Preliminary Plans for TD-80

I finally got a Google Earth image of the property on the blog, so I'm gonna lay out what we want to do with this property.

Goals
I think Dad and I are in agreement about our goals for this property. First and foremost, we want to have fun working and hunting on it. Second, we want it to hold mature bucks.

Accomplishing the  Goals
Goal number one will be accomplished while and after goal number two is accomplished.

Holding mature bucks on the property is an interesting proposition. Knowing that it is only 80 acres, I am not naive enough to believe that we will have mature bucks that are on our 80 acres 100 percent of the time. That is unrealistic. What I would like to accomplish is keeping two or three mature (3.5 years or older) bucks on the property throughout most daylight hours. If we can keep a buck on our 80 acres for 80 to 90 percent of his daylight hours, then he is ours for the taking.

As I see it, there are two major components that will hold a deer on our property for most of his daylight hours. First, there has to be great bedding cover. Second, there has to be more and better food than anywhere else.

Cover
Decent bedding cover is not hard to come by in these parts. There are a lot of wooly areas with low-hanging conifers to offer great cover. However, what we can offer more than the public land area is undisturbed cover. This is what most people call a sanctuary. Hopefully we can make a couple of places very attractive for bedding (most of this has already been accomplished naturally), and then KEEP OUT! These  places are marked in red on the map above. If we keep our presence at a very low key in these places, then they can hold deer for a great majority of the daylight hours in the fall.

Food
I put this one second because that is where it falls in importance. Cover is the most important component. Nothing can replace it. Food has been the hype of whitetail hunting for many years now, but cover is the key.

However, there is no substitute for food. The top priority of a deer is survival. That includes three things: security, food, and water. Security is in the cover. Once we have food, we have created two of the three and there is a small watering hole in the middle of the field.

I invision two food plots. The first is marked in yellow on the map. This will be corn. We will plant corn and leave it standing all year. This is another provider of cover. Corn is a deer magnent. In an area with very little agriculture, the deer should flock to it.

The second food plot is marked in green. It is about .3 acres. This will be a summer plot. I hope to plant the new Biologic Sudden Impact blend. This should give the bucks plenty of good nutrition in the summer as they grow their antlers.

I would love to make both of these plots bigger. If the dozer is capable, then we will. But for now, I'm keeping my expectations low so as not to be disappointed.

We are also looking into a couple of feeders. Obviously these would be shut down in August or September, but they can be a wonderful food source during the harsh winter months up until the summer when the Biologic comes up.

We can't wait to get started.