jhalfhill

This aerial photo is of my 50 acre property in SW PA. my property is outlined in blue.

- The deer tend to stay on the right 3/4 of the property, there is alot of people moving throughout the day on the very left edge near the road so they keep to the right (east).

- The green rectangle will be a deer pen this spring.

- The green cirle is now a smaller field with trees around it. is about 1/4 acre in size

- Starting from the left side of the map and going right, the propertys elevation gets higher until the first brown line. Here the land slopes down pretty moderately until the second brown line. Then it is flat until the treeline in the back of the field.

- All the woods are fairly thick with rosebushes and undergrowth as well as big cherry trees

- I'm allowed to hunt the property below the red line and my property. This is a sportsmans club so I try to keep the deer off of it as this is where many of them get shot.

- The guy who owns the property above mine and above the red line is a real jerk. no hunting there and we dont get along at all. his relatives hunt it but they aren't very good and just spook most of them. the deer really like to hang out over there tho


What would you do to this land for deer management?

farm hunter

Not much you can do here -

Probably your best bet it to concentrate on the back of the property - put in a top notch 3-4 acrefood plot - and increase your bedding area at by putting in some pines/spruce & shrubs.

Hopefully you can hold a doe group - and offer a food attractive enough to lure the deer from surrounding bed areas.

FH

farm hunter

If I wasn't concerned about keeping the fields - I would take advantage of the neighbor's woods - and plant trees to createtravel corridors from the adjacent bedding areas - through my food plots - Here's an example.



You might have a better idea since you know the land.

In this case you would also create a "hidden field" - always a plus for deer.

FH

Dan O.

I'd work on closing in and connecting trees areas. I put it roughly into 3 stages depending on how much area you want in food plots and agricultural land. Yellow first, then red and finally green.

Dan O.

jhalfhill

lol dan, just to the left of where the deer pen sits is where my current house is. haha it wasnt built yet a the time of the photo and you kinda buried it in trees lol . but i never thought about making a crossway like that from the neighbors properties thats a good idea might have to look into it