Need advice about land....

[dennishoddy]

Do you plant winter wheat in Sept or before so it is up in Sept?

I plant some areas that I'm going to be hunting with wheat in the first week of sept. It comes up in days, and is high enough that the deer will start to use it before archery season starts.
As long as there is fresh browse in the woods, they will stay there mostly and come to the wheat for something else to eat. Freeze comes and the browse goes dormant, they live on the wheat.
I've planted every thing on the face of the earth that the "experts" say to plant, side by side, and nothing is any better than wheat. The rapes, and brassicas, have to have a mild freeze before they become palatable to deer. In Ok that may come late in gun season, so these plants are not good for OK.
Seems most of the stuff they sell is designed for the NE and Northern parts of the country.
Oats will freeze out, but there is a variety that will make most of the winter that has been developed. I planted it side by side with Wheat, and it wasn't any better. Wheat was 1/4 of the price.
Grains like corn or milo work well if planted around the first of June.
Problem is, when the deer walk into the corn or milo they disappear.
I put in 17 acres of milo one year, and by the end of gun season, they had stripped all the heads. If I had been putting that in for crop, it would have been a bust season. Granted, we do have a doe problem that we are addressing.
I've kind of wondered about trying milo or corn, and mowing it down before season, scattering the grains so that the upland birds and deer both can benefit. Maybe pulling the grain drill through it to get some wheat started? I don't know. I try new stuff every year.
For those with no equipment, I'm thinking some of the NO Plow stuff might be ok.
This much I know, if you hunt in the woods, my buddy did a little work and cleared out a lane 100 yds or so on either side of a tree stand that was no more than 6' wide. He cut saplings, used a rototiller to break up the dirt, plan ted wheat, and has killed some monster deer from it in Osage county. Wheat is a grass and will germinate anywhere. The trees lose their leaves and the sunlight filtered thru the trees enough to let it grow even after the deer had ate it. Just another observation.
Sorry to be so long winded.

 

[dennishoddy]

Remind you to strip disk?

Y'all need to go to the wildlifedept.com and sign up for the free flyer called "the other side of the fence"
Its written for the landowners in Ok.
It tells you some of the Gov Programs that they support, and some of the wildlife dept programs as well.
Stocking and maintaining ponds, food plots, wildlife incentives, etc.
The plus side is that they send a calender out in Jan that tells you when you need to plant certain things, have controlled burns, etc.
Pretty helpful.
Again, its free. Just have to sign up.

 

[NeverGiveUp]

Well.. I busted out the 6hp troy built and started tilling this evening. I worked for almost an hour after i got the tiller running again (hasnt ran in 15 years) and it absolutely beat the piss out of me. It's defiantly not going to be easy but i'm just going to have to put in the work. I only got a 10 foot wide section by 60 foot long tilled tonight, so it's going to take me the better part of a week to get the whole thing tilled. Once i get everything squared away we'll plant something to keep them in the summer and something for them to eat in the winter.

The 22 acres is in Choctaw and its pretty heavily wooded all around the area. I know that we can't expect the deer to stay on our land but if we could just draw them in to where we could see them more often is really what we are going for. We've seen 7-8 passing through on a handful of occasions but I've never seen a buck or buck tracks. It's always been does. Thanks for the advice guys I think i'm headed in the right direction.

As far as turkey's go.. can you buy them and start them that way or what would be the best?

 

[brian89]

Oats will freeze out, but there is a variety that will make most of the winter that has been developed.

We planted 4 acres of buck forage oats and they never froze out.. We planted them two seasons ago, and it was a pretty cold winter and they held up good.. We had two other fields planted in rye/wheat and they would pass them to come to the BF oats.. last season we got lucky and went in and brush hogged last seasons and disked it in and it came up voluntary last year.. The deer hammered it.. Its about 20$ a bag at stillwater mill..

 

[imhntn]

I got to get some of those oats. Did you plant in the fall Brian?

 

[brian89]

Yea, we planted them the first week of September, we fertilized it pretty heavy also..

 

[dennishoddy]

We planted 4 acres of buck forage oats and they never froze out.. We planted them two seasons ago, and it was a pretty cold winter and they held up good.. We had two other fields planted in rye/wheat and they would pass them to come to the BF oats.. last season we got lucky and went in and brush hogged last seasons and disked it in and it came up voluntary last year.. The deer hammered it.. Its about 20$ a bag at stillwater mill..

Yes, thats the brand that won't freeze out. I couldn't remember the name.

Its kind of weird, I planted the oats and wheat, and they really didn't act like they had a preference, and in your case they preferred it.
Same thing with mineral licks like deer cocain and salt blocks. They won't touch them in my area, but on my buddies land they destroy the ground where he poured it out. I bought some of those salt blocks from Stillwater mill a couple of years ago, that were flavored, and put them by a feeder with a camera on it. They lasted all season, and only got pics of raccons on them.
Just goes to show, what works in one area might not in another.

 

[brian89]

Here's a small buck on the volunteer oats.. kinda hard to see the actual oats but you get the jist of it..

 

[CHenry]

Here's your number one problem. 22 acres isn't much. And, you say it's in the city.

Eventually, any wildlife you introduce to the area is going to overpopulate that area. As soon as they destroy the habitat, they'll move on and you'll be back to square one. Deer and turkey can overpopulate a small area extremely fast.

Also think about Coyotes. Once they see a meal ticket, your parents may wind up having issues with them.

I agree with this....