Minimum Width for Swithgrass or NWSG Strip??

[singlecoyote]

What would you consider the minimum width for a switchgrass strip to be beneficial as bedding and/or travel corridor for deer. Same for a NWSG mix for pheasant. I guess my question is, #1; how wide does it need to be for the wildlife, and #2; how wide does it need to be to actually be worth planting and have a nice stand?

 

[dbltree]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Single Coyote</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What would you consider the minimum width for a switchgrass strip to be beneficial as bedding and/or travel corridor for deer. Same for a NWSG mix for pheasant. I guess my question is, #1; how wide does it need to be for the wildlife, and #2; how wide does it need to be to actually be worth planting and have a nice stand? </div></div>

The problem with "strips" of NWSG is that they become "kill" strips for predators who hunt the narrow strips relentlessly for anything from quail chicks to fawns.

So knowing that...wider is better. You need to be able to burn also and that requires some type of tilled strip or fire lane so you need to keep that in mind.

Deer follow narrow fence lines and ditchs so I see no reason why they wouldn't do the same with switchgrass or a mixed NWSG planting.

I've seen quite a few riparian buffers that vary from 75 ft to 150 wide which makes a decent amount of cover.

I'd rather have a 30 ft wide strip of NWSG then none at all but I would encourage anyone to plant as wide a strip as you can. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[whitetailnut]

i have had the same question. I split a two acre white/ladino clover plot with a 40ft strip this late summer. I am prepping it for CIR switch. I have sprayed round up three times since mid july and have a great prep plot for CIR this spring. We'll see how it works. My problem is going to be spraying chems on the switch and the clover and not killing the other. I'll let you know how it works. Funny thing, deer are lazy I think we all know that. Since I started killing the strip through my clover, the deer use the strip exclusively for a travel corridor cuz there is nothing in there way!! It's ridiculous, if I could hunt in the late summer there would be no deer left cuz they all use the bare strip for travel!! Anyway, I'll let you know what it looks like, but it'll be a year from now.