February's chill shouldn't keep you indoors—instead, let the muddy deer trails guide your development and conservation strategies. We've packed this episode with advice on creating food plots that not only draw in wildlife but also enrich your soil, borrowing smart techniques from experienced farmers to boost your land's vitality.
As the conversation heats up, we walk you through the transformative power of fire. Controlled burns can be a game-changer for your land, and we explain the how's and when's to maximize their benefits. We close with a reminder about the invaluable role of expert advice. Surrounding yourself with knowledgeable professionals can make all the difference in your land management success, turning the promise of spring into a season of growth and preparation. So, join us for this discussion—it might just change the way you see and interact with the land you love.
February's chill shouldn't keep you indoors—instead, let the muddy deer trails guide your development and conservation strategies. We've packed this episode with advice on creating food plots that not only draw in wildlife but also enrich your soil, borrowing smart techniques from experienced farmers to boost your land's vitality.
As the conversation heats up, we walk you through the transformative power of fire. Controlled burns can be a game-changer for your land, and we explain the how's and when's to maximize their benefits. We close with a reminder about the invaluable role of expert advice. Surrounding yourself with knowledgeable professionals can make all the difference in your land management success, turning the promise of spring into a season of growth and preparation. So, join us for this discussion—it might just change the way you see and interact with the land you love.
Am I starting it off for you? Yeah, yeah, go ahead, okay, all right, guys. So we're back with another podcast today, and so the last one we kind of touched on early successional and managing that, and you know the importance of that, and we kind of wanted to talk a little bit more about. You know just what you should be doing this time of year, and so it's February and we are, you know, we're kind of planning for the growing season, and so you know, we've got food plots on the mind, we've got turkey season coming up, or you know burning, or you know getting ready to burn, and so you know, with all of that, you know one, it's hard to prioritize your time because obviously we're all busy, but also we kind of just want to touch on you know what you should be doing this time of year. You know the importance of each one, what you should maybe focus more on or, you know, put more time towards one or the other. So this will be a fun podcast to just talk about. You know what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let's jump into it. You know, to me I think that February is the best month of the year to be on your property. I'm not saying to you, know, you know that's a stressful time of year for wildlife. I mean, they're coming out of winter, they're still in winter, and so you need to kind of keep your place a little quiet, but it gives you the best evidence of what's happening on the ground. Let me, let me explain.
Speaker 2:So if I'm designing a property, okay, if I'm going to lay it out and develop it, I don't see how I can develop it without knowing where the deer are moving. And and because you don't, you know, when you're developing you're kind of, you're kind of wanting to do what they already want to do, and then, once you kind of know what they're doing, then you can, you can manipulate them in a way that you want them, but you have to know where they're going. You got to know where they're going. And so for me, like I've told you know, told my clients, like, if I'm working on your property, if I'm developing your property, and I'm not on your property in February, I'm not going to be able to truly design it in a way. That's that the, the wildlife are not going to. You know, check up, you know, you, you. I'm not saying you can't go design one and get it right, but I know for a fact I can get it right.
Speaker 1:When you're looking at that property in February to know what's going on.
Speaker 2:And the reason why is because February February is usually usually the wettest, coldest month of the year that's where you're going to see your mud trails, your, your deer trails. They're going to be very it's going to be, it's going to pop out at you. And so for me, being able to walk on a property for the first time, stepping foot on it, you know yes, I need the information from a land owner and says, hey, this is what the deer usually do, but I'm looking on the ground and I can tell that's, that's, that's the evidence that I need. And so you need to be on your property. You need to be planning out so many things. You need to be checking on your herd health, checking on your turkeys, checking on your. You know, I know that that's a time of year that we do some. This is a time of year we do a lot of trapping and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Well, and just planning food plots, because I mean, you know most people plant fall food plots. But if you're going to plant spring food plots, that you know that's the time where you want to be getting ready, whether that be figuring out what you're going to put out for as a herbicide, to kind of help with weed competition in the early spring, or, you know, looking at soil test results, seeing what nutrients or how much lime you need to apply, stuff like that. That's stuff that you need to be looking at before your food plots dry, cause once your food plots dry you need to be planting, and so you kind of have to have all that ready and you know you can be taking soil samples.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so January and February, so you've been doing a lot of agriculture stuff. What have you learned from those guys?
Speaker 1:How to how to maximize what you put in. And so, like, one of the things that I've I've learned from farmers is you know, obviously they make money off the crops that they grow, but they're the commodity prices are lower and the diesel prices are higher, equipment prices are higher, and so they're trying to make the most with it, the least amount of inputs. And so with food plots, I've seen most people just throw out seed. I mean, they don't, you don't put much thought into it. Like you go up to the co-op, you know, and grab whatever chemical he says and it's like, oh, this will work, and you just pour it in the tank and start spraying, and so you know and that's okay, and you know you're going to kill everything like that.
Speaker 1:But if you take time to slow down and really focus on, you know, let's measure out this chemical, let's let's really look at how many seeds per acre we're putting out, let's really focus on maybe this year, instead of planting corn, we'll plant something to help build the soil health, whether that's sun hemp or you know a plant that is much bigger and it produce much more vegetation, vegetative growth. Maybe that's good for the soil, maybe your soil needs a break from. Just, you know, when you plant corn every year, it's great, but you know corn needs a lot of nutrients, and so that's one of the things that I've seen with farmers is, you know they they want to. They want what's best for the environment, but they also want to make money doing what they do, and so there's a fine line between that and I think food plotters look at it as you know. Okay, let's just go out there and throw some seed out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, I, my system, that I, that I believe in everybody's got their system. I like to to to where I have the least amount of inputs as well. You know, that's why I love natives. I use the power of the natives to kind of take away the mistakes that I could make if I'm putting a lot of inputs in and it saves a lot of money. Yeah, but one of the things I have, I have a certain clover that I that I kind of that I'm established everything is is building off of each other. You know, you know in the fall I'm planting this one clover for this one field that I have a plan, might have a plan for late spring, to where this clover gets them through the cold months into and out of spring.
Speaker 1:And then I've switched it when that clover starts to, you know, died out or whatever, yeah, and so having that nutrition plan in place to know when what you're not only going to do now, but what you did in the fall builds on now and what you're doing now is going to build on the fall, and then you see what I'm saying, yeah, and really all you need is like we put a lot of I mean, we love talking about food plots in this industry and that's great, but really all you're trying to do is you need to find a way to provide a food source through each time of year, and so that could be through a food plot or it could be you could be burning in, you know, early winter or even late winter and you know spring green up.
Speaker 1:That's a food source, and so we like to focus on food plots. And you know, if you manage the property right and you put food plots in your management plan like you can do it really well. But you don't have to have food plots to provide food for your wildlife. No, you don't. I mean you can burn and you know even thinning or even a clear cut. I mean think about all the growth in a clear cut right at the deer's, you know level.
Speaker 2:You know one one, one farm that I think a lot of everybody's kind of got to know was the zoo. Right, the zoo was a unique property Because when we got there, the reason that people called it the zoo is because every time they'd get, you know, get off the stand they'd say, man, this place is a zoo. It's unbelievable, and it was. But what it was is it was built in a way for three and a half year olds and a bunch of does we never really had a bunch of. You know, we would get some mature bucks early season something, but then later in the year it just it was like a dead zone. So, reshifting that whole development process and honestly it's a hard, it's a hard thing to like walk away from that many deer. But when you change the habitat up to where you can't have the caring capacity as high and you're not going I'm not going so much big, huge food plots and that takes away some of those younger deer and what happened is we started shifting into a different age class.
Speaker 1:There's not as many deer, but but you've got bigger bucks, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean those those big deer need to be. You know there's just a, there's a recipe for a property and that there's nothing wrong. Look, if somebody wants to, has a, has some kids and wants to kill, wants to go and kill bucks, like have fun, man, I can lay out a farm for you that is like loaded with a bunch of bucks. But if you wanted to move into a different, there's some people that want to have, you know, grow record book type deer. Well, that's a completely different strategy, that's. That's that's focusing more on kind of security, security cover. Kind of lonely, you know, it's kind of a. The farm can seem dead at times. You and you, you, instead of having a big food plot, you might have a little bitty food plot, that kind of services. You know them in that way.
Speaker 2:So, every, every, everything that we're we're talking about right now is things that need to be decided right now. You know the food plot system we just talked about. You know, going back to the begin, this podcast, talking about the deer trails and being able to get that data. Well, if you know I like to call you know, if you've got the deer, if you know where they're bedding, you know where they're traveling, you should be able to use your tool bag, like we talked about last week, your tool bag and design in a way to might you might add a food plot system, a food plot to that system, or you might add a strategic bedding area.
Speaker 2:I used I kind of came up with that name years ago because I really think that if you're managing for big deer, you've got to keep the pressure off he, you can't spook him every time you go the woods. And so I was like, well, you know, if that's the case, I need to just strategically put this clear, cut this bedding area, this thick spot over here. And I said, man, these are just, these are, and they started, you start doing it and you're, and that's where they, that's where they are, and it's strategically, you strategically place them and then you build a system around them to be able to kill them on their way. You should be able to build your farm to where you don't have to necessarily have a rifle. You should be able to kill him. It's kind of like a golf course. You know, yeah, the architect of the golf course. He knows the slope of the green, he knows where those things are going to do. You know, that's kind of what you're for me, that's what I do, I like to, that's my hunt.
Speaker 1:right, that's my yeah, well, and that's also if you have to look at this time of year, you have to plan all that out, cause, I mean, during the growing season, we all get busy, whether it be jobs outside of this or, you know, family things or whatever it may be vacations, whatever it is, you don't have time to. You know, really plan out stuff and then accomplish the project. I mean you need to have a list of projects and then you know say, okay, this year I'm going to focus on this, I'm going to focus on this drainage issue. I'm going to focus on this. You know, food plotter I'm going to focus on, you know timber stand improvement whatever it is and start planning out some of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean what you just talked about. I'm just thinking all right, let's just say you. Let's say you, let's just use an example. Let's say that your wife wants to put in a. She won't, she's ready to have that 10 acre lake, 10 acre pond and that's going to cost I don't know. Let's just say $75,000. Let's just use a number, let's just use an even number $100,000.
Speaker 2:You're like, and you start putting out your improvement projects and you're like man, this is going to cost me by the time I do these food plots and this. I'm just, you know, let's just say it's $120,000. And you're like okay, 120k. And you're like do I really want to come out of pocket of that? Well, you know, you might have on your property, you might have your hardwoods or your timber, timber sales, and you could create a harvest schedule to be able to cut some timber to be able to pay for these enhancements. And you can, if you think about it and plan it out quick and like in in, you know, years in advance, you could be like you know, this is the year that we're going to do this and this is how we're going to pay for it. You know.
Speaker 1:Well, that's another thing that we weren't even considering earlier. It's just the budgeting side of things, I mean. I mean you can't call in a logger and say, hey, come cut this, and you know it'd be done within three weeks. You know it all takes time. And so you know, going back to you know the lake example or the pond example, you know you got to plan stuff like that out. And that's the same thing with habitat. I mean you got to one, you got to plan out the budget side of things. But also, I mean trees take so long to grow. You don't want to go in and just start cutting and then look back and be like I probably should have planned that a little better.
Speaker 2:Hey, man, I've been doing this for 16, 17 years. I don't know, and I can look back and still I'm like man, how I did not plan that out. But I learned, you know, I learned through all that and being able to realize now, yeah, I mean, you know, planning it out allows you to do a few things. One, make more money on your investment. That's, it's just all there is to it. Have a client that about 10 years ago we kind of built a timber management plan, basically of how we're going to harvest this timber.
Speaker 2:For seven years we sat there and didn't do anything. Timber prices were not where we wanted to be and then all of a sudden, timber prices started getting to where I liked them. It's like I can play this game. This is the, you know, this is the, this is we're fixing to do this. Already, had the planets in place, already had the client ready to go, we're just waiting on the price.
Speaker 2:And we started man, for three years, two or three years, we started harvesting timber and we would, we would literally. It's like playing chess. You know, when we were cutting hardwood, you know some, you know there were, there were a lot of loggers and stuff cutting pine. But when you know, you know, and then we would shift and sometimes you kind of you got to. You have to plan that out to be ready for, to be able to capitalize on the market, you know.
Speaker 2:So I mean, you know this year look, it's not rocket science, I think that. I think that, like we talked to, talked to Blake today about, about just timber, where we're at and where the business is Because of the drought that we've been in, pretty probably a bad year to be selling timber. But you never know, you know you could, we could get on a crazy rain spell and inventors can knock out. But basically, what I'm trying to say is build your inventory, know what your inventory is. Even if it's nutrition for wildlife, every plant, every tree should be part of your nutrition plan as well as Timber inventory, yeah, and all of that happens.
Speaker 1:you know in the planning stage, you know what you should be doing this time of year and you know it doesn't have to be this time of year, but it's a great time of year to do it because it's it's not a hundred degrees out and you know, like we said earlier, you know it's muddy on the property, you can see where the deer are moving, you can really, you know, dial into where they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all right. So we got a few more things to cover and let's talk through these pretty quick. All right, so we've got burn schedule. You need to know what your burn schedule is for the year and y'all slow down, slow it down, think smaller, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, that and that doesn't have to, and you know, it doesn't even have to be this year. I mean, most landowners have a good idea of what they're gonna burn, just because it's, you know, on a rotation. And so I mean, just you know, maybe you need to take a step back and look. Well, I'm, you know, doing all of these dormant season burns, which are great, but maybe you know, let's mix it up this year, let's do a growing season burn on this track instead of, you know, on this plot, instead of, just, you know, dormant season and so just stuff like that and you know I have to reevaluate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that all depends on what your management goals are. I mean, if you're, if you're strict forestry related, you know I would say, try to get in that early stage of that growing season and knocking out those sweet gums. But if you're, if you're more focused on wildlife, you need to really remember you know we burn. And then what? Two months later, a month two later, it greens up, right. So just think that, think about you, think ahead of time, think about okay, august is coming.
Speaker 2:Drought last year was around July the 10th started. Okay, you need to focus on and you need to keep a good data on your weather. Know where it stops raining, because next year, because probably gonna be a lot, like to say. And so if you know that the drought starts, then wait a couple weeks, start focusing on your, on your stressful months, your droughts and and that's not a time of year that you you really thinking that because in your, in your mind and in my mind I'm like man, it's been so wet, I'm ready for it to dry up. No, you're, you, as a manager, you're thinking months down the road.
Speaker 1:When you know dorm or growing season burns are great for that I mean, like no growing season burns I feel like aren't taking advantage of enough, just because, like everybody thinks about dormant season, which is great, but you know, like you said earlier, it grains up, you know, in the spring. Well, if you like, in a map of the nutrition on your property, there's probably a decent gap in August, and you know the later summer months, early fall months, just because you know, there you haven't burned, so there's not a lot of green up. They might be dry, like it has been, and so you know, introducing that growing season fire might be the key to adding more new, you know, nutrients to your place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I'm thinking right now. I'm like you know, if I'm trying to burn something jelly, the really about the only option I have is a sage field, if without having to use chemical. Okay, that's where I'm talking about. You know, it's okay to have grasses, grasses carry fires grasses. You can have grass in with saplings. Your nutrition is going to come from that sapling and if we use the grasses to carry that fire through there, then we could be technically not having to kill something off to get it to burn, which is helping soil health. Yeah, exactly, let's see here.
Speaker 2:So, burn schedule what I tell you is is think small. Think small, like, if you're going to burn that 40 acres this year, go ahead and knock out five to 10 acres right now, do another and 10, you know, a month or two down the road, stagger that down the road, and that's going to diversify your nutrition and help you combat any stress that comes throughout the year Droughts, whatever that is. You're going to beat your droughts through your native vegetation. But it can't just be in February. You can't just burn at the beginning of the year and be like we're good, we're done.
Speaker 1:We're good yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. I know that natives are. You know we hear the droughts here, but we got natives. I don't know if what I see on the ground is I see these natives drying out.
Speaker 1:Well, and what you can do is I mean I feel like a lot of people will look at growing season burns and it's like, oh, it's hot. You know I'm worried, you know the fire will get out of hand. Just try it. You know, try a five acre block, try it, we go. We tried earlier this spring we tried to burn where it was. I mean it was patchy and I mean we in total we might have burned 10 acres if that and it was just all spread out throughout this area that you might only have two acres, that burns right here. Just try that and see how it reacts. And if it doesn't react how you want it to, don't do it.
Speaker 2:But I've learned the best in my career from trying stuff and someone would tell me, oh, that doesn't, that's not going to work, and they're probably right. They could be right, but I need to. I want to learn that because when you fail, when you do these things and you're going to learn from that mistake you're going to learn, you, you. You put the seed too deep in the soil. You shouldn't have disted up, you should have drilled it Different things. But definitely don't be scared, don't be, don't be upset. If you burn something and you miss a four acre spot, that could be your spot for for August, that could be your. You know to diversify out that, that nutrition, and make sure that you are not throwing the hammer at everything right at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2:So let's you know that's a if you're doing that, that's a forestry practice. That's not necessarily a wildlife practice. Yeah, and you know what do you mean by that? I mean that in forestry we try to get rid of the competition as quick as possible to get that growth for the year. That's what that's for, okay, so now let's talk about weed, weed competition. I think this is real simple. You want to get rid of your weeds and your food, plots and stuff before they come to seed. So it's, you've got to get in there before February for four growing season. And when I say growing season, you know I'm thinking, I'm thinking that if you can kill off your grasses and your plots at the end of February, first of March, when they just start growing, because you know some of these.
Speaker 2:That's when they're good, that's when they're gonna be starting to grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah cuz, some of these plants you know, like goldenrod, or you know some of these other taller, you know Plants that you might have in a field. They might grow and you know, by by middle of the summer they have a huge seed head on it. And so, just like on a farm, you know, we this past summer I worked on a farm and our whole goal in the summer was obviously, you know, we had, we were accomplishing a lot of different tasks, but one of them was Applying herbicide and weed control and the whole goal was, if we see you know a big Ragweed or something in the field that has seeds on it, go and cut it, because if you let that seed just sit there and then we drive a combine through that field and that, you know seed head goes through the combine, you're just spreading the seeds out throughout the whole field.
Speaker 2:And so if your goal is to have ragweed, perfect there you go. Yeah, you know that's. There's different things of Manipulating plant communities. There's so many strategies that we could eventually get into that can, but that's that's. You got to know that plant, you got to know when that plant's gonna seed, you got to know when that plant's gonna flower and you got to know what herbicide is can be used for that plant, and you know it.
Speaker 1:Obviously it varies. If you know if you, whatever you want to plant after you kill that plant, you know you have to look at, you know if that herbicide or that chemical will stay soil active and you know there's a ton of stuff you have to look for but that you have to know what you can put out and you have to have all that ready For when you need to put it out. Because I mean, once that plant starts growing, that weed starts growing and you know At that point you're like, oh, I probably need to manage that. Well, by the time you figure out what herbicide, you order it, you get it. By that time that weed might already have, you know, produce a seed head.
Speaker 2:Okay. So yeah, that's, I agree, all right. So what's a plant? Let's you know that's something that you need to talk to. You know you need to have a specialist that has helping you, unless you really know. If you do, then you you don't need that. But don't just go looking at ads and, hey, this is what I should get you got to know what your property has and you're lacking, and that way you can fit into the nutrition.
Speaker 1:Well, and just look at your, your, the environment, you're gonna plant that seed in because I mean, there's some properties that have, you know, very low areas and they might flood, and so you know that you might plant bilanza clover there or something that does really good in moisture yeah, you got it. Basically, customize your yeah, because because you know that same information and that same seed isn't gonna work well on a sandy dry site, you know, in the hills.
Speaker 2:Here's a. Here's a tip. Here's a. Here's an old-timer tip. You know, and for your garden, plant your garden with it when the pecans are blooming, though they're the last tree that blooms. Vetch is kind of the same way, okay. So the reason why they're saying, you know, plant when the pecans are blooming. There's no more frost, there's no more freezes, that's the, that's it. So when we, when we get to that point, we can start dropping vetch. Okay, that's gonna be May-ish, okay, but here's the deal do not Take away the food source Completely. If you know that your your clover. This clover is gonna start dying out at this time, why don't you go ahead and split up the field, get you some vetch going, gets you know to where you're not Taking them out of you don't want to have a gap where there's no food available.
Speaker 2:There you go, so all right, so that's pretty much. You know pretty much what we've covered. You know you got to be looking at your overall herd health. Let me tell you something I can come, I can come look at that, but I'm a forester, I'm a developer. That's a biologist role he needs, you know I. You know it's like where we know what you know. What lane should you stay in? Well, if you're, if you want to know you know what your herd health is, there's a specialist that that that's gonna be doing, that that has gone to school and has experience Knowing all those things to do. That last thing Development starts in February, kind of what I say, if it doesn't mean that you're necessarily gonna actually do the development in February.
Speaker 1:But you're planning for it, but you got a plan. So planning, budgeting, all that Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep, and you know, once you have that, the crazy thing is about that budgeting that fits into your tax. You know you can give that to your tax guy and say, hey, look, we're thinking about cutting X amount of timber this year. You know what should we do if we don't want to pay taxes and he might say we need. You know, this might be a good year to buy bulldozer. This might be a good year to buy a tractor. This might be a good year to to do that pond. So really putting surrounding yourself with the right professionals and that's not going to be the same one for every category. So use, use experience, develop relationships with really good managers around your area. And you know I always lean on those guys. They don't. They don't, they're not doing it for a living, but I'm doing it for a living and I know that. They know they have parts in their career that what they do there there's so much better than what I'm doing, so lean on those people. Yeah, you got anything else?
Speaker 1:No, I think we covered everything. I think you know obviously there's a lot, you know that you need to plan for, and you know, throughout the year and you know we're kind of the in there, you know it's not growing season yet we're kind, of, you know, early spring, and so you know you've got all year to really accomplish these goals.
Speaker 2:Dude, this is the best time of year it is everybody's like. There's a lot of people who are like, oh, it's not deer season anymore. I'm like man, it's habitat season exactly, I like habitat season more. Yeah, all right, yeah, y'all have a good one, see ya.