It is very difficult to spot deer in a thick stand of switchgrass and deer of all ages will use it as a secure bedding area. Planting switchgrass for deer bedding areas has become an essential tool that I commonly use for holding those big mature bucks on my property. In a garden setting, thin out once the seedlings grow 2 inches (5.1 cm) tall. Switchgrass is a perfect candidate for xeriscaping. Water the planting bed immediately after broadcasting the seeds, to help them settle. Let the sun and rain take care of the switchgrass. switchgrass to a height of 4 inches in May or 6 inches in June or July. Alamo Switchgrass Seed - Switchgrass, a warm season, vigorous perennial can be found growing throughout the United States. Whitetails eat a variety of plant types such as trees, shrubs, herbaceous forages (forbs), and agricultural crops. It grows to a height of 3 to 8 feet tall, depending on the variety. Homesteading/Home DIY. Our Real World Switch Grass will get 7’-8’ tall. Option 4 is the establishment based solely on germinable seed. Aug 18, 2006 #31 I would agree with jnrbronc about the bedded deer problem. Leave 12 inches (30.5 cm) of space between them. A grid of these rising out of a gravel bed would bring a contemporary flair. You can get very specialized in how you lay out a property, but to keep things simple, here are the basic choices you have to make and methods for creating the habitat. 4. What’s interesting about how deer decide where to sleep are their strategies? T. TimberPig Active Member. Planting straight switchgrass is the better option on wetter sites where other grasses do not do as well. Date:01-Sep-16. They may bed in valleys to avoid extremely windy conditions, etc. You might be ok if you kept the switch in a narrow band like 20' wide. Next year they may not need even that. In many cases, they bed in locations that provide much less security, too. Ex: If you need 21 PLS pounds of switchgrass (3 acres at 7 pounds per acre), multiply 21 by 1.2 for the total number of bulk pounds you should order. That means you need to try three different types of habitat: switchgrass, shrubs and oak seedlings. In our side by side tests this switchgrass stood better than any other variety including the well-accepted Cave-In-Rock variety. Surrounding pockets of early successional growth with an amount of switchgrass that totals roughly 50% of the acres of your field, can provide all-season cover for many critters, including whitetails. Variety and edge are the keys to producing good deer habitat. How do you pattern deer when they can realisticly bed down anywhere in the switchgrass. Fawns are usually left to sleep under camouflage areas for added security. Share Thread. Previous Thread; Next Thread; Please make a selection first; new « Prev ; 1; Next » Catscratch Legacy member. I have read a few threads on here that talk about different things that can be done to enhance and add diversity to switchgrass and make it more appealing to bed in. It takes a few years to establish it but it is tough as nails. Depending on the seed test, the seeding rate may be different than the recommended 5 pounds PLS/acre. In our side-by-side tests, this switch grass stood better than any other variety we tested including the popular Cave-In-Rock variety. Alamo switchgrass seedling emerging in somewhat dry conditions. Just a small piece of your total acreage will serve good as a sanctuary. Even newborn deer are kept in a safe place to sleep or bed by their mothers because of this hunting pressure. Mature bucks generally choose beds that provide some sort of advantage over predators. Typically in mountainous terrain deer bed on slide slopes where the wind swirls so they can detect predators from all angles. I have cut bedding spots for the deer to bed,hinge cut trees,cut stumps high. Planting more seed than needed may make this practice cost prohibitive. Jan 5, 2012 #5 . Natural Deer Cover – Just Do Nothing. Suburban deer may bed in cemeteries, graze on golf courses, and seek cover on a brushy hillside behind a shopping center. There are few definitive comparisons on whether a seedbed prepared using clean tillage or some form of minimum tillage is the better method for establishing switchgrass. Farmland deer may bed in woodlots, protect their fawns in cattail marshes, and feed in corn fields. Switchgrass can be successfully established using several seeding practices. Keeping natural woody vegetation trimmed away from the edges of your food plots may improve the overall appearance of the plot, but may in fact hurt its appeal to wildlife. Switchgrass is the earliest maturing of the common native warm-season grasses and it is ready to graze in early summer. However, given my unique property layout I figured I would start my own thread. Try it out, you will know in 2 to 3 years how it does. IQDM, Jan 5, 2012. On your own parcel, this is very easy to do. It can also be used as a thick base of cover when trying to create bedding on your hunting grounds. IQDM, Jan 5, 2012. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a vigorous warm season, native perennial grass adapted to Wisconsin and planted for many purposes including livestock grazing, wildlife cover, and as a biofuel crop.Switchgrass begins growth in late spring and continues through the summer if moisture is available. If either method is used properly, they both should result in similar establishment under similar environmental and management conditions. Do deer bed in it much? Where a deer beds is key to its survival. Switchgrass has numerous roots reaching to ten feet deep, as well as underground rhizomes making it an important grass for use in conservation programs. This is often directly related to the terrain type. This switchgrass variety is the same switchgrass that we use in our Bedding-In-A-Bag. The deer like to come out into my property and bed right in the switchgrass. Deer are creatures of habit and may bed in the same location repeatedly. The seeds are eaten by turkeys, pheasants, quail, doves, and songbirds. Real World variety switch grass is the same switch grass that we use in our Bedding-In-A-Bag. A sanctuary should never be stepped foot on unless it is to recover a wounded animal. What should the strategy be when hunting deer on farms like this. After the seedlings are established, there's no need to water them. One exception is during periods of the rut when bucks are on the move searching for estrus does and defending their hierarchy. Sometimes the most effective improvement may be to do nothing at all. I have not seen that the deer use it much in my hunting area, but I assume in areas with limited cover, they would use it more. They much prefer the brushy/woody cover at my place - especially later in the season. Create eye-catching combinations by repeating the deep red notes in a companion plant. I have 1 small swamp on my land and it is brushey next to it. Therefore, we recommend a “rough” conversion factor of 1.2 when figuring out how many pounds to order. They could bed there, but I have better bedding cover and no other way to get to my woods and I thought the more cover I'd have walking across the field the better. Deer — does and young bucks — will often bed much closer to food sources than mature bucks. Messages: 43 Likes Received: 1. Switchgrass as well as many other NWSG's will take 3 years to reach "fully grown" status... although I have some 2 year old switch grass that is 6' to 7' tall and is pretty much fully grown. I jump them regularly when I am mowing trails and firebreaks. Define the food source and you define where the deer bed. You only sow a few pounds per acre as there are about 360,000 seeds/lb. Creating a weed free seed bed is key to establishing switchgrass, and once established, a stand of switchgrass can last a hunter many years. When spring arrives, deer are looking for green growth to help them recover from limited and low-quality winter food. Please note that “Bedding in a Bag” includes 2.5# each of Big Bluestem and Indian Grass and 2# of switchgrass per acre, This calculates to a total of 35.6 seeds per square foot; broken down by species the figures are 18.4 switchgrass, 7.5 big bluestem and 9.8 Indian grass (seeds per sq/ft). Natural cover procreates and spreads without the aid of anyone. General Discussion. Politics - non hunting. Currently, Deer Creek Seed sells our switchgrass in bulk pounds. As already mentioned, switchgrass is very good deer cover and in areas with limited timber it can become an important bedding area. Switchgrass is a great and fast way to create visual barriers for better hunting and for more isolation that deer like. Jokes. General. For a deer to want to bed in any area, it has to feel safe to the deer. Last deer season I watched them move into the switchgrass just after sunrise and disappear - assume they were bedded there. Spring and Summer. Within a few hours of birth, a fawn sleeps and stays in the bedded area for up to 95 percent of the time. As deer managers, it is important to understand the preferred forages where you live and/or hunt, and while learning everything deer eat in your area is a daunting task, the QDMA has just made it a little easier. Grazing is generally not recommended the first year, but a vigorous stand can be grazed late in the year if grazing periods are short with at least 30 days of rest provided between grazings. Don’t take our word for it, Dare to Compar homegrownbucks. MN/WI/National Deer Issues. Switchgrass enhancement: Depending upon the details of your specific contract, you may be able to enhance some or all of your existing CRP by replanting it to switchgrass. For example, bucks frequently bed at the end of a ridge on a point. Deer bed in different areas to meet their needs. I have land owners next to my land that have slash and clear cuts, and you can see in them good,deer do use them a little and this helps, but it is still to open. How would you go about running trail cams for find out where their core area is. Our Real World Switch Grass will get 7’-8’ tall. Deer tend to emerge from the cover of the prairie or timber onto these paths and use them as highways. Cave-n-Rock switchgrass is a perennial, warm season native grass that grows an average of 3-5 feet tall, but in some regions, can reach up to 6 feet tall at maturity. Switchgrass Establishment: Switchgrass seed is often dormant and may not germinate unless stratified (exposed to a period of wet chill). I just wonder on small acreages if it is worth dedicating an acre or two to it? That means absolutely no scouting (including trail cameras), and shed hunting inside the sanctuary. It is best seeded in late winter (February or March) although very late fall/early winter will also work well. Bedding is more than a time to relax, groom and chew a cud. 2. Stumbled into a worthless deer habitat stand of monoculture switchgrass and found a bed. Ive tried runnnig them next to the ditch and usually get 1000 pics of switchgrass and 5 pics of deer. Switchgrass holds up well under heavy snow and provides good fall-winter cover for rabbits and other small mammals, ducks, pheasants, and quail. Facebook; Twitter; Tumblr; LinkedIn; MySpace; Email; Go to. I have watered my 2-year-old plants only twice since June, and they still look fabulous! Reply; Switchgrass locations? Planting switchgrass for deer habitat does make some sense, but I have never been a big fan of it. This is best done by creating a sanctuary. The best time to plant switchgrass is in the winter. It is highly adaptable to a wide range of soils and growing conditions. Switchgrass rules, is not too invasive, and does not go down in the winter which makes it ideal for pheasant and whitetail deer. Deer naturally use prairie for security cover, but to direct deer movements near treestands, we mow paths in the prairie grass where the prairie meets the timber, and the paths lead into food plots. I don't have switchgrass but I do have fields of 6-7' tall goldenrod and other weeds that provide similar cover and the deer rarely use it for bedding. Yes! I just need something differant to help keep deer on my land. By: Father Habitat. Switchgrass commonly referred to as a NWSG, which stands for native warm season grass is a type of grass that starts growing later in the season usually around the end of April to mid May depending on location and climate. Deer/Wildlife Politics. Sports. 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