What do you think is better on a small property?

Cover.

How old do pines have to before they quit being cover?

When there’s pine straw beneath them instead of briars/grass

Cover. Without cover nearby food is not as important. The one thing I try to do when meeting with landowners is get them to understand the importance of food/cover in close proximity to each other, and dispersed throughout the property so deer aren’t having to travel far to get to either one.

Then start burning them and making some natural openings with thermal thinning. 😝

Ok. You have 100’s of acres around you that are 5 year old or less clear cut. Replanted in pines with a few plots scattered around. Do you still provide mostly cover on your area?

Food, but you’ll still want cover when that grows up around you.

Both food close to bedding can't beat that

We used to have around 400 acres that was split in half by a gravel road and a brother owned one side and his sister owned the other but the lease was for the entire place. both pieces had 40' pines planted on row crop land with a couple hardwood drains and each had three two acre plots that were planned at the time the pines were planted by the father. Piece A had a great management plan of thinning, burning and every sweet gum was removed. Piece B was thinned and nothing else. You better have your brier britches on walking through "A" but you wear shorts and run across "B". The four years we had it, only two mountable deer were taken off of "B" and that was during the rut and just passing through. Piece "A" produced five good ones. An average sit on "B" would be five deer and fifteen plus on "A". These two identical properties with both having good neighbors is the best example of how important timber management is.