Improving Whitetail Habitat With Sunlight

[@SENOJMADA]

Another great video, and great editing in my eyes. Appreciate your channel and you taking your time showing your habitat improvements to your land. Recently started doing work to mine. Been at it about 2 years, 5 food plots, 2 hinges. Still have some more hinges and water holes next year. This video helped me see how much sunlight I really do need at my hinge cuts, and showed what to expect from them year one , two, so on. Looking forward to your next video, good luck this season the time is upon us. 👍

[@whitetailevolution]

Thanks Adam! You really do need a lot of sunlight. I've seen a lot of "in the woods" food plots and hinge cuts that have died because they aren't getting the sunlight needs to survive. Keep adding more improvements when you can and try to see how the deer are relating to each one. Thanks again and good luck this season!

[@courtofficermcilvaine7928]

Another great presentation packed with spot-on deer habitat information. Thanks for sharing.

[@whitetailevolution]

Thanks Officer McIlvaine! Appreciate the comments 😊

[@williamsimpson5858]

I just subscribed. You and Jeff Sturgis are super knowledgeable

[@whitetailevolution]

Appreciate it William! But I will say that Jeff is in a league of his own, one of the best for sure. I can only hope to have as much experience as he does one day. Thanks again for the sub and the kind words!

[@johndhead1]

I do like your mow and grow method. The turkeys eat most of my seeds when spread in a killed and crimped plot. Clover grows well in most of my plots.

[@whitetailevolution]

So I will say that depending on the seed size, the turkeys still come in and eat my seeds as well. That's why it's so important to plant before a rain to get your seeds growing as quickly as possible. I need to wait a little bit longer to be sure, but I think turkeys might have cleaned me out of half of the oats I planted (larger seed). Everything else is doing just fine so far. I'll do a video on 'throw and mow' in the spring, but in the meantime there are a few great forums / threads on this planting method. A lot of guys have been doing it for much longer than me.

[@scrappydappy2827]

Very informative video. I can see how this could become overwhelming. Seems like one would have to pace himself to get good results.

[@whitetailevolution]

Thanks Scrappy! As long as you can develop a plan and set realistic expectations the work doesn’t get overwhelming. You don’t have to get it all done in one year. Make a list of what you want to accomplish break it out over a few years, depending on how much time you have. This will also help you evaluate what works and what doesn’t. Good luck!!

[@icehog2367]

Great video, thumbs up!!

[@whitetailevolution]

Thanks Greg!

[@gregallman3715]

Great video, really helped to have the drone footage. That said, in the drone footage are most of those trees that appear to be standing but without leaves dead, been girdled, or was this before the leaves began coming out?

[@whitetailevolution]

Thanks Greg! The trees still standing next to the clover trail are either dead ash trees or maples / cherry trees that I need to take down. The trail gets pretty good sunlight but as you can see there is still room for improvement! I’d like to get as many of those larger trees down and blocked up as I can.

[@showmetheheartland]

Thin that forest to a much lower basal area level and get better forage and cover through out your entire property. You are just adding a drop in the bucket with those small openings compared to what you could do.

[@whitetailevolution]

You are right, a select cut would benefit most properties. Many landowners are looking for easy ways to influence deer bedding, and creating these open pockets is one of the many ways to do that.

[@gnutersgnuters5572]

That 1st food plot you were in, was that a brassica plot?

[@whitetailevolution]

Yeah that was last years brassica plot that’s coming back. Going to seed buckwheat into it then smash it down!

[@gnutersgnuters5572]

@@whitetailevolution what are you gonna plant after the buckwheat?

[@whitetailevolution]

I honestly haven’t decided yet. I’m going to try to get two plantings of buckwheat before seeding the fall plots. In this particular spot I’ll probably switch to grains this fall. You don’t really want to plant brassicas in the same spot in consecutive years so rotating with grains is what a lot of food plotters do. I’m also considering clover / chicory here because this spot gets a lot of traffic from my son driving around the property. I really don’t want to limit where / when he can drive while he’s young just because dad wanted to work on the soil.

[@gnutersgnuters5572]

@@whitetailevolution thanks a lot I was just wondering cause we planted brassicas last year and had those flowers. We weren’t sure what that was. We just cut them now gonna spray and plant grains in fall.

[@evanmatthews11]

There a lot of saplings you could pot and sell!

[@whitetailevolution]

Time to get the wife and kids a few buckets and a shovel 😉 $5 a tree!

[@evanmatthews11]

@@whitetailevolution is there a time of year when home cuts are more likely to live and sprout new growth?