Trail Cameras

Trail cameras have obviously brought scouting to a whole new level. I run my cameras year round to monitor what is going on and see what the deer are doing on my hunting property. You can also observe when bucks loose their velvet and when they drop their antlers. Over the next month is the most exciting and most anticipated time to have trail cameras set up. All of the bucks have formed their antlers and you are able to differentiate between bucks. It's neat to try and count how many different bucks you get pictures of or in how many different spots on the property you can get pictures of the same buck. As far as patterning movement this time of year, I don't count on it. That's for later on. It's also cool to catch a doe with her fawns on the cameras. I check my cameras once a month, usually on the 1st just so it's easy to remember. It's extremely difficult to stay out for 30 days when I know my cameras are taking 100's of pictures, but I do this to limit my scent that is left near the cameras while switching SD cards. I can also file them all on my computer by the month. If you don't have a trail camera, I highly recommend grabbing one, you will become addicted, I can almost guarantee it!

Dog days of Summer...

At this time of the year we are in transition mode from summer plots to fall hunting plots. We pray for rain and hope we have planted enough forage to support the deer in our area. Here is a before and after picture our Biologic Green Patch Plus (Wheat, Clover, Brassicas) a month after planting.





A close up of our soybeans










This is a pea










I've learned that deer love sunflowers













...and buckwheat






















Sorghum before the deer...........and after deer!


So it looks like our efforts are paying off and the deer are taking advantage of it!!!

Smaller vs. Larger

We are trying something new this year. We are using Switchgrass to screen and divide our foodplots. What you see in the picture to the left is the intersection of the lanes we have planted to Switchgrass to divide our large square foodplot into 4 smaller squares. It's fairly easy to do, in our case we used a 3pt. mounted rototiller that is 4ft. wide and made two passes with it creating an 8ft. wide seed bed. Then we cultipacked it, next we spread our switchgrass seed with a hand spreader and lastly, cultipacked it, insuring good seed to soil contact.

The basic idea is to create smaller plots that bucks will have to move into to see what does are there as opposed to standing on the edge of the larger plot looking over the whole thing from cover. When a buck can't see what's in the next plot over, he can't help himself but to go check it out creating the movement we want. And of course we will have our stands overlooking the whole thing! I'll let you know how it works this Fall!