Management Calendar — July/August 2020

Prepare skinning shed for deer data collection

Deer season is right around the corner. Collecting information from deer harvested on your property can provide valuable insight to the status of your herd, the progress of your management strategies, and assist in making harvest decisions that will improve the deer herd and ultimately the hunting. Making sure your skinning shed is fully stocked and ready should be an annual pre-season activity. At a minimum, you should be collecting age (jawbone), weight, antler measurements, and reproductive data. Supplies needed include jawbone extraction tool, pruning loppers, wire basket to air-dry/store jawbones, sharp knives, permanent markers, pencils, weight scale, gambrel/rope for hanging deer, flexible measuring tape, instructions on how to collect and store harvest data (recommended if more than one person will be collecting the data), and harvest data sheets to record the information collected. General preparations may include sharpening and lubricating pruning loppers, calibrating weight scales, inspecting and/or replacing rope or cables used to hang deer, ensuring water source is working properly, and stocking/organizing the data collection area. The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) or Forestry Suppliers are great places to purchase supplies to collect harvest data including harvest data sheets. Collecting and analyzing harvest data is often the backbone to the success of a deer management program.

Manage mid-rotation pine stands with herbicides to improve food and cover for wildlife

Although thinning pine plantations improves wildlife habitat by promoting development of food and bedding/escape cover, the responding vegetation often includes species such as sweetgum, waxmyrtle, gallberry, etc. that shade out and reduce desirable forage plants/vegetation over time. An effective technique to control undesirable hardwood competition, and promote quality deer foods, is through the use of herbicides. An application of selective herbicide will minimize hardwood competition and promote development of higher quality wildlife food and bedding/escape cover within treated areas. While you can apply this herbicide throughout the growing season, it is most effective if applied from late summer until leaf drop in the fall. Furthermore, research has shown that a single treatment can significantly increase growth and production of the remaining pine trees by final harvest, hence, generating a return far outweighing the cost of the treatment. Treating entire stands may be most practical from a timber production standpoint, but is not necessary from a wildlife perspective. For example, in a thinned pine plantation, simply applying herbicides via skidder/tractor down select thinned rows into the adjacent pine rows can significantly increase the quality and quantity of deer browse and ultimately raise the nutritional carrying capacity of the area. Once pine stands are treated, a prescribed burning rotation should be established thereafter. This technique is often referred to as a “mid-rotation” release. It is reducing hardwood competition and ‘releasing’ the pines for better growth. I often use this strategy (herbicide followed by fire) to create natural food plots within middle aged pine plantations. These areas create lots of great habitat and thus exceptional hunting opportunities for deer and turkey.

Condition and train hunting dogs.

Each September thousands of hunters and their dogs go afield and begin their hunting season. In many parts of the United States, particularly in the Southeast, September is the opening month for dove and early teal season, with shooting preserve quail season starting in October in many areas. In the Southeast, where temperatures in the nineties are not uncommon, all hunting dog owners need to condition their four-legged friends beforehand and be familiar with the dangers a working dog can face in these conditions.

Many professional gun dog trainers recommend a warm weather training regimen of an hour in the morning and another in the evening. Run your dog and work on retrieving drills, building slowly as you go. Just as when you are starting a fitness program, workouts should start out slow and easy. Make the workouts fun and if needed take frequent rest and water breaks. As in any training process you want to increase the duration gradually as the dog increases his endurance and becomes accustomed to the heat.

The onset of heat related problems can be quite subtle, so it is important to keep a watchful eye on your dog while training or hunting in warm weather. The different types of common heat-related problems that may be encountered while training and hunting are: Heat stress, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If your dog is not performing at his normal level, slow in reacting to your commands, panting, or simply lays down and does not want to get up, get him out of the sun and into a shaded area, allow him to rest and give him water in small quantities frequently. If there is a waterhole nearby, encourage the dog to get in it to cool its body temperature. We often provide our dogs with Gatorade or Pedialyte which helps replace electrolytes – similar to a drained athlete.

Mow access lanes through quail hunting areas.

Generally speaking, areas that are being managed for quail hunting are disturbed regularly by fire, disking, and/or applications of herbicide to control undesirable vegetation to promote quality quail habitat. Consequently, the understory habitat in these areas seldom grows taller than 3 feet. However, even with such low growing vegetation, navigating and hunting these areas with bird dogs and other hunters (particularly kids) can be challenging due to the relatively thick nature of this vegetation. While prescribed fire, disking, and herbicide applications are best suited for creating quail habitat, mowing can be used to increase the huntability of the habitat. That is, mowing access trails through quail habitat will allow easier access for hunting. How and where you mow trails is a personal preference. Some people like straight line/checkerboard mowing which results in a systematic appearance and is easier for hunters to figure out where other mowed lanes are while working dogs. While it depends on the situation, I prefer randomly mowed lanes that wind through the habitat. This strategy results in a more natural look. Regardless of the method you use, mowing these trails just before the growing season ends (late summer) will allow the vegetation to grow a little before hunting season/dormant season arrives. I generally try to time this mowing when I feel there are 2-3 weeks left of growing season. The result will be trails that are easily walked but do not appear as though they were just mowed providing a more natural/aesthetic look within the quail hunting areas.

If you added annual clovers to your food plots last fall, September is the time to apply management to regenerate the food plots.

Incorporating reseeding annual clovers into your fall plantings will allow you to extend the plot’s wildlife value by providing quality food sources through early summer. Without them, fall plots of small grain such as winter wheat and oats generally become less productive and thus less valuable for wildlife by early spring. If you have planted annual clovers such as crimson or arrowleaf clover, allow them to flower and seed out – which normally occurs in April – June depending on which growing zone you are in. The flowers are important for game birds, particularly quail and turkey poults. Flowers attract insects which are an important component in the diet (source of much needed protein) for very young turkeys that were hatched this spring. Although plots generally get weedy after the clover has seeded out (which isn’t always a bad thing), leave these plots alone until early fall. About 3 weeks to a month prior to planting time, mow the plots as low as possible, allow a week or so for the weeds to start growing again, and apply glyphosate (RoundUp) to knock them out and prep the plot for re-planting. If weeds were thick, you may consider burning the thatch off to expose bare ground (burning also enhances clover seed germination). Once the weeds die (or have been burned off), spread fertilizer, lightly disk the plot to expose bare ground and “stir up” the residual clover seed from last year, then plant annual small grains (wheat and oats). The key to the whole process is to not disk the food plot too deep. After the first planting, and if you’ve allowed last year’s clover to seed out, annual clovers will reseed and come back every year – which not only provides great nutrition and extends the life of your fall annual plots, but will save you money on seed.

Manage dove fields in preparation for the upcoming season.

Unless you hunt deer in August in South Carolina, dove season is often the first hunt of the year in the Southeast. Dove field planting activities are normally dictated by the time it takes for the specific crop you plant to mature. Common dove field crops include dove proso millet, browntop millet, Japanese millet, sunflowers, grain sorghum, corn, and wheat, all of which have different seed maturing periods. The goal is to have mature seed available for dove a few weeks before the season starts to allow them time to find and begin using the field. If all goes well, most dove fields are nearly mature by mid-August. As the season approaches, here are a few techniques I have used to increase dove use of the field before a planned hunt:

1. Maintain a clean disked strip or two through the field of bare ground. These are strips that you do not plant, rather simply keep plowed through the summer and into dove season. Dove find these bare dirt areas attractive because it is easy to walk in, exposes seeds, grit, and offers dusting areas. Disked strips offer access to seed from your plantings once they mature as well.
2. If the field has a water hole or pond, make sure dove have access to it. In some cases, this means either mowing or burning the vegetation along a section of the shore will be needed.
3. Once the crop is mature, begin periodic strip mowing or sectional burning to allow access and expose seed to dove. I prefer burning if it is possible because it completely cleans the ground allowing better access for dove and exposes more seed. Only a few strips are needed at any one time. The goal is to only mow/expose enough seed for dove to use for a week or so. Add another strip or burn another section as dove need it. This method will prolong the life of your dove field by providing seed to dove over several weeks or months.

Install trail cameras to capture photos of deer

Depending on where your property is in the whitetail’s range, antler hardening (shedding of velvet) has already taken place or will shortly. Late August or early September is a great time to begin installing trail cameras around your property to capture photos of bucks. During this period, bucks are congregated in loose bachelor groups allowing you to photograph multiple bucks together. Where to place the cameras depends on local food sources and deer activity. In some cases, attracting deer to a camera site with scattered whole corn is most effective. However, mineral licks that were created earlier in the year often make great camera locations, particularly if you have experienced wet conditions. Other locations that may be effective in late summer or early fall include entrance trails to large agriculture fields, along the edge of smaller food plots of perennial crops, summer food plots, or small water holes (if weather is warm and conditions are dry). Naturally, most hunters are anxious and excited to plug the SD card into a computer and run through the photos to see what kind of bucks they have, which is what I do. However, take time afterwards to do a little analysis of the photos. By counting the number of bucks and does in the photographs you can get an idea of the existing adult sex ratio which will help you make harvest decisions. Estimating the age of the bucks you photographed will shed light on the buck age structure. Obviously, a full-scale camera survey will provide the most accurate and comprehensive information about the deer herd, but “random” trail camera photos certainly have a story to tell and can help you better understand the status of the deer herd on your property. All of this allows you to make better management decisions that lead to desired results. Photos from trail cameras will also help reduce “mistakes” when judging bucks in the woods while hunting (where judgments are often made in seconds while your heart is racing 200 beats per minute!)