I have ag land that I’ve let grow into grassland. The native mulberries, maples and box elders are beginning to grow throughout. Wherever I keep a mowed path, clover grows along it. Though the field is easy to walk through, the deer prefer my natural clover paths. Winning!
Good morning, I see the sides of your trails are loaded with raspberry plants, i have the same issue with my property in northeastern Wisconsin. i was going to use a herbicide to eliminate the raspberries, what are your thoughts on rampant raspberry plant growth?
How big of an area was taken over? You don’t really ever want a monoculture of anything so if they are taking over your property I would address it. But it’s only a small area I wouldn’t be too concerned. It’s thick and nasty, our deer get in there and bed next to fallen trees within the raspberries / back berries. Gives them more thick fall cover and in our surrounding area we don’t have much of that. Before I put this clover trail in there was a buck bed right in the dead center of the raspberries near a few young hickories. So the deer definitely go in there.
@@whitetailevolution i have 80 acres and had selective cutting about three years ago. seems everywhere the sun touched raspberries grew. i would bet that about 10 acres cumulatively have patches on them. i was hoping for a more diverse plant growth after the cutting but raspberries grew. thanks for the response, appreciate you sharing the knowledge, i will try creating trails through the patches and cover them with clover and see how that turns out. thanks
That looks like a lot of work. Do you think the deer traffic will kill the clover trail over time or is it pretty graze resistant? Do you have any plans for winter rye this year?
Great question! So because the trail is a few feet wide and the entire thing is a food source, I think that they’ll take different routes down the trail as they browse down it. Hopefully it won’t turn into one the “cow path” deer trails where it’s so beaten down that nothing grows. But if it does oh well. And I actually put down 100/lbs per acre of winter rye on all of the food plots and the clover trail. Rained that night so we should have germination!
If you are at your destination food plot, most likely an pm hunt, wouldn't you want deer to get there quicker than later coming out of their beds? Why fill them up before they head to the kill plot. I understand what you're trying to do but this seems odd. But whatever works for you. If you make a trail with no clover from their bedding to the kill plot or destination plot they'll get there quicker instead of grazing slowly there. But everyone has their own ideas and that's alright. If it works for you then that's all that matters.
I get what you're saying, but on this property I try not to hunt our larger food plot. I also want the deer to move very slowly through this property as it's not very large. I want to have the deer on the property as long as possible (brown down neighbors), so a long winding food plot trail does the trick!
100% agree. You don’t want to encourage deer using your access route. In this situation our access is about 60 yards away from this clover trail. We access right on our property line, downwind of this trail and then cut into stands that have bow shots at the clover trail. Hope that makes sense.
Love the look of the clover path. Looks nice and helps feed them all the way to the food. Good thinking!
Exactly! And they make awesome walking trails in the off-season
I have ag land that I’ve let grow into grassland. The native mulberries, maples and box elders are beginning to grow throughout. Wherever I keep a mowed path, clover grows along it. Though the field is easy to walk through, the deer prefer my natural clover paths. Winning!
I did this same thing this year, looking to overseed this fall. Thanks for the great info.
You’re very welcome Paul! Can’t wait to hear how your clover trail turns out!
@@whitetailevolution did some overseeing yesterday, and it's coming on stronger than I expected.
That’s great! Now you just need to maintain it and the clover trail should last a few years!
Good morning,
I see the sides of your trails are loaded with raspberry plants, i have the same issue with my property in northeastern Wisconsin. i was going to use a herbicide to eliminate the raspberries, what are your thoughts on rampant raspberry plant growth?
How big of an area was taken over? You don’t really ever want a monoculture of anything so if they are taking over your property I would address it. But it’s only a small area I wouldn’t be too concerned. It’s thick and nasty, our deer get in there and bed next to fallen trees within the raspberries / back berries. Gives them more thick fall cover and in our surrounding area we don’t have much of that.
Before I put this clover trail in there was a buck bed right in the dead center of the raspberries near a few young hickories. So the deer definitely go in there.
@@whitetailevolution i have 80 acres and had selective cutting about three years ago. seems everywhere the sun touched raspberries grew. i would bet that about 10 acres cumulatively have patches on them. i was hoping for a more diverse plant growth after the cutting but raspberries grew. thanks for the response, appreciate you sharing the knowledge, i will try creating trails through the patches and cover them with clover and see how that turns out.
thanks
Nice video! But how did you keep deer from trampling the seed deep in the ground so it can't grow?
They wont really do much to the seed. Now if we have too many deer they might over browse it early on but we dont have that issue at the moment.
That looks like a lot of work. Do you think the deer traffic will kill the clover trail over time or is it pretty graze resistant? Do you have any plans for winter rye this year?
Great question! So because the trail is a few feet wide and the entire thing is a food source, I think that they’ll take different routes down the trail as they browse down it. Hopefully it won’t turn into one the “cow path” deer trails where it’s so beaten down that nothing grows. But if it does oh well.
And I actually put down 100/lbs per acre of winter rye on all of the food plots and the clover trail. Rained that night so we should have germination!
Whitetail Evolution LLC hopefully the cooler weather and rain leads to good germination! It’s worked on my KBG lawn!
If you are at your destination food plot, most likely an pm hunt, wouldn't you want deer to get there quicker than later coming out of their beds? Why fill them up before they head to the kill plot. I understand what you're trying to do but this seems odd. But whatever works for you. If you make a trail with no clover from their bedding to the kill plot or destination plot they'll get there quicker instead of grazing slowly there. But everyone has their own ideas and that's alright. If it works for you then that's all that matters.
I get what you're saying, but on this property I try not to hunt our larger food plot. I also want the deer to move very slowly through this property as it's not very large. I want to have the deer on the property as long as possible (brown down neighbors), so a long winding food plot trail does the trick!
I don't want deer on my access!
100% agree. You don’t want to encourage deer using your access route. In this situation our access is about 60 yards away from this clover trail. We access right on our property line, downwind of this trail and then cut into stands that have bow shots at the clover trail. Hope that makes sense.