opinions wanted

[bwese]

I am planning on putting in a cedar row in the middle of one of my plots. The plot is 170 yards by 100 yards. The yellow line are cedars rows planted last year. The white line is where I plan on putting the new cedar row. I initially planted hybrid willow on both lines but the deer kept them browsed to the ground. Since they don'e eat red cedar on my place I put cedar in the yellow line and am planning to put cedars in the white line.

My reasoning is for further divided it up and make bucks move around the plot more to check does and to give a even more protected feeling to the deer.

The triangle you see to the ne is clover/chicory. The rest is beans this year and will be again next year. I have 4 pear and 4 persimmons planted along the clover/bean boundary and have 4 pear planted to the n of the white line and run parallel to it approx 20 yards away. One can see a white speck. That is a water bucket along the cage of one of the pears. At the start of the white line at the west end there are 2 more persimmons. The timber edge to the west has been hinged and feathered.

Currently one can sit in the blind(the Hilton) and watch many doe and fawns come into the field from sw going clock wise to east and the bucks enter either from the nw corner or the ne corner

http://iowawhitetail.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=5087&c=33

Do see any pro's or con's to this idea? Thanks for sharing any opinions you may have.

 

[Hardwood11]

Not much in terms of negative, but you could do some E Wheat until the cedars grow?

Looks like a nice spot!!

 

[anderson764]

Plant the egyptian wheat the first year to see if/how it affects deer movement in the plot that way you will know if it is working as inteneded. its also kinda cool watching deer stand on their hind legs for several seconds at a time trying to get the seed heads off the stalk. On a side note deer WILL eat red cedar if stressed enough. I lost alot of my cedar plantings several years ago when we had some really tough winters.

 

[bwese]

Thanks for the input. I had planned on planting mexican corn(gets about 12' and I got a bunch of free seed) as a screen in that line area until the cedars get big enough. But I like the idea of only planting the corn screen and seeing first how the deer utilize/react to it.

Thanks again.

 

[LarryM]

I've never heard of Mexican corn. Where do you find that? Egyptian wheat works well too.

 

[bwese]

Not sure. I got it from my dad who has been growing it for several years as a hobby/fair entry/fun/decoration. He is a green thumb and just likes growing it. I shelled a bunch of it and will plant it this spring. He has been growing the corn from the same seed he bought several years ago. He just shells a few ears and uses that for seed. The corn has several color variations.