10 Ways To Create Bad Deer Habitat For Small Parcels

[@jakemac9002]

Just when I get an idea to do something to my land, Jeff drops a video and makes me totally rethink my plans. Thanks!

[@triplejthreat2870]

I got my first deer! I was hunting on public land and I used a lot of information from your videos to get excited to go for my first time hunting all the way up to getting my first deer. Thank you for the video’s keep them coming!

[@brianlenneman5032]

Been so cool to meet and spend time with you and Dylan!! Best money I ever spent!

[@Cmc-cp2yg]

I have too many questions and not enough money to ask them 😂

[@kevinpatrick5733]

Always learning something new from the videos Jeff. Thanks for what you do.

[@dillonhart9718]

Can’t wait to meet Dylan on my property in NC in February!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Thats awesome Dillon!! He will do an outstanding job and he is a pretty cool dude on top of that! I nothing but high praise for him in all areas 🙂

[@scottmckenna9164]

Morning coffee, an unfamiliar Jeff Sturgis video.....life is good!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Ha, thanks Scott 🙂 Have a great day and thanks for watching!!

[@tanneryoungbauer8351]

He Jeff do you have any tips for food plots if there is cattle roaming the land

[@jeffmaxwell6110]

Interested in this as well. Also, how to create bedding/browse to hold them on a property when cattle eat seemingly everything!

[@jeffmaxwell6110]

We made a deal with the farmer to only graze until September first and get our annual plots planted end of august. But looking for more ideas

[@tanneryoungbauer8351]

Our farmer has his cattle on the land until November

[@thomastaylor3419]

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL. Thanks for another stellar video Jeff.

[@huntwarbukz4117]

Awesome info ..Jeff .. here in ny season is closed out .. we....(my dad ) 73 yrs old ...got a nice bow buck and nice muzzloader (big buck). We backed off some areas alternating ...santuary ...more Then ever this season and his honey hole lure ..food plot prevailed twice ... amen to a great season thanks for all your generous information on this channel .. it helped us brother .. is your season still goin ?

[@jesseteick891]

Hi Jeff. If a doe has a fawn with her during the rut is she bread? Bucks breed doe usually run off the fawns??

[@mattmp2011]

Jeff, cutting clearing grapevines? Good idea or bad? Suggestions?

[@dustinruddick6444]

Love the videos!! You give me hope, thanks and god bless!!

[@jeffs9920]

Jeff I’m having trouble figuring out where the food source is on public land with no ag fields at all. I know woody browse...hardwood regen etc etc but i feel like the stuff is all over. Is there still a defined area or do the deer sorta just browse as they go. If there’s a defined area what are you looking for? Droppings.

[@bucksbucksoutdooradventure4973]

Find some red oak!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Definitely stay away from oaks except for very specific time periods. Find hidden pockets of the best diversity. Where high ground meets wetlands, cuttings, habitat changes from hardwoods to conifer...all of the above. Often if everything is the same...I don't hunt there. I always find diversity and major habitat changes, but they have to be hidden. I like high stem count too...lots of briars, regen, weeds, grasses, shrubs, etc. Often I'm shooting bucks off to the side in high stem count and diverse habitat...while guys aren't seeing much to shoot in the open, coverless hardwoods next door. I love finding browsing activity with a hidden collection of buck sign thstbi can hunt effectively with good access points for different winds. I hunt a lot of funnel too...swamp funnels and habitat change funnels. Bottom line...hidden diversity. I hope that helps a little Jeff!

[@bennyboom63]

Thank you sir. So much to learn.

[@matthewgray2200]

I'm sure you get blasted by comments a lot, but could you do a video on food plot location and possible relocation? I want to learn more about food plots

[@TarmacBlackIX]

Cant wait to take the online class

[@whitetailhabitatandhunting]

Thanks for all the videos Jeff!

[@jdholthe]

Hi Jeff, do you have a specific video on what to do with all the tree tops from select cut logging? Leave them alone, cluster them together, cut them up for firewood? Thanks, Jared

[@gregj6907]

Hi Jeff, I would also like to know what to do with all the treetops from select cut logging. Any info is appreciated. Thanks, Greg

[@brentpaszt5885]

Still struggling to get the bucks to bed on my land. I have 20 acres 15 wooded and have followed all your tips. But there’s 6000 acres of managed hunting property right behind me.. seeing massive bucks at night around my food plot but nothing in the day..

[@aaroncornelison3005]

Could you please give advice on small wooded parcels in the middle of cattle country?

[@ronaldprendergast4807]

I have a 30 acre, thin rectangle of pines in my back yard here in South East Virginia that were planted 10 years ago. They are mostly less than 6 inches in diameter and can't be walked through for the most part. Locals tell me this is good for the area. I think i should thin it, create thin food plots, trails, and other types of cover within it. Your thoughts?

[@JProctor.]

Where is the best place to purchase bulk switch grass? Also conifers.

[@johnstowers3603]

Hey Jeff great vid what is your advice for flooded timber

[@beachralph]

Thanks Jeff for all the great information I got lots off work to do on my property 309 acres and I’m still trying to get away to sign up in your web class if you can help me out thanks again take care

[@austinbackhaus37]

First one!!! Nice to learn drinking coffee!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Nice Austin...I highly value my morning coffee and comment time 😊

[@christopherhackl-frank916]

I have alot of white pine and white oak few maple trees what can I add the land was logged in 2017

[@gonzalezeb]

Jeff...thanks for sharing all your knowledge. I've been watching your videos about setting up the perfect habitat for deer for a 50 acre parcel for over a year now. With that said, I have a big challenge. What are your recommendations for setting up a habitat that borders a large hunting club (900+ acres) that baits deer year round?

[@blazeice111]

By poplar are you only referring to aspen, or also cottonwood? I haven't noticed a great regen when we clear cottonwoods.

[@zackbussey9874]

Jeff - with limited resources and a monoculture of rowed pines, what is the most effective way to improve this for diversity/ woody browse? Chainsawing/ dropping pines to add side cover and allow sunlight to get to the forest floor?

[@dgdehaan1579]

Another great video. Learned more in last year since I found your channel than last 10 years. Could you talk about walnut trees and positives and negatives. We have several walnut groves that will not be ready for 60 years. Nothing seems to grow near these and wondering your thoughts on options.

[@jaredgriggs7498]

Jeff, why do you never mention prescribed burning?

[@andrewmeyer1086]

Hey Jeff, Great Video-should you hingecut to create more bedding for does too and then layer the bucks in behind them or should you only hingecut areas where you know bucks like to bed

[@jaifethroberts4193]

what do you say about horizontal ceder scrapes?

[@ashleycoy6540]

Used your recipe for switchgrass. Planted in previous years food plot (no weeds just brassica & oats). 1st year switch has ton of weeds (2 grasses mostly). Should I give it 1 more year to develop or give up & try again with more weed control?

[@markr.1547]

Jeff how did the WHS green forage mix work for you? Is it a good option to use in this year’s brassicas plots next year to rotate plots?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Mark...it has been working great for aboutb2 decades 🙂 Thats exactly how I have rotated my food plots (2 sides to each plot) since the late 90s.

[@raygrehofsky1587]

Thank you

[@margaritomendoza5040]

Hey Jeff, I’ve got a question. I’m hunting an 8 acre parcel and it has a valley with ridges that lead to a bowl on one side, with a creek running through the middle of the valley and bowl, and a river on the other end. I’m thinking about planting a small food plot on the left side of the bowl; it has a thicket on that side that is hard for any person to get through but it’s perfect for bedding ( and I’ve found a few beds in the valley where the thicket is). Do you think planting a food plot in the bowl is a wise idea? By the way the valley connects to a bottomland full of cattails just before the river. If you could answer that I’d appreciate it a lot.

[@billcretens6743]

Hi Jeff, Great video and very timely as we transition into habitat season. Hope you and yours had a great Christmas!! Thinking of having some clear cuts in 20 acre mature hardwood stand on NE corner of my property leaving at least 75 yds of depth on the perimeter untouched for hunter access and downwind sent blocker....any thoughts? Wishing you and your family a very successful and healthy 2021!

[@TheRangerBuzz]

Jeff, any experience with red osher dogwood areas? Have you ever hunted these areas? I have a 3 acre dense area unwalkable area of Red Dogwood and alder trees in Northern WI but not being used for Nov. and December bedding. Not sure if I should try and improve the bedding area or get rid of it and plant food. Seems like a perfect bedding area, maybe the deer don't like the dogwood that time of year. Any experience with it?

[@gregallman3715]

Is a having a 40 acre parcel on the corner of two country dirt roads already put me at a disadvantage of having the chance to create a good habitat for whitetails?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Greg...no other does not. In fact...GREAT access for you and it allows youbto.improve your land parallel and closer to the road. Great level of efficiency of core deer habitat and hunting on your land vs a parcel that does not have road frontage.

[@coltonlane8043]

Can’t see what he replied for some reason, but this is my scenario! Luckily I have pines on one road, but have since planted screening/high browse along side the other side and put a food plot on the corner! The roads give me good access due to the deer being somewhat okay with activity on the roads+screening! That’s a great base! Make sure you watch his buck bedding video to stack deer in there too!

[@NorthwoodsOutdoorPro]

Jeff, I have a 40 in northern Minnesota. I’m looking at doing 3 cuts on it around 1.25 acres each, focusing on keeping things the same for deer, after 4 years would you come in and brush cut the clears for regeneration of aspen again?

[@andrewgittings1537]

What seed company has the best switch grass?

[@aw4088]

REAL World Wildlife Products

[@jarrodlambert3914]

Nice

[@mikenimmo119]

Hello Jeff, I'm taking out roughly 20 old oaks from my small parcel. I understand the re-growth will be good for the habitat but what can I plant in that area that would compliment the regeneration growth? Also I'd like to to plant more thermo cover in a particular area, what woody browse options would you recommend mixed into the thermo cover? Definitely appreciate everything Sir, thank you!

[@coltonlane8043]

I’ll share my plans if that can help at all, family has 80 acres in middle of cornfields, so we took out a bunch of oak for wood, and I ended up planting a bunch of autumn olive before I researched too much, I have since managed it, and planted dogwood, and some ninebark pockets, deer seem to love diversity in browse!

[@stephensnay7498]

Kinda thought you were going to say you love wildlife more than people. Haha, I would have agreed with you.

[@searchingfor6thgear44]

Decisions decisions. I only control about 7 acres where I can do anything. 7 acres in a sea of mature, managed for lumber, hardwoods in Western PA. I have a pretty good idea what I need to do (thank you, Jeff and Dillon), it's figuring out access and deer stands because if I build it, and they come, I want to be able to hunt them. Decisions. Decisions.

[@Lion-G227]

Hi Jeff, I have emailed 3 times through the website at various times in the past year and haven’t heard anything (email or phone call) hoping to speak to someone about a quote on property design.

[@underdogoutdoors]

I've learned more from watching your videos, free than from anything else. The best advice to me was when "not to hunt" & not burn out on the wrong days. Get more work done, less family stress, higher success and higher enjoyment- and brother it's paid off. According to everyone else, you need to hunt public land, only from a saddle, With one climbing stick & a rope aider etc.. oh, & gigantic mechanical broadhead that barely penetrates. Sorry, it's my morning coffee rush!- Andy

[@mrphilleakey]

Any guess why all my deer disappear every year around September usually all gone by mid October? I’m not in the bush, field at all during that time Thanks

[@coltonlane8043]

Hey, not the man but generally I see deer travel to a thicker cut of timber for a better food sorce, usually fields are drying up, and food plots become kind around then, if you don’t have a good food source you’ll only be catching deer in pass though areas, which is hard hunting

[@johnathanlittlefield6911]

I wish there was guy that did vids like this for west Texas the habitat and trees are totally different. Or doing one with cows on property. Both would help me. 😂🤣😭

[@langwaydpful]

Great work! And thank you, I own 10 acres of mature old growth in Northern Virginia and will undo some of the bad things I put in place this summer. The deer love the marshy swampland adjacent to me and I hunted HARD directly over my food plots.... needless to say it didn't work and the deer patterned me. The only 2 bucks in my area hit plots at night and I got really familiar with the does. How can I "attract" a buck to bed on my land if there is a great sanctuary on the property I don't have permission to?

[@coltonlane8043]

Hey! I wouldn’t say I’m nearly as knowledgeable as him, but I have watched/practiced hunted a lot of his techniques these last few years. In my marshy swamp, it’s a few hundreds yards off mature timber and my deer use it as a pass through. I set up a small browse plot on both sides near the woods to get daylight deer. After that I had one central food plot with a stand that I only hunted twice this year, saw two shooters but not the buck I was looking for. A 10 acre parcel can hold deer but with bigger land on either side, most likely a pass through/travel rout that you could catch deer using every morning/night. Get the hunt stand app and look at lunar maps. Only hunt the best days with the perfect wind/thermals/temps, you’ll see a lot less spooked deer!

[@langwaydpful]

@@coltonlane8043 thanks! I will definitely give it a shot. I want to have options for next year

[@coltonlane8043]

langwaydpful no problem, I’d say you got browse stand, food plot stand and then a mock scrape stand, just make sure to use them sparingly, small parcels can’t afford much pressure

[@aaronmenchinger]

Can I come hunting with you 2021 season? I've literally had my entire season ruined this year, by others and it's frustrating. The private land sold, loosing permission because they don't want to be liable. Public land near me is 40 acres, holding 88 other hunters. The one time I almost get a shot on private, it was another hunter shooting does opening day of gun here in Michigan, and another time was a dog walker but really was anti hunting hunter harassment. I almost religiously follow your advice from your videos, just to be null and void because of things out of my control lol PLEASE LET ME COME!!

[@rogerrose4573]

Hey Jeff... love your videos. I have sent several requests for you to come out and design my property. Do you contact us via phone or email??

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Roger! Diane either emails you or calls. She is actually incredibly behind because of the volume coming in. We are actually hiring our daughter Ariana to help out with clients and much more within the next 1 to 2 weeks. She will help greatly! I did forward your name and comment so she could get back to you ASAP as well. O do have to say tho I am going to fewer clients (90-100 instead of 124) and fewer states. Dylan is visiting clients for mostly fly-in states that i will not be visiting. I really appreciate your patience!

[@paulcrave3112]

You need to franchise yourself Jeff. I’m game.

[@blakeweber122]

Geez I hate when people talk about how good oak savanna’s are

[@blakeweber122]

I learned from experience

[@alecbrummer7840]

Have you ever hunted deer around a Christmas tree farm?

[@eliandeacon7241]

OMG 😍💋 💝💖❤️

[@keaganzachary8406]

Hi Boys 😍💋 💝💖♥️❤️