The TOP MISTAKE on Every Deer Hunting Farm | Bill Winke

[@kapperoutdoors]

Yep, we have allowed a few too many does to take over our farm, so this year we are going to thin some out! Good info on reflecting on this farm and land management practices! Thanks.

[@craigsmith7101]

Great video guys. "If you build it they will come". for me it's all about habitat and food in the winter. My farm is in Ohio and the first things I did were TSI in the woods and convert all the crop fields to CRP. also put the allowable 10% of CRP into fall/winter food plots. By Providing the best fall/winter food within a couple miles my farm started holding deer during the gun season, so more bucks lived to see another year. I then started finding more sheds from deer I knew and watching them reach older ages. It is now and always will be a work in progress and that's what I enjoy most about it.

[@learning_the_outdoors]

I agree that the process is very fun. I find myself thinking about different improvements year round. It's very rewarding to see deer using something that you did. It adds much more to the experience than just the hunt.

[@conservativeprodigy2604]

Really good stuff here!! Even owning a small parcel of 40 acres, I’ve learned some things that can benefit me! 👍

[@bch5513]

Yup. Exactly the property I hunted in MO for 12 years. Surrounded by ag and I was 125 acres of great mix of timber/cedar and foodplots BUT it wasn't MINE and the owner FORBADE firearms. It was a doe sink. Huge bucks for 3-5 days a year reliably and then totally unreliable after. I tried to think it out but the habitat was such and being bow only I couldn't kill enough to make a difference without them just filling right in with more..

[@paulbernitt3559]

Great job! For me, less is more. I have 45 acres of primarily wooded land the SW driftless area of WI situated 8 miles north of the WI river and 5 miles east of the Mississippi river. My strategy this far is to let the deer teach me their natural habits and I exclusively enhance those habits. My habitat improvements thus far have been done in the summer and I have no human intrusion outside of that time. 1. Maximizing stand locations and access based on prevailing winds and for thermals AM/PM. 2. Enhancing existing deer travel pinch points based on natural terrain in between bedding areas and food. 3. Improving known natural buck bedding. I do not have any ag land on my property but surrounded by it on 3 out of 4 sides. After just 3 years of very minor habitat improvements based on year over year learning the natural habits of the deer, the number and quality of bucks has gone up a lot. This year we had far more does, so next year there will be a real focus on thinning them out. I live in AZ so my hunting is very limited and will need to react rather than respond to this "new problem". Still a wonderful work in progress as I learn and refine. Keep up the great work!

[@jfreak7589]

I would probably just stay in AZ then

[@TheTacticalHouse]

@@jfreak7589 😂

[@robertschuknecht1481]

Shoot does. I hope to do that when Michigan's firearm season begins on Tuesday.

[@bradhubbard9876]

Any ideas on how to develop a large clearing with sandy soil? Runs between crick and bigger woods and floods maybe once every 25 years. Thanks!

[@catchemalive]

You guys are great!! I can’t thank you enough because I am exactly what you described as being the person that’s brand new to this so I want to start off this endeavor on the right foot so I’m all ears from two seasoned land owners/managers. What are you referring to when you say you planted Native prairies?? What kinds of grasses do I need for planting in a 40 acre wide open hay field to turn into great year around bedding?

[@bill-winke]

Personally, I like to plant permanent habitat. That means trees. You will get a wide diversity of browse and brush growing up with the trees. You can create edge by planting pockets of trees that are separated by several yards. Then you can plant switchgrass in the strips between those pockets if you like.

[@catchemalive]

@@bill-winke Great idea bill! I’ve been watching you plant all them acorns lately on your new farm. I’m looking at doing some of that as well, but really like how your talking about separate pockets of trees and making edges between them for deer to funnel down. Do you have any trouble with the white oaks/chestnut oaks surviving the cold weather up in the Midwest? I’m from South Arkansas so I didn’t know if I should be planting acorns that aren’t use to those kinds of winter temps up there??

[@mylesconnor5063]

How do you get a good average of how many do you actually have, We own 270 acres and with the neighboring properties that we manage with we have about 700-900 acres in our co-op management plan. We have harvested probably 30-40 doe in the last 3 years in the total and we are afraid to take to many. Specifically on our property we see more bucks then doe in most sits. We generally have an idea of how many doe are in each family that use the different areas and during this season we have 15-20 bucks that are 3.5 and 9 bucks that are 4.5 or older (most we have prior history with) So we feel like we have a decent ratio but some areas are better then others. Question can you shoot too many??

[@mikemellon80]

Look at your deer numbers in Nov and Dec. not in the summer deer numbers don’t matter. Search whitetail habitat solutions for help with this. If you see 20 doe in a field at dusk in your foodplot you want to shot 4-5. If you see 3-7 doe you probably don’t want to shoot any

[@briansmith4368]

Shoot 8-15 does a year? what do you possibly do with that much meat? I know we need to shoot more does, but we're eat what you shoot sportsmen and WI has made the donation program so difficult by not paying processors enough to make it worth their time. Just spoke to a processor last week and he told me the DNR pays approx.1/2 what his cost is to process.