Winter Habitat Work

M. R. Byrd

M. R. Byrd

Well-known member
There is always habitat work going on at the Ponderosa. Currently we are plowing fire breaks for an upcoming prescribed burn. In the last ten years I have burned every acre of my CRP grass. I do not burn in blocks, but by burning every other terrace. This procedure is time consuming and more difficult, but the result is a tremendous amount of edge within the CRP field. My previous interseeding of legumes and forbs was not up to my expectations, so I will again be interseeding in the burned acres.

I have not yet purchased my legume/forb mix, but will plan on a mix of alfalfa, Illinois Bundleflower, Maximilian Sunflower, Purple Prairieclover and Upright Coneflower. My previous interseeding resulted in just a fair population of Illinois Bundleflower and Maximilian Sunflower, an occasional Purple Praireclover plant and no Upright Coneflower. I hope conditions this year will be better and an adequate stand of forbs and alfalfa can be established.

This year's work will benefit all my species(pheasant, bob white quail, lesser prairie chicken), but mostly the pheasant. I plan to plant shrubs in Spring 2010 in areas that will benefit mainly the lesser prairie chicken and bob white quail.

I do really enjoy the habitat work and know there are those here that do also.

Here we are plowing a fire break.

stick19Feb09004.jpg
 
It is a seven bottom roll over moldboard. It is not mine, but a neighboring farmer that I hired.
 
Maynard, make sure you plant the plowed strip. It'll probably give you the best results. I do hope we get some needed moisture or there may be no burning this spring. We've had less than .5 inches this year so far. We need a full soil profile to light a burn and expect it to grow afterwards. I wouldn't want my sand to move. We're set up for an excellent production year with the carryover birds we have. Just need average weather. Good luck with your burns!
 
Prairie Drifter said:
I do hope we get some needed moisture or there may be no burning this spring.
Click to expand...

We were turning up pretty good moisture. We were dry for so long last year, then finally got moisture late. I will just sit and wait and if the moisture comes, I am ready to burn.

BTW, just got my copy of Fred Guthery, "On Bobwhites", today, so I will be doing some reading.
 
Win97 said:
Maynard, will these strips be planted to a food plot or back to grass or left to grow wild forbs?
Click to expand...

The terrace channels, which is what was plowed, will be planted with eight rows of milo and/or tall grain sorghum such as Ellis or Atlas. Might do a few sunflowers also. The plowed fire break serves two purposes, 1) fire break; 2) food plot.
 
Maynard, if you can find it, try some Egyptian Wheat. It's a tall forage sorghum that produces a head about a foot wide. It lodges into a massive tangle that makes extremely safe feeding cover for the birds. I believe it is fairly drought tolerant as well. I've used it here on this sand and had good success.
 
Prairie Drifter-
I have heard of it, but never seen it. Any idea of a seed source?
 
Seed

Try DeLange Seed in Sedgwick or Kauffman seed in Haven. You might also find it advertised by some of the seed dealers in QU magazine. Sharp Brothers in Healy or Star seed in Beloit are other options. The Star seed Pheasants Forever mix is also another option.
 
Prairie Drifter-

Thanks. I will check it out.

Do you recall your seeding rate? I will be planting with an eight row planter, 30 inch spacing.
 
I think it's around 15 pounds, but it could be less. I'll try to check. DeLange seed used to produce a wildlife seed book that was very helpful. I have one at the office and it may have the rate in it. They're very useful on a variety of different plants.
 
Prairie Drifter,

Just wondering, is the Egyptian Wheat better in a mix with other grain sorghums or as a solid stand?

I will be using an eight row planter(30" row spacing). What do you think about using two of the eight rows for another plant, such as sunflowers?
 
Nothing wrong with any of those mixes. Other varieties I've had good luck with are proso millet, african millet, ellis, atlas, and arkan. Just don't mix anything in you think will draw deer.
 
You mean these things?

stick29Jan09015-1.jpg


There are plenty deer. I do confess that I hunt them, but don't shoot enough of them. At the moment I could take you on an hour drive of an evening and show you between 200-300 deer.
 
You may have to call a meeting at your place next December and have everyone bring a stack of doe tags. The deer shouldn't outnumber the birds!!!
 
Sounds like a plan to me. Twenty does removed from the herd around my place would help. Going to a meeting Thursday and will see what is said.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
Sounds like a plan to me. Twenty does removed from the herd around my place would help. Going to a meeting Thursday and will see what is said.
Click to expand...

MR,

We harvested 12 from around my 2 farms. I took 2 off the west place and the locals I let hunt took about 10 off the east place (or adacent to it).

A couple nice bucks were taken but not by our group. This was first year under united management plan and we hit goals so now we'll see how that carry's out over time.

We'll plan to assess again in spring and set 2009 harvest goals.

Do you have a deer donation program in state yet. SD's in getting better each year.
 
I usually hunt WIHA in Stafford county at least once each year. I am amazed at the deer numbers there!
 
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