Improving deer habitat for a better hunting experience in big woods areas of the midwest.
StrategicHabita... - Habitat Plans and Hunting Setups
Randy VanderVeen
Cell - 616-560-7488
randy@seemorebucks.com
Landowner's KZfaq Channel - Heavenly Game Farm / @heavenlygamefarm2037
The landowner has already started working on the property .
When I arrived he went over what he had already done, what he wanted to do, the 40 acres his daughter and son-in-law bought next to him, who his neighbors are, where public land touches his property, and so on.
Then, before we headed out to check out the property, I fired up the OnX app to track the trails and mark locations for stands, food plots, bedding areas, and barricades .
He took me down the main trail on the west side along the swamp. He said earlier in the Spring there was Fall deer sign that they were crossing the 2 track in and out of the thick swamp.
On his side of trail was mostly softwood trees and a lot of ironwood. Only a couple red oaks on the property that he’s gonna protect with his life.
Once we got to the main food plot, he explained that he had begun the process of improving the poor sandy soil with Grant Wood’s release method…which used to be called the buffalo system.
He’s going completely no-till and bought a drill this summer so he can plant and crimp 2 cycles of soil building green manure.
He already knew what I thought of big exposed box blinds and his plan is to plant screening around it or move it back into cover.
From there he took me to a big southern facing slope where he already began clearing out trees with a small excavator and skid steer for a destination food plot. I loved that this is on higher ground and centrally located on the property. Deer can bed below and west of the food while hunter access will be from the northeast…especially since his most common wind in Oct and Nov are from the SW
Those are just a few highlights of the property tour that day.
What I want to do now is jump into the habitat plan I drew up for him so he can move forward with confidence that his efforts won’t hurt his ability to hunt the property effectively.