But that was then, and this is now – a time when deer hunting seems like a year around activity. From shed hunting to dialing in a bow or a rifle to prepping hunting ground, the work from one whitetail season to the next never seems to end.
A lot of deer hunters know that to be true in the springtime as they get to work on land management chores through controlled burns, selective timbering, and the planting of warm season food plots on the edges of forests or in open pastures.
For some, such work includes the planting of mast trees that will eventually bring high calorie nutritional value to a local deer population. While many hunters think about red oaks and white oaks with such plantings, it can take many years – 10+ in most cases – to see acorns hitting the ground.
That’s why savvy land managers often turn to the chestnut trees from Chestnut Hill Outdoors, trees able to produce high energy nuts within three to five years of being planted.
A hard mast species that deer absolutely love, the American chestnut was all but wiped out by a blight in the early 1900s. The fungus-driven malady was nothing short of a nationwide natural disaster, one that the late Dr. Robert T. Dunstan, a renowned plant breeder, played a key role in resolving. Today, the Dunstan Chestnut hybrid tree that the good doctor helped produce is an American success story, a comeback that the Florida-based Chestnut Hill company continues to play a key role in to this very day.
By planting a variety of hard mast and soft mast species, the result can be an important steady supply of high energy nutrition available to whitetails throughout much of the year.
Such work is often referred to as Deer Landscaping, a term coined by North American Whitetail’s Dr. James C. Kroll at his Whitetail Breeding and Nutrition Research Center right outside of Nacogdoches, Texas.
I saw this deer management strategy firsthand one year as my son, Will, and I participated in Kroll’s annual Whitetail Field Day. By the day’s end, Will and I had been introduced to Kroll’s concept of planting deer orchards, or vertical food plots as some like to call them.
“We always want to concentrate on nutrition for deer,” said Kroll. “That’s the number one thing that we can do for deer on our properties, to answer the question of ‘What can I do to improve nutrition?’ ”
When I visited with him, Bob Wallace had a few answers for that question.
“Acorn dropping oaks are certainly good, but the thing about oak trees is that they produce a crop of acorns in the fall for a month or so and then they are done,” he said. “We always recommend that land managers plant for diversity with a variety of things available as the year goes by. That way, you can have a nutritional deer attractant working for months. Plus, they work well in concert with annual food plots and many hunters and land managers have both going on (throughout the year).”
In addition to hard mast like chestnuts and acorn producing oak trees, what kind of soft mast fruits are we talking about here?
“Crab apples are native, and deer love them,” said Bob. “And they really like native plums too. There are mulberries, which start (appearing) earlier in the year, then apples and peaches, and don’t forget things like blackberries and blueberries. These fruits will all help extend food resources for deer through the various seasons of the year. And that can help hold deer in a spot so that they will not move off somewhere else (as seasons and nutritional needs change).”
That includes springtime, a time of year that Chestnut Hill experts point out brings increasing stress to does that are carrying, delivering and nursing newborn whitetail fawns. It also includes bucks that are starting to grow antlers. And don’t forget turkeys, grouse, pheasants, quail, rabbits, squirrels, and other wildlife that are scouring the countryside as they look to meet nutritional needs. To help meet those needs, early soft mast production by mulberries, blueberries, and even plums can help.
The middle and latter stages of summer also represent a time on the calendar that doesn’t offer wildlife as much food and nutrition as one might think. Why? The experts at Chestnut Hill say it’s because herbaceous vegetation is starting to mature and die away. That’s where summertime fruits like blackberries, raspberries, and grapes can all work to help get wildlife through this often-unrecognized nutritional gap on the calendar.
As leaves change colors and the first cool fronts usher in the fall months, deer and other wildlife are again seeking key nutrition as they prepare for the breeding season and fatten up for the coming of winter. Chestnut Hill’s staff notes that such needs can be met by late summer and early fall soft mast production from persimmons, apples, and pears, food resources that can help wildlife get through until beneficial hard mast like chestnuts and acorns begin to drop in the middle stages of the autumn season.
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