Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Prairie Land Hunting

I have prairie land mixed with 10-50 acre island of hardwoods and some cedars on the ridges. I know about cutting the cedars... Prairie land is over 1000 acres. There are streams that really get too wet.

But I would like to know what people are doing to enhance the prairie land either in native browse or planting whatever. Never dealt with pH of 7.5 or 7.7 and some of it may even be higher.

Whatever advice that can be given.

Thanks!

I've never heard of folks cutting the cedars. That's a lot of chainsawing.

Cedars also create a great bedding area.

From what I've seen, cedars tend to act like water oaks on prairie soil. They won't let anything grow underneath them so they are generally just taking up space other than the cover they provide. I have seen deer browse cedars. Unless you just want the wood I would leave em. If you have one large stand of cedars you could cut a lot of them down, then leave strips of cedars and make funnels that bucks would feel more comfortable to travel in.

When I lived in Marengo County, cedar thickets were my go to spots for bucks.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Anywhere I hunt Cedar thickets is what holds big bucks. It is thick, hard to get thru without warning them and provides thermal cover...it is 10 degrees cooler . Prime whitetail buck bedding cover.

Texas, these were salt cedars. They could suck a 5 acre pond dry. They poisoned the ground underneath them so nothing else could grow, not even grass or cactus. Spent many an hour on the back of a Polaris Ranger with a mixture of Remedy and diesel spraying them.

This is a good free resource for some advice on using native warm season grasses in prairie soils to benefit wildlife

https://www.alabamawildlife.org/land-stewardship-assistance/

Drop the ph using ammonium sulphate

Bucks have no problem bedding in prairie. Between the cedar thickets and open prairie land, the prairie provides more cover, browse and warmth.

But cedars aren't my issue nor concern. It's what to plant in these prairies that would grow on alkaline soils and would benefit my deer. Not just to hunt over, but year 'round.

I have worked on several prairies in the last several years. I have found that in most of the areas, there is enough native vegetation that comes back from the existing seed bank once the cedars are removed that its not necessary to plant anything. The only problem I have had is in the places that we piled the cedars to burn them, it got so hot that it killed a lot of the native seed bank. The big key is to keep the areas burned at a regular enough interval to inhibit the woody plants from returning.

My advice is to not drive in it after a rain.

That's some good advice. That mud will stick to anything.

One of the reasons why Dr. Grant Woods (growingdeer.tv) says not to push trees in a pile to burn. Drop them and burn them where they lay in a year or two. Dr. Woods says that the burning of the cedars releases nutrients (something we all know) so therefore, don't concentrate them in one place or burn pile (something I haven't thought of); spread those nutrients around.

Anyway, I'm just looking to "enhance" my habitat. I realize the value of native browse... but how can I enhance it? What grows well in prairie? I'm just looking for suggestions that I don't know about regarding enhancing prairie areas. Thanks!

You may want to check with wetlands conservation. If it enough land, you could get government funding and assistance to rebuild a wetlands. I personally would cut the cedars down. They become a biological desert when them are larger. I would rather start building the landscape better. Ridges have most consistent wind direction, use that as food plots after cutting timber. Let's the hill sides grow thick for bedding.

In my area of prairie in East MS, there's a ton of beans, corn, and cotton, and it all grows really well, if you don't get the tractor stuck.

we've got a field of soybeans, ic peas, sunflowers and milo right now growing in some 7.9 ph sure enough prairie soil and it's doing we'll. It'll also grow the hell out of nutgrass, Johnson grass, pigweed
and coffee weed

Good info on this thread (never hunted a prairie before) - thanks.