Join us this week as we discuss some of our past projects as well as plans we have for next year, some of our upcoming guests and even a couple of rants. With hunting season going on we have been preoccupied, but looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and making major habitats improvements starting over the next few weeks.

This is your how to instructional podcast to create one of the most important foundational aspects to a managed hunting property for whitetail deer. You have to have cover and cover in the appropriate places. This podcast explains in a step-by-step process of how to identify the proper locations, how to size the opening, and how to cut it to maximizes it’s security and forage resources. 

You should be able to listen to this podcast and then go pickup a chainsaw and implement what we’ve shared. Don’t complicate things! These bedding thickets will be the magnets of your farm. These areas hold does and bucks, create edges in timber blocks, increase consistency of deer movement, feed deer year round, and more. As we roll right into January, this activity should be on your brain. Don’t miss out, your neighbors might not just be cutting firewood these days!! 

We’ve all been there. We climb up in the stand for a relaxing hunt and our thoughts quickly turn to what you wish you had gotten done. If I would have only cut in that bedding thicket, or feathered that edge; would this hunt have been more successful? Would I at least be more confident? Why didn’t I get it done last year? Should I climb down and do it now?
I guess every habitat manager has these thoughts, but how do we get it all done? Join us as we discuss our thoughts and plans on how to tackle these projects so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Late season is the time to harvest mature bucks. The exhaustion of the rut and settling in of cold temperatures drives bucks to feed and feed routinely. With proper planning though, the advantage can easily be placed in the hunters corner. Last year to this year, we’ve learned a few things on this western Iowa farm. During this podcast, we break them down one by one. 

Wind protection is a huge when it comes to feeding locations. Out of the wind areas will be highly selected when standing grain is left. These areas are magnets for daylight activity. If you have topography features with grassy and shrubby south facing slopes in close proximity to these units, there will be heavy feeding in the standing grain. Access is also super key. When you find the location, you have to hunt it! Time in the tree is key, so you need to be able to access cleanly, both entry and exit! 

This 137 acre farm has produced 4 mature bucks in two seasons during the late season over the last two years. This success isn’t accidental! It takes proper planning and execution to see these types of results! 

Burn in the spring to promote grasses and burn in the summer to promote forbs, but what about winter burns? For many of us burning during the late summer isn't something we get excited about because we want to avoid a large area of black, no food no cover during the fall with hunting season. In comes Winter burns and their ability to set back warm season grasses and allow forbs to flourish. 

Chuck Mays is no stranger to intense situations. As Chief Inspector of the Shelby Co Tennessee Sheriff’s Department and a long career with the SWAT team in the Memphis TN area, Chuck has developed tactics to deal with criminals and uses a lot of the same mentality when managing his family farm for wildlife. He calls it “unwinding therapy”, but I’d hate to be the invasive vegetation that he’s unwinding on.

Join us as we find out how he’s maintained a phenomenal turkey population, continued to have quail and is growing nice deer on his farm.
 

Ready or not, the cold is coming. There is the treaty of serious cold temps hitting the whitetails range in the next few weeks. Does your land have the late season food sources to support them? Do you even know what to look for regarding late season food resources? Download this podcast to find out! 

Woody browse, grains, greens, and red oak acorns are the staples for late season forage. These are the main food groups for deer during winter. Woody browse is the most important in timber country and easiest to create. Grains such as soybeans, corn, or milo require ag land and or serious food plot acreage and equipment.
 

On this week’s episode, we are joined by Brian Modrzynski, a Land & Legacy client from southern Ohio. This story will take you on a journey of landownership and the evolution of goals and mindsets. 

Every once in a while you come across people who can see the vision and execute. They are the people who set goals and reach them with a tenacity. In the last three years this 600 acre farm has changed and not so slightly either. We are talking big changes and real success from every angle imaginable. 

Old field management, TSI, invasive species management, prescribed fire, adding dense cover, new access roads, improved drainage, timber harvest, reduction of antlerless deer, you name it rest assured it’s been completed. 

Do not miss this episode! There are great hunting stories but also insight on how to set goals and achieve them while embracing change! 

We often hear landowners say “I don’t want to cut my woods”, but timber needs to be thinned occasionally so it will remain healthy and regeneration can occur. There are way too many timber tracts that could benefit from being thinned and you just might put some money in your pocket doing it. Join us this week as we discuss When to hold ‘em and when to fold em with Forester Wade Hargrave.
 

Every hunting season brings new perspectives to discuss and learn from. During this episode we discuss how a 36-acre managed property out performed a 160-acre lease. 

The difference in a lease and owning land is stark. Coming from two habitat nerds it’s hard to hunt a property without envisioning all the changes that would solve all the problems. In addition, quality habitat doesn’t just mean great hunts. It has to be laid out in a way that allows for access and facilitates deer movement to the areas of the farm that can be hunted. If it doesn’t, then you are left to be frustrated with your hands tied. 

It’s better to own a quarter of the land you can lease. Hunting should be enjoyable and predictable, not frustrating and random.