My sw ny 49 acre(39 acres wooded) property was timbered 10 years ago. They cut every tree down to 12"s. Mostly black cherry,sugar maple, red maple, beech nut a few red oak. Now after 10 years we have no deer on the property. They used to bed everywhere on my land and has become fewer each year. It seems like my land was used mostly for feed the first few years then went more towards bedding cover now nothing. Has anyone else seen this on their property?? The deer used to flock to the property after the first day of gun season but less and less each year what do you guys think???
Thinking that the feed (natural browse) was become less i decided to thin the woods a bit. So two years ago i cut all the beech out of a 1-1.5 acre(75'x600') strip down the center of the woods that boarders a old logging road that is planted in turnips. It seems like the deer will not enter the newly cleared area until it is about 3 years old. We have seen very few deer in the first 2 years (less that 5 deer in 2 years gun and bow). Not even at night with trail camera. I don't want to start clear cutting everything and make the hunting worse than it is.
Not wanting go hog wild cutting the timber i planted some of the 3 small fields i have. This year i planted 3 acres of corn 1 acre of tunips and 1 acre of clover and have not had one deer bed on the property in 2 weeks??? (Gun season). We used to kick out 10- 20 deer off the 39 acres during deer drives not even one this year. Any suggestions it seems the more i plant the less deer we see.

anyone????????

There gettin smart, DON'T RUN DOGS! Just My opinon

There is some good info on QDMA about refuges and making bedding areas. I think your land may benefit from some of those strategies.

I also have 50 acres in ny that was timbered about 11 yrs ago.
Except deer have been thriving even immediately after.
As recent as last year heard 10 pt buck was spotteed on my land.

I did do some work, built a house that took about 3 yrs and was completed about 3 yrs ago.
It did change patterns, but didn't chase them away.
I am surrounded by larger lots and no farms,
Hard to say what's keepimg yours away,
Are others using you land?
Too much presence/ activity?
Good water source ?
When you say no deer, how about signs of deer? Scat, tracks etc..
Dogs yotes?

After you cut the fruit bearing trees out you had 3 or so years of browse that the deer could reach they would feed thru. Then the preferred feed got too high for the deer to reach and it wasn't old enough to produce fruit. Planting all the food plot area you can is your best bet to attract the deer back to the land. You might try fertilizing any briar patches you have and planting Japanese Honeysuckle in the bottoms is good deer forage.

this last post explains it pretty well. deer will feed and bed in brier patchs. the thicker it is the more they like it. fertilizing it and improving the growth of the briers would be a great start... just my two cents on this...

I agree more browse more deer, but your food plots should be attracting deer even if there not bedding there. Did the surrounding land also get clearcut? Also agree with leaving refuge, a section you leave alone. They have to feel safe somewere