who should I contact for help in Montgomery Co?

Ok... Guys, if you have questions anywhere in the state feel free to contact me. I will get you in touch with the right Technical Assistance Biologist. In some cases it will be me, in some it will not. Right now I cover District 2, and parts of Districts 1 and 3. The Technical Assistance Team is a new development for our agency and we are very excited to work more with the landowners in AL.

My contact info:
Jerremy Ferguson
Technical Assistance Coordinator
jerremy.ferguson@dcnr.alabama.gov
256-280-5009

I am about the same as you. I planted 4, one acre white clover plots 2 years ago. This is one of them in July and last week. Deer stay on them year round. I plant wheat and oats around the edge. I spray and fertilize twice a year and cut it once. Clover is eaten down but will quickly rebound as soon as it warms up and I put the fertilizer to it. Clover was planted in October 2013 when we put out a mix and it took over with the right spray thanks to blumsden's recommendations. I still have to work on that Johnson grass this spring. By the way, the turkeys love it also.

Great looking plot. I love that second picture. I bet late evening, you see deer filtering out those pines and into that native browse, before coming into that plot.

I have about 300 ac. that looks like this. Fire came through 4 years ago and killed half of the pines. I have bush hogged trails connecting the draws and food plots and the deer have used them for travel vs. fighting the saw briers. It gets bloody it you try to walk through this stuff. They come out 5 min. before dark. The problem is I have 7 plots in this stuff, and I am basically the only one that hunts 700 ac. and the bucks are always smarter that me. Always get ton of pics off of these plots. I thank you for your help when I needed it.

Thats a good problem to have. Your very welcome, glad i could be of some help to you.

If you could bush hog/disk and fertilize that native browse around that plot you would be amazed at the deer utilization it would get. It just needs to be set back and fertilized every 3 years or so, especially after that fire.

Dang good looking plot by the way.

I do that around the perimeter of my food plot. I've created a buffer zone of weeds approx 30 ft wide that wraps around my food plot. It serves several purposes. For one it acts as buffer zone to help catch any fert runoff from my plot. Basically I'm fertlizing the weeds by using the existing fert that I'm already throwing out on my field. It also creates a very good transition zone in the winter for the deer to filter through as they enter the plot instead of having a hard edge on the woodline.



Not that I have it established....all I do is mow it once a year after deer season is over to set back succession.....

Looks good! More folks should do it. Disturbing the soil in areas under thinned or sparse timber, especially pines and fertilizing the native veg. is a great way it increase the quality and amount of food on a property. It is a pretty cheap and easy way to benefit all of the wildlife on your property.

I couldn't agree more. Native browse is highly preferred and cheap.

This ^^^^^^^ is direction I would go.

The areas that have been burnt are mostly a sage grass and saw briers and a ton of black berry's. If I were to disk areas around plots, what could I plant to create some good browse? What about honeysuckle or something similar?

There is usually no need to plant anything. In most situations the seeds laying dormant in the soil waiting for you to disturb it with the disk will give the deer plenty to browse on.

They like blackberry in the springtime.......



......as well as green briar.

He got it ^^^

Disturb the seed bed and fertilize it. Keep it in early successional stages and you will be good. Don't let get more than 3 years old. If you can restart it every spring.

As usual you guys are always teaching an old rookie out. I never thought of bush hogging my blackberry's. When I say I have blackberries I mean hundreds of ac. Ok NightHunter, CDC and Blumsdem I'm going to do what you say.. Blumsdem, I would like for you to come up after turkey season and look over my place for some advice and buy you a burger. I am only 30 min.from JSU

I'd love to. I'm about 3 miles past the JSU campus, towards Piedmont, off hwy 21. Good luck turkey hunting.

You will be well served by that little project. It will provide more tonnage than most food plots provide and deer will definitely spend more time eating the native browse.

I guess I should do it right after turkey season?

As soon as temps. start warming up. You could start as early as March.