The Land
For quite sometime now I have become more and more concerned about a place to
hunt. Over the years many of the places that I hunted have changed hands and
either become unavailable for hunting or been swallowed up by "progress". As a
result I have been wanting to buy some land where I would always be able to
hunt. Well, after many years of procastination, I finally did it, I bought a
farm. Not a big farm, just a 100 acres that the bank and I can call my own.
This little endeavor now provides me something new to write about when I'm not
there "enjoying" it.
One of the things that I miss about living here in Iowa is a place to shoot my
rifles. That changed not long after I bought the farm. The first improvement
made to the place was to setup the range.
Unfortunately, I can only shoot 300 yards, but even that is a big improvement
for Iowa.
Next thing on the list is to
turn this 100 acres into deer heaven.
Habitat Improvements
On this and related pages I will endeavor to share what I'm learning about
improving the habitat for wildlife and as a result the hunting. While I keep
saying Iowa, the farm is actually in Missouri, 4 miles south of the Iowa border.
It is situated on a deadend road almost exactly in the center of a 2 mile by 2
mile section. My nearest neighbor is a mile away. Overall a pretty much ideal
location for my purposes.
The Missouri Department of Conservation(MDC) has employees dedicated to
helping landowners manage their property to the benefit of wildlife. They
provide this service free of charge, all you have to do is ask. Since I'm so
knowledgable about all this farm stuff, I asked. As a result I have been working
with a really knowledgable and helpful gentleman from the MDC, John Murphy.
After our initial contact via E-mail, John came out to the farm and we took
the tour. I showed him around, told him what I had in mind, answered his
questions and received a written management plan as promised. The plan offers
suggestions on timber improvements, food plots (both content and placement),
chemical usage, the whole nine yards, all documented as well as plotted on an aerial photograph. (The image is
quite large(65k), but it makes it easier to visualize what I'm talking
about.)
Activity Pages
Habitat Improvements 2002
Habitat Improvements 2003
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