Management Calendar — November/December 2016

Strip disk areas to promote natural, desirable habitat for wildlife

Strip disking is simply one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective management practices to implement to create high quality food and cover for wildlife. Strip disking is as simple as it sounds. To strip disk, you merely drop the disk far enough into the soil to lightly break the surface of the ground. Lightly disking the ground will provide enough disturbance to stimulate the natural seed bank of wildlife friendly weeds the following spring and summer. Heavy disking like you were preparing a clean seedbed for planting a food plot is not needed. One pass is generally enough to stir the ground up and expose bare soils that will promote germination of desirable weeds. While not necessary, I often mow areas I plan to strip disk ahead of time. This makes disking more effective if vegetation is relatively thick or tall. It also knocks back/reduces competition of the undesirable or overgrown plants I am trying to replace. Strip disking at different times of the year will result in different plant communities. While disking can be conducted anytime of year, it is normally done in spring or fall. Fall/winter disking generally results in a broadleaf plant response, while spring/summer disking will result in more native grasses. Altering the season in which you strip disk will add diversity to your property. Strip disking can be done in thinned pine plantations, relatively open mature pine stands, along the edges of food plots, or in open fields. Basically anywhere sunlight can reach the ground will work. To optimize the benefit of strip disking, avoid disking straight lines. A serpentine pattern that winds through the habitat will provide the most edge and diversity.

Tree planting activities – start planning, ordering supplies, and planting.

Strategically adding trees to your property adds habitat diversity, wildlife value, aesthetics, and can be a very gratifying project – especially once the trees mature and you see the value they provide. However, planting trees is more than just randomly plopping trees in the ground. For the best success and results plantings should be well thought out with the future in mind. Besides the obvious “where” to plant trees, you need to consider which species are suitable and do well in your soils/climate, how large they get, and future maintenance needs. Once trees are planted, they will require a bit of care to ensure good survival and growth during their first growing season. Site preparation is important to reduce competing weeds to enhance tree seedling survival during the first growing season. Depending on the situation, an initial mowing may be needed to provide a clean working area and reduce weed competition. There are many species and varieties of soft (e.g., fruit trees) and hard mast (e.g., oaks) trees available that will benefit wildlife on your property. I generally like to plant a diversity of trees that will provide various food sources throughout the year. Supplemental tree plantings not only provide additional food resources for wildlife on your property but can provide exceptional enhancements to the aesthetics. Common areas to add supplemental tree plantings include road intersections, roadside management areas, old field habitats, and in or along the edge of fields or food plots. The key is to plant them in areas that will receive sunlight. Some trees require cross-pollination to produce fruit so, if needed, be sure to plant them in small groups. I recommend contacting your tree supplier/nursery, such as the folks at The Wildlife Group, well ahead of planting time. They can help you determine which trees will grow and produce best on your property, help you develop a planting plan based on your goals, and ensure the trees and other supplies are ready when you are.

Provide supplemental feed for deer

Even in the south, late winter can be a nutritionally stressful period for deer. They have endured the rigors of breeding season and natural food sources can be limited. Providing supplemental feed during this time can boost energy and nutrition. This recommendation/activity is directed towards landowners or managers that have done a good job managing their natural habitat, food plots, and deer herd conditions. That is, before thinking about starting a supplemental feeding program for deer on your property, you need to take care of the “important” things first. In other words, you cannot hang shutters if you do not have a house – and you will not grow big bucks and a healthy herd with supplemental feed alone. It is a supplement to other management strategies and activities. However, when done in combination with other core management practices, supplemental feeding can be valuable for deer. Be sure to check your local game laws for providing feed on your property. Many states do not allow the use of feed during hunting season. Ideally, providing supplemental feed throughout the year is best, but supplemental feed will be most used and most valuable for deer in late winter and summer. These are periods when natural food availability is at its lowest. So if you have a limited budget and cannot or do not want to feed throughout the year, provide it during the periods deer need it most.

Conduct maintenance to equipment

As a land manager, quality/working equipment is essential to success. While the list of equipment used to manage hunting/recreational properties is wide ranging, most managers have, use, and need the basics such as farm tractors, tractor implements (such as harrows, mowers, grain drills, spreaders, sprayers, etc), UTVs, chainsaws, and other mechanical “hand tools”. To remain in good working order, this equipment will require proper maintenance. Without maintenance, these tools will begin to wear down until they eventually break. This can result in costly repairs and added downtime in which nothing can be done until the machinery or implement is fixed. Nothing is more frustrating that planning a food plot planting project, getting everything ready, finally getting the right weather and soil moisture, then having a tractor or implement breakdown. There are two forms of maintenance. The first being repair maintenance, which is conducted once the equipment has started to malfunction or has completely broken down. Preventative maintenance is a program designed to prevent equipment from failure – resulting in less repair maintenance. Preventative maintenance varies depending on the equipment but generally consists of checking/replacing fluids, seals, filters, hoses, blades, batteries and/or electrical parts, screws/bolts, etc. In a nutshell, it is giving equipment some love before neglect results in breakdowns. Winter is a great time for conducting preventative maintenance on equipment. Doing so can be a relatively easy project between hunts. Of course, there’s absolutely no way to avoid breakdowns and damage in the long term. No matter how much care you give your equipment, it will ultimately breakdown. However, preventative maintenance certainly slows down functional decline but also helps keep equipment in reasonably good shape in the event that you decide to trade it in or sell for new. On larger more complicated equipment like farm tractors, skid steer machines, back hoes, etc, keep in mind that maintenance must be done properly to be effective. If you decide to do it yourself and it’s not done correctly, you are not only wasting time, but may damage the equipment. For this equipment, consider an annual “checkup” by a professional. Although hiring a professional mechanic to perform preventative maintenance and checkups will be an expense, think about all the time and money that you’ll save by fixing it once instead of over and over. Part of your preventative maintenance program may include hiring a mechanic each winter to visit your “equipment shed” to perform checkups. One of my philosophies is that if you take care of your equipment, it will take care of you.

Trap and remove nest predators

If managing for wild turkeys is a goal on the property you hunt, don’t overlook the value of removing nest predators such as raccoons and opossums. Having said this, attempting to control predators should not be a priority if you are not actively managing the land to promote quality turkey habitat. Creating and maintaining quality habitat should be the highest strategy on our list for managing turkeys. By the way, wild turkeys are a species that responds quickly to good habitat management such as thinning timber, burning, understory control, roadside management, etc. However, research has clearly demonstrated that nest predators, particularly raccoons, can significantly impact nesting success rates and thus turkey population growth. Not only will they eat the eggs, but they may even kill the hen turkey. Winter is a great time to trap and remove nest predators. This is also when hunters spend the most time at a property. Trapping offers a great midday management activity during a weekend at the camp. The key in being successful and efficient is to pick good trap locations. Water sources, feeders, and food plots can be good places to start. There are many effective traps available. The most common are live traps (cage traps) and steel traps (leg hold traps). If you use leg hold traps, I recommend “soft-catch” or offset jaw traps. These traps do not damage the foot of the trapped animal in the event that you catch a dog or other non-target critter. If you have never trapped before, you will learn a lot by trial and error. I recommend doing a little homework by surfing the web and YouTube to learn effective techniques. One more thing to know is that nest predators are prolific and have relatively high reproductive rates. This means that populations can rebound quickly. To be effective in controlling nest predators and helping turkeys, you must significantly reduce nest predator populations and continue to aggressively remove them each year.

Scout now for next duck season

Doing a little homework this season, even if it means missing a hunt or two, will help you have better duck hunts next year. By this I mean take time to watch and glass wetlands, moist soil impoundments, beaver ponds, lakes, and flooded fields to find new areas to hunt. While food sources and water can change from year to year, in most cases ducks will be attracted to the same areas each year. Simply stage yourself somewhere that you can see the area you are scouting without spooking ducks. In most cases, a high vantage point that offers a landscape view is best as it often allows you to see where ducks are coming from as they approach and which direction they go when they leave. Good vantage points are often hills, highways, bridges, barns, and sometimes deer stands. The point is to get as high as you can so that you can see the sky where ducks are flying. I can’t tell you how many times I have set up and scouted like this and found an even better spot by being able to see flocks from a landscape level verse getting into the actual area (tight) where I thought ducks would be. In some cases, you may not see ducks go down but notice that lots of flocks headed in a certain direction. Relocating closer to the area you saw ducks headed on the next scouting mission will often reveal a new honey hole. As you begin to pin point areas ducks are using, close in tighter and start learning exactly where ducks want to be and how they approach when coming in. If it is still duck season, this is when I like to hunt the spot a couple times. Doing so will help you identify exactly where to build a blind this summer. So by next season, you will be sipping coffee after putting out your spread of decoys while waiting on daylight and ducks to start flying.