that they can be achieved on, and have come up with a plan to reach those goals. Now match your equipment that will be needed to conduct the work to fulfill your plan. We all have a budget to stick to, but I always advise buying quality equipment and building up everything you’ll need over time. A tip I give to landowners on equipment is to be sure we have what we need to complete tasks but not break the budget is to consider the most vital piece of equipment they need on the farm and start there. Should they rent or buy? If a landowner has a 100-acre piece and wants to plant 10 acres of food plots annually, maintain trails, install enclosed blinds, mow, etc., a vital piece of equipment to complete these tasks would be a tractor. The perfect size tractor for this work will be in the 40-60HP range. This size tractor is not too heavy so that it’s hard to trailer from place to place and also that it won’t make a mess of wet farm roads during the wet winter season on the farm. If the ability to move brush piles or down trees, and even installation of elevated blinds is needed, adding a front-end loader to the tractor is a great idea. I also personally prefer a four-wheel drive tractor for food plot and farm work. Having the extra traction it provides is often needed around the farm and especially for food plot work. These type and size tractors often range from $25-60K depending on the age and options selected on them. This large purchase often can take a large bite out of a manager’s budget and can make the option of renting a tractor more attractive in the short term. Although I would advise that, owning a tractor is certainly the best option for long term use on the farm. With that said, renting implements for a tractor that only get used once or twice a year can be a great idea. An example I often use is the renting of a no-till drill to plant food plots. These planters can often be rented at private tractor or equipment dealers, local soil and water conservation offices, or organizations such as a local cattlemen’s association. For the example given of a 100-acre property that’s planted twice a year, a no-till drill can be utilized and easily plant 10 acres in one day. If the drill rental is $200 a day, that’s $400 a year for its use with no up-keep or maintenance required by the user. A new no-till drill can easily be $20k+ for a 6′ model and will take many years of use to pay for itself. Also, that 40-60HP, 4WD tractor can easily pull a 6′ pull type planter, allowing renting a drill to be a viable option. Other equipment to manage food plots, such as sprayers, spreaders, and tillage equipment can be matched with the plan for your specific property to see if they are warranted. These items are less costly than a tractor or planter and can be accumulated over time. Another example of purchasing versus renting would be the need for clearing work, such as a skid steer with a mulching head, or excavation work, etc. to be conducted. After seeing this equipment can be many thousands of dollars, it’s easy to see that renting or hiring this work done can be much more economical, especially considering work such as this is often a one-time deal. Equipment such as chainsaws, drip torches, side-by-sides, and ATV’s can also all have the same logic applied to them as the forementioned above. Match what you need most to your specific property’s plan and you’ll be much better off versus collecting random pieces of equipment that may not be needed or rarely used.

Creating Diverse Habitat

As I visit and work on properties across the Southeast, I often notice a lack of diverse habitat types on the landscape. Even on highly managed farms there is a tendency, it seems, for folks to set their sights on promoting a target species to reach a certain goal, and this often can result in a type of habitat monoculture on a farm. An example of this would be if a landowner’s main goal was to grow and harvest mature bucks. He has 10 acres of food plots on his farm and timbered the remaining acreage in order to create thick body cover for mature bucks to feel safe in and bed often. This is a great start by the landowner, and this will go a long way to meet his stated goal with his food plot acreage and timber work to create thick bedding. That said, the large cutover, while often having a diverse amount of plant species growing in it, will represent one type of cover and often provide forage opportunities mainly limited to the growing season. In an effort to create diversity it would be wise to leave a portion of the timber to remain in mature trees and, if possible, species such as oak and nut/forage-providing species for wildlife. Those trees will also provide shade when needed, thus providing summertime bedding as well as different forage selections that grow in mature timber. Also, should we section off a portion of this cutover that won’t be reforested and allow early succession to take over and provide an increase of diverse forage and bedding opportunities? If so, does it make sense to install a burn block in that area to manage the plant communities and successional stage with fire? Some mature bucks are often seen selecting bedding habitats that consist more of native grasses versus the brushy habitat of regenerating forest, such as the large cutover. Is the planting of native grass fields a good idea and is there a suitable location to do so? All of these questions and practices should be considered and completed in an effort to create diverse habitat they prefer, but all wildlife thrive in diverse habitats of mature, middle-aged, and young timber mixed with open fields, quality planted forages, grasslands, brushy areas, etc. When buying, planning for habitat work, or just assessing your own property, the promotion of diverse habitat is key.

Conclusion

We have barely scratched the surface of what it takes to climb the wildlife habitat staircase, but the key points mentioned in this article will all play a big role in helping a manager do just that. Setting goals, taking an honest assessment of the property and your budget, acquiring the proper equipment, and ultimately creating diverse habitats will go a long way to getting your farm in tip-top shape. Also, and again, knowledge is powerful. Never stop learning and don’t have too much pride to ask for help. Good luck and manage away!