Land & Legacy - Habitat + Hunting

Latest Episodes:

Creating Soft Edges is a Breeze Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

This week Kyle Hedges and Matt Dye bring you a discussion regarding the importance, preparation, execution, and benefits of creating soft edges throughout your property. For years the understanding of creating or softening the edge between two very distinct habitat types such as trees to a food plot edge is necessary and valuable. This would be an example of a hard edge that gets softened. However, in today's podcast, we talk about creating soft edges and corridors through herbaceous cover, where previously there weren't existing edges!

Kyle has been using specific herbicide applications around food plot edges and through dense rank native warm season grass stands to promote a heavier presence of annual broadleaf weeds, opposed to rank grasses. This is a prime example of soft edge feathering. This practice produces more forage than before while still promoting vertical structure, yet it is not nearly as dense to traverse for many different game species.

This practice is very simple to replicate, affordable, and impactful in how deer will navigate your farm if done properly. Take a listen and share this with someone who needs to hear about this practice of soft edge development.

How to Manage Whitetails and Game Birds in Bitter Cold Winters Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

This week, Kyle and Frank discuss a consulting trip that they took during 2024 to North Dakota. These two consultants were assisting a landowner improve his property for whitetail deer, mule deer and numerous game bird species in a mixed prairie/ag setting. Although this exact situation may not be how you are managing, you need to listen closely for some key takeaways about habitat management, mindset of managing within the Land & Legacy Principles, and how to manage weather extremes! Frank and Kyle knocked this farm consultation out of the park with great advice for the client to not up-end his farming operation, but allow wildlife improvements to work within a grazing system, crop field rotation, and native pasture system.

Is "If Its Brown its Down" All That Bad? Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Hold on to your seats... this podcast may make you reconsider a lot about your neighborhood when it comes to managing for older age class deer. The old phrase of "If its brown its down" was a forbidden foe of the hunters seeking to harvest more mature deer. In this podcast, we compare and contrast this method of harvesting to the neighborhood who is activiely trageting and harvesting the 3.5 to 4.5 year old age class aggressively. It may seem as if the older age class harvesting would be the best option for you, however we really dive into the facts of this harvest regime in a neighborhood like this. All of the potential is wiped out of a single age class (3.5) as opposed to more or less even distribution between multiple age structures in the if its brown its down neighborhood. These scenarios are all dependent upon the harvest total annually to be equal, but if the same number of bucks are taken in each neighborhood, we have found that it is easier for the landowner seeking to harvest mature deer to do so in a "if its brown its down" neighborhood. Call us crazy, but listen to the podcast, I bet you will change your mind!

S&F What Should I Feed My Deer? Sep 27, 2024

Show notes

This week we are joined with Pierce Young. Pierce is the Assistant Coordinator of Private Lands, with Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks, and has years of experience dealing with over 500 private hunting properties across the south. Tune in and let's find out what we should be feeding our deer to maximize their potential.

A Complete Guide to Determining if a Location is HUNTABLE Sep 23, 2024

Show notes

This is a detailed guide to answering the tough question everyone asks, Can I hunt here? We always give ourselves a pass or an excuse to be in an area that has a deer sign. However, many times those locations can do more harm than good. In this podcast, you will learn how to strategically and logically work through the mental process of vetting out a high quality huntable location. Take it to the bank, if each location you have checks all the boxes, sit back and let that area work for you!

If by the end of this podcast, you haven't taken down a least half of your treestands, you need to listen critically to it again! We discuss topics such as wind speed, wind direction, leaf coverage, shade, full sun, thermals, access, parking locations, etc... Do not miss this podcast. We encourage you to share it with your hunting buddies to make sure they too can share in the successes to come.

Non-Intrusive Farm Improvements Sep 17, 2024

Show notes

On this week's podcast Kyle and Frank discuss ways to maximize your fall if you tag out early or just plain can't get enough farm improvements. These non-intrusive management strategies will get you ready for all the winter and spring projects ahead of you. Don't let the fall and hunting slow you down from what you need to be focused on with regard to making the farm better.

These tips and tricks for the fall will save you time, money, and headaches when it's time to get after it in the coming months!

White Oak vs. Red Oak Sep 09, 2024

Show notes

Feed trees can play a major role in daylight activity on your property. Join us this week as Alan and Brady dive into the tactics to have success hunting over feed trees. In this episode we break down our favorite feed trees, and talk about where to find them, when to find them, and how to hunt them. We discuss the differences between red oak vs. white oak. The timing of when certain trees can be targeted, and what to look for on your property. Having knowledge of the property, and history with deer on the property can take the guesswork out of finding the right tree to hunt. Feed trees aren't just for early season hunting. This buck was killed using historical data, and feed tree tactics in November.

S&F Managing Existing Ponds Sep 06, 2024

Show notes

Pond management for fish isn't that much different than managing upland habitat for wildlife. This week we are joined again by Fisheries Biologist Micah Tindall to discuss managing fish and the habitats they require.

LandBeat Breakdown: Ultimate Guide to Deer Bedding Thickets Sep 05, 2024

Show notes

On this week's podcast we are trying out a new podcast style and need your feedback. We have been filming for years with the folks at Whitetail Properties and it's time we begin to break down in fine detail the nuance details of habitat management. So this week, let us know in the comments what you think about this podcast style!

Bedding thickets come in all shapes and sizes, but so do the implementation guidelines. This week we walk you through how we would cut a unit that is an average stocking rate with average ranges of timber size classes. We break it down 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3rd and apply a girdle/spray, fell, and hinge to each 1/3rd. This creates a great matrix of sunlight, structure, and new plant growth that will ultimately hold deer in these secure units during daylight hours. What more do you want?!?

Watch the LandBeat video here are this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq9TIMJRg4k. We hope you enjoy the behind the scenes look at creating a bedding thicket in the hot June sun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq9TIMJRg4k&authuser=0

Velvet Bucks in Range and Reading the Script Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

On this week's podcast, Alan and Reid Summerford take to the woods in search of a velvet whitetail. The prep work has been completed and in part 1 of this podcast you will hear all about the work they have completed to make this hunt a success before the season even opens. Oftentimes, the hard work ahead of the hunt will prove itself deadly. This pre-hunt interview calls the shots of what they suspect will happen. Let's see if their suspicions are correct in part 2! During part 2 of the podcast, we hear how the actual hunt unfolded and why it was a success. These unconventional techniques can be the make or break of success. In this episode, you will really see how habitat management and hunting strategy are essentially one in the same.

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