Quality bedding cover for deer is cover that is thick from 0-3'; high and open above 3'. It needs to be on south facing slopes if it is to be used during the winter. If it is to be used during the summer it needs to have a partial canopy for shade and be on a north facing slope. The size of the bedding area is also important. Deer will use small areas (an acre or two in size) if that’s the largest block around, but prefer larger blocks so predators have difficulty isolating them. I usually create bedding areas that are at least 10 acres or larger.

In addition to creating bedding areas, I make them sanctuaries. That is I stay out of them except during the spring to shed hunt or to recover a shot deer during season.

Growing Deer together,

Grant


That is from Dr. Grant Woods. My question is about maintaining that 0' - 3' level. I've just created 2 bedding areas (hopefully) that I want to keep at that preferably 3' height. Opinions on bushogging this area with the cutter raised up to about 2.5' in the spring to keep it a bedding area for many years?

Most bedding areas I see in Alabama are pine thickets ranging from 3-10 years old. If you just let a field or clearcut grow naturally in hardwoods it could last a lot longer as a bedding area.

This is out of my happy zone, last thing we need in the mountains of NE Alabama is more bedding areas. Whole NE corner is one huge bedding area.

I’d say that the options would be fire, mower, or a temporary e-fence and cattle.

I have a lot of my property to where I can mow it after hunting season every year to set back succession. Some areas I'm still fighting to get under control. However, I have the majority of my property now with the understory open to sunlight. Most of my future management will be just continually bringing that growth back down to early successional stage. Fire is not really an option for me for several reasons. I'm currently putting up a permanent fence across the front of my property. Once its erected I think I'm going to invest in a very small herd of goats and maybe a sheep. Then, instead of using a tractor and bushhog to set back succession....I'll just rotate my little herd around using temporary e-fencing. I want to do this for tax purposes as well. I'm currently not able to claim a "current use exemption". If I had more property on a larger scale then cattle would be more ideal. Just throwing out ideas.

This was 8 yo pines. They have reached the point where they shade everything out before the first thinning. After the first thinning I will start a burning rotation. I took the dozer to about 1 acre last week. It now looks like a clear cut. I want it in briars and honeysuckle. Goal is to keep it that way and not grow back in trees. Just an experiment.

2Dogs, you know I believe in a cutdown machine and fire. Just trying something new.

You're doing basically what I'm trying. We shall see.

If you are talking current use as in property taxes, you can claim that anywhere you don't live. If you live there. claim homestead exemption on your property taxes.

CNC how do you plan on keeping predators from eating the goats and sheep?

If you don't live on it and meet the minimum acreage requirements , which is pretty small, you should be able to.

Plant longleaf pines, create a patchwork with firebreaks, burn 1/3rd of it annually, ensuring each patch burns once every three years.

I live here on the property so I guess I need to claim "homestead". My other idea on the tax side of it though was to also have the write off's for other expenses too that go along with a "farm"......fencing, equipment, feed, seed, etc.....I'm not sure how many animals I'll need to do the job without over doing it but the idea eventually is to have a small goat/sheep farm and maintain the whole understory of my property for them in either a diverse cover crop or natural regrowth "bedding". The only overstory that will remain with be about 20-30 well spaced out giant water oaks.....enough space to still get plenty of sunlight to the understory....along with some other fruit and nut orchards.

Some of the options I've found when reading are either a small donkey, a llama, or a dog. I like the idea of a small donkey. Maybe your crew could consist of 3 goats, a sheep, and a donkey. Cows would probably be much simpler to deal with for anyone with the acreage to handle them.

Another option for someone who didn’t want to mess with actually owning livestock would be to simply invest in an e-fence set-up and then see if you could partner up with a local farmer to periodically run some of his cattle on your place. It may even be a situation where someone could get paid to allow the cattle to graze….like a pasture rental.,,,,or you might could just get the other person to put up the e-fence and take it down if you allowed them to graze a few weeks for free. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the relief on their fields if they were nearby.

Better have a GREAT fence for the goats. Chain link worked best for me. They would get their head stuck in net wire if they had small horns. I started out with four on a 5 acre enclosure. I had 13 when I sold all of them.