Didn't want to derail Gobbler and CNC's cow discussion. Looking at habitat improvement strictly for wildlife benefit; high protein forage for deer, bugging areas for poults, nesting for hens, etc.. and not concerned about killing off sweetgums or hardwood growing alongside planted pines, would it be most beneficial to rotate the time of year and type of soil disturbance (disk/ fire)? Available time and weather dictate so much of what can be accomplished each year. I'm talking of making improvements on multiple smaller areas across the entire property, varying in size from 1/2 acre strips along roads to 20-100 acres of upland hardwood stands. For example, if you are able to get a fire through a mixed stand of woods in February/ March, should you work towards an early growing season burn the next time you burn that area? If you have different fallow areas to strip disk, does it make since to rotate the time of year you break that ground? Periodically burn off some of the fallow field areas, instead of mowing alongside the strip disk areas?

Fall disking is excellent for encouraging forbs and legumes. Large impacts are with fire. A mix of winter and growing season is appropriate and produces different results (as does seasonal disking). Summer/fall burns knock back woody stems best, winter burns are more "friendly" to both pine and hardwood and don't do much to woody stems but are good for maintenance of piney woods. I find both encourage broomstraw.

I’ve been getting best forb/legume response with November/December discing following a recent burn. Burn it as soon as it’s dormant enough to burn, disc and enjoy the results. After 3-4 years and at least two fires, repeat. Grasses eventually come in strong. That’s why the discing is important.

In upland hardwoods I’ve been seeing good results with fall burns. Spring burns tend to disturb the soil at a time that makes undesirable invasives flourish. Not seeing quite as much of that with fall burning. Just be careful. Even with low intensity fires, some times soil moisture is VERY dry in fall and the duff layer is powder. They can get hot quick and burn the roots around larger trees, causing damage.

To add, one reason I like May-July burns for deer is because they prefer succulent fresh vegetation over mature. They get a flurry of young shoots March through April. I try to set that process in motion again in early summer.

I’m not disagreeing in any way about the results of mechanical soil disturbance……but aren’t you gonna be pretty limited as to the scale of your impact???......In other words, is 10 or even 20 acres gonna actually make a significant impact to matter?? Seems like these type things would have to be done on a much larger scale to be anything more than feel good measures.

Patchwork CNC. It’s an important habitat type to include in the mosaic of the landscape. I want diversity. How do you get it? By having heterogenous landscape. I think the small patches of diversity are very important. Think about the overall impact on a landscape scale if everyone was doing something to manage for early successional habitat. Even if it was 10 acres.

People bust out their shed-queen tractors once a year to do a weeks worth of work planting food plots for deer. Imagine if that same effort went into summer time discing and stand improvement for turkey. One can dream...I think at this point if you are a hardcore turkey man and you own a tractor and have some property it's clear what the "little guy" can do, and it doesn't involve a bit of fire if you don't want to.

Where are you talking about discing, between pine rows? B/c that's what a lot of us are dealing with. That's just not feasible for a lot of people and would be hell on a disc depending on when that row was cut, how wide, etc. In South AL I haven't ever really seen much in the way of upland hardwoods and especially not that you could go in there and disc. The hardwoods on my property are in a bottom that you wouldn't want to get in there with a disc, I promise that.

I deal with the exact same thing. Crappy, gummy, briary pines. Bush hog between the planted pines and get that disc out and get to work. It's not easy or fast work, and if you aren't familiar with the property it can get sketchy pretty quick, but I want my turkeys back.

This was kinda my point ^^^^........How much time and effort and wear and tear on equipment is it gonna take to disk 20 acres of pine rows??......and then still you havent really made any significant changes.....It takes scale to make a real difference......

If you have a property that allows you to make habitat improvements, why wouldn't you do what you can within your capabilities? Not everyone can or will but even on small scale you can make your own place better, IMO. Trapping heavily has shown me results and I continue that now but hope these other improvements to nesting cover, brood rearing cover, fawn bedding and "free" native protein can help make my property produce even better numbers and quality.

I personally am only strip disking open areas with ample sunlight; fallow greenfields, grassy areas alongside the widest roads(not on hills to prevent erosion), old pasture ground that is fescue. No pine rows, just yet. These field/ pasture areas I only bushogged about 50% last fall. Disking strips now to divide the non-mowed from the mowed. Next year will rotate what gets cut, disked and left alone. May even mix in some burning of the unmowed areas between disked strips instead of cutting it.


Have about 60 acres total, broken up in patches where we have cut cedars down. Trying to remove another 100+ acres of cedar in the future. Burning those cedars now. It was amazing the grass and forb growth that jumped up end of summer once the sun started hitting the ground in those areas. Alternating the time of year I burn these prairie patches in the coming years is what I'm curious to see. What type growth will i get burning in Feb vs July?
If I don't get all my strip disking done before greenup, what different plant growth would I get breaking this ground in July?