When fall rolls around we begin shifting our focus from habitat management to hunting. Hoping all of our hard work preparing for the season will pay off. As the days get shorter and our priorities begin to shift, know the work is never truly finished. Fall is an important time to make observations and keep notes of what you're seeing while in the field.
Oaks- In a study conducted by the University of Tennessee, they found that only 30% of the oak trees produced 70% of the acorns and there were some oaks that never produced a single acorn. Hunting season is the perfect time to make note of what oaks on your property are the better producers and which ones are just taking up space and resources. By marking these trees now, you can create an inventory of what trees are high producers and what trees are low producers. Then, when the season is over you can selectively terminate your low producers and the other trees around your high producers. Killing or felling the trees around your high producers will allow the canopy of those oaks to grow larger and thus produce more acorns in the future. Felling the other trees will also open up the canopy and allow more sunlight to reach the ground which will promote early successional plant communities as well as create structure at ground level that will also benefit your wildlife. Oaks typically have mast cycles every 2-5 years so this inventory can be done over a several-year span to account for mast years. Another indicator during low mast years is to look out for seedlings that are growing beneath mature oaks. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Craig Harper from the University of Tennessee is, “You can remove 50% of your oak trees and actually increase acorn production”.
Grasses- Whether it's tall fescue, orchardgrass, timothy, bluegrass, smooth brome, etc. We all have them. And none of them provide any benefit to our wildlife. If you see deer eating these grasses that indicates that food is a limiting factor on your property, and you need to implement some changes in your management plan. Not only do these grasses not provide any nutritional benefit for wildlife but they are naturally sod-forming grasses that block out native forbs and grasses that are utilized by wildlife. They suppress the seed bank and decrease forb cover and overall plant diversity. Even too much native grass can be a limiting factor to your plant diversity and inhibiting you properties potential. I like to shoot for a max of 25-30% native grass cover. So how do we control these grasses?
Cool-season Grasses- Start by preparing the field or field border that you want to convert to native plants. Preparing the area can be achieved by mowing, haying, or burning. Wait until after a couple of frosts when these grasses are photosynthesizing and sending nutrients to the roots and apply an herbicide application of glyphosate. This technique provides the most effective control of cool-season grasses. You may see some residual grasses the following year but it will be minimal and easily treated with a selective herbicide application in a hand or backpack sprayer.
Warm-season grasses- Similarly to cool-season grasses, you must start by preparing the site. Mow, hay, or burn off the dead foliage from winter. Wait until spring green-up when those grasses begin growing and photosynthesizing and conduct an herbicide application of imazapyr. Like some of the cool-season grasses, spraying warm-season grasses does not always produce 100% control and you may see some resprouting. Again, this is where your backpack sprayer comes in handy. Spot spray those resprouts with a 5% glyphosate solution as the years progress and you will quickly see your field that was once a biological desert of grass turn into an ecosystem getting utilized regularly by wildlife.
Herd Management; Bucks- There are three things that are needed to create large antlered bucks; age, genetics, and nutrition. This topic alone has been written about often and I could honestly fill up pages and pages explaining the nuances of antler development but I will save that for another article. Unless you hunt on a very large continuous tract of several thousand acres or a high fence, the likelihood of you being able to realistically control genetics and select for larger antlers isn’t reasonable. What you can do, however, is give your deer the best chance possible to get big by providing adequate nutrition and letting them live until maturity. A study conducted at the deer research lab at Mississippi State University indicates that on average, buck antlers don’t reach their full potential until they are 6.5 years old and that 3.5-year-olds are only at about 80% of their potential. Simply allowing bucks to reach maturity is the easiest way to have larger bucks on your property. Nutrition is the last leading factor in what produces large bucks and an overall healthy deer herd. Without proper nutrition, bucks will never reach their full potential, no matter how old you allow them to get. Nutrition must be available on a year-round basis. If you are only managing for fall food plots and the nutrition is lacking the rest of the year, then don’t expect to grow large deer or house a healthy deer herd year after year. Some studies even suggest that the body condition of the doe during gestation will affect the potential of the bucks that doe produces.
Herd Management; Does- Throughout the majority of the whitetail range, numbers are stable or increasing. Managing does is just as important or more important than managing the bucks on your property. Does control the population size and density. This is where monitoring your deer herd becomes important and managing does become important. If your herd has a low recruitment rate, maybe you should choose not to harvest does, or only one or two. If your herd is like most, you probably aren’t harvesting enough does. If you fall into the latter category and have decided on a number of does that you need to harvest, I like to suggest you harvest does early and often. By harvesting does in the early season, you reduce the amount of mouths you’ll be feeding in the fall and winter when resources become limited. Lowering the number of does before the rut can also increase competition and movement among bucks in the area leading to more hunter opportunities when breeding begins.
Record Keeping- I encourage everyone to keep a record book of harvests and observations on their properties. This can be as simple or in-depth as you’d like but generally the more simple it is, the more likely you are to keep up with it. The key is to keep it consistent. Things like date, time of day, time on stand, and amount of antlered/antlerless deer seen is a good place to start for observations. For harvest reports; date, times, weight (live or dressed-be consistent), age, sex, and antler score are relatively simple data that can be recorded. Record keeping is important so you can observe trends throughout the years and be able to draw conclusions on whether your management practices are meeting desired objectives.
Conclusion- There’s always work to be done. Continuously look for ways to improve your property for the future. Release those high-producing oaks and kill those unwanted grasses. Allowing the natural regeneration to respond in unproductive open areas and in the understory of your woodlots will provide extra food and cover and can increase daytime movement activity. Once established, these early successional plant communities can be managed by a prescribed fire regime or disking on a 2-7-year return interval based on composition and objectives. Now is the time to manage your herd. What you choose to harvest or not harvest this year will contribute to how your hunting is in the years to come. Harvest does early and often. Let the young bucks walk, your future self will thank you. Most of all, enjoy yourself, the outdoors, and the process. Wildlife management is a lifestyle, not a one-time event. Have a plan, execute the plan, adapt the plan, and repeat.
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