Two new books for RRG & SA members will be available at the Club House for lending. You may check them out at meeting time and keep it until next meeting. See Elaine Holcum or Marcia Baker.
The book "Grow 'Em Right" by Neil and Dougherty, talks about simple Timber Stand Improvement (TSI), that only requires your time and some tools. They claim that the chainsaw is the deer's best friend. It also takes into account issues planting plots in northern timberland like ours.
Quality Food Plots, zeros in on planting food plots on your property. The authors, Kammermeyer, Miller and Thomas, distinquish between climates. It also gives a run-down on every kind of seed you are considering. Both books do recommend commercial seed-mixes although they are more expensive, compared to using The Rangeley Mix, our Association designed. Both books talk about seeding logging roads or power lines.
You can just buy a few seed packets of turnips, plant them in the spring, and that will be the best way to provide food to deer up until January. The deer only start eating turnips after frost-time when a chemical reaction triggers an attraction. (As always we recommend liming or ash to sweeten the soil). Their stems remain upright even under the snow. Turnip , and other brassicas like it, are the only nutritious plant family that endures our climate. Otherwise, we have to hope that food plots will fatten up the deer enough to carry them until the spring.
The photo below shows Andy Nagle checking out his scattered food plots. In this case, he used clover which is an excellent perennial that will last for two or three years. Here he is checking out how they grew during the summer. Like Andy, start small and experiment.
At the next RRG & SA meeting, on Oct 21, we are happy to have Chuck Hulsey, deer biologist, talk about the new partnership of large and small landowners in managing winter deeryards. I hope you can be there
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