Want to know why you should disk???

[Russ81]

I been shredding the quail roads we make this week. We just hop in the tractor and take off cross country and make a couple of passes then drag them to smooth them out. Quail, Deer and most other animals are edge animals. The edge doesn't have to be a treeline, just something like this...

I have no clue why this pic is not bigger, but you can defiantly see where we disked and didn't. Every evening when I clean off the mower there are all kinds of grasshoppers, worms, caterpillars and even some snails, all protein for growing quail chicks. Plus seeds that are important to the adults too.

These are all with the camera phone, but I have seen lots of quail along the roads, nilgai and deer never far from these roads either.

Just something to think about next time your looking at your management plans for hunting season

[prkchp]

Good info, thanks

[Peyton]

I get this accomplished with my fire lanes and road edges.

Are you sure it's a good idea to be shredding this time of year? Since there's lots of fawns and other babies on the ground right now, I've always waited to shred until August.

[JMG]

Are you sure it's a good idea to be shredding this time of year? Since there's lots of fawns and other babies on the ground right now, I've always waited to shred until August.

Great point. Sure does make you feel bad about running over a little fawn. They won't move and are hard to see. But edge habitat is very important for all sorts of critters. I do the same as you in just taking off into the brush with the shreader and just drive.

[wyliescrib]

i used to just drive and would always end up going right by my favoriet tripod and it would funnel the deer right on by.. they (the deer) are like people and take the path of least resistance...but do look out for the young ones

[Russ81]

So far I haven't seen any fawns along the quail roads. When I said deer I should of said bucks since that's all I have seen. Most of the does down here won't bed fawns down in croton for some reason, they like native grass first then switchgrasses and buffles second. The only reason I'm doing it now is if we get a storm on here between now and august we're not going to be able to mow the trails without tearing something up.

Here's some sands sunflowers that have taken off with the rain we've got so far

[canny]

If your worried about fawns and creating edges then try herbicide. Just a generic roundup out of a small boom sprayer can yield similar results without the risk to fawns.

[Russ81]

Like I said I'm not worried about it, I did close to 100 miles in that tractor shredding and never saw a nervous doe. Roundup will work but your going to kill all your forbs, which isn't what I'd want to do down here if I can get 2-3 more quail hatches

[4barchery]

We do the same thing at our place. We just turn my dad loose on the tractor and tell him to get going. He just randomly discs certain areas. The native forbs production after doing this is unreal. The quail, axis, turkeys and deer love the forbs and bugs that come up after the discing

[mhbaseball]

good idea