"the pasture"....long read and pic heavy

[J&M Hamilton10]

Been waiting for this thread to get updated. Hope good news shows up on cam for you in upcoming weeks.

[Mex. Bowhunter]

You have done a hell of a Job up to this point. I started out doing the same thing as you on a Small place I grew up and hunted for 28yrs. To this date I hate thinking of all the hard work I put into that place and never got the big pay off but, Then again I miss it more and more every year. I wish you the Best Buddy and Hope you get to share another year with such a awesome trophy that we are all grateful for what you have shared with us all

[cattlelackranch]

I just read the whole thread. I was hoping to see the post at the end: "my taxidermist called and he's ready".

Keep at it!

[jshouse]

thanks fellas, i am going to try to concentrate on improving the cover and bedding options this summer and finding another, less intrusive access point, i'm not sure what else i can do to keep them close. i am pretty sure that its pressure that drives them away, all of the properties in the area are small and all are hunted.

thanks again for the kind words

hope

[J&M Hamilton10]

thanks fellas, i am going to try to concentrate on improving the cover and bedding options this summer and finding another, less intrusive access point, i'm not sure what else i can do to keep them close. i am pretty sure that its pressure that drives them away, all of the properties in the area are small and all are hunted.

thanks again for the kind words

hope

This is a great idea improving the cover, Something like grasses could be key for bedding and keeping deer near food sources year round and one I was thinking about suggesting to you right before you wrote this above. My dad planted 20 acres of sorghum sudan years back. It gets up to 6' to 8' and looks like a corn stock. He planted out away from woods but we still had deer bed up in it. He baled it once during the summer and it was back up that fall... Very drought resistant and will grow in the summer without much rain if cut. Be great to plant in open spots back in woods around an acre and up for bedding for fawns in early summer then next winter for a safe haven.

[jshouse]

Thanks, that's kind of what I was thinking about doing in some small openings I have, I actually broadcast a few pounds of switchgrass last spring but it didn't take too well. I will try to prep the ground a little better and go with some sorghum or blue panic.

[unclefish]

Yep its very tough for small properties to hold deer on them at any one point in time. Throw cattle into the mix and its darn near impossible. Cattle trampling through bedding areas is something a mature buck will not tolerate.....especially after they shed velvet. If they get disturbed in the bedding area...they are gone. They will find some other place that is secure and won't be disturbed. I also believe that they won't even tolerate alot of doe and fawn traffic in their bedding area either.

I have found that does/family groups will bed as close to food as possible and mature bucks will bed outside and beyond these doe bedding areas in the thickest stuff they can find.

So to me you need enough land to provide a decent bedding area for does right next to your food plots and then secondary very thick bedding area(s) for mature bucks a further distance outside of the doe bedding area. If your place is big enough to provide both then I think your odds go way up. Tall warm season grasses like switchgrass or even sudan sorghum would work great to hold mature bucks.

I certainly don't have enough land to provide both of these. I do know where the does bed on my place and its usually right next to my plots. I also know where the bucks sometimes bed on the very edge of my place and adjoining neighbor's place and its not the same place as the does. Bucks are almost always the last ones to show up in my plots because they bed a further distance than the does.

And then there are cattle that screw the entire thing up. Did I mention I hate cattle?

[pigstika1978]

Yep its very tough for small properties to hold deer on them at any one point in time. Throw cattle into the mix and its darn near impossible. Cattle trampling through bedding areas is something a mature buck will not tolerate.....especially after they shed velvet. If they get disturbed in the bedding area...they are gone. They will find some other place that is secure and won't be disturbed. I also believe that they won't even tolerate alot of doe and fawn traffic in their bedding area either.



I have found that does/family groups will bed as close to food as possible and mature bucks will bed outside and beyond these doe bedding areas in the thickest stuff they can find.



So to me you need enough land to provide a decent bedding area for does right next to your food plots and then secondary very thick bedding area(s) for mature bucks a further distance outside of the doe bedding area. If your place is big enough to provide both then I think your odds go way up. Tall warm season grasses like switchgrass or even sudan sorghum would work great to hold mature bucks.



I certainly don't have enough land to provide both of these. I do know where the does bed on my place and its usually right next to my plots. I also know where the bucks sometimes bed on the very edge of my place and adjoining neighbor's place and its not the same place as the does. Bucks are almost always the last ones to show up in my plots because they bed a further distance than the does.



And then there are cattle that screw the entire thing up. Did I mention I hate cattle?

X1000000000000 on cattle

[jshouse]

yes, i hate cows

[jshouse]

tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the return, i should be able to check cameras on tuesday, really excited to see what happens over the next few weeks....

[unclefish]

Hope he shows up for you and you can get a crack at him this year. Had his antlers already dropped a year ago at this time? Would be great to find his shed.

[jshouse]

and i was mistaken, he came back on 3/13 of 2013, it was 3/10 of 2012...

he dropped around the last week of march last year...

[Tshelly]

Lol any day now he will be back!! ... Hopefully

[jshouse]

not yet, still no mature bucks on the cams....maybe next week....

[jshouse]

still waiting on the big ones to come back, tons of young bucks and does still on cameras though...we put some fertilizer out a few weeks ago right before some rain and the wheat/oats have really taken off, they have been mowed down to about 1-2" all winter and today it was about 8-10" tall in most spots. never got as thick as i hoped but not too bad for the first fall plot..and the clover is really starting to fill in.

oat side with clover in the very back


wheat side, that thick spot on the right is the low spot the brassicas really filled in